CHAPTER 28: EVELYN: I HAVE TRUST ISSUE

Evelyn~

It seemed like he was the kind of man who liked to force his opinions onto his mate, like everything had to go his way, no questions asked.

"You can’t judge someone that quickly," my wolf said gently. "Maybe he’s not as bad as you think."

Maybe.

I answered her in my mind, ’The last time I trusted someone, I ended up sealed inside a coffin and thrown into the bottom of a lake.’

My wolf went silent for a moment. Then her voice returned, a little softer than before. "How about ... just for a moment, you try setting that trauma aside? Let yourself make new memories?"

Yeah ... easier said than done.

How was I supposed to forget something that had been carved so deeply into my heart and memory for years?

I’d been betrayed more times than I could remember, so no, just putting my trauma aside wasn’t exactly something I could do on command.

"Well ... it’s not like you can escape from him either," my wolf reminded me. "You’re five meters up a tree, and he’s holding you like he’s never letting go. What’s your brilliant plan? Jump?"

I could ... poke him in the eyes?

Maybe if he accidentally threw me off, Theron would catch me, right?

"Alright, maybe he would," my wolf said. "But Rael isn’t the type to let you go easily. You literally threw sand in his eyes, and he didn’t even flinch."

She had a point.

If I did poke his eyes, he might get so pissed that he’d slam me into the ground just out of spite.

"Stop! Just stop it already!" my wolf suddenly snapped. "Most people say the voice in their head is what makes them negative, but why, Evelyn? Why are you even more negative than me?!"

She sounded exhausted, frustrated and maybe even ... regretful for ever stepping into my mind.

Honestly, I didn’t blame her.

I didn’t even like being trapped inside my own head.

But hey, she was the one who barged in, so now she had to deal with it.

"Barged in?!" she immediately protested. "Evelyn, I’ve been in your head since the day you were born! I didn’t barge in or suddenly show up, I’ve always been here! Right. Inside. Your. Head!"

She kept going. "I only stayed quiet because someone locked me away! And now that I’m finally out, I get stuck with a woman who’s not even horny, is dense as a rock, and has nonstop negative thoughts!"

She didn’t stop there. "If I could go back to sleep, I would! And don’t you dare blame me for wanting that!"

I whispered back in my mind, ’But if you’d woken up earlier ... maybe I wouldn’t have felt so lonely all the time.’

I paused, then added softly, ’Maybe I could’ve had a friend.’

For a second, everything in my head went quiet, too quiet, as if my wolf was slowly sinking into some bottomless void.

"Now you’re gaslighting me?!" she yelled, finally reappearing. "You. Are. Gaslighting. Me! Oh my god—FUCK YOU, EVELYN!"

"I feel so bad right now!" she shouted, again and again, until I was honestly worried her voice had broken.

Unfortunately—yet also, kind of fortunately—I realized something much more important than her dramatic meltdown.

Theron’s shadow.

It suddenly appeared above us and then, without warning, he crushed the tree branch Rael was standing on.

"You coward!" Rael barked as he jumped onto a nearby tree, looking furious. "Why don’t you come up here and face me like a man instead of using your creepy tricks to knock me down?"

He smirked as he balanced himself, looking down at Theron with a glint of mockery in his eyes. "Oh, right. I forgot the poison made your movements slow. Poor thing ... what a pitiful king."

Before Theron could shout again, Rael let out a loud whistle, signaling his pack to retreat from the battlefield.

"Time to go home!" Rael called out. "And don’t forget to drag your unconscious buddies with you!"

A chorus of howls filled the air as the werewolves answered their Alpha’s command, alerting the rest of their comrades to retreat.

One thing I noticed while watching the battle was how fast Rael and his pack could move, they were even much faster than the royal soldiers.

Sure, they cheated by launching venom attacks while Theron and the others were distracted, but even without the tricks, I wasn’t sure the royal guards could keep up with their speed.

They moved like the wind. Some of them were almost fast enough to rival the speed of light.

One second they were on the battlefield, and the next, they had already vanished into the forest.

"My love, you might be startled when I move this fast," Rael said with a grin, his eyes curling into soft crescent moons. "But don’t worry. You’re safe with me. I’ll never drop you."

I didn’t say anything in return, but I kept my eyes on him.

It was such a simple thing to say, something that might not mean much to other people, but to me, it meant something.

People used to throw me into the abyss, but he promised he wouldn’t let me fall.

That was kind of sweet.

Maybe Rael wasn’t as bad as I thought.

"EVELYN!"

Ah. But he was still the man who kidnapped me from Theron, so ... not exactly innocent either.

"Evelyn! I’ll find you! I promise, I’ll find you!" Theron’s voice echoed behind us, growing fainter and fainter as Rael moved so fast that everything around us turned into a blur.

"Don’t trust him!" Theron’s voice tried to cut through the wind. "That jerk is a bastar—"

That was the last thing I heard from Theron, because Rael suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace, muffling all the sounds around me.

"I’m sorry, love," Rael said softly. "There are a lot of wild animals in this forest. Their howls might hurt your ears."

Yeah, right.

He just didn’t want me to hear Theron’s voice anymore.

Theron must be really worried right now.

We rarely got to see each other at the palace, since he was always busy, but sometimes, we still shared meals in the dining room.

So honestly, I had grown a little attached to him.

"He’ll find you again," my wolf said calmly in my head. "He has marked you. That means no matter where you go, he’ll always be able to sense where you are."

I swallowed, then asked silently, ’Do you think Rael knows that Theron already marked me?’