The library air was heavy with the scent of parchment and dusk, as golden sunlight spilled lazily across the polished wooden floor. Eila blinked at Lukas, her heart stuttering at the raw intensity in his silver gaze. For a long moment, silence stretched between them—taut, expectant.
"Would you like to stay the night with me?" he repeated, his voice low, husky, almost hesitant beneath its confidence.
Eila's fingers curled tightly around the edge of the table. Her pulse was erratic, and her thoughts scattered like windblown leaves. Lukas Baldwin, silver-haired and sharp-eyed, rarely asked anything without calculation, yet this—this sounded unguarded. Vulnerable.
"I…" she faltered, meeting his eyes. "Why would you ask me that?"
He leaned closer, elbows resting on the old table, the leather of his tunic whispering against the wood. "Because I want to know you—not just as a mate chosen by fate. I want to know your thoughts when you're quiet, the way you look when you fall asleep with a book in your lap. I want something… real."
The honesty in his voice hit her harder than any flirtatious line ever could. Eila, still flushed, looked down at the open page of her book, trying to anchor herself.
"I'm not ready," she whispered truthfully.
Lukas studied her, then nodded once. "I'm glad you said that. I'd never push you, Eila. Ever." He offered a soft smile, more boyish than she'd ever seen on him.
The tension unraveled, slowly, delicately. Eila exhaled and allowed herself to smile back. "You're different without Zois around."
"That's because he's always watching me like a hawk," Lukas grinned. "And I enjoy having you to myself… just for a little while."
They lingered a few moments more in that quiet understanding before Eila rose from her seat. Lukas walked her out of the library, his hand brushing hers occasionally but never clasping it. Outside, the sky had deepened into a shade of indigo. The first stars had begun to prick the heavens.
"I'll walk you home," he said gently.
She shook her head. "I'll shift and run. The air will clear my thoughts."
He accepted it with a small nod, but before she could step away, he bent forward and pressed a light kiss to her forehead.
"For the record, I'll wait… as long as you need."
Her heart fluttered as he turned and walked back into the shadowed halls of the pack house.
Later that night, under the hush of twilight and the rustling pines, Eila sat by her window, unable to sleep. Her thoughts danced between magic lessons and silver-haired twins.
Nina's words echoed in her head: "You better ask him about it."
Him.
Leonard Blackwell.
What kind of magic could he possibly be hiding?
A man like him—mysterious, powerful, secretive—surely didn't possess something ordinary. If even Nina, a respected witch, wouldn't speak of it, it had to be something rare. Dangerous, even.
Eila reached for the grimoire Nina had lent her and began flipping through its pages on elemental affinities. Fire. Water. Earth. Air. Even rarer ones—Shadow. Ice. Lightning. Her fingertips brushed the hand-drawn sigils, heart thrumming with curiosity.
Could Leonard be hiding a power darker than the others? Or something sacred?
She didn't know. But she would find out.
And she would ask him soon.
Because if she were to become a true Luna, not just to one but to three powerful mates, she needed to know everything… even their secrets.
Especially their secrets.