Chapter 35

Isabella's POV.
"Mom?" I looked up at the woman in front of me.
I am Isabella, I am their daughter, and we live happily in this Pack.
Today is my bar mitzvah.
My father is a shaman. He doesn't usually live with us, but he's coming today.
After all, after today I am recognized as an adult, I can be a warrior woman, and I can go do whatever I want to do.
So what would alpha say?
"He will support you to be the best one warrior you can be, I promise you dear." My mother knew what was going through my mind as she patiently brushed my hair.
Despite what my mother said, I still feel very not very reliable. I don't know why, but I always felt as if our alpha wouldn't do that.
He has always been a very cruel man.
The wolves' so-called mitzvah is simple: they have to fight with members of the neighboring Pack. I saw their alpha on the field.
It was a rather handsome man who was striking up a conversation with the man beside him when he saw me.
I felt my heart shot out to him and the wolf howled inside my head that he was the one I was meant to be with.
"Can I challenge him?" I pointed to the man.
"Sure." Our alpha looked a little surprised at first, but quickly backed off with a smile.
I locked the man's neck hard in three or two strokes, the knot in his throat rolling under my arm. I heard his heartbeat.
"You win little girl." I heard him say.
"What's your name?"
"Isabella," I answered him.
I gazed into his eyes, and I saw deep love in them.
The contact between the two of us was very smooth. Although the two of us did initially have a mate connection to connect together, but slowly I discovered that we actually shared a lot of common language. We ran through the mountains together, followed by kissing and lying down in the grass together.
A month after we both met, we were getting married.
It was a combination of the two biggest Packs in the jungle, so basically everyone in the neighborhood came. I saw my parents sitting on the stage and their faces were full of encouragement.
I stood in the square in a gown that couldn't have been more beautiful and was worshipped by the crowd around me. They shouted luna, luna at me, while I held the hand of the man beside me.
"As of today, you're our Luna Queen here." He smiled and looked at me.
But this moment I feel that this scene is very strange, this is a picture that I have never experienced before.
As far back as I can remember, I too had fantasies of standing in such a place and receiving everyone's blessings, but I knew it wasn't real.
But how can one so easily detach from these stories?
"Will you marry me?" He knelt in front of me.
"The one I would marry is not you, it's someone who looks just like you." I took a step backward.
I suddenly realized that this is not really my life, my life is not anything beautiful, but the ending is the same.
"But wouldn't life be more perfect that way?" This Elijah stood by my side in disbelief.
"Actually, my original life was good enough, give me back my story." I've calmed down.
"If you really decide to do this, I won't stop you." Despite this statement, he came up and hugged me gently.
My heart couldn't stop beating like crazy. But I still seriously went to look at his arm.
Elijah's hand had a deep scratch, but this Elijah's arm had nothing on it.
"Thank you, but I guess there comes a time when dreams end." I answered him with a smile.
The scenery around me suddenly faded away. I felt my eyes get sore and couldn't help but close them. By the time I opened my eyes again, I found myself sitting in a hot spring.
My face was already infinitely close to the water, which smelled of sulfur and smoked my brain so dizzy that I could barely think.
My clothes were soaking wet. They clung to my body and made me part so hard that I could barely breathe.
And not far away in another watering hole sat another man, who was my Elijah.
I understood at once. It was an illusion, and Elijah hadn't been able to wake up yet.
Elijah's POV.
I woke up with a jolt. I don't know what I had just experienced, but it was certainly an upsetting event. Otherwise my bones couldn't have hurt so much.
I found myself in my own place and beside me was Isabella, dressed in a white nightgown and looking at me with her eyes open like a frightened deer.
"Been through something terrible?" He stroked my back.
"I mean in the dream you slept longer than ever today and looked as if you were sad."
I subconsciously hugged her. But for some reason, I always felt that her embrace did not seem to be what I thought it would be.
"It always feels as if I almost lost you." I don't know how to describe how I feel right now.
"It must be because you had a bad dream, well get up, you have to go train those warriors today." She yanked me up out of bed.
On the training field, I was followed by a very small boy. I knew it was my son. He was holding a very small wooden sword, following those warriors who were more than twice his height and waving it around desperately shouting slogans.
This scene is really great.
But I always felt as if something wasn't quite right, but I didn't really remember.
"My parents invited us to join them for dinner today. You don't want to be late." Isabella handed me a bottle of water.
"Your parents?" I always felt as if his parents were strange.
Perhaps sensing my doubt, she gently tapped me on the shoulder.
"Why do I remember that they don't seem to be with us?"
"What are you talking about? Don't my parents live in this Pack too?" She dragged me through the crowd.
I looked off into the distance. A male wizard with gray hair was helping the children build their toy house. The children were very happy, and beside the wizard was a very beautiful middle-aged woman. The woman was holding his arm and smiling sweetly.
"My mom said she would make us mushroom soup this evening." Isabella said happily.
This time I know what the problem is, my Isabella's parents do not exist in this world anymore.
She was alone, and her experience was beyond miserable.
The girl in front of me, who had the exact same face as my Isabella, also smiled. There was still innocence in her eyes, but I knew it wasn't real.
"But is that bad?" She asked me.
"These are your deepest desires. You want me to have a perfect family, free from all the ravages, and isn't that exactly what I am? And we're going to have an unbelievably smooth future." She tugged on my arm and even tried to ask me for a kiss.
"We should accept reality instead of wallowing in make-believe." I pushed her away.
I certainly wish Isabella had a perfect past, but now that it's happened, we have to accept it.
Those perfect illusions instead look very false.
"I don't know who you are, but you should also go find a life of your own." I pushed her aside.
Isabella was sitting in front of me. Her hair was wet with water and she looked very fragile.
"I'm back." I said to her, and immediately afterwards took her in my arms.
"I thought you'd be lost in a dream." Her voice was even a little aggravated.
I sensed her emotions from the partner link. I knew that she must have thought I would be dwelling on her perfect past.
But I'm not that kind of person.
"How come? I would never not recognize you." I smiled and kissed her forehead, trying to comfort her properly.
But the water was so cold that I knew I should stand up. But the moment I touched the bottom of the water, I felt only a little frightened.
Underneath this pool were not stones, but the skeletons of various werewolves. I looked up at the elders.
"Those who cannot escape from the illusion of alpha will sink in this spring and drown alive. What you have just touched are their bones."
Those elders standing beside Liam still had a gloomy face and shouted together.
"This is also the reason why the test is easy to let people die too, few people can overcome those things they desire. Even if they know it's an illusion, some people are willing to indulge in it."
But the ones closest to us, the ones who spoke for us, applauded softly. The one at the head of the group took another step forward and stood in front of us both.
"This vision holds the best things inside you, and if you cannot overcome their temptation, then you have no right to become true elders either. But I am glad that you all have overcome it." The elder waved his hand backwards. Two attendants stepped forward and handed us both blankets.
"Next there is the last and the hardest level, if you can get the victory, then you will become the elders of the wolves. At that time, you two will join us in this team."
"Hurry up and get on with the test, I simply can't wait." Liam muttered from the side.
"Staying in such a Pack is simply a torture for a poor person like me!"
He was obviously a little impatient, and I knew there was no way he would tolerate this going on.
The longer it takes, the worse it is for him. I've already seen a few White Birch Packers who don't trust him as much.
But this is only a minority of cases, and more people still expect him to take them away from our wolves.
"I wish I could get it over with quickly too, only this thing until it's over can we really deal with this thing with you." I rubbed the water stains from my hair.
"Then let's try it and see who can handle who." He looked at Isabella and me and smiled even wider.
"Yeah, well, you'll see." Isabella stood up in front of me.