Chapter 39: Chapter 39

TRISTAN:

I looked at Dahlly’s expression, and I knew she was serious when she told me she wanted to talk.

There was no way I could escape her questions, and because of what I had done, I had no choice but to face them. After all, I did owe her some explanation and apology.

But how come she knew the right buttons to push? Why does she remember the things I was trying so hard to hide from her?

When she asked me about torturing people, I panicked internally. At that time when I said it, I was referring to my enemies – the people who had caused my mother, father, and the rest of the Shadow Rune pack to perish, and somehow, in one way or another, Dahlia might be part of them…

Because she might really be the one who had caused my mother to lose her life, she might really be one of them, and for that, I was deathly afraid.

I considered masking my answers with lies, but looking at her earnest light blue eyes, I was finding it extremely hard to say something untrue in front of her.

Blast it! Why does Dahlia Hurst have to be this kind and beautiful person? How can she be so trusting and willing to give me a second chance after what I just did? Because of the way she could easily accept me, it was making it harder for me to hate her!

I opened my mouth, but I found myself unwilling to tell her something untrue. Thus, I resolved to take a different approach.

I’ll tell her the truth…. Or a slightly skewed version of it.

“I dream of torturing people, Dahlly – the people involved in my parent’s death,” I began.

“I lost both my parents when I was five, and I didn’t lose them in a natural way… They were killed. Three strangers came one night. They slew my father first, and then they kidnapped my mother who was pregnant at that time...”

“I could still remember vividly how everything happened, and for the past twenty years, all I could think of was how I could get back at them for what they had done. That was one of the things that kept me alive for a long time…”

I squeezed Dahlia’s hand as I continued my story.

“For years, I had kept all these anger inside of me. When my stepfather took me in, he told me to forget about what happened. I was young, and I only knew their faces but not their identities. There was nothing I could have done, he said. I was only a mere child…”

“However, the fact remains that deep in my heart, I couldn’t just forget it… They probably had kept on living and breathing normally while my family’s life was utterly destroyed! How can just I stand back and let them do that? No! I want to take my revenge. I want them to suffer as much as I had and more!”

Dahlly’s small hands cupped mine as I spoke. I realized I had spoken out with more anger than I had intended to.

“But how will you know them, Tristan?... If it’s true you could only recognize their faces, how will you know who they are?”

“I have my ways, Dahlia. I didn’t strive to become a merchant for nothing. In the merchant’s world, there are a lot of people you can pay to get the information you want. That’s what I am striving to do – I am trying to find them with the resources I have now.”

“Then all those anger, they are because of those people who had persecuted your family…”

I nodded towards her.

Dahlia sighed deeply after I had finished. We sat there, hand in hand for quite some time before she said something again.

“What if you do not find them? Do you think you’d be able to live in peace if you don’t get your revenge?”

“Even if I have to, I will come to the ends of the world to find them, Dahlia. I’ll have my revenge…”

There it was … I told him the part of the truth that loomed heavily in me… My heart felt a little lighter…

I really can’t deny it anymore… I can’t keep lying to my precious mate...

Later on that evening, as Dahlia was sound asleep, I silently crept out of our shared bed and walked towards the full scale mirror in the dressing room, closing the door firmly behind me.

Looking at my reflection, I opened my night shirt and stared once more at the blasted thing I had failed to notice right away.

There, in my chest, was the mark of an inked wolf-head in black – a mark bore by a fated mate once full consummation had taken place.

I clenched my hand into a fist. So, I had not imagined it all – that shared heart beat, the ability to mind-link with Dahlia and her wolf, the recognition of my wolves when they saw Dahlia for the first time! All of those signs were true! Dahlia Hurst and I – we really are fated mates!

No, this cannot be! How can everything turn out like this?!

Like I did the first time when I saw it yesterday, I scratched at the etched mark on my skin. It did not fade away. I scratched harder, but it was still there. Only the skin around it had turned red with my blood.

I whispered the words that would take back the mark tampering spell I had used to Dahlia. “Illumine!” I blinked. The mark on my chest was still there.

“Illumine! Illumine!” I said, my anger doubling up inside.

The darned thing did not fade, not even one bit!

What was I thinking? Yesterday, after coming home with Dahlia in my arms and fetching a physician to diagnose her condition, I decided to take a bath to wipe the stress of the day away, and that was when I first saw this blasted thing!

I scratched my head at first. I was sure it was not there yesterday, so how come something like this could magically appear out of nowhere?

Arthur began to snigger inside my head. ‘Fool! Now that you have fully consummated with our mate in all forms, your mark has finally shown itself. Congratulations! We and Eva are really fully connected. We could never break apart from them from now on! ’

I was stunned beyond belief. ‘What do you mean,’ I said to Arthur, ‘what do you f*cking mean?’

‘What he said was right,’ Albus said, ‘although I would have wanted to be the one who sleeps with our mate first, what this punk was saying is true… Eva and her human had fully become ours now… Now, you could finally believe us when we tell you she really is our mate.’

I stood up from the bath, the water splashing violently around me. It couldn’t be, right? I used a spell on myself so that I could never awaken my instinct for my fated mate! I was cautious! How can it turn out this way?

‘Boy, a spell like that would only work had you not decided to seduce Eva. The moment you had decided to drink that potion to make her fall for you, the spell you casted dissipated. How can you be stupid enough to trick your own destined mate?!’

‘Ah, maybe it was the grand design of the Moon Goddess all along! Despite your precaution, you have fallen into the hands of your real mate – what a joke!’ Arthur declared, doubling in laughter like a lunatic inside our shared consciousness.

“No,” I screamed, “Damn you, no!”

I howled as loud as I could. I howled with the same amount of pain when my father was killed and when I thought Dahlia was going to die earlier…

For the first time in my life, I was so anguished that I wanted to die!

Now, a day after I had discovered that the girl I married was really my fated mate, my heart felt a lot calmer.

Like I told her earlier, I cannot and will not rest until I take my revenge…

This discovery was nothing but a small glitch in our plans… It wouldn’t affect all the pain I planned to inflict on those responsible for the annihilation of the Shadow Rune Pack…

This time though, I just have to protect Dahlia from the possible repercussions of that plan. I must keep this all a secret from everyone else, even from Samalah, and most especially to my fated mate – Dahlia Hurst.