The True Luna's Forbidden Temptation - Chapter 48: Chapter 48

“Help!” I scream as I run through a dark alley, my breath sounds like gasps stuck in my throat.
Everything is blurred. I can barely see where I’m going. All the hairs in my body start to rise. I can feel the presence of something sinister behind me.
The night air feels heavy and dark as it touches my skin. I can’t shake off the feeling of being watched, hunted.
I quicken my pace. “Help!” I scream again, but I highly doubt that anyone will hear me.
I catch shadows moving from my peripheral vision. But when I turn to look, I see nothing there.
I should have taken the main road. I should have called a cab. I should have done anything but walk through this alley alone.
Suddenly, I hear a low growl pierce through the silence.
‘Fuck!’
My heart hammers wildly in my chest. I turn slowly, reluctantly scanning the path ahead. And then… I see it.
It’s not a dog. It’s too big to be one. It looks more like a… ‘wolf’.
It is standing in the center of the path, its black fur glimmering faintly under the moonlight. Its blue eyes glow, having a sense of intelligence that I didn’t know possible for its kind. It’s not just looking at me. It’s… thinking! Perhaps contemplating on what to do with me the moment it catches me.
I stumbled backward in fear. The wolf mirrored me, advancing gracefully, its claws clicking quietly against the pavement, its growl growing deep and gravelly — a warning not to move, not to break its intent.
‘It’s going to shred me to pieces!’
I can’t trust it. I have to run to save my life.
I turn to flee, thinking I might dart down a side path or scale a fence. But I’m trapped. There is no way I can outrun it. And when it catches me, I know I can never overpower it.
I hear a loud growl and the wolf lunges for me. All I can do is raise my arms in an attempt to protect myself. But I know that this movement will never save me.
“No!” I scream helplessly.
I wait for the pain to come. The feeling of the wolf’s claws scraping through my flesh. But it doesn’t come.
I slowly open my eyes. I find myself sitting up in a bed in an unfamiliar bedroom. My heart is pounding loudly inside my chest, and sweat covers my entire body.
That’s when I realize…
“It’s just a dream,” I breathe in a sigh of relief. “Just a fucking dream!”
But it doesn’t feel that way. The icy rush of fear, the glimmer in its piercing blue eyes — everything seems too real to be a nightmare.
I press my shaking hands against my face, wrestling quietly with the growing suspicion that there’s something more to that dream.
I turn my gaze toward the clock on the nightstand — 3:04 AM — its red numbers glowering at me in the dimly-familiar refuge of Sebastian’s home. He opened his doors for me when everything else fell apart. Once again, my stepbrother has been there for me when I needed him the most.
I throw myself back to bed, pulling the covers to my chin.
That nightmare, being attacked by a big wolf…
I realize that it’s not just a nightmare. It’s actually a memory. One that is deeply buried in my subconscious, because I convinced myself over and over that it wasn’t real, that it was impossible. But now, remembering it again, I feel that it was real. That wolf really did exist. It was real.
I close my eyes for a moment, remembering the abandoned alley. The wolf appeared out of nowhere. It’s massive and terrifying. Its eyes too intelligent to belong to an animal.
‘But wolves cannot be in the city,’ I tell myself. ‘And they cannot grow that large. And they certainly cannot look like they recognize you from somewhere.’
Then another memory comes to my mind. That night, I found Sebastian in his room. He was bleeding from a deep gash in his shoulder. And then the next day, it was reduced to a mere scar.
I told myself then that I was mistaken. Sebastian’s wound wasn’t as serious as I thought. Because it’s just impossible to heal from a deep laceration in just twenty-four hours.
‘Nope. It’s just not possible.’
Now, years later, that memory comes back to me with perfect clarity. I’m certain I saw him bleeding. I saw the bloody gauzes and cotton on the sink.
‘But still, it does not make sense.’
Even wolves will not heal that fast. Unless…
‘Unless they’re something else.’
I groan, realizing that it’s impossible for me to fall asleep now.
I bolt up from bed and push myself to get out of bed. The marble floor feels cold under my feet as I slip on a silky robe over my silk nightgown. I tie the strings into a knot as I walk down the staircase.
‘I need a glass of hot milk to calm my mind,’ I tell myself. ‘Suddenly, these wolf thoughts are driving me crazy.’
Hot milk always worked wonders for me when I couldn’t sleep as a teenager. I sincerely hope it will help me now.
The staircase opens into a dimly elegant first floor. The softness of the lighting glimmered against rich furniture, a blend of clean lines, warm texture, and careful artistry.
The large windows show a hint of a vast garden outside. I can tell that Sebastian’s estate is huge, a stronghold against whatever danger lies beyond its gates.
I walk slowly towards the kitchen, following the glow from the under-cabinet lighting. I observe that everything seems spotless. From the furniture to the paintings on the walls.
‘It seems that Sebastian is still a perfectionist.’
His kitchen is massive, having two side-by-side refrigerator, a coffee machine and every imaginable kitchen appliance and tool.
I find a small copper pot in a cabinet and I fill it with milk, setting it upon he stove to slowly warm it.
As I stand there, waiting for the milk to heat up, I press a hand to my forehead, trying to ease the chaos within me. Twenty-four hours ago, I would not even imagine seeing Sebastian again. But now, I’m standing in his kitchen, living under the same roof as him.
And in twenty-four hours, I lost everything valuable to me. I divorced Tyler. I lost a baby. I lost my home and my job. And yet, something else had been reborn in the ashes. Some vulnerable, raw form of myself — someone I hadn’t been in a very long time.
The milk starts to simmer. I'm reaching for the pot when a voice cuts through the silence.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
I spin around, my heart leaping into my throat.
I see Sebastian standing in the doorway, his silhouette illuminated by the soft under-cabinet lighting and the moonlight streaming from the windows.
He is wearing nothing but a pair of black pajama pants that hang low on his hips.
My mouth goes dry. I cannot help but stare at his naked torso—a perfect landscape of muscle and smooth skin. A strange pattern of tattoo traces across his left shoulder down his forearm. It looks tribal and ancient.
It’s not the first time I have seen Sebastian shirtless—we lived in the same house as teenagers. But the boy I knew has been replaced by this man, and the change is just…
‘Taking my breath away!’
Every inch of his muscle is defined. His shoulders broader than I remember.
“Analise?”
I stare at him blankly.
Heat spreads across my face as I realize that he’s already asked me a question twice. And I can’t remember his question because I was too busy ogling at his perfect body!