Chapter 264\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aysel\u2019s POV\u00a0<\/p>\n
I slid into the chair where Serena had just sat, feeling the solid weight of Fenrir\u2019s gaze on me. He wiped at his face with a towel, eyes narrowing, and finally broke the silence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you satisfied now?\u201d His voice was low, cold, carrying the sharpness of a wolf\u2019s warning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I smiled faintly, my claws resting lightly on the polished table. \u201cDo you really think I orchestrated all this?\u201d Even with Celestine\u2019s true nature laid bare, even with the shards of her fury scattered across this yacht, my reputation as capricious, ruthless Aysel Vale wasn\u2019t going anywhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I tilted my head, eyes locking on his, probing the pack beyond the mask. \u201cIt\u2019s true. We haven\u2019t really spent much time together over the years. We\u2019ve been strangers, learning about each other only through whispers and second-hand tales.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He avoided my gaze, and I could sense the tension coiling in him like a wolf crouched in the underbrush.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess\u2026. I\u2019ve never truly known you either,\u201d I admitted. My words were soft, but deliberate, and I could feel the weight of them in the charged air.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fenrir pursed his lips and stayed silent for a moment, his inner wolf restless. Then he looked at me again, hesitant, careful. \u201cAysel\u2026 my mother\u2026 she\u2019s ill. Could you\u2026 go see her? The\u2026 birthday gathering\u2026\u201d His voice faltered, and he swallowed hard. \u201cShe\u2026 she drew a blade against Celestine. You\u2019ve heard, haven\u2019t you?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I nodded, firm and unwavering. \u201cI have. But no.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The finality in my voice was pure, unshakable. Fenrir\u2019s amber eyes widened slightly, reflecting both disbelief and something darker-regret perhaps, or the stirrings of guilt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I propped my jaw in my hand, staring out at the moonlit waves. My gaze returned to Fenrir, circling back to the truth I\u2019d been holding in my claws all this time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFenrir\u2026 I think I finally understand you,\u201d I said, voice quieter now, tinged with a wolfish clarity. \u201cYou never\u2026 really liked me, did you?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The realization I\u2019d carried for so long finally settled into words. I remembered the childhood confusion: parents\u2019 affections divided, younger pack members na\u00efve and easily swayed, and yet the elder brother- Fenrir-should have known better. He was five years older than me. At six, I needed protection, guidance. He should have understood the intrusion I represented into his carefully guarded pack world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, he let Celestine claim the role of the \u2018eldest sister\u2019 in the family, positioning her as the favored wolf in the den while I remained the trespasser, the intruder. Perhaps part of it was the subtle desire to please the adults, but deeper\u2026 it was the calculated surrender to envy, to instinctual wolfish possessiveness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I thought back to that night in the Moonvale pack chambers, watching him eye Lyko-the younger brother, our shared blood-understanding finally clicked. Fenrir did not love Lyko, and he did not love me. Not truly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was raised with expectation, groomed to be an exemplary Alpha, and before he turned five, all the parents\u2019 attention, all the pack\u2019s reverence, had been his alone. My arrival disrupted that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The world demanded he restrain his natural wolf instincts-jealousy, rage, territoriality-and so he complied, becoming the model brother, the one others could praise. But the resentment simmered beneath, quiet and deadly. Celestine\u2019s arrival? That unleashed his wolfish malice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had been turned from the cherished, protected sister into the pack\u2019s scapegoat, the sinner. And Fenrir had even a convenient excuse: the unfolding chaos outside his den could always be blamed on me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He might have shown fleeting kindness-checking on me at night, leaving herbs when I was fevered, persuading our parents to let me leave under the guise of concern-but it was never enough to reclaim his role as protector. The world had taught him reality: Lyko was a threat, I was not.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The unspoken pact between him and Celestine had allowed her to dominate the household, shaping Lyko to her liking, all while Fenrir\u2019s silence endorsed the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I exhaled a long, low growl, memories clawing through me. I remembered that evening when Magnus\u2019s hired wolves had sent those calls to my den, when Fenrir had come to the Moonvale apartment. I had tried to invoke his guilt, to claim a fragment of familial instinct, to carve a space of peace for myself. It had worked-for a moment-but when he left, I had wondered: was it guilt, or the desire to avoid facing the imperfect wolf beneath the Alpha mask?\u00a0<\/p>\n
He could not answer me now. His amber eyes flickered, caught between instinct and reason, and I knew I had seen everything I needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not at fault,\u201d I said, rising from my seat. My claws clicked softly against the floor as I stood, fully seeing the brother I had once revered. \u201cParents do not always love their children. Brothers and sisters do not always care for each other. Affection exists in infinite forms, some good, some cruel. To be unloved is not my fault.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I let a small, wolfish smile curve my lips. \u201cPerhaps our bloodline is just a thread mislaid by fate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I turned toward the moonlit ocean, claws brushing the polished doorway, tail flicking with relief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I forgive it,\u201d I said lightly, a playful tilt in my voice. \u201cThe heavens have too many paws to tend to anyway.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
And I left Fenrir there, expression locked between pain and realization, stepping into the vast, luminous dining hall that opened to the roaring waves beyond-free, untethered, wholly my own wolf\u00a0<\/p>\n
622\u00a0<\/p>\n
B\u00a0<\/p>\n
Midnight Letters by Daniel Crowe 264 Chapter 264\u00a0 Aysel\u2019s POV\u00a0 I slid into the chair where Serena had just sat, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pack-princess"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}