Chapter 185: Fated but not mine...
[ Bloodfang territories - Velor’s castle ]
Niva sat curled into Velor’s oversized chair, her bare feet tucked beneath her as she slowly spun in a lazy circle.
A pen rested between her fingers...she had clearly been chewing the back, probably absentminded.
A clean sheet of paper lay in front of her on the desk.
Velor’s room was too quiet.
The kind of quiet that hummed beneath your skin.
She twirled around again.
Once.
Twice.
And then let herself stop.
Her teeth had left behind quite prominent impressions on the pen and her finger nails marked the blank paper with random crescent patterns.
Her thoughts were definitely not in that room.
Not even in the present. They were drifting, unspooling, circling like a vulture around something buried deep.
A memory crawled behind her mind...
She had been what...just a teenager? She had just finished celebrating her coming of age...
She still had her little pink dress on... her hair was still braided... she was dancing with her friends when it struck her... that sweet scent, a realisation that changes everything...
"I felt it!" she had squealed, her voice bouncing down the long corridor of their home as she raced towards her mother’s quarters.She always had a crush on Alpha Velor... she couldn’t believe she was fated to him... she had to share the news with her mother. So she ran... without almost looking.
At the threshold...she had tripped.
Her foot caught against the thick rug just as she reached for the doorknob, and she stumbled forward...still giggling, breathless...her heart soaring.
That was when she heard it.
A sob.
A broken sound, strangled and shivering.
She paused. Just out of sight, frozen, as the muffled weeping reached her ears. " Why??? Why did this happen to my only daughter? Why?"
Then she heard her father’s voice. Even his voice was shaken.
"Be strong, dear. You need to be strong for our Niva. Poor child has no clue... You need to make her understand."
Niva blinked, confusion furrowing her brow.
Make her understand... what?
"How can this be possible?" her mother choked. "Never in a thousand years has anybody heard such a thing!"
"It’s true," her father murmured. "Niva is fated to Alpha Velor. But he... isn’t fated to her."
The pen fell from her mouth in the present.
Back in the memory, she had staggered backward. Her spine met the wooden frame of the door, her breath catching.
The truth sank like a stone into her chest... a stone that still stirred... from time to time..
Fated.But not returned?
One half of a bond.
Incomplete?Unrequited? Impossible.
"What do you mean?" her mother had cried softly. "How can the Moon Goddess be so cruel? Why show her something he will never feel?"
"Fates are written... but not all are echoed," her father had said. "Maybe it’s a flaw in the weave. Maybe it’s punishment... or protection. But we have to be the ones to help her carry it."
The floor beneath her had given way. Literally...or maybe it was just her legs. She didn’t know. All she remembered was the cold of the floor as she slipped and fell and stayed that way.
The sound of her parents rushing. Her name echoing off the walls.
"Niva!"
"Sweetheart...!"
They were there within seconds, arms wrapped around her small form. Her mother wept into her hair. Her father rubbed her back in circles, whispering something about strength. About timing. About patience.
But Niva’s eyes had remained open, wide.
Dry.
Not a single tear.
Because the heartbreak hadn’t reached her eyes.It had settled like frost somewhere far deeper.
A frost that hadn’t thawed even after so many years...
Back in Velor’s chair, Niva’s gaze returned to the paper. It was still blank.
She picked up the pen again, holding it just above the surface.
What was she even trying to write?
A letter?
A confession?
The pen trembled in her hand.
She sighed, pressing the tip of the pen to the paper.
"Velor,"
She paused.
No.
She scribbled the name out.
Started again.
"Alpha Velor,"
Still wrong.
"My fated..."
She let the pen fall again. Covered her face with her hands...rubbed it thrice and then looked up at the ceiling before looking back...
The paper was still blank, despite everything she had tried to write.
With Velor around, her feeling were always contained... always bottled up... measured... but with him gone... she was finally starting to unwind... and it never ended well... never...
The blank paper felt just like Velor’s gaze when it passed over her often.
Never cruel.But distant.
Her mind drifted again...this time to the day she married him.
It hadn’t been a grand wedding, not in the romantic sense. Not with flowers and poems and whispered promises under a starlit sky.
But it had been proud. Formal.
She had stood tall beside him in silver and red, her chin lifted, her heart brimming with quiet dignity. She knew what people whispered...that Alpha Velor entertained courtesans like he collected medals...but she had accepted it all.Even his two wives after her...
Because he chose her as his first Luna.
Because she was his political partner, his most trusted voice.
