Chapter 232: The human girl

Silas POV

She was the sole reason my boots had carried me to this human village today.

She was the one who held my absolute, undivided attention.

She was roughly fifteen years old now. Soft, dark waves of black hair fell past her shoulders, framing a warm face with smooth brown skin and deep, expressive eyes.

Whenever her brothers made a ridiculous joke and her face lit up with a genuine smile, two deep, adorable dimples pressed into her cheeks.

To my eyes, she was nothing short of breathtaking. She was my peace, my quiet solace, and my entire world.

For three long years, I had been making the quiet trek down to this edge of the human settlement.

Whenever the crushing stress of pack duties became too heavy to bear, or whenever Rhydor’s dark mood threatened to drag the entire house down, I would slip away into the woods.

I would come right back to this exact spot, lean against the oak bark, and simply watch her live her normal, happy life.

She was my fated mate.

And she was entirely human.

I still spent many restless nights wondering if the Moon Goddess was playing a cruel joke on me or testing the limits of my sanity.

She was far too young to understand the dark, heavy world I belonged to. She was pure, innocent, and utterly clueless about the invisible bond connecting her soul to mine.

Even when she finally reached age, bringing her into my life was going to be an uphill battle. Especially if she grew up believing wolves were just wild animals in the woods, and her family would never willingly hand their daughter over to a creature from legend.

None of those obstacles mattered to me in the slightest. I had already made up my mind the day my wolf recognized her scent in the wind.

My mind flashed back to a few months ago, recalling a young human boy who had attempted to court her.

He was sixteen or seventeen, local to her village, and had started showing up near her porch with fresh flowers and shy smiles.

I had watched him from the shadows for two days before deciding I had seen enough. The moment he walked home alone through the forest path, I stepped out from behind the pines, blocking his way.

I didn’t draw a blade, nor did I threaten him with physical violence. I simply stood my ground, looked down into his frightened eyes, and let my voice drop into a terrifying, icy quietness.

"Stay away from her," I had commanded, allowing a fraction of my dark wolf aura to bleed into the air around us.

The poor boy gasped, his face draining of all color as his knees buckled under the sudden pressure. He turned around and sprinted down the path so fast he nearly tripped over his own feet, never daring to set foot near her house again.

I didn’t feel a single drop of regret or shame for what I had done. She was my mate, period.

I had no intention of allowing any other male the opportunity to slide into her life while I waited for her to grow up.

If her family sat around their dinner table wondering why no young men came around to court their beautiful daughter, or if they thought she was somehow cursed with bad luck, so be it. Let them wonder all they wanted.

When the time was right, and she reached proper age, I would walk straight up those wooden steps, reveal my true self, and claim her for the rest of my days.

A small, quiet smile tugged at the corner of my lips as I watched her toss a small stone at one of her brothers, her bright laugh floating across the yard.

I leaned back against the rough bark of the tree, letting out a soft exhale as I stared up at the sky, wishing with every fiber of my being that time would move just a little bit faster.

*****

Rhydor’s POV

I sat near the heavy oak table inside our private family chamber, the quiet crackle of the hearth fire filling the heavy air between us.

My mother and father sat across from me, their faces looking grim under the flickering orange light.

My mother reached down, smoothed the fabric of her dark dress over her knees, and looked up at me with a careful, guarded expression.

"I know you already have a good idea whom you were speaking to down in those dungeons," she said quietly.

"I am not entirely sure," I replied, my tone coming out flat as I stared into the fire.

"But the ancient power radiating off that possessed man was not normal. He is definitely no ordinary rogue or warrior."

My mother gave a slow, somber nod of her head.

"Yes. He is most certainly no ordinary person."

She paused, leaning her hands flat against the wooden arms of her chair as her eyes sharpened, locking onto mine with an intense, unyielding gaze.

"If you are sitting there dreaming that you can easily march into battle and defeat a creature like him, you better wake up right now, son," she said firmly.

I felt my brow furrow in frustration as I shifted in my seat.

"What makes you so confident that I cannot defeat him, Mother?"

"Listen to yourself," she said, leaning forward until the firelight illuminated every sharp line on her face.

"A man who can casually switch souls between living bodies. A man who can open magical portals across vast distances with a wave of his hand. A man who can inhabit entirely different dimensions and control dark magic effortlessly."

"Do you truly believe that your little Alpha aura is enough to destroy a dark entity like that?"

I clamped my mouth shut, keeping my jaw tight as I stared at her, unable to form a solid counter-argument.

"Exactly," she continued, her voice echoing softly against the stone walls.

"That entity is beyond anything you have ever trained for. You should already know in your heart that we are dealing with the Alpha King himself. And no standard Alpha can stand toe-to-toe against an Alpha King in direct combat."

"The fact that he died centuries ago and somehow found a way to crawl back into our world proves that this is no ordinary war. People are going to die. You will suffer losses. You might even lose this entire pack before the dust settles."

She stopped talking for a moment, letting the heavy weight of her words sink into the quiet room before her tone softened slightly.

"This is not a situation where we can simply gather our warriors, march out into the forest, and fight," she said softly.

"We need real guidance. We need a set of eyes that can look far ahead of us, so we know how to navigate the storm and survive."

"So what are you suggesting we actually do?" I asked quietly, resting my elbows on my knees.

She looked at me, a slow, deliberate look settling over her face.

"Do you remember that old friend I have living near the human village border?"

I frowned, searching my memory through all the stories she had told us over the years.

"You mean the witch?"

A tiny, fleeting smile touched her lips, nodding her head once.

"Yes. We need to go pay her a visit. She was the one who gave us direction and hope when we were desperately searching for the lost children months ago."

"I truly believe she can help us navigate this threat as well. At the very least, she can reveal a way for us to bring an end to his reign. If we are forced to go into battle, we need to know where his weakness lies."

"How can you be so sure she can help us this time?" I asked, my tone laced with heavy doubt.

"Yes, she pointed us in a direction back then, but do you honestly believe a simple village witch knows how to end someone as ancient and powerful as you claim he is?"

My mother gave me a look filled with secret knowledge, her chin lifting slightly.

"There is still a lot about this world that you do not understand, son."

Exasperated, I turned my head toward my father, who had been sitting completely motionless in his high-backed chair, silently sipping his drink without uttering a single word since I had walked into the room.

"Are you really not going to say anything to back me up?" I asked him, my voice rising in sharp frustration.

My father casually raised his shoulders in a dry, indifferent shrug, setting his cup down on the small side table.

"You saw what your mother did to that heavy dining table during our last discussion together, right?" he asked with a completely straight face.

"I have no desire to end up broken in half like that wooden table."

My mother reached across the space between their chairs and slapped his shoulder playfully, letting out a short huff.

I let my body slump backward into the soft leather of my chair, resting the back of my head against the frame as I stared up at the dark wooden beams of the ceiling.

My mind was spinning with endless possibilities, but one single thought kept echoing louder than the rest in the quiet room.

I wanted to find a way to end this terrifying war before it even had a chance to begin.