Chapter 210 - 0210

Lorelei POV

"Has your wolf finally fully awakened?"

For a few seconds after Kaelen asked that, I could only stare at him, completely frozen as my mind struggled to catch up with his words. Then my eyes widened, and a soft gasp escaped my lips when everything suddenly clicked into place.

The marble vanity.

The heavy metal towel rack.

My mother’s wrist at the banquet.

And now hearing Kaelen’s phone conversation from inside the bathroom while he had been standing all the way outside the chambers.

How had I done all of that?

My gaze instinctively drifted toward the bathroom door as the realization slowly sank in. I had always thought those moments were strange bursts of adrenaline and faulty judgment, but now that I thought about it, there was something different about them. Something that felt almost instinctive, as though my body had moved before I even had the chance to think.

"Could she...?" I whispered, mostly to myself, as my hand slowly rose to my chest. My fingers pressed against the spot over my heart, and I swallowed as a strange mixture of wonder and disbelief washed over me.

My wolf.

Could she really be waking up?

Kaelen stepped closer, his large, warm hands settling gently on my bare shoulders as he searched my face.

"Do you feel different?" he asked. "Can you feel her?"

I bit my lip and shook my head uncertainly. The truth was, I had no idea what I was supposed to be looking for. My wolf had been violently suppressed for as long as I could remember, so I had never experienced her presence the way other wolves did.

"I don’t know," I admitted. "I don’t even know what I’m supposed to feel. But... something definitely happened. I accidentally broke the metal towel rack and the marble counter in the bathroom just now. And at the banquet, when my mother tried to hit me, I’m pretty sure I almost broke her wrist without even trying."

The moment I mentioned my mother, I expected some concern to cross Kaelen’s face.

Instead, his expression brightened with a fierce kind of pride that caught me completely off guard.

"Then that confirms it," he said, a dark, triumphant smile slowly spreading across his face.

His thumbs gently brushed over my bare arms as his eyes practically lit up with excitement.

"Lorelei, this is fucking incredible." His smile widened as he looked at me. "Your wolf is finally waking up."

My heart pounded even harder against my ribs, a rush of excitement bursting through me as the possibility finally sank in. But the excitement barely lasted before another thought crept in, and the warmth in my chest was quickly replaced by a cold knot of dread.

"But... if she’s waking up, shouldn’t I be able to feel her?" I asked, my voice trembling as the panic slowly began to take over. "Why can’t I? Kaelen, I don’t feel anything inside me."

The distress on my face must have been obvious because Kaelen immediately tightened his hands around my arms and pulled me a little closer.

"Hey, it’s a process, okay?" he said, his voice calm and reassuring. "The important thing is that she’s showing signs of waking up. You’re getting stronger, and your wolf instincts are finally kicking in. That means something is changing. It’s only a matter of time now, and honestly, it could happen a lot sooner than you think."

He gave my arms a gentle squeeze before adding, "So don’t overthink it tonight. Just enjoy the fact that something is finally happening."

I nodded several times, letting his words settle the panic that had started building inside me. Slowly, a genuine smile spread across my face, and inside, I was practically screaming with happiness.

Finally.

After all these years of feeling like something inside me was broken, something was finally changing. My wolf was waking up, and somehow, it was happening right when I needed her the most.

Thank you, Moon Goddess.

Thank you so much.

After our little celebration, Kaelen excused himself to take a shower while I quickly changed out of my towel and climbed into the plush bed.

By the time he came out of the bathroom, dressed in loose pants and an oversized shirt with a towel draped around his neck as he dried his hair, I was sitting against the headboard with my arms folded tightly across my chest, staring blankly at the wall.

Kaelen tossed the towel aside before climbing into bed beside me. He immediately wrapped an arm around my waist and started pulling me toward his warm chest, but I stopped him before he could settle against me.

"Aren’t you curious?" I asked softly.

Kaelen froze and pulled back just enough to look at me, his brows drawing together in confusion.

"Curious about what?" he asked, but I hesitated.

The thoughts had been circling my mind ever since he left for the shower, each one feeding the next until they had turned into a question I couldn’t ignore anymore. My heart began hammering against my ribs as I finally forced myself to say it out loud.

"About why my wolf was suppressed in the first place. Why my family hates me," I whispered, still unable to meet his eyes. "Why they’ve spent so much time trying to ruin my name... if it weren’t for you."

The moment I mentioned my family, Kaelen’s jaw tightened, the muscles flexing as though the words alone were enough to bring back every bitter memory of what they had done to me. He seemed to catch himself a second later, forcing the tension from his posture before his eyes settled gently on me again.

"Of course I’m curious," he admitted. "There are so many things about you I want to understand, Lorelei. But if you’re not ready to talk about them, I’m not going to push you. I’ll never force you to tell me anything you’re not comfortable sharing."

The sincerity in his voice made my heart clench.

"Can I tell you a secret, then?" I asked, my voice trembling slightly as my heart began racing again.

Kaelen reached up and gently cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing across my skin.

"You can tell me anything you want," he said quietly. "But if you’re not ready, you don’t have to."

"I want to," I insisted, forcing myself to sound more certain than I felt. "I want you to hear it from me first."

Now that Jaxen and the others, especially Callista, knew I was alive, there was no way they were going to sit back and let me stay in Kaelen’s life without a fight. And knowing that I was not only alive but with the Alpha King himself gave them even more reason to come after me.

They would use every dirty trick they could think of to turn him against me.

As incredible as Kaelen had been these past few days, a small, terrified part of me still wondered if he could eventually look at me differently once he knew the truth. If he would regret choosing me. If he would decide that whatever existed between us wasn’t worth the trouble.

But if that was going to happen, then I wanted him to hear the truth from me first.

"Okay," Kaelen said softly.

My heart gave a hard, nervous thump.

My palms instantly grew damp as I finally lifted my gaze to his intense amber eyes. For years, I had carried this secret like a stain I could never wash away, burying it so deeply that even saying it aloud felt terrifying.

But I was tired of hiding.

I swallowed hard, gathered whatever courage I had left, and finally whispered the truth I had spent my entire life being ashamed of.

"I’m cursed."