Chapter 7 SHE NEEDS TIME

~Bernard Pov~

"So, do you agree, Helena Fangborn?" I stood her over the crowd and asked, in the morning. She questioned me about my proposal later, to which I couldn't help but reply, "It's for your own benefit. Isn't it?"

"Oi," Marrok suddenly said in my head, "Aren't you being too harsh with the girl? She should have our complete trust and consideration of her. Poor Helena, she's lost her parents and her own people have started looking down on her. On the same night."

"Marrok. You wouldn't understand. As much as I want to help Helena stand on her own feet, reach a point of revelation by herself, I want to handle things for her too. It's not that I'm not capable nor am I being harsh on her. It's for her growth." I replied to Marrok.

The girl beside me wouldn't stop sniffling and bawling her eyes out. A part of me wishes to kiss her cheek gently and say, 'Everything is going to be alright from here on, sweetheart. You can lean on me.'But at the same time, I don't reveal my aces so quickly.

"'If you know what I'm thinking, Marrok." I said to the wolf in me who has unlimited access to my thoughts.

"Ah. I get it now. You seem to be protective of her."

"That's the right kind of protection. Probably the only kind of protection I can offer her at the moment. And I think whoever planned the murder of her parents, is targeting her as well." Marrok went silent for a second.

"How are you so confident in stating that?"I shrugged my shoulders physically, "Just a hunch."

That's right. Unlike every other hunches of mine that have come true, I'd hate to be powerless and do nothing about it while I can save my first chance mate. She's my only mate, if I may say so myself. I do not believe in second chance mates.

Protecting her from her own kind must be a secret at all costs. But at the same time, she must agree to comply with my demands within the trial. My demands will be naturally aiding her to solve her own mystery. Of how her parents were murdered.

I'm stressing on murder, because I've checked the case myself.

It wasn't rash driving by either of the truck drivers which sent the car rolling off the cliff and blast, neither was it because of the driver who jumped out just in time.

All these sequences suggested nothing but a planned murder to me.

Looking beside me, coming back to reality, I was now fully convinced the girl is too little to know about the world around her.

Growing up arrogant naturally slows down maturity.

It's as if looking at myself in the mirror.

However, things have changed drastically for me when I took over the alliance and the Lycan Kingdom last year. I had no time for grief. Work had kept me sufficiently distracted throughout.

I believe I've chosen the right thing for her. As she goes through the trials, she will understand that the world around her is going to be the same. It's SHE who has to grow stronger.

And the trials, if I may say so myself, are one of the toughest competitions to ever exist. I believe Helena, that she can do it.

We didn't speak further after that.

Evening struck quicker than I thought. And I found myself dragging her through the hallways, holding her frail wrist.

"Be gentle with her. As much as she means to you, she means even more to me." Marrok warned me in a serious tone, so unlike him. "I wouldn't want to see how protective you'd become of her if she awakened her wolf."

"Oh-ho-ho! I'm going to be a different beast then, wouldn't I?"

"You sure will."

Helena climbs into the car, and I look back to see her people wearing different expressions each.

"I hope you've bid your goodbyes to the girl. She might never even come back." I heard no gasps.

The elders looked down to their feet,"Very well then."

I walked to the other side of the car, settling in. I tried paying no attention to the sweet smelling girl beside me. My mate smells way too enticing. But I'm obliged to keep this as a secret. Until Helena herself realizes that I'm her mate.

We reached my Kingdom in no time. I catch her staring out of the window, watching a city-like structure around the citadel, where my palace is.

It's technically our Lycan pack house, but since I'm the royal blood, it's built into a palace and has been a palace for centuries.

"Dinner will be at seven thirty everyday. Use the training grounds wisely, you have a head start for trial selection since you've arrived here early. Candidates shall begin joining in two months." Her eyebrows jumped.

"I should have stayed at my pack house for two months then. Why have you brought me here...?"

Her question lingered in the air, soft but uncertain, like a child reaching for a hand in the dark.

She didn't realize how deeply it revealed her, how much it spoke of dependence she hadn't yet shed. The way her eyes held mine, searching, questioning, pleading in the most subtle way, spoke volumes. She wasn't ready. Not for this place. Not for what it demanded.

Her innocence... it clung to her like a scent she couldn't wash off. And that innocence, as much as it made her fragile and pure, would be her greatest stumbling block.

Thank the Goddess I'd brought her here. Something inside me, raw instinct, perhaps had guided that decision. Had I ignored it, she would've drowned in a world too cruel for softness.

But now? Now I needed distance.

I didn't answer her.

Instead, I pressed my back into the seat, turning my face toward the half-frosted window. The words came out clipped, formal.

"You'll be assigned a room. Your belongings are already being taken there." I paused only a moment before adding the blow. "Don't expect to be treated like the Lady of a pack here. You're a candidate for trials. Nothing more. Best of luck."

I opened the door before she could speak again.

The cold night air greeted me like an old friend. I stepped out, my boots crunching against the gravel path.

I didn't look back, until I heard the soft exhale of breath, the quiet rustle of her shifting in the car seat. When I glanced over my shoulder, she was still sitting there, motionless.

My fingers curled into a tight fist and slipped into my coat pocket, burying the strange ache that bloomed in my chest.

I kept walking.

Midnight crept in unnoticed, veiled in the silence that draped over the pack's eastern wing. Most of the lights had gone out, save for the amber glow from the corridor sconces. The world had settled into stillness, except for the crunch of my steps as I made my way to the training grounds.

This was my habit. My haven. A place to unwind after a long day, where the clatter of weights and the rhythm of movement silenced the noise in my head.

But tonight... Something was different.

Before I even rounded the corner, I felt it.

The scent hit me first. Subtle, feminine... and tangled with salt.

Then came the sound.

Muffled. Fragile.

Sniffles.

I stopped.

I didn't need to see her to know it was her.

The scent was heavy here, like grief that had nowhere else to go.

I leaned my shoulder against the cool stone wall, standing half in shadow, half in moonlight. My eyes found the open door to the gym equipment chamber at the far end. There, curled against the metal shelves, was a small figure.

She was sitting with her knees pulled up, arms wrapped tightly around herself.

Her face was buried in her sleeves, but her shoulders trembled, uncontrolled, desperate. The quiet sobs she'd tried so hard to smother were slipping free now, cracking through the silence like thunder in a still sky.

She'd held it all day. Worn that brave mask. Spoken little. Showed no weakness.

But no one ever truly hides from themselves.

This was unraveling.

A lump caught in my throat, uninvited. I told myself to walk away. Give her space. This wasn't my place. She needed to fall to learn how to stand.

But god's... it still pierced me.

That brave exterior of hers had finally split open.

And beneath it?

A girl who'd been holding her breath far too long.

I let out a slow breath, watching it mist in the air.

Tonight, I could skip the workout.

At the very least... I could give her this moment of privacy.

She didn't need a witness.

She needed time.

Without another sound, I turned and retraced my steps, the ghost of her sobs following me all the way back into the quiet dark.