[Stephanie's POV]
Was he flirting with me? Why? Didn't he decide to save me because I was his friend's daughter? Once again, I doubted his intention to save me and immediately took a step backward.
"No, you, no, I can't... Why, why do you save me? How, how, did you find out I was going to die? At that moment." I wore a burning face. Oh, god, my tongue was no longer listening to my brain.
"Well, I know you want to ask me a ton of questions. But ...." His finger pointed to the clock on the wall with a smirk and said, "If I answer your questions here and now, then we both won't be able to walk out of your room tonight."
I'm pretty sure he said that on purpose. I rolled my eyes and remembered my father reminding me to be polite. I sighed, "So we'll talk about my problems tomorrow?"
"Are you sure you want to celebrate your 17th birthday with me tomorrow? Although I would love to." He raised an eyebrow as if he didn't think my proposal was appropriate.
My eyes widened as I suddenly remembered that tomorrow is my 17th birthday and Patrick's. Wait, "How do you know tomorrow is our birthday?"
"That question belongs in the bag of questions about me saving your life, and I can't answer it right now." Arthur winked at me with a mysterious smile.
I didn't know how much Arthur knew about me, and now it seemed to me that he might already know what had happened with Carl, Freya, and me and the cause of my death. I made a wild guess that in my last life, he knew ahead of me that I would be killed by Carl and Freya and came to White Star Lake specifically to save me.
But, in addition to his reason and method for saving me, I wondered how he got through the mist of Mountain Leyte to get in? A stranger who is unfamiliar with the woods of Mount Wright would definitely get lost in the woods.
I bit my lip out of habit, a habitual action when I was thinking about a problem. His finger suddenly nudged my lips, and I was pulled back to reality by his touch.
"Steph, although I don't have time to answer your questions right now, I must tell you that I have no evil intentions towards you. I am on your side." He had a very serious look on his face as if he was worried that I would doubt him.
"Ok!" I accepted what he said with ease. I even felt that none of my questions mattered anymore. It was a very strange feeling.
"Since we don't have time to discuss my problem bag now, please go have dinner with my father and Patrick. Carl and Triton should be here by now. I'm tired. Please tell them I'm feeling dizzy and have gone to bed, no dinner."
Arthur nodded with an 'I know you don't want to go meet those two assholes' look on his face.
He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something to me. But, he swallowed anyway, and I caught his sexy throat knot move and heard him say, "Get a good rest." Then, he didn't open the room door and leave until he saw me literally lying back on the bed.
Besides the fact that I didn't want to see Carl and Freya, I really felt tired and wanted to sleep. I felt as if a year had passed in my short afternoon. To be honest, for me coming back from a year later, it was indeed a whole year. My eyelids were getting heavy, and I closed my eyes, choosing to put all my problems out of my mind for a while and get a good night's sleep.
After my head injury and the roller coaster ride of moods, I thought I would have a quality sleep without being disturbed by other people and dreams. But apparently, my good fortune ran out after being revived by Arthur. Because I was awakened by the pain as if the bones were deformed.
Which werewolf in this world would experience the pain of the first shift in her sleep and then find herself in wolf form when she opened her eyes? That's right, this werewolf was me.
The light of the full moon shone through the window into my room, providing enough light for me to see that my hands had turned into strong wolf claws.
"What the fucking hell is going on here?" Rose's scream came into my head. Oh, my Rose, thank you for having a mouth that expressed my thought accurately. Rose suddenly rolled over from my bed and jumped to the floor.
"Hello, Rose," I greeted Rose with excitement as I saw her standing in front of my landing mirror with an amber-furred wolf. Although I was surprised that my shift was completed on my 17th birthday, I was even happier that Rose had also come back to life and appeared early.
"Steph! Oh my moon god, oh my my, I can't believe we're still alive!" I watched the wolf in the mirror roll on the floor in excitement and jump twice.
There was a fresh breeze blowing in through the half-open window, sending in a smell we hadn't expected.
"It's fir! It's mate." Rose told me.
Wait, it's not from Carl?
[Arthur's POV]
She was afraid to see the two killers. I noticed this after Steph told me she was tired and didn't want to eat dinner. This was not good for her if she wanted revenge. However, I chose to let her get some rest first.
It only took a short half-hour alone with her, but that was good enough to make me feel happy. Because I knew my future luna was not unfeeling to me, she would blush when I approached her. So, it seemed that we were both attracted to each other, even though we weren't mates yet.
When I left Steph's room, I told the she-wolf standing at the door that Steph wanted to rest and not have dinner with us. The she-wolf nodded and said he would save dinner for Miss.
It was funny that the she-wolf didn't take me to the dining room but to Eric's study. Perhaps Eric's keen insight had figured out that the reason I was here was not to pick an assistant but for Steph.
It was just as I had thought. I stepped into the room and saw Patrick standing beside Eric with a severe expression. The young wolf was not as enthusiastic as when he first found out who I was. Standing in front of his desk, Eric was looking at me with the same expression.
"You guys are going to invite me to dinner here?" I made a small joke.
Eric shook his head, "Arthur, although we haven't seen each other for a long time, I think you are still the Arthur I knew twenty-five years ago, kind and gracious, sincere and wise."
"Thank you for the praise. I'm honored." I was slightly surprised that Eric, who was once quiet and serious at school, gave me such a high compliment.
"You know perfectly well whether I'm lying or not. So, can you reveal the real reason why you came to the White Star Lake pack? Why did you choose Steph?"
"I'm sure you've already guessed the answer to the reason I dropped everything in my pack and drove 10 hours to come here to choose Steph as my assistant."
"She is your luna?" Eric's eyes widened in a rare moment, even though I had already told him the answer he thought was right.
Patrick should have had the exact guess as to his father, but after he saw me nod, he couldn't close his mouth in surprise." That can't be fucking true, can it?"
Eric gave Patrick a look as he continued to ask me, "Arthur, Steph hasn't left the White Star Lake pack since she was born, and the furthest she's ever been is just the closest human town to here. You have never met Steph. How could you know she is your mate?"
"Well," maybe Eric knew Witch Lassie, but I couldn't reveal her existence to anyone else without Lassie's permission. "Since I'm called Alpha King by you guys, I must have some special abilities or secrets that can't be known to you. Just know that I'm not here to attack your pack, especially Steph. that's enough."
"Dad, can we trust him?" Patrick didn't seem to accept this explanation from me and turned his head to Eric.
Honestly, I didn't need them to believe me. As long as my luna trusted me, it didn't matter so much to me whether the others trusted me or not.
"I get it." Eric sighed and smiled helplessly as he walked up to me and patted me on the shoulder, "You're still the Arthur I know, the cocky Alpha King."
"Hey, I remember when you were praising me." I deliberately raised my eyebrows and poked him in the shoulder with my elbow, even though I knew he was joking with me.