FOURTEEN: THE TRUTH HE HIDES
856 Words
That night, Ember didn’t sleep either did Bright.
But this time, she didn’t pretend otherwise. She lay still, eyes open, watching the shadows shift along the cave walls. Watching him. He sat near the entrance.
Back straight. Like if he stopped paying attention for even a second something would take advantage of it, or he would.
“You said you lost everything,” she said into the darkness.
Her voice was quiet. Careful. Not pushing, but not letting it go either. No response. Not even a shift in posture.
But she knew he heard her. "Your pack.”
The word lingered with heavy loads in the air.
Long enough to be an answer on its own.
“They betrayed you.”
A long pause for a moment before he answered.
“Yes.”
Bright's words were controlled and flat. But it didn’t hide anything. It carried weight on his heart like an old unsettled situation. The kind that didn’t fade.
Ember moved slightly, her side protesting. She ignored this mattered more.
“Why?
The question came softer now.
Bright didn’t answer immediately. His gaze stayed forward. On the darkness outside, on threats that weren’t there, or maybe ones that never left.
“Because I trusted the wrong people.”
It felt familiar, as if he had rehearsed it before. It ww as a carefully crafted statement that sidestepped the truth while remaining technically accurate.
Ember starred at him. “You were the Alpha.”
His jaw tightened, and his muscle flickered. "I was.”
There was something in the way he said it, not pride.
Not regrets but it was buried in his heart.
“What happened?” Ember asked.
“They chose someone else.”
“They didn’t just choose someone else,” she said slowly.
That got a reaction. His eyes snapped to hers, in
dangerous way that said don’t go further.
She didn’t stop. "They turned on you.”
A beat of silence pressed in but it caused a more tense.
“Yes.” his voices are rougher, as it is closer to the truth. Heavy in a way neither of them tried to push away.
Ember let out a slow breath. Her gaze dropped for a moment. Not avoiding just… grounding.
“My family tried to erase me.”
The words came easier than she expected.
Maybe because she wasn’t saying them alone.
“And mine tried to replace me.” Her gaze lifted again.
Their gazes locked, and this time, there was an absence of tension. No rivalry lingered, nor any walls to shield their hearts. Instead, there was a profound sense of recognition and understanding that required no words or explanations. They shared an unspoken bond, a mutual awareness of what it meant to be overlooked, to feel the sting of rejection, and to transform into something perceived as a threat by those who were meant to support them.
For the first time, they stood still, no longer circling, pushing, or testing one another. They simply existed in the same space, two individuals marked by a shared betrayal. This common experience somehow diminished the distance between them, creating an unspoken bond. Their connection wasn’t founded on trust, not yet, at least. Instead, it was rooted in something more intense, something that recognized precisely where to inflict pain and how to avoid it.
Bright’s gaze lingered on her a second too long.
Like he was seeing her differently now.
Not just as someone he had to protect.
Not just as a risk. But as someone who understood.
And that was dangerous in a way neither of them was prepared for.
Ember shifted slightly, her voice quieter now.
“Do you miss them?”
The question hung in the air, real and unprotected.
Bright didn’t answer right away. His gaze drifted back toward the cave entrance. Toward the dark.
But this time, it didn’t feel like he was looking for threats. It felt like he was looking at something far away.
Something he couldn’t go back to. When he finally spoke, his voice was lower.
“Yes. I just don’t miss who I was with them.”
That words landed deeper with sadness than anything else. Because it wasn’t just a loss. It was a rejectection by them for him. Of everything that came before.
Ember didn’t respond, and she didn't need to. Because she understood that feeling too.
The silence that followed wasn’t empty, it was carried by tenses and shared by bad memories. The more they understood each other.. the harder it would be to walk away.
And sooner or later, one of them would have to.
The pain that has been experiences before, was sudden and deep, burning from the inside and out. From betrayal, broken dreams and now hunted by unknown monsters.
Princess Ember woke with a gasp, her body jerking as the sensation spread through her veins. It wasn’t just pain. It was pressure. Like something inside her had been held back, from bad memory she has, and was finally forcing its way through.
Something was wrong, and something was changing.
“Bright..." she called.
- Writer
