CHAPTER 4 An Unexpected Reunion...

SOFIA

The sound of hooves on stone made me shudder. I raised my head before the bell above the door rang. This wasn't a regular customer. The feeling was different. Heavy. Unsettling in a way I couldn't quite grasp.

"Don't worry, everything's fine," I murmured to my baby, who hadn't stopped kicking since I woke up that morning. I took a deep breath. I stepped out from behind the shop after arranging a small crate with medicine and ointments prepared for the Silver Moon Kingdom army's order. My hands began to tremble for no apparent reason when I heard a man's voice on the other side of the counter.

I couldn't make out the words. Only the tone. My baby moved more inside me. A hard kick.

"Everything's fine..." I murmured, resting a hand on my belly as I breathed deeply, trying to calm myself.

I came out with the crate in my arms. And I saw him.

Tall. Motionless. Clad in silver armor scarred by war and stained with old blood. On his chest was engraved a gleaming crescent moon. A mask of the same metal covered his face completely, revealing only a pair of intense eyes — too light... too alive and sharp.

I recognized the crescent moon on his armor. A chill ran through my body. His long dark hair fell over his shoulders. For some reason, when I saw him, the world seemed to tilt slightly.

Ida stood behind the counter, observing the armored knight with that expression of hers — someone who'd seen it all and understood more than she let on.

And he was looking at me. I felt a strange heat creep up the back of my neck. Then my fingers reached, without thinking, for the pendant hidden beneath the fabric of my tunic.

I barely pulled it out. The small piece of silver I'd carried with me for five months, a memento from what happened that night. I'd found it on the ground after waking up in that cave, in the cold, damp earth. I'd never been able to get rid of it.

I gripped it tightly. The man's eyes dropped immediately to my hand, then to my belly. His expression didn't change... but something in the room did. The tension became almost tangible.

My baby kicked harder, again. I let out a small gasp. Without asking permission, he closed the distance between us in two silent steps. My instincts screamed at me to back away. I didn't.

He extended his gloved hand and placed it on my round belly. I should have pushed him away. I should have protested. But the moment his palm touched the cream-colored fabric of my dress, the baby calmed down. Completely.

The frantic movement vanished as if the baby recognized that touch. My breath broke.

"What...?" I barely managed to say. I couldn't see his face beneath the mask, but his eyes were fixed on me with an intensity that disarmed me. I didn't recognize him. I couldn't. The man from the forest, inside the cave, had been pain, sweat, pleasure, and shadows.

He was contained power and steel. And yet...

Something ancient stirred inside me. My magic rippled gently beneath my skin, like a flame leaning toward him. My inner witch knew before I did. She recognized him. She'd been waiting for him.

Ida cleared her throat behind the counter.

"Well," she said with feigned lightness. "It seems some reunions don't need introductions."

My heart began to pound. The stranger slowly withdrew his hand from my belly, but didn't take his eyes off me.

And for the first time in five months, I was afraid of the night I'd saved him.

I couldn't look away from him. There was something in his presence that pulled me into his orbit. Even the air seemed to obey him. My baby remained strangely calm ever since the man had placed his hand on my belly, as if recognizing something I couldn't comprehend.

Ida crossed her arms behind the counter.

"Good," she said with studied calm. "The order's ready. Ointments, tonics, treated bandages, and dried roots. Everything requested by the Silver Moon Kingdom army."

The masked man nodded once.

"Pay up." Ida's voice came out flat and deep, which prompted two soldiers waiting outside to enter immediately with small chests. They set them on the counter. When they opened them, the gleam of gold lit up the jars and shelves.

I blinked — it was a lot. Far more than the order was worth.

"This exceeds what was agreed," Ida said, though she didn't seem surprised.

"I know."

He didn't take his eyes off me as he answered. A chill ran down my spine. Ida narrowed her eyes.

"Then what else do you need to buy, Alpha?"

The silence that fell was deathly — like a bullet between the eyes. He took a step forward.

Alpha. So he really was more than a mere noble. He was the leader of the lycanthropes of the Silver Moon Kingdom.

"I'm not here to buy anything else. I came to claim what's mine."

My breathing stopped.

"What do you mean?" Ida said, and for the first time I felt the true weight of her power filling the room. The man's light eyes gleamed behind the mask.

"Her name is Sofia." My fingers closed around the pendant still dangling from my hand.

"She'll come with me as the army's healer." I opened my mouth, indignant.

"Excuse me?" But he wasn't finished.

"She'll come with me as my Mate."

The crate of medicine nearly slipped from my hands. I had to set it on the counter. My hands were shaking.

"No!" I shouted, indignant, stepping back. "You're out of your mind!"

My baby gave a sharp kick, as if reacting to my shock. He looked at me with an almost painful intensity. He shook his head.

"It took me five months to find you. You're very slippery."

The world tilted beneath my feet. Ida glanced at me sidelong, gauging every heartbeat of the scene.

"You heard her," she said, her voice razor-sharp.

"Alaric..." one of the soldiers called as he rushed in.

Alaric placed a hand on his chest, right over the silver crescent moon on his armor. The name hung suspended in my mind.