Chapter 193 - Why Now

"The sky looks so pretty," Emily whispered to mostly herself as she stared at the night sky which was filled with countless shining stars.

"But there's no moon." She heard Rylan complaining beside her. A small smile appeared on her lips as she recalled how much he loved the sight of the moon.

"It will appear in an hour or so," Kaiden informed his brother before his eyes traveled towards the girl who was staring at the night sky in fascination.

They had already finished their dinner an hour ago and now they were sitting outside their tents to enjoy the light breeze and the beautiful view of the sky.

"Should we play another game?" Emily suddenly asked with excitement twinkling in her eyes which immediately dimmed when everyone shouted back a loud 'No'.

She glared at her brothers first and then turned her fiery eyes at the Sullivans before she muttered with a scoff, "Boring!" 

She really was missing Bianca. The woman would have played all the exciting games with Emily and she would definitely have been more fun to be around compared to her boring companions. 

Unfortunately, none of the Evans joined them on the trip. Since both the Alessandro and Sullivan families were out of the city, it was not a good idea to leave the city completely defenseless. That's why Sam, Jackson, and Bianca stayed behind to make sure that no one would take advantage of the situation.

On the other hand, Shane did not join them because he finally succeeded in inviting his mate on their first date. Though they were only friends for the time being, that was still a good start.

A soft sigh escaped Emily's lips as she realized that it was finally time to take a break for the day. Her brothers were already moving around, grabbing their jackets and phones before they headed towards their tents or the vans. She felt a few pats on her head while they muttered a sweet good night before walking away.

"Don't stay out here for long. Go to sleep early." Domenic told her and she nodded her head immediately in response.

It was not until a few minutes later when she moved her head to look if everyone had already left, did she notice Kaiden and Shadow sitting right behind her.

"Are you guys not going to sleep?" Her question was more for Kaiden as she already knew that Shadow won't be sleeping. The man hated sleeping. In the past years, she had seen him either reading or painting during the night times. Sometimes he spent the nights training and working out. 

"I'm going to take a look around the area just in case and my muscles also need some stretching," Shadow told them and immediately scurried away into the darkness of the night.

"Did he really think that we don't know he is trying to give us some alone time?" Emily asked with a scoff as she stared at the direction in which Shadow had disappeared.

"He always does that. Sometimes it feels like his wish to see both of us together is even greater than ours," Kaiden said with a soft expression on his face. The more he was learning about Shadow, the more mysterious that man was becoming.

Kaiden was not an idiot. He could clearly see the affection and attachment Shadow had towards Emily and it was way deeper than the man was letting anyone see. But then his constant attempts on making sure that he would never be a third wheel between them and his support for their relation almost made no sense to Kaiden.

Just when he was lost in his world of thoughts, he felt Emily putting something in his hand, and as his eyes moved to look at the object, he was surprised to find a very familiar-looking pen. His eyes hurriedly moved up to look at the girl who was smiling as she gazed back at him.

"Does this mean..." He did not complete his question and watched as Emily started to dismantle the pen that he had given her five years ago as a challenge.

Just in a few seconds, he was looking at the tattoo carving of a wolf under a full moon that was engraved on the underside of the metal pen. It was very well hidden under a soft covering of a fine metal wallpaper covered with traditional arts that it was almost impossible for anyone to find unless they already knew about it.

"How did you find it?" He asked curiously and watched as the girl shrugged her shoulders as she answered, "It was actually an accident. The metal sheet slipped away when I was searching for some clue and that's how I found the carving." 

Kaiden did not speak for a while as he stared at the pen in silence. A small smile was playing on his lips as he thought about how his angel was lucky enough to find the carving.

"How long?" He finally asked.

"Around a month before I left for Nightfall," Emily answered and saw as a surprised expression took over Kaiden's handsome face.

"That long?" He could hardly believe that she had known about his identity as a werewolf for such a long time.

When Emily nodded her head with a proud smile on her face, he could not help but sigh while shaking his head at the absurdity of the situation.

"Why now? It's been years since you find out. Then why did you take so long?" He asked curiously as he turned his entire focus on her.

Once again he watched her shrugging her shoulders before she replied, "I was not able to come up with anything that I wanted from you back then, so I decided to keep it for later."

"So... have you decided now? What do you want? I'll try to fulfill it with everything that I have." He asked while promising her and he meant it. 

"I still can't think of anything that I want from you... but... can I see your wolf form?"