Chapter 10

Before my body fully recovered, Alpha King Kaelen and I tacitly agreed not to tell my parents about the miscarriage.

With his companionship, I slowly regained my vitality.

And gradually stopped thinking about Alpha Damien.

My method of breaking free was simple but effective - I cut off everything and everyone related to him, refusing to look at any news about him.

Only this way could I slowly heal my wounds.

Today, Alpha King Kaelen brought me another photo album from home. He didn't directly bring up romantic feelings, but he was subtly trying to stir up my memories.

The album cover still had the doodle we drew as children: an ugly cat, a chubby dog, and between them the crooked words "Seraphina & Kaelen."

I placed the album on my lap. Light slanted in from the window as I turned each page, and buried memories rushed over me like a tide.

I first met Kaelen when I was seven years old.

He stood at our front door, wearing ill-fitting old clothes, carrying a canvas bag, still carrying the scent of wind and sand.

My dad stood beside him, patting his shoulder and saying, "From today on, this is your home."

He just nodded at me, then lowered his head and said, "Hello, little sister."

I stared at him for a long time, then frowned. "Why does he look like a skinny monkey?"

I had just lost two teeth that year, so my speech was lisping.

My dad awkwardly patted the back of my head, but Kaelen smiled gently without fear. "Little sister, I'll peel candy for you from now on."

From then on, I hardly left his side.

We rode bicycles to school together. I sat on the back seat while he hung his backpack on the handlebars. When we passed the candy store and I acted spoiled, he would use his saved pocket money to buy me treats.

After school, when boys bullied me, he would rush over and pull them away. Even when his nose was bloodied, he would comfort me instead. "Don't be afraid, Seraphina. I'm here."

When I caught colds and fevers, he was always the first to notice.

Late at night, he would lie by my bedside changing wet towels, his fingers ice-cold but careful and gentle.

Once I pretended to be sick, and he saw right through me. "Lying is wrong."

But that day, he still made me venison stew, carried me to the healing ward, and secretly slipped me an orange-flavored soft candy.

When I failed a test, he sat with me in the courtyard all night, telling me stories about hunting wild game and climbing mountains when he was little at the border. I was so scared I forgot to cry. He said, "What's there to fear? You're the smartest she-wolf I've ever met."

I thought his praise back then was just the usual family indulgence. I didn't know that compliment was the prelude to his hidden feelings.

There were never clear boundaries between us.

He washed my hair, wrung out towels for me, held my hands to warm them in winter, took me fishing by the river in summer. At night when I was afraid of the dark, I would insist on sleeping in his room.

He would share his pillow with me, quietly turning his back to me, not moving at all.

But I wasn't completely oblivious to certain things.

In the winter of my third year of middle school, we sat at our front door building a snowman.

The night was deep, and the snow fell thick.

He suddenly leaned over to wrap my scarf properly, his fingers brushing past my ear, cold and trembling.

"Whoever marks you in the future, I'll break his legs," he said half-jokingly.

I giggled. "You're so domineering."

But those words settled in my heart for a long time.

The first time I felt something strange was during the spring trip in my first year of high school. The school organized an outing to the countryside, and we spent the night in tents.

I shared a tent with the girls from my class, and he shared one with the other boys. At night I was shivering from the cold and sent him a message, but he didn't reply.

But soon after, he secretly came over and draped his jacket over me.

I lay at the tent entrance watching his retreating figure, and suddenly thought - my brother's back is so broad, his shoulders so steady.