Chapter 126: "My Wolf Is Awake."

Adeline’s POV~

I woke up. The first thing I felt was how quiet everything was. There was no burning in my veins and no sharp pain in my chest. For one moment, I thought I was dreaming. Then I felt the soft sheets under my skin, and everything from few hours back came back at once.

Their hands. Their mouths. Their voices in my ear, saying my name.

My face went hot. I turned my head.

The bed was empty.

I sat up fast, holding the blanket against my chest.

The room was empty.

There were no clothes on the floor. The torn pieces of my hoodie were gone too. The sheets were smooth and cool on both sides of me, like no one had ever lain there.

If it weren’t for their scent, I would have thought I made it all up.

The scent of four lycans was still in the pillows and the blankets, and it was on my own skin. It was so strong that it made my stomach flip. My thighs ached in a deep, heavy way. My whole body felt used and sore and strangely light.

I looked down at myself.

I was wearing a black T-shirt. It was far too big for me, and the sleeves fell past my elbows. The collar hung off one shoulder.

It was not mine. It smelled warm, but I could not tell which of them it belonged to. All four scents had mixed together on my skin, and I couldn’t pull them apart.

Under the blanket, I wore nothing on the bottom, just the shirt that ended mid thigh. I pulled the cover tighter around my legs.

"They left," I whispered to the empty room.

I told myself it didn’t matter. The curse was quiet, and that was what I had asked for. But my chest still felt tight, and I hated that it did.

The door opened.

I jumped. I almost dropped the blanket. But it was not one of the princes. It was the dowager luna, tall and calm, with a soft smile on her face. Her eyes found mine at once, and the smile grew warmer.

"Sweetie," she said gently. "You’re awake."

Behind her, three servants came in, each carrying a large tray. The smell of warm bread, roasted meat, and spiced soup filled the room, and my stomach growled so loudly that my cheeks burned. The dowager luna pointed to the small table in the left corner, in front of the couch.

"Put them there," she told the servants. "And leave."

They placed the trays down, bowed, and went out. The door clicked shut.

I pushed the blanket back to stand up, but she crossed the room fast and put a hand on my shoulder.

"No, no, sweetie. Stay where you are." Her voice was soft but firm. "You do not need to stand for me. You need to rest. I only came to make sure if you were comfortable and to bring you something to eat. You haven’t eaten properly and you look so tired and exhausted."

She sat down on the edge of the bed, facing me. Her hand stayed on my shoulder, warm and steady.

I looked down at my fingers. I was twisting them together without noticing.

For a long moment, I said nothing.

"You didn’t say anything," I finally said. My voice came out low.

"Say what, dear?"

"About the mate thing. About... what happened here few hours back..." I swallowed. "You must know. You can smell it in the room. You can smell all of them on me. You know what had happened here... after you left and you must be mad and say something but you’re not even..."

"Why would I say anything?" she asked, calm and clear. "Adeline, look at me."

I forced my eyes up.

"I am not angry, and I am not shocked," she said. "I have been watching you for days. When you were hurt, they gave you their blood to heal you. Raven’s blood first. Then Keiran’s. Do you remember what happened?"

"My body threw it up," I said quietly. "Right after the healing. It was like my body didn’t want it."

"Yes. Exactly." She nodded slowly. "A normal wolf would have kept it. A normal wolf would have healed. But your body refused it, right after healing your wounds. That told us something. In lycan families, we have a very old belief."

"A Lycan’s blood can cure a mate but the bond asks for something deeper than blood and that is why your body rejected their blood right after healing. It asks for touch. For closeness. For a real, physical joining. This is the case if the Lycan’s give their blood to their mate."

"So that means..." My throat closed. I tried again. "That means they’re really my mates. Second-chance mates?"

"It means exactly that."

"But that can’t be right." The words rushed out of me.

"I’m a rogue. I don’t have a pack. I don’t have a family. I have nothing, not even a name that means anything here. Maybe the bond is false. Maybe it’s something else. The blood rejection would have happened because my body was weak or low-life wolf?"

"I know how it sounds," the dowager luna said. "I know it’s too much, and I know you are afraid. But it’s the truth, Adeline. I wish I could make it smaller for you, but I can’t."

"There’s something that doesn’t make sense. My body rejected Raven’s blood and Keiran’s blood. Only those two. But they said... all four of them said I was their mate. All four. How is that possible? One wolf has four mate?"

She was quiet for a moment. Then she took my hand and held it between both of hers.

"Yes! That is true," she said. "There is an old saying in our blood, one that goes back many generations. One mate for all four. When the four brothers of a royal line are born, the Moon Goddess gave them one mate to share. It’s rare. It has happened maybe only two times in all these years of Lycan’s race existence."

It has happened only two times in all these years of Lycan’s race existence?

"If you are bound to Raven and Keiran, then you are also bound to Blake and Zyran. They are four halves of one whole. You can’t have one without the others."

I sat very still.

"So it’s real," I said slowly. "All of it."

"It’s real."

I breathed in and out. I made myself think about the other thing that had been bothering me for a very long time now after what the witch said.

"What about my wolf?" I asked. My voice shook. "The witch said something was done to me the day I was born. A curse that locked my wolf away. She said it was why I never shifted, why I never heard her voice, why I always felt like half a person. But it woke up when I turned eighteen. It was so small, even I couldn’t figure out whether my wolf has woken or not. It was so fragile but then after the twins rejection. I felt empty. It went dormant."

"I know." The dowager luna’s face turned serious. "And I have not forgotten. The wolf was fragile or you can say it was suppressed from the beginning. It is still fighting to break the curse. I have sent for the witch again. I’ve asked her to find a way to break that curse, with old magic or old tradition, anything that works. She is looking through the ancient ledgers right now. Don’t worry, dear. We will find the way. Everything will be fine."

I wanted to believe her. I really did.

Then my left wrist stung.

It was a sharp, hot jab, like a needle pushing under my skin. I flinched. Then the right wrist did the same. A deep, strange pull started in both of them, as if something was trying to drag my hands away from my arms from the inside.

"Ah!" I hissed and grabbed my wrists. "What is that?"

"Adeline!" The dowager luna was on her feet in an instant. Her hands closed over mine. "What’s wrong? Are you hurt?"

"I don’t know." I gritted my teeth. The pull slowly faded. "It’s just a sting. It’s gone now. It’s okay."

But it wasn’t okay. I stared at my wrists. The skin looked normal, with no marks and no bruises.

Still, my heart was pounding, and a cold feeling had started to crawl up my spine.

I thought about what the witch had said.

Over and over, the same words, in her slow, calm voice.

I raised my head and looked straight at the dowager luna.

"I think the witch is lying," I said.

Her face went still. "What? Why would you say that?"

"Because it doesn’t add up." The words came out faster now.

"She told that my wolf was still locked inside me. She said my wolf was fighting hard to break free. She said that if my wolf woke up, she could reject the pain-binding curse on her own. That was the whole plan. To break the unknown curse that has been keeping my wolf suppressed and wake my wolf which will break the pain-binding curse."

"Yes, I remember," the dowager luna said slowly. "And?"

"I haven’t told you this yet, Gwen. But my wolf has already awakened."

My wolf is awake.

The room went silent.