Moonwort Scent Gone,My alpha King Slays All

Chapter 4

Raine didn't return to the great hall until noon the next day, carrying the chill of the outdoors in with him.

Far away in the cottage in Shadowwood Forest, I sat before the crystal ball and stared at the woman wearing my face.

Eve had ordered a table full of roasted meat.

Eve had barely eaten for several days, but the moment Raine returned, she dug into the meal eagerly.

She cut into a rare steak, red juices still running through the center, and began eating greedily.

Raine sat at the head of the table but never touched his knife or fork. He only watched her.

One finger tapped lightly against the tabletop, a habit of his whenever he was thinking.

'Could he really tell something was wrong from a single meal?'

Under his stare, beads of sweat gathered on Eve's forehead. She forced a smile.

"Why aren't you eating, Alpha? Is the food not to your liking?"

Raine didn't answer her question.

"Your appetite is unusually good today. You're even eating meat with blood still in it."

Eve realized her mistake at once.

I had always been terrified by the sight of blood.

She hurriedly put down her utensils, lowered her head, and tried to imitate my meek manner.

"Please don't laugh at me, Alpha. I was just... unusually hungry today."

Raine gave her a long look.

"If your appetite has returned, I assume your health has improved as well. I heard you were unwell for several days last month. This afternoon, I'll have the High Healer examine you personally."

Panic flashed in Eve's eyes. She had no idea what illness I was supposed to have had the previous month.

I rested a hand on the slight curve of my abdomen, just as puzzled.

Throughout our 3-year marriage, whenever I fell ill, Raine had simply thrown a few herbs my way and left me to recover on my own.

The nausea and loss of appetite I had suffered last month hadn't been an illness at all.

I was already carrying Raine's child.

Raine always acted swiftly and decisively, yet he was impossible to predict.

'Why is he bringing in the High Healer now? What is he trying to confirm?'

Eve didn't dare object. She could only thank him and brace herself for the examination.

The moment Raine left, she grabbed Anna's hand, her voice shaking.

"Tell me right now. What was wrong with Avery last month? I can't let him see through me!"

Anna struggled to remember, then her face abruptly changed.

"Last month... Avery could barely eat. The smell of meat made her gag, and... her period was almost 2 months late."

Eve collapsed into a chair, white as paper.

"You're telling me Avery might already be carrying the Wolf King's pup?"

Watching Eve panic through the crystal ball, I gave a cold smile.

Morgana took a sip of her potion beside me.

"The Wolf King's bloodline is powerful. Under the Moon Goddess's protection, the child in your womb is already bound to you by blood."

That afternoon, the High Healer arrived on time carrying a bone staff.

After examining Eve, he reported to Raine. I could hear his voice clearly through the crystal ball.

"Alpha, the Luna's pulse is steady. There is no sign of pregnancy."

Raine gave a soft, almost inaudible snort. He sounded disappointed, yet not surprised.

"Still, you needn't worry. The Luna is in excellent health and physically strong. If Alpha desires a pup, I am certain you will receive good news this year."

Raine narrowed his eyes.

"Excellent health?"

"Yes. There is no underlying condition. She is remarkably healthy," the High Healer assured him.

Raine turned his head and stared at Eve, who was pretending to sip coffee across the room. His expression turned glacial.

I had always been frail. Over the past 3 years, Raine had given me plenty of tonics, yet my health had never improved much.

He summoned one of his personal guards and spoke in a low voice.

"Inform the Linton family. Tomorrow, I will personally accompany my wife back to the manor."

In 3 years of marriage, Raine had never considered the Linton manor worth visiting, much less offered to accompany me home.

The news made Eve deeply uneasy.

She knew that beneath the soil of the abandoned greenhouse lay the body they believed belonged to me.

She sent word to my mother in advance.

Far away in Shadowwood Forest, I looked away from the crystal ball and turned to Morgana.

"Morgana, he's taking the woman pretending to be me back to the Linton manor."

Morgana laughed coldly. "Let him go. The moment Raine steps onto that estate, the real show begins."

*****

My parents were already waiting eagerly outside when the party reached the manor.

My mother hurried forward and clasped Eve's hand. They exchanged a quick, guilty look.

My chest tightened as I watched my mother's false smile.

That was the look of a mother gazing at the daughter she truly loved.

In all my memories, my mother had never looked at me that way.

Even on the day I was sent to marry Raine, when she knew I might die, there hadn't been a trace of worry in her eyes.

'Mom, if you wanted Eve to take my place, I would have let her. Why did you have to kill me?'

As Raine walked along the garden path, he suddenly stopped beside a bed of roses.

He broke off a red rose and, with rare gentleness, tucked it into Eve's hair.

Eve blushed in delighted surprise and gave him a shy look. Even my parents visibly relaxed.

Only I knew what it meant when Raine put a flower in my hair.

Whenever he had done that to me, I had trembled with fear, because the flower was only the prelude to whatever torment he had planned.

When he took me to bed, he would trail the petals over the most sensitive parts of my body.

The more I squirmed and moaned in discomfort, the more he seemed to enjoy my distress. His movements would grow rougher and more forceful until he was thoroughly satisfied.

A gust of wind suddenly swept through the broken windows of the greenhouse.

Every trace of his earlier gentleness vanished from Raine's face.

He turned toward the ruins at the far end of the greenhouse and stared at the patch of freshly turned earth.

Without a word, he strode directly toward it.

Eve's face went white. Her eyes rolled back as she pretended to collapse.

"Alpha, the sunlight is making me dizzy. I really can't walk any farther..."

Raine only glanced down at her, his eyes colder than ice.

He didn't slow down.

Instead, he quickened his pace toward the place where they had buried me.