Because he never lied to her.
Because he respected her.
And in this world... What more could a girl who loved too much ask for?
She remembered how his hand felt when he slid it intertwining hers.
Not reluctant.But not in love, either.
"I will honour you, Luna Niva," he had said.
Not ’I will love you’. But she hadn’t needed that. She was already too far gone to want what she couldn’t have.
The chair creaked as she leaned forward, elbows on her knees. Her eyes drifted towards the heavy double doors.
She exhaled slowly, eyes half lidded.
"I knew who he was," she whispered aloud. "And I married him anyway. Goddess, I didn’t even care when he bedded others."
She chuckled softly, the sound brittle.
"Maybe I should have. Maybe any sane woman would have. But I told myself... so long as I have the title, so long as he trusts me, so long as he calls my name when he needs counsel or comfort...so long that I have him beside me...that’s enough."
Her voice faltered.
"It was enough. Wasn’t it?"
The name didn’t leave her lips. She didn’t need to say it.
It was enough till ’Autumn’...
It had begun the day he returned with her.
Bloodied. Half conscious. Cradled in his arms like a fallen star he was desperate not to lose.
Niva had seen the way he looked at her before he even spoke a word.
Not lust. That came later.
But something else. Something rare in a male...something soft and raw all at once...
She had seen the panic in his eyes when Autumn’s breathing faltered. The way he dismissed everyone else’s opinions but clung to her words, her pulse, her smallest signs of life.
She had stood at the edge of the hallway, hands clasped behind her back, watching silently as the healers and witches swarmed.
Her eyes hadn’t missed how Velor had whispered something into the girl’s ear while brushing a knuckle down her wrist... and she had only been there for a few days...
What passed between them, within that short span of time...was too tender.
And Velor was never tender.
"Are you falling in love with her?" Niva had wanted to say.
But she hadn’t.
Because what was the point?
And because... maybe it wasn’t love.
Maybe it was just fascination. Infatuation.A passing obsession.
"That’s what I told myself," Niva murmured to the silence."That it wasn’t real. That he was just intrigued. That she reminded him of something lost or broken and he wanted to fix it...Or maybe just get back at Alpha Kieran..."
But the looks continued... And Velor was ready to bet his own life and pack for the sake of that girl... definitely not infatuation... and definitely not getting back at Alpha Kieran... it almost seemed like Velor cared more about Alpha Kieran’s mate than Alpha Kieran himself...
Velor didn’t look at Autumn the way he looked at anyone else.
But Autumn... Autumn didn’t even seem to even notice.
She never tried to tempt him.
Never flirted. Never sought favor... She didn’t even look him in the eye most of the time.
"She has no idea," Niva whispered, biting her lip. "She has no idea what she is doing to my husband."
It wasn’t hatred she felt.It was impossible for her to hate Autumn... she felt protective towards her even... like a sister...
The girl was too deep in her own sorrows to bother about anybody else.
Maybe just once, Niva had wanted to shake Autumn and bark..."Don’t take Velor from me if you won’t even love him." But instead she had ended up delivering an uplifting lecture...encouraging Autumn to cheer up...
But it hurt...
A soft, steady ache beneath her breastbone...
She wrapped her arms around herself.
"Could he be fated to her?" she whispered into the hush.
The thought chilled her.
It was absurd.
It was impossible.
Autumn belonged to Alpha Kieran. Everyone knew that. They were fated. Bound.Even though their bond wasn’t solidified yet...
But impossible didn’t mean anything anymore... her own fate was proof...
Velor didn’t believe in fate... that was another thing...
Not in the way others did. He didn’t worship the Moon Goddess with blind trust. He challenged destiny, broke its rules when they didn’t suit him.
"So what if she is already fated to another...or maybe to both of them?Or is it just Velor fated to her...just like I am fated to him?" Niva murmured. Then shook her head. "Fated or not...he would still love her if he chooses to."
And that was what frightened her most.
Because even if fate denied them... Velor might still choose her... it would mean bloodbath... because she knew her husband was headstrong... but it would also guarantee her own heartbreak... which she didn’t want to face...
Autumn didn’t need to return his gaze. Didn’t need to try. And still, Velor would follow her with his eyes. Speak softer when she was around. Lose sleep over her nightmares.
He had never lost sleep over Niva.
The door creaked faintly .
Her spine stiffened.
She quickly gathered the paper, smoothed it out, and capped the pen.
" Ahh! There you are... " It was Serra! "The Betas have been asking for you. Why is your mindlink shut off? "