Unedited. Could've gone better. Ugh, I hate this. I had too much workload and this just didn't end up the way I wanted it to.

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“You can’t transfer the crest to me now. You’ll die without the crest and if you die, so will I.”

“Do you have any idea what kind of a rash decision you’ve made in the heat of the moment?”

I was leaning over his casket. Blood was running down my chin, a few drops had already found their way down my neck as I breathed heavily while staring longingly at Erebus’ lifeless corpse.

“I couldn’t let you die.”

I said this under my breath as I gripped the edge of the table so tightly my knuckles turned white.

“Why couldn’t you? If I had been successful in transferring the crest to you before, I’d have died that day and you would have still been mateless. Why are you so averse to the idea now?”

He was right but he wasn’t looking at this scenario the way I was.

“Things would have been different then.”

“But the outcome would still be the same, Thea.”

His tone had turned impassive. The usual gentleness he held in his voice while talking to me was gone. He didn’t seem like a mentor or friend in that moment. He felt like an elder scolding a child, and I didn’t like that.

“No, it wouldn’t. Because then I would’ve never met you!”

My voice was followed by complete silence. It felt like I had said something that I wasn’t supposed to say out loud, but I couldn’t stop now. I needed to tell him how I felt. I needed him to understand.

"If I had the King’s Crest since the time of my birth, things would have been very different for us. I would have been raised to believe that I could never have a mate, but that’s not the case now. Is it? I don’t know if it’s unnatural or stupid but I can’t turn my nerves to steel in the span of three months for the sake of becoming a king. I just couldn’t let you die and continue living normally while deep down I would have always known that the base of my success was resting on top of your grave. My heart couldn’t handle that.”

By the end of it, my voice had turned into a small whisper. He, on the other hand, still remained silent.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

I said that while staring helplessly at his body, half hoping for it to spring back to life and answer me.

“Let me shift, Thea. There’s someone else in the house.”

I didn’t have much time to react to his statement because as soon as his reply resonated in my head, the familiar pain of my chest being torn wide open started coursing through my body.

The shifting process didn’t last long this time. My back crashed into the table on which Erebus’ body was resting as I fell back from the pressure while a large black wolf ripped itself out of my body.

“So you’ve marked him.”

I whipped my head to stare at the doorway created by the opening in the bookshelf. There was someone standing there. Erebus’ wolf had wasted no time in leaping in front of me in a defensive stance. He was hindering my vision but I didn’t have much difficulty in recognizing the silhouette standing before us.

It was my father, Alpha Adrian.

The wolf guarding me was growling ferociously but that didn’t stop my father from taking a few steps in our direction until he was standing directly in front of Erebus’ huge wolf.

“My king.”

He hadn’t bowed before Erebus or exposed his neck to him. He was not submitting to Erebus.

‘He doesn’t seem surprised.’

“What’s the meaning of this, dad? Did you know everything from the start?”

“More or less.”

My father’s eyes were still fixated on Erebus’ wolf as he answered me emotionlessly.

“Did you want this to happen?”

Still on my back, I was trying to crawl out from behind Erebus’ when I heard his voice inside my head since the first time my father had arrived in his study.

“Don’t. Stay behind me.”

This hadn’t gone unnoticed by my father.

“It’s my first time seeing a king being so protective over a woman. Is it because she’s your mate or you’re just protecting the vessel carrying your soul?”

He had said this with contempt dripping from every word of his.

‘He knows.’

Erebus couldn’t speak to him in his wolf form so he only answered back with a loud snarl.

“How?”

Brushing my shock aside, I decided to ask this question in Erebus’ stead.

There was a short pause before I started hearing my father’s grave voice echoing through the empty room,

“The only way a king can save a life is by granting his crest to the dying person. When he asked me to place my hand on your chest while you lied lifeless in my arms, I was aware of what he was going to do. I couldn’t be more greatful for having such a selfless king. Imagine my surprise when you came back to life but no crest appeared on your body. My first instinct was to go to The Barren Lands and see what had happened to the king.”

He paused for a small moment, letting out a dry laugh before he continued speaking,

“I found his body, bloodied and battered but still breathing. His heart rate had slowed down to a dangerous level yet he still remained alive, courtesy to that crest which was still marked proudly on top of his heart.”

I could hear his knuckles cracking as he uttered his next words,

“Turns out this selfless king had merely used my newborn as a vessel for his soul while his body healed itself in hibernation. I knew then that once his body healed, his soul would awaken and find itself back to its material form. He could come back any moment to claim back the life he had given you. You could die any moment. I couldn’t stand living in this constant fear so I took his body and brought it here.”

“He’s gravely misunderstood. In his fear, he stole the hibernating body of a werewolf king which is a sin punishable by imprisonment for up to several years.”

Erebus who had remained silent throughout this had finally decided to speak inside my head.

“It wasn’t like that, dad. What have you done…”

I couldn’t manage to say anything else and ended up regurgitating Erebus’ words in front of my father.

“You’re too naïve, Thea.”

I couldn’t see him because of the huge wolf blocking my view but I could clearly picture his disappointing gaze locked on me as he said that.

“Why did you bring him here? What was the purpose of that?”

“To keep an eye on his healing rate. I needed to have his body close, for you.”

‘For me?’

Gulping inaudibly, I pressed my lips together before asking the question that I had been wanting to ask for the past three years.

“Why did you distance yourself from me when I didn’t shift?”

“A lone wolf learns to thrive fast. His body had healed completely around your eighteenth birthday, and I knew that his soul could awaken any day inside you. When it didn’t happen on your first full moon as an adult, I realized that you needed a slight push to awaken your- his wolf.”

‘He did this to force me to shift?’

If I had clenched my hands any harder, I would have drawn blood.

“You left me feeling deranged for three years because of such a lame reason?”

“It was to protect you, Thea. You needed to shift. The kingdom had gone a long time without a king.”

I hated myself for trying to understand his reason. I was greatful though that throughout all this interaction, Erebus had continued shielding me from my father’s piercing gaze.

“What were you going to do once he awakened?”

There was a small pause before he decided to answer me.

“He is my King. I can’t defy him, but you can. You were an Alpha’s child raised with love and kindness. I was aware of your absolute will. I knew you wouldn’t go down without a fight and I also knew that you wouldn’t let him die either.”

His voice had taken a much gentler tone. He sounded exactly like he used to address me three years ago, kind and full of love. It was making my throat burn.

“W-Why?”

I couldn’t stop my voice from shivering as I asked him this.

“I prepared myself the moment I heard the talks of a girl getting seen with a crest holder. I gave you both three months to bond and on your fourth full moon, I removed the wolfsbane around this study, letting him have a whiff of his body being nearby.”

Slowly I stretched my numbing legs out before supporting my weight on Erebus’ back as I stood up to my full height. I wanted to see my father’s face as he answered me this time.

“What exactly did you have in my mind?”

I had to tilt my head to take a clear look at him. His glowing blue eyes were already staring my way.

“I wanted you to bite him. I wanted you both alive.”

“How?”

“By sharing the crest.”

His cold blue eyes seemed to have turned colder than usual as I heard him saying that.

‘Crest-sharing?’

Before I could ask him more about it, his voice reached me again,

“But you need to be quick. The capital has been secretly searching for the king and since the wolfsbane got removed, you weren’t the only ones who acquired a scent of his body.”

I didn’t know whether it was on purpose or unintentionally but Erebus had moved his body closer to mine. He knew what those words meant.

“You need to act fast. They’re coming to take his body.”