"All right, but don’t try to tough it out. If it starts to hurt, tell . We’ll get you sothing for it," Apollo said, his tone firm but gentle as he reached out and patted her head again.
Over the past three days, Ashley had begun to notice the habit. It ca so naturally to him, those quiet, reassuring gestures, that she no longer resisted. Instead, she simply smiled and nodded in response.
For a fleeting mont, though, the warmth stirred sothing else. A mory. Brent and Blake had been like this, too, attentive, indulgent, and always looking out for her. Back then, she had believed it would last.
The thought left a faint bitterness on her tongue, her smile turning just slightly wry.
A question surfaced in her mind, uninvited and persistent. ’Would these new brothers remain the sa? Would they continue to treat her with the sa care, the sa quiet affection... no matter what happened in the future? Or would everything change the mont things fell apart?’
The possibility unsettled her more than she wanted to admit. She feared growing used to this warmth, only to have it taken away without warning. And the more they gave, the more she found herself leaning on them, but that also resulted for her fears to deeply root itself in her heart.
Because she had already lived through it once. And she wasn’t sure she could bear it again.
"Ash, are you really all right?" Ace’s voice cut in, laced with concern as he noticed the color draining from her face. Like Apollo, his first thought was that she might be enduring pain in silence, and the sight of her pale complexion only deepened that worry.
What he didn’t know, or rather, what none of them knew, was that Ashley wasn’t hurting physically. Her thoughts had simply begun to spiral again.
She hadn’t always been like this. Once, she had been confident, bright, the kind of girl who moved forward without hesitation, her energy as vibrant as her smile. It suited her then and fit her naturally.
But everything that had happened since... her forr family’s abandonnt, her ex-fiancé’s betrayal, and her biological mother’s death... had changed her.
Now, the more she was given, the more she had to lose. And that made everything heavier and felt more fragile.
It was only natural, in a way. The more precious sothing beca, the harder it was to let go of and the more terrifying the thought of losing it again.
She wasn’t in pain. She was afraid. Afraid that history would repeat itself. Afraid that what she had now would slip through her fingers just like before.
But to her brothers, who knew nothing of her past and believed she had lost all her mories, there was no way to see that. To them, her unease could only be tied to her injuries, sothing physical and sothing they could fix, but never realizing that what she needed most in that mont wasn’t dicine, but reassurance.
"I’m fine... I think I’m just getting hungry," Ashley said, offering a small smile as she deftly deflected Ace’s concern. It wasn’t entirely a lie.
They had eaten earlier on the aircraft, but it had been a light al, mostly protein. Steak, a bit of mashed potatoes, so vegetables, and even a glass of red wine. Under normal circumstances, it would have been more than enough. But for her, it barely made a dent.
Growing up among werewolves had shaped her habits more than she liked to admit. She was used to large portions, to eating until she was full before exhausting herself in training. Compared to that, what she had earlier was nothing, especially with how quickly her body burned through it.
And she had been half-asleep the entire ti, barely aware of what she was doing. She rembered eating in fragnts, like a dream she couldn’t fully grasp. At one point, she had even wondered if she had imagined it altogether, until the faint aftertaste lingered on her tongue, the subtle trace of wine confirming that it had been real.
No wonder her stomach was already feeling empty again.
And so, her excuse worked. No one questioned it.
To them, it made perfect sense; beacuse her body was still recovering, and that alone would demand more energy, more food. They had been watching over her the entire ti, after all.
They had seen how she ate earlier, half-asleep and barely aware, her movents slow and unfocused. At the ti, they had found it oddly endearing, almost cute.
So of them had even been tempted to reach out and pat her, but held back, afraid of disturbing her rest. Instead, they simply stayed close, quietly keeping an eye on her, just in case she tipped forward and face-planted into her plate from sheer exhaustion.
With the dication still in her system, it was only natural for her to feel drowsy... and just as natural for her to feel hungry again so soon.
"Don’t worry, we’ll be ho soon. I’ve already arranged for food to be prepared once we arrive," Aunt Lavinia said gently. As she spoke, she reached into her bag and took out an orange, deftly peeling it with practiced hands.
She carefully stripped away the white pith, making sure only the best parts remained before laying the neatly separated slices onto a clean handkerchief. Once satisfied, she handed it to Apollo so Ashley wouldn’t have to lean forward and risk aggravating her injuries.
"Here, let help you," Apollo said, already moving to feed her.
Ashley blinked, then pouted slightly, a hint of stubbornness surfacing as she took the orange from his hand instead, as she felt that she wasn’t that helpless that she needed to be fed by her brother.
The small act drew quiet chuckles from the others, the tension in the car easing just a little. And for Ashley, the simple exchange was enough to pull her out of her spiraling thoughts, grounding her, if only for a mont.
Not long after Ashley finished eating the snacks everyone kept offering her, the car then began to climb into a secluded mountain area.
At the foot of it stood a massive gate, nearly ten ters tall, adorned with an intricate gold dragon design that imdiately caught her eye. The rest of the structure was a striking blend of black and gold, so polished and imposing that she couldn’t even tell if the gold was paint or the real thing.
It looked less like an entrance to a private residence and more like sothing pulled straight from a royal estate.
As they passed through, two guards stationed on either side of the gate stood at attention and saluted the car without hesitation, even though it didn’t slow down or acknowledge them. The sheer formality of it left Ashley montarily speechless.
She thought, at that point, that nothing else could possibly surprise her anymore, not after everything she had already seen.
She was wrong.
Another half hour passed before they reached their destination, and the mont the car moved beyond the next stretch of road, Ashley was completely stunned. They drove past an enormous hedge garden, no, a labyrinth, spanning an area as large as a football field.
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