But how…
Drew’s POV
I took another sip of my coffee as we all stared out the kitchen window, watching Nikolai who was currently playing with the kids, little Eve comfortably seated in his lap. By ‘we’ I meant myself, Annie, Margaret and Liyah. I only just realized how weird we all were as we were comfortable enough watching him like stalkers. I was going to point it out but I held back my comment. After all, it was a sight worth gaping at. It still felt darn good to have the old Nikolai back, the Nikolai I knew and remembered. But the change had been so sudden and so tremendous, none of us saw it coming.
But it was truly beautiful. The kids used to be so scared of him before, but now he was a kind of father figure. I couldn’t even imagine what they could possibly be talking about. But it was beautiful nonetheless.
Everytime I looked at Nikolai, I had this urge to break down in tears. I had always hoped that my best friend was still in there somewhere, but I had also considered the fact that he would never come back to normal. He was completely ruined by what happened to Elle. He had changed… but to my surprise, everything did come back to normal.
“Well some of us are enjoying the view a whole lot more than others,” I heard Annie say. Looking in her direction, I saw that she was smirking at Liyah. I chuckled when I saw Liyah blush. Well, Nikolai was shirtless at the moment so..
“The Alpha has really changed a lot. It’s refreshing to watch him,” Margaret smiled. “But yes you’re right, we have Liyah to thank for that.”
When Liyah blushed even more furiously, I couldn’t hold back my laughter. “Oh come on, Liyah. It’s obvious that something is going on between the both of you. When were you planning on telling us?” I asked, hiding a smile. The weekend getaway Annie and I had planned had gone exactly as planned.
They were so adorable together.
“Yeah. Don’t think we haven’t noticed you two sneaking up and down the house like a pair of thieves,” Annie said again, smiling a little.
“Oh stop that,” Margaret snapped. “Its obvious that they’re doing some hardcore… training.”
Our laughter boomed in the kitchen for a few moments. Margaret was honestly the best. Meanwhile Liyah looked like she was torn between embarrassment and amusement. It was simply cute.
“Well, it just happened I guess,” She replied, still flushing. “I wasn’t impressed at first but when I got to see what kind of person he really was, I guess I… started to like him. Underneath all of that anger and bitterness he has some really good qualities.”
“Hmm, and what were these qualities you saw that changed your mind about him?” Annalise asked, obviously keen to get some answers out of Liyah. I hid another smile, but faced Liyah. I was curious as well.
“Well for one, he has a good heart, he’s funny, kind, he respects people’s opinions, he’s strong as well and can protect the ones he loves if the need ever arises-”
“Yeah, ’cause none of us are strong in anyway and we’ll perish after a knife cut,” Annie cut in, the sarcasm in her voice clear as ever. I snickered, reaching out to swat her arm.
“Annalise, let her be,” Margaret warned. But she didn’t need to, as Liyah was laughing along with us.
Liyah chuckled and continued. “But when I found out about his heroism, that’s when I knew he was a much better person than he was showing,” Liyah continued dreamily. “I couldn’t believe it at first… but then I got to that safehouse, and I saw all those werewolves in so much pain, and the fact that he was risking his life to make sure they were okay. It was amazing.”
My brows furrowed. Werewolves, safehouse? What was she talking about?
“How do you mean Liyah?” I asked, curious about what she meant.
It was her turn to frown. “I mean, all those werewolves he rescued from the traffickers. It was really brave of him. To be honest, I never believed that silly tale about the Silver Ghost. It just seemed like a myth… till I was kidnapped some time ago and he showed up just in time to save me and the rest of the victims. I was stunned… they all kept chanting his name when he arrived.”
Wait. What?
The Silver Ghost?
I looked around to see that Margaret and Annie had the same shocked look on their faces. I turned back to Liyah.
“Nikolai, the Silver Ghost? And you were kidnapped? How? Where? What are you talking about?” Annie asked, her lips upturned in a frown.
“She’s telling the truth. Her heartbeat was steady all through her story,” Margaret finally spoke. “But… how? I’m pretty sure this is news to all of us.” I nodded when she looked my way.
We had all heard stories about a man who saved werewolves who were kidnapped and readied for trafficking. I had been so appalled when I first heard of the practice, and I couldn’t fathom who could possibly be that heartless. Werewolves being kidnapped and trafficked by werewolves. It was simply disgusting.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.
A few years later, stories about a man who had taken it upon himself to save these people. According to the stories we had heard, he worked alone, taking these people and driving them down to a safe place and nurturing them until they were healthy again.
The victims who had escaped had named him the Silver Ghost. And from then, the name just stuck. I had thought about it for a while, but all in all I was grateful that someone was keeping these people from harm and ruining the plans of the traffickers.
And now Liyah was saying that the Silver Ghost had come to her rescue, and he happened to be Nikolai?
What the hell was going on?