Chapter 191: In his Study

Azura’s POV

The bumpy road leading back to the Crescent Moon pack territory was long and grueling, but the thoughts racing through my mind felt much longer.

All I could focus on for the past few hours was Isadora.

The image of her smiling face kept flashing behind my eyelids, making my stomach twist into hard, anxious knots.

Why on earth was she suddenly acting so nice to me? Why was she smiling so sweetly across the carriage seats, and why did she pull me into that tight, sudden hug

The Isadora I had known for months would rather set her own skin on fire than willingly touch a single hair on my head.

Something was deeply, terribly wrong with this picture.

I could feel the warning signs prickling down into the very marrow of my bones, a cold whisper of danger that refused to leave me alone.

I gripped the fabric of my skirt tightly, making a silent promise to myself that I was going to figure out exactly what game she was playing the very second our wheels stopped rolling.

With a loud, grinding screech of iron against stone, the heavy wooden carriage finally rolled to a complete stop right in front of the massive pack house entrance.

Almost instantly, a dozen pack guards rushed forward from the stone steps, their hands moving quickly as they began pulling down heavy trunks and leather travel bags from the roof, hauling our supplies toward the wide-open front doors.

I climbed out of the stuffy interior, my boots hitting the dirt with a solid thud, and walked straight toward the back of the vehicle to search for my personal items.

I needed to find the specific leather bag that held my most important books, my private journal, and the ancient, heavy text of the Aegis.

"Azura," a soft voice called out from behind me, the sound gentle against the rowdy noise of the unloading guards.

I turned around on my heel, wiping a smudge of dust from my hands.

Liona stood there, her arms loosely cradling a small cloth bag her mate insisted she takes, against her chest, a weary but incredibly soft expression softening her features.

"I think I am going to head straight out to see my family now," she murmured, a small trace of homesickness bleeding through her tone.

"It has been so long since I last hugged them. I truly want to spend some quality time with them for a full week. Just me and my family."

"I won’t be staying inside the pack house for a while, okay?"

A genuine smile broke across my face, the heavy tension in my shoulders lifting for a brief second.

"Take all the time you need, Liona," I said warmly.

We stepped closer and wrapped our arms around each other in a tight embrace.

She held onto my shoulders for a moment longer than she usually did, squeezing me tightly as if she didn’t want to let go of the safety we had found together, before she finally stepped back, gave me a small nod, and walked down the path toward the village.

I reached into the storage rack, firmly grabbed the strap of my leather bag, and hauled it over my shoulder.

I walked out from behind the large wooden frame of the carriage, ready to head inside.

But my boots froze instantly in the dirt.

A few yards away by the stone stairs, Isadora was standing exceptionally close to Rhydor.

Her slender, manicured fingers were wrapped tightly around his large hand, and she was casually resting the side of her red head against his thick leather sleeve.

She looked incredibly small standing there against his massive frame, completely comfortable and relaxed, as if she belonged in that exact spot by his side.

Rhydor wasn’t doing a single thing to push her away.

He was leaning forward, talking in a low, rumbling voice to Silas and Axel, his face perfectly calm and serious as they discussed the security lines.

He didn’t seem to notice the red-haired girl clinging to his arm like a second skin, or maybe, deep down, he didn’t mind her touch at all.

A heavy, bitter weight dropped straight into the bottom of my stomach.

I hated what I was looking at right now, but I forced my lips to stay locked tightly together, refusing to let a single word of anger escape me in front of the guards.

Silas suddenly turned his head around, his eyes scanning the courtyard until he spotted me standing by the wheels.

His serious warrior expression broke into a wide, incredibly warm smile in an instant.

"Azura!" he called out, his voice full of genuine relief.

Axel snapped his head around too, a rare, bright smile touching his usually stern lips as he saw me.

"Welcome back, Luna," he said, his deep voice carrying across the yard.

The two warriors immediately walked toward me, their heavy boots crunching loudly on the gravel path.

