The Night That Never Happened
1117 Words
DRAVEN’S POV
I had sensed Elara's in trouble before Karl came to call me. I got there and Zuri's dark silver wolf and a pure white wolf crashed through the entire infirmary.
Zuri and Elara were fighting.
“ENOUGH!” I thundered.
Every muscle in my body tightened.
When I looked at Elara—the sight of her, panting, claws dug into the dirt, her green eyes glowing under the moonlight— By the Gods, it did something to me. Something I didn’t want to name.
I was beyond furious. I asked them both to shift back. I asked what went wrong and Zuri said Elara provoked her. I'm not even surprised.
The Thornshade healer has a way of getting to you.
I turned to Elara. “Really? Why?”
Her reply was my people don’t like hearing truths spoken aloud.
The nerve.
I smirked. She keeps surprising me. Standing there bruised, her dress in tatters, trembling but the fire in her eyes struck something deeper.
Damn! She was so beautiful.
My restraint keeps snapping… strand by strand.
Karl took Zuri away.
Zuri is a skilled warrior, but surprisingly Elara was formidable in her wolf form.
She was driving me nuts. I've had to mentally push her out of my mind. Everytime I close my eyes, I recall how her body felt in my arms. How she felt tight…It's taken me a lot of strength to avoid her these past few days.
I look at her, chest heaving, skin glistening with sweat, bare feet dusty, her lip bleeding. And somehow, she looked like she belonged under the moon more than anyone else.
I admit—Elara Everstorm is the most beautiful woman I've set eyes upon.
I broke the silence first asking if she enjoyed the chaos she caused but deeper—I was asking about the chaos in my mind.
Of course, she had a snarky reply.
Her defiance was exhausting…but intoxicating.
Then she goes ahead to talk about what I've been avoiding. That night. A night I can't escape. A night I want but will never admit.
Her lips parted, voice low. “That’s better than pretending I don't exist. Like that night didn't happen.”
My nose flared. It was the moment, the bond. I couldn't resist. It was like I was drunk on her scent. I couldn't stop myself from thrusting into her and when I awoke…I realized I had f****d a Thornshader.
I felt anger. Humiliated.
“What night?” I asked in a stern voice.
She scoffs. “Wow.”
“Elara, that night never happened.”
“It did,” she shot back, voice trembling. “Don’t stand there and act like it didn't mean anything.”
Her words were a knife to my chest. I forced a laugh. “It didn’t. It meant nothing, Elara.”
I saw the look of hurt on her face. She said I didn't mean it. I couldn’t think—just felt. The scent of her, sharp with adrenaline and herbs. The way the moonlight caught the faint curve of her collarbone.
Every inch of her screamed temptation but I shut it down.
“I do.” I said, “Whatever happened that night was a mistake. One that would never repeat itself again. You were a mistake, Elara. I wasn't thinking right.”
I saw the hurt in her eyes. She tried to hold back her tears but they fell and she called me heartless.
I deserve that.
She turned to leave, but then, her steps faltered, and her knees buckled. Before I could reach her, she collapsed onto the cold stone floor.
“Elara!”
I caught her head just before it hit the ground, her body limping in my arms. Panic surged through me. A raw, unfiltered kind that I hadn’t felt in years.
I felt her pulse flutter weakly beneath my fingers. I carried her immediately to Astra.
**********
I didn't go back to check on her until midnight. My mind was in a storm.
I knocked her chamber door once. Twice.
Nothing.
“Elara?”
No answer.
I tried again, harder. “Elara, open the damn door.”
Silence.
A chill ran over me. Something felt wrong. I forcefully pushed the door open.
It was empty.
The bed looked made, the window open, the curtains dancing in the cold wind. For a while, I just stood there, staring.
“Guards!” I yelled.
Two rush in. I asked them and they said she hadn't seen her. I asked them to search and I went about looking for her.
She's probably somewhere sulking about what I said earlier.
It's almost dawn and no one could find her.
“We couldn't find her, Draven. We've searched every nook and cranny. It's like she's gone.” Karl said.
“She wouldn't dare break the agreement.” I said fisting my hands. “Call me Astra.”
**********
Astra was Ironfang's finest healer. She was clocking fifty and had always cared for me as a child.
“Yes, Alpha.” She bowed her head.
“The Thornshade is missing. Did she by any chance tell you anything?”
“No, Alpha Draven. When you brought her in, I took care of her wounds and after that she left.”
My jaw ticks. “Thank you, Astra.”
She turns to leave but stops—her expression becoming unreadable.
“There’s something else, Alpha.”
I frowned. “What is it?”
She exhaled slowly. “She’s… with child.”
The world tilted. My pulse stopped, then slammed back into rhythm with brutal force. I could practically hear my own heartbeat in my ears. I thought I’d misheard her.
“With—” I started, but the words caught in my throat.
I rose—
“I don't think she knows. Her body was exhausted as a result of her engagement with Zuri, but the signs are there. It’s early—say two weeks, but certain.” Astra said quietly.
I rose—
Elara was pregnant. With my child.
Something hot and fierce tore through me—fear, rage, disbelief, and something else I couldn’t name.
Astra tries to speak again, but closes her mouth.
“It might not be of importance seeing as she's a Thornshade but I don't think she'll keep the baby. She seemed horrified when I told her about it.”
Then it hit me like a gun to the head.
She was gone.
Elara had fled Ironfang territory—with my child. A child I might never get to see because she won't keep him or her.
The sound that left my chest wasn’t human.
“Find her!”
- Writer
