Aurora's POV:
The morning sun streamed through my window, but its warmth did nothing to lift the heaviness in my heart. I had waited up most of the night, hoping Markus would come to explain his strange behavior with Sarah, but my room remained painfully empty. Sleep had been elusive, filled with fitful dreams and worried thoughts.
"He's probably just exhausted," I whispered to myself, fingers tracing the intricate patterns on my bedspread. "After everything that happened yesterday..."
The justification felt hollow, but I clung to it anyway. My mind drifted to memories that had always given me comfort before – moments that proved the depth of Markus's devotion to me. The most vivid was from when I was just eight years old, newly arrived at the Tempest Pack and still uncertain of my place here.
I had been such a tiny thing then, a lost little wolf cub playing alone near the pack borders because I was too shy to join the other children. The three rouge wolves had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, their eyes gleaming with cruel intent as they cornered me against a rocky outcropping.
"Look what we have here," one had sneered. "A little princess all alone."
I remembered the terror paralyzing my limbs, the way my wolf form had trembled as they advanced. Then Markus had burst through the underbrush, all gangly adolescent fury at twelve years old, but burning with protective rage.
"Get away from her!" he had roared, throwing himself between me and the rogues without hesitation.
The fight had been brutal. Even now, fifteen years later, I could still hear the sickening sounds of flesh tearing and bones cracking as Markus fought three full-grown wolves to protect me. By the time the pack warriors arrived, drawn by the commotion, Markus had been barely conscious, his silver fur matted with blood.
"Stay with me," I had begged, tiny hands pressed against his wounds. "Please don't leave me alone."
He had spent six months recovering from those injuries. The scars still marked his body – three long furrows across his ribs, a notch missing from his left ear. But he had never once complained, never made me feel guilty for being the cause.
Then there was the incident when I was fifteen, restless and rebellious, sneaking out to explore the human world despite strict pack rules against it. I had thought myself so clever, slipping away during the new moon when security was lighter. I hadn't counted on encountering a vampire – one of the ancient ones, with eyes like frozen blood and fingers like steel cables around my throat.
"Such sweet young blood," he had purred, fangs gleaming. "The wolf pup who strayed too far from home."
If Markus hadn't noticed my absence, hadn't tracked me through our pack bond and arrived just as the vampire's fangs brushed my neck... The silver dagger had carved a deep groove across his back as he shielded me, and the wound had taken two months to heal fully due to silver's toxic effects on our kind.
"You're worth it," he had insisted when I tried to apologize. "I'll always come for you, Aurora. Always."
The memories brought fresh tears to my eyes. Markus had always been my protector, my anchor, my future. How could I doubt him now, just because some mysterious woman had saved his life? Wouldn't I want him to show gratitude to anyone who had protected him the way he had always protected me?
"But it's different," my wolf, Fiona, growled in my mind. "The way he looks at her..."
I pushed the thought away and forced myself to focus on preparations for the Spring Full Moon Festival. My mother's ceremonial robes would be perfect for my last festival before officially coming of age. The storage room was across the pack house, and despite my leg still aching from yesterday's injury, I was determined to retrieve them myself.
The old storage room was exactly as I remembered it – musty and dim, filled with generations of pack history in carefully preserved boxes and trunks. My mother's chest sat high on a shelf in the back corner, requiring a ladder to reach. I tested my weight on the lowest rung, wincing as my injured leg protested.
"This isn't wise," Fiona cautioned. "We should wait for help."
But my stubbornness has always been a trait of my character. I climbed halfway up the ladder, and I felt I could reach the box. I leaned forward to try to get the box, but my hand didn't hold it firmly, and the box crashed to the ground, the loud noise startled me, and as I swayed, the ladder fell backwards. I thought I was done for, but I didn't fall on the hard floor, but landed in a solid chest, a pair of strong arms steadily caught me.
"That could have ended badly," Alexander commented dryly, setting me carefully on my feet. His silver eyes held a mixture of concern and amusement.
Heat flooded my cheeks. "Thank you. "
"Perhaps you should develop a habit of asking for help before climbing ladders with an injured leg." Despite his words, there was no real reproach in his tone. He squatted down and easily lifted the box containing my mother's clothes. "Where would you like me to put it?"
"My room, if you don't mind. And... would you like to stay for tea? As a thank you?"
Something flickered in his eyes – surprise, perhaps, or curiosity. After a moment's hesitation, he nodded. "That would be nice."
The walk to my room was companionable, though I could feel his gaze on me periodically. There was something about Alexander that made my skin prickle with awareness, like the charge in the air before a storm. Not unpleasant, but unsettling in its intensity.
Once in my room, I busied myself brewing tea while he stood by the window, his posture somehow both relaxed and alert. Opening the chest revealed my mother's ceremonial robes, but my heart sank at the sight of several tears in the delicate fabric.
"Oh, no," I murmured softly, without much thought. I found the needle and thread and began to mend the clothes. As I sewed, I began to hum an old lullaby, a melody that had always existed in my memory, though I couldn't recall where I had learned it.
The sound of Alexander's teacup hitting its saucer made me look up. He had gone very still, his silver eyes intense as they fixed on me.
"You know that song?" His voice was carefully neutral.
"I... yes, though I'm not sure where I learned it. It's just always been there, especially when I'm upset or concentrating." I tilted my head, studying his reaction. "Do you know it?"
"It's very old," he said softly. "Not many remember it anymore."
"Will you sing it with me?"
For a moment, I thought he would refuse. Then his deep voice joined mine, matching the melody perfectly. The harmony sent shivers down my spine – it felt right in a way I couldn't explain.
"The moon's light guides us home," I sang.
"Through shadows deep and long," he continued.
"Where ancient powers roam,"
"In blood and bone and song..."
The last notes hung in the air between us, charged with something I couldn't name. My heart was racing, though I couldn't say why.
"How do you know it?" I asked.
"My mother sang it," he answered, but something in his tone suggested there was more to the story. "You said you don't remember learning it?"
"There's a lot I don't remember from before the Storm Pack took me in. Sometimes I get flashes, but..." I shrugged, focusing on mending a tear in the robes. "The accident that killed my parents... it took more than just them."
"I'm sorry," he said quietly, and unlike when others said it, his sympathy felt genuine rather than practiced.
We sat in comfortable silence as I worked, the familiar motions of needle and thread soothing my troubled thoughts. As the afternoon wore on, however, restlessness began to creep in. Markus still hadn't come to see me, and worry gnawed at my heart.
"Perhaps I should go find him," I mused aloud. "Clear the air about last night."
Alexander's expression tightened slightly. "Sometimes space can be valuable when emotions are high."
But I was already rising, driven by an urge I couldn't ignore. "Thank you for the company, and for saving me from my own stubbornness earlier."
He nodded, something like concern flickering in his eyes. "Be careful, Aurora. Not all wounds are visible."
The cryptic warning followed me as I made my way to Markus's office, but he wasn't there. The halls were busy with festival preparations, and I caught snippets of excited chatter about decorations and music. Then a particular conversation made me freeze.
"Did you see them heading toward the Moonlight Forest?" A warrior named Levi was saying, his tone gleeful with gossip. "The Alpha and that new girl, Sarah. He couldn't take his eyes off her."
"Shut up," his companion said softly. "You know he's about to get engaged to Aurora."
Levi's laugh was cruel. "Didn't look very engaged to me. The way Sarah was pressing up against him..."