<b>Chapter </b><b>74 </b>


    The days had passed in a blur.


    Francesco was away more often now–his Alpha duties drawing him into an unending web of strategy meetings, territorial patrol briefings, and hushed conversations with visiting Alphas. He never shared the full details with me because we haven’t had time, and I stopped asking believe he will exin Later. Not because I didn’t care, but because each time he left, he <b>kissed </b>me softly, as if the world might end without warning, and left behind <b>a </b>single rose on the pillow beside me. Always blue. Always rare. Always him.


    And so I filled the silence with words Anastasia’s words.


    Imore than just her story, I want to know <b>more</b>. I


    Her diary had be more than afort. It had be an obsession. <b>Since </b><b>the </b>day I found it hidm thought I knew it. But I was wrong. So terribly wrong


    Because it wasn’t just a diary.


    Not anymore…


    Late one night, <b>under </b>candlelight, I noticed something strange. The ink in some entries shimmered–not the way old ink tades, but as if it <b>had </b>been hiding. When I whispered the old spells, i had read it from the words there by mistake, the faded lines brightened, glowed, and then shifted into something new.


    Spells Recipes. Potions.


    Not written in a separate book, but still in the same book, encoded and shielded by ancient <b>magic</b>–magic that responded to my blood when I identally pricked my finger turning the page to show the spell words.


    That’s <b>when </b>I knew she didn’t want anyone else to read them.


    Not even Luca


    Had the grown afraid of him? Of what he might be? Or was she hiding it from Francesco too!


    The question gnawed at me more <b>than </b>I wanted to <b>admit</b><b>. </b>


    Did Anastasia see meing?


    Had she woven protection not for herself… but for me?


    I didn’t want to believe it. It made everything feel too big. Too destined.


    And yet…


    …I couldn’t deny the way the pages opened for me. The way her magic weed


    The first spells were harmless, even charming–tes that could calm the heart, a mour to temporarily change your eye color


    Then came love charms. The phrasing the effects… they were eerily familiar. They mirrored the strange maic pull Francesco once felt toward Anastasia. Before the truth. Before me.


    So this is how she did it… This is how she convinced him he was hers.


    I pressed my fingers against the paper, my chest tightening with guilt and something darker–betrayal. She had manipted fate, twisted it with potions and spells. Had Francesco ever truly loved her? Or <b>had </b>he only thought he did?


    And then… the tone of her writing changed.


    Somewhere in the middle of the book, the ink turned jagged, her handwriting less fluid. Notes were scrawled in the margins, <b>urgency </b>bleeding through The pages. Gone was theposed, graclul Luna<b>. </b>In her ce, a woman desperate for control for secrecy


    That’s when I found the potions in the next page.


    Not the kind anyone should know about.


    Certainly not someone like me


    The entry was dated 9 November.


    My breath caught as my eyes fell on a header inked in metallic silver:


    Essence of the Hidden Scent.


    I read the page once. Then again. And again.


    A potion that could erase <b>a </b>werewolf’s scent?


    Not disguise it. Not mask it.


    Erase it? Like it had never existed?


    No scent, no auran


    no trace.


    My heart thundered in my chest. Could it be? Was this how the rogues evaded detection? <b>Was </b>this how <b>Luca </b>came and went without notice?


    Could <b>this </b>be what we were missing?


    The ingredients were strange. Obscure. Some I recognized–moon thistle, ghost elm bark. Others felt like relics of myth, their names poetic and strange It would <b>take </b>time to gather everything. Time and secrecy.


    Was that why <b>Anastasia </b>hid it in her diary? <b>Was </b>she nning to use it against someone?


    Against Francesco?


    Or against Luca?


    I had to know.


    I closed the book with trembling fingers, grabbed a notebook, and flipped Anastasia’s journal beneath my coat. The house was quiet. Audrey was still on patrol, Francesco wouldn’t return until <b>dawn</b>.


    This was my only chance.


    The wind greeted me like an old friend, cold and sharp against my cheeks as <b>I </b><b>stepped </b>into the courtyard. Autumn leaves swirled inzy spirals, golden and brittle beneath my


    boots.


    I made my way toward the southem edge of the estate, where the herbal gardens sat cloaked in enchantment. They had once been Anastasia’s sanctuary. I had heard whispers that she spent hours there, even in the dead of winter. The nts obeyed her like loyal sentries, blooming out of season, pulsing with quiet power


    Now I understood why.