Silas reached me first, throwing his thick arms around me and pulling me into a warm, familiar hug that smelled of pine and home.

The moment he let go, Axel stepped in, hugging me with the same fierce, protective warmth that I had missed more than I realized.

"It has been far too long since you left this territory," Silas said, pulling back to look at my face, his eyes shining.

Axel gave a firm nod of his head, crossing his arms.

"We truly missed our Luna. Our fierce, stubborn Luna."

Silas grinned widely, nudging my shoulder playfully.

"The entire pack house has been boring without you running around causing trouble, Azura."

I forced a small smile onto my lips, trying my best to match their happy energy.

But my eyes involuntarily darted sideways, cutting past their shoulders to look back at the stairs.

Rhydor was still standing in the same spot.

Isadora’s fingers were still tightly interlaced with his, and he still hadn’t made a single movement to pull his hand out of her grasp.

A sharp wave of painful understanding hit my chest.

He still cared about her.

The deep history they shared, the years of love and closeness they had built before I arrived, was entirely genuine.

He wasn’t the type of person who would ever push someone away cruelly or rudely, especially not a girl he had once promised to protect.

But even though I understood his character, I still hated every single part of it.

I hated that he had to remain friends with her.

I hated that she was standing on our pack grounds, and I hated the way she looked at him.

I turned my face away from them, the burning sensation in my chest becoming too hot to handle.

"I will see you both a little bit later," I said to Silas and Axel, my voice tight as I adjusted the heavy leather strap on my shoulder.

"I really need to head upstairs and freshen up. It has been an incredibly long day on the road."

Without waiting for their replies, and without looking back at Rhydor even once, I turned on my heel and walked quickly through the front doors.

The wooden door to my private chamber creaked loudly as I pushed it open, and the moment I stepped inside, I found everything exactly how I had left it.

The large bed was neatly made, the heavy curtains hung by the glass window, and the small wooden table sat quietly near the stone hearth.

Everything was in its proper place.

The air inside the room smelled faintly of dust, dried lavender, and that old, familiar scent that finally made me feel like I could breathe again.

I closed the heavy oak door behind my back and leaned my spine flat against the wood, letting my head drop back with a dull thud.

I let out a long, ragged exhale that rattled through my chest.

"Home," I whispered to the empty room.

It felt completely strange to call this place home now.

When I had first arrived at the Crescent Moon pack, these exact four walls had felt like a suffocating prison cell designed to keep me trapped.

But after everything that had happened across the kingdoms, after the bloody battles and the long, exhausting days spent hiding away in the dragon castle, my small room suddenly felt like the safest, most peaceful place in the entire world.

I pushed my body away from the door and carried my heavy leather bag over to the small table near the hearth.

Unbuckling the brass straps, I reached inside.

The very first book my fingers brushed against was Aegis.

I pulled it out slowly, running my palm over the old, weathered leather binding and the worn, frayed edges of the cover.

The ancient title was stamped deep into the hide in faded gold letters that caught the dim light of the room.

I flipped the book open, staring blankly at the complex, strange text filling the pages for a long moment, but my mind was too scattered to focus on the lines.

With a frustrated sigh, I snapped the book shut and set it face down on the wood.

I reached back into the open bag, my fingers wrapping around the familiar, smooth edges of my private journal.

Holding the small book tightly in my hands, a sudden memory flashed vividly in my mind.

I remembered the nine strange, glowing words that had burst into my thoughts while I was standing inside the Dragon King’s castle.

I still had absolutely no idea what those words meant, or why they had chosen that exact moment to wake up inside my brain.

But I knew I needed to speak with someone who possessed the knowledge to guide me.

Genevieve.

She was the only one who might have the answers to the magic creeping into my veins.

I set my journal down on the table, squared my shoulders, and marched back toward the door to find her.

I honestly do not know how my feet managed to take me there.

