Chapter 24: Beneath the Guilt
2024 - ( Present time )
The cold wind filtered through the stained-glass windows of the northern mansion, casting colored fragments of light across the stone floors. Deep within its ancient walls, Zachary Artesian stirred from a long and restless night. His bare back glistened with sweat as he sat on the edge of his bed, elbows on knees, head hung low—haunted.
Again, the past had returned.
The scent of blood, the echo of that fateful night, the cry of a dying woman—Luna.
Her voice still haunted the edges of his consciousness, calling his name not in anger, but in trust. A trust he had shattered. A life he had taken.
And yet, he never told Amber.
Not once.
Not when she asked him why he had brought her to his mansion.
Not when she looked into his eyes with both fear and curiosity. Not even now.
After fifteen years—
when she stood again under his roof, no longer the trembling girl who once feared him, but a woman of fire and grace.
She deserved the truth.
But how could he?
If Amber ever found out that he was the one who had—through rage and blindness—accidentally killed her mother, would she still look at him the same way? Would her soft glances turn to stone? Would her voice, once a balm to his tortured soul, become a blade?
No.
He wasn't ready to lose her.
Not this time.
Zach stood, shoulders wide and rigid, the guilt carved deep into the ridges of his muscles. He ran a hand through his tousled dark hair and made his way to the shower, washing away the traces of the nightmare—but not the memory. That, no water could ever cleanse.
⸻
Years had passed since that night in 2009, when Zach and Bri escaped the bloodshed in the Eastern Region and ran through the shadowed forests toward the North. Bri had carried his wounded body, guided his trembling hands, and spoken to him not as a servant, but as a brother.
Three months.
Three long months Zach locked himself away, tormented, unstable, and too dangerous to be let out. Bri, ever patient, took control of the household, the family businesses, and all affairs of the Artesian estate. He kept Zach alive—not just in body, but in purpose.
Modern times came. Technology advanced. But Zach... he remained haunted by the past. Every full moon, his body betrayed him, shifting into his elite Alpha form—powerful, deadly, and uncontrolled. Bri would lock him in the fortified basement, the only place strong enough to restrain his fury.
Stories began to spread across the Northern Region.
"The cruel Alpha."
"The man who kills without blinking."
"Anyone who crosses him vanishes."
They whispered that anyone who wronged the Artesian name—corrupt investors, traitorous advisors, criminals—disappeared without a trace. Whether truth or rumor, the legend of Zach's wrath only grew. Ruthless in business, feared in the pack.
But there was one truth they didn't know—he only ever softened for Amber.
⸻
The morning sun was already high when Zach descended the grand staircase of the mansion. Dressed in a simple black shirt and slacks, he moved with quiet strength, his face blank but his eyes shadowed by the weight of his secrets.
He stopped at the base of the steps.
There she was.
Amber.
She sat alone at the long dining table, a white blouse tucked into soft jeans, her dark hair falling over one shoulder as she poured herself tea from a porcelain kettle. The sunlight caught the soft angles of her face, and for a moment, Zach forgot the guilt... forgot the curse of his bloodline... forgot the beast within him.
She looked up and their eyes met.
Zach's heart gave a quiet, traitorous lurch.
"She shouldn't be here... and yet, I don't want her anywhere else."
"Good morning," Amber greeted, her voice even, but her eyes searching his face.
Zach approached, the usual sharpness in his step dulled. He didn't answer right away. Instead, he took the seat across from her, watching her carefully, like one afraid to blink.
"I hope you slept well," she added, though she already sensed the answer. His aura was heavier today.
Zach cleared his throat. "I've had better nights."
Amber tilted her head. "Is it the full moon again?"
A faint smile twitched at his lips. "Among other things."
She set down her teacup. "You've been distant lately," she said quietly. "Even more than usual."
He studied her for a moment, then looked away, jaw tightening. "Some things don't fade, Amber. No matter how many years pass."
There was a beat of silence before she said, "The past?"
He looked up. Her eyes were too honest, too gentle. She reminded him so much of her mother in that moment, it nearly broke him.
"I should have told you something years ago," he murmured, barely audible.
Amber's breath caught. "Then tell me now."
Zach hesitated. The words clawed at his throat. Tell her. Let her hate you. Let her be free of this lie.
But he couldn't.
Not yet.
Instead, he shook his head slowly. "Not today."
Amber leaned forward slightly, her voice trembling with restraint. "Zach, I've stayed here for a long time, not because I had nowhere to go and I have no choice, but because some part of me trusted you.! You promised to buy the Luna Cafè right? Then I'm accepting your offer..! But if you keep pushing me away... if you keep locking whatever this is behind walls, I'll—"
Amber didn't finish what she was about to say, for Zach abruptly stopped her mid-sentence by waving his hand in the air.
He reached across the table suddenly and touched her hand.
The heat between their skin was undeniable.
"I'm not pushing you away," he said in a low voice. "I'm holding on to you the only way I know how."
Amber didn't pull her hand back.
And for a moment, the silence between them was louder than any howl the moon had ever summoned.
What matters now is that you're here, and you're with me," he said, his voice low, steady, and filled with quiet authority.
Amber blinked, momentarily caught off guard by the weight behind his words. She couldn't quite grasp why Zach spoke with such conviction—such gravity—as though every syllable he uttered bore a meaning far deeper than she could reach.
She didn't respond aloud.
Instead, her thoughts stirred quietly within her: "I don't understand everything, but I trust him. Whatever his plans are for us... I trust him."
What Amber didn't know—what she had yet to discover—was that every word she kept hidden in the corners of her mind, Zach could hear.
Clear as breath.
Loud as truth.
And it shook him in ways he couldn't show.
But in the stillness that followed, something within Zach calmed.
Her unspoken trust—raw, unfiltered, and sincere—washed over the shadows that lingered in his soul.
The weight he carried from years past, the guilt he buried deep beneath layers of silence and secrecy, softened just a little. Her trust—though she hadn't said a word—was enough. For now.
Zach exhaled slowly, the tension in his shoulders easing, though the storm in his chest never fully disappeared. She trusts me, he thought. Even without answers. Even without truth.
And in that moment, for the first time in a long while, Zach felt the faintest sense of peace. Not because the battle was over, but because he no longer felt so alone in the fight.
Never..