    The magic still lingered I could feel it humming beneath the soil, seeping into my skin like a song <b>half </b><b>remembered </b>


    Moon thistle grew in neat clusters, their violet petals edged with silver. I <b>clipped </b>a few carelylly, whispering thanks as I ced them into my <b>pouch </b>


    Then I ventured deeper.


    Toward the forest


    11:14 Mon, 14 JulyG


    The trees thickened<b>, </b><b>and </b>the air grew colder, tighter. Shadows crept along the ground like living things. There, clinging tot found the ghost bark–thin and gray white, like parchment stolen from a spirit’s hand. I peeled it gently, feeling i


    By the time I returned, the sky had turned to gold and me, the sam slipping behind the bills.


    Back inside, I moved quickly. Francesco’s library had be my workshop, my hidden space, No one came here anymore it was mine now


    1t the candles,id out the ingredients, and opened the book again.


    The spell wasplex. The incantation unfamiliar, had to read the instructions five times before tempting anything


    I crushed the moon thistle, ground the <b>bark</b>, and added drops of silver dew harvested from the garden at dawn. Each step required


    mistake could turn the potion deadly or worse, irreversible.


    The brew shimmered violet. Then silver. Then clear.


    It pulsed gently, like a heartbeat.


    I poured the liquid into a small crystal vil. It looked like water. But it smelled like nothing


    I held it up to the candiclight, marveling.


    Could this really hide a <b>scent</b>? Make someone undetectable!


    struck me.


    And then the thought str


    What if this wasn’t used by rogues?


    What if Anastasia made this to disappear?


    From Francesco? From everyone?


    A wave of dizziness hit me. My hand trembled, shouldn’t test it.


    But curiosity sank its ws into me.


    Just a drop, I thought


    <b>Just </b>a taste.


    I dipped a spoon into the potion and sipped


    The vor was… cold. Empty Like air in a tomb.


    For a moment<b>, </b>nothing happened


    Then the air shifted.


    The candles flickered.


    Helt lighter.


    Then–nothing.


    Not pain. Not magic. Just Stillness


    I set the spoon down and crept into the corner of therge couch in the study, if this worked, Francesco wouldn’t be


    He wouldn’t even sense me.


    <b>able </b>to smell me.


    Theard the front door open.


    Boots…


    He was back!


    “Ene? Mia Amore?” he called softly, his voice echoing through the hall.


    My heart thundered.


    He stepped into the room.


    Stopped.


    His eyes scanned everything–papers, open books, the still–steaming cauldron.


    He looked confused. Then afraid.


    “Eine?” he called again, Ermer, sensed you here a moment ago!”


    He stepped further in. His eyes were searching–but not seeing. He looked right past me,


    Oh my God, it works!!!!


    “ELLAINE!” His voice cracked now. Worried.


    Footsteps thundered down the hall


    “Alpha, what is it?” Audrey’s voice was sharp


    “I lost her <b>scent</b>,” Francesco whispered. “She was <b>just </b>here. I swear it. She was in this room–she’s gone. Can you feel her?”


    Audrey paused. “That’s not possible. Her presence lingers, but it’s… wrong.”


    More warriors joined. Murmurs filled the air.


    “Luna’s not here.


    “No scent trail


    “Did she shift?”


    “She couldn’t have vanished.”


    Heat frozen, heart in my throat, panic rising.


    They were right.


    <b>I </b>was here, but no one could feel me or smells me,


    Not even my


    mate..


    “Find her!” Francesco snapped. “Search every room! She’s in danger–we’re all in danger”


    The others left in <b>a </b>flurry, <b>footsteps </b>retreating like <b>thunder</b>.


    And I remained curled in the corner.


    Shaking, Terrified


    11:14 Mon 14:30


    But not from them, from what I had just learned..


    This potion–this secret–this was how Luca did it. This was how the rogues had moved unseen.


    uld they.


    And if I could make it… So cou


    The spell would wear off in twenty–four hours. That’s what Anastasia had written.


    Just 24 hours…


    I stepped out from the shadows and gathered the book,pping back to the passage, reading again, trying to find a w. A solution. Something


    FAMI


    The door mmed open.


    Francesco stood there.


    Chest heaving


    Face pale.


    Rain still clinging to his <b>hair </b>and coat.


    His eyesnded on me.


    And he froze.


    I stared back, stare back at his eyes in horror.


    Shock filled his face


    Reliet


    Fear.


    And something else–realization.


    Because he knew, he knew that I do something involve magic.


    But before either of us <b>could </b>speak, a sudden heaviness crashed over me. I gasped, stumbling as darkness surged through my vision. Thest thing i felt was his arms catching me before everything went ck


    <b>AD </b>