One single moment I was walking down the main eastern hallway, fully intending to head toward Genevieve’s private quarters on the lower floor.

But the very next second, I blinked my eyes and realized I was standing directly in the middle of the quiet, dimly lit corridor that led straight to Rhydor’s executive study.

I stopped walking, looking around at the stone walls in complete and total confusion.

"When on earth did I get here?" I muttered to myself, my voice full of panic as I stared at the dark wooden floorboards.

This wasn’t my plan at all. My feet had moved entirely on their own, guided by a strange, subconscious pull that I couldn’t seem to fight.

Then, a low murmur of voices echoed from the end of the hall, and I saw them.

Isadora and Rhydor were standing right in front of his closed study door.

They were locked in a quiet, intense conversation.

Isadora’s face looked incredibly sad, her lower lip trembling slightly as she looked up at him, while Rhydor’s expression was completely serious and heavy.

He was leaning his tall frame toward her, his lips moving slowly as if he were trying to explain a difficult truth to her.

The distance was too great for the words to reach my ears.

I didn’t know what they were saying to each other, and I didn’t know what kind of bargain was happening between them in the dark hallway.

And I completely hated it.

Every logical part of my brain screamed at me to turn around immediately.

Walk away, Azura. Go find his mother as you planned. Forget you ever saw them standing here together.

But my boots completely refused to listen to my mind.

Instead of retreating, I forced my legs to move, walking with long, loud strides straight toward where they stood.

The sound of my heels striking the wood echoed sharply through the quiet corridor.

Both of them snapped their heads around to look at me at the same time.

Rhydor turned his massive head, his sharp amber eyes instantly locking onto mine with a look of sudden surprise.

He parted his lips, opening his mouth as if he were about to speak my name out loud to stop me.

I didn’t give him the chance.

I marched right past his broad shoulder, completely ignoring his presence as if he were nothing but a ghost in the hallway.

I reached out, grabbed the brass handle of his study door, twisted it open with a sharp click, and walked straight inside the private room.

I slammed the heavy door shut behind my back, cutting off the sight of Isadora’s shocked face.

Turning around, I walked directly over to his large executive desk, the massive, polished wooden table where he kept all of his pack documents, his strategic maps, and his daily work.

Without a single drop of hesitation, I reached my hands out and shoved everything forcefully to the side.

Heavy stacks of papers slid across the smooth wood, and a feathered ink quill rolled right off the edge, dropping silently onto the rug below.

With a sudden burst of reckless energy, I hopped up and sat myself right on the very edge of his cleared desk, swinging my legs slightly over the side.

And then, the sudden rush of anger vanished, and a wave of pure horror crashed over my mind:

What the hell am I actually doing right now?

"What did I just do?" I whispered to myself, my heart suddenly hammering wildly against my ribs as pure panic flooded my chest.

What am I trying to get out of this ridiculous stunt? What is my actual plan here?

Why on earth did I just barge into his private study and sit on his desk like I own the entire place?

Before I could jump down and hide, the heavy door clicked open.

Rhydor walked inside.

He closed the door firmly behind his back, the lock sliding into place with a loud, definitive sound.

He didn’t take a step toward the desk.

He simply stood perfectly still with his broad back pressed flat against the wood, his intense amber eyes completely fixed on my face.

He didn’t utter a single word. I kept my lips locked together, refusing to speak first.

We just sat there in the quiet room, staring hard at each other across the space.

My mind was racing at a dangerous, terrifying speed as I watched the slow rise and fall of his chest.

Is he planning to get back together with her? The painful question screamed in my head, making my throat feel completely dry.

Are they fixing what they broke? Is that the real reason why she is out here in our pack territory, and is that why she was holding his hand so tightly by the carriage?

His amber eyes didn’t leave my face for a single fraction of a second, burning into me with a dark, unreadable heat.

Looking at the sharp line of his mouth, I honestly did not know if he was about to cross the room and kiss me senseless, or if he was going to kill me for tearing up his workspace.