249- Shadows at the Summit
POV Elowen Grimwald:
My heart raced so hard that each beat thundered in my chest.
I jumped toward the door, my body trembling with excitement and my eyes fixed on the entrance, waiting for the moment she would appear and finally return to me.
The scent of dew and wild jasmine—always comforting to me—became the announcement of the most awaited reunion of my life.
The seconds weighed like hours, and it felt as if I could no longer breathe on my own.
When the door opened and I saw her—my other half—everything around me faded away.
With tears in her eyes, a wide smile that could light up anyone, and her prominent belly outlined by a fitted dress, she was even more beautiful than I remembered.
Without thinking, I ran toward her, but slowed at the last second, remembering her pregnancy.
“LUNARA!” I shouted, wrapping my arms around her.
My chest was exploding with happiness, but also with relief. Breathing in her scent up close made tears well in my eyes. My little sister was there, finally safe and in my arms.
“Oh my God, I missed you so much,” she said, in the sweet voice that had always been my comfort.
“I missed you so much,” I murmured against her shoulder, trying to control the sobs that threatened to join my tears.
Sava caressed my back gently. Her touch was as familiar as the morning sun.
“I did too, Elowen. I did too.”
Slowly, I pulled back a little to look at her face, and then my gaze fixed on her belly. I carefully placed my hands over it, feeling the miracle of life she carried.
“You’re going to be a mother—I can’t even believe it!” I said, a smile breaking through my tears.
“And you’re going to be an aunt,” she replied, smiling back, her eyes shining with joy and spilled tears.
Ignoring everything around us, I hugged her again, even tighter this time, letting the weight of the months we spent apart be replaced by the comfort of holding someone I loved as much as myself.
In that room, in that moment, nothing else mattered.
Lunara was my only family, and after shattering into a thousand pieces thinking I had lost her, her embrace rebuilt me;
She was my true home.
(...)
POV Aldren Valmorin:
Guided by his guards along a heavily monitored path, I made my way to Viktor’s castle. The route was always interesting—an endless ascent to the highest point of the mountain, difficult and complicated for anyone unfamiliar with it. There was the option of being driven up in the pickup truck parked at the guard post at the foot of the mountain, but I preferred to walk.
There was a single well-maintained road cutting through the forest, meant to facilitate his business as a miner. Several points were fitted with cameras, security personnel, and—so they said—traps. It seemed a bit excessive, but perhaps necessary, given the amount of precious stones that passed through there.
The most interesting part, without a doubt, was at the summit, beyond the tall wall with a gate that resembled that of a medieval castle. It was opened for me, and one of the guards accompanying me pointed out a central building, set beside a black tower and facing the cemetery. It was impossible not to look at the gravestones and think of the women buried there.
Until Viktor finally understood that human women did not withstand an alpha’s brutality the same way she-wolves did, he had killed several of them.
My visit to the village of Averwyn was not common. He usually sought me out only for negotiations, since he needed my herbs.
But among the five alphas, I was the only one who entered there. Always by appointment and accompanied by security when I needed to negotiate some of his metals for my village. This time, I wanted to acquire diamonds for Elowen.
I was never invited to see any other part of the place beyond that area, and I felt as though countless eyes were on me, waiting for a single misstep to attack. Strange. Excessive.
I looked at the cemetery again.
We generally cremated our dead, but that varied from pack to pack. I discovered that Viktor also practiced funerals by fire. The first times I asked whether that cemetery held only human women, as rumor claimed, he did not answer. But on one occasion, he confirmed it.
“Aldren. Come in.”
He received me in a large room on the second floor of the stone-and-wood building with exposed beams.
“I set aside the metals you said you were interested in. Do you already know the quantity? Have a seat.”
“Thank you. I do. I have a list with me.”
As we discussed business, I observed the room, its shelves filled with different minerals on display.
They were samples of the many things that could be found in those lands. On another wall, pieces of iron, copper, steel, heavy metals. And inside something like an aquarium, gold nuggets, some diamonds, and stones of different colors and shapes—along with neatly lined silver objects.
When meetings with the elders became monthly centuries ago, some of us questioned the fact that Viktor had access to such a vast reserve of silver in the crust of his land. Everyone knew how lethal the metal could be to wolves. A real danger.
There was little that could be done about it. He owned that territory and was a miner. He knew how to handle silver and export it without exposing his workers to risk.
He had also never threatened us with it. Over time, the matter faded. Still, I thought about how much silver might be hidden in the so-called traps scattered through the forest.
I placed my orders, somewhat unsettled—especially because of recent events: Viktor suddenly returning to attend the assemblies; his fight with Konrad at the Festival of Lust; not to mention his clashes with Sullivan.
When we finished everything, I went straight to the point.
“I heard you and Konrad came to blows. A dispute over a female?”
His very dark eyes fixed on mine coldly. Anyone looking at him like that, in his antiquated brocade clothing and restrained demeanor, would not think him capable of aggression.
I thought he would say nothing, as he had so many times before.
But he leaned back in the tall chair.
“I don’t need to fight over females.”
“And what was the reason, then? You know that isn’t allowed.”