Celeste followed the direction of Kent's pointing finger and laid her eyes upon Jeremy, who was still deep in peaceful slumber. A peaceful expression graced the man's face, indicating that he was completely oblivious to Kent's ill intentions. Jeremy was in his dream and probably had no idea that he was trapped in a perilous, unfamiliar territory.
Taking a daring step forward, Kent seized Celeste's shoulders firmly. Her gaze swiftly shifted back to the man, catching a glimpse of flickering flames dancing in his eyes.
Celeste licked her lips and shook her head. "I don't know what the Moon Goddess intends to do, and I don't even know if I can trust her. But for now, it's the best damn explanation I can come up with."
She then turned her head towards Jeremy, finding solace and renewed strength in his presence. Placing a hand on her own shoulder, she gently peeled away Kent's grip. "I've told you before, Kent. I can never be your Luna. My heart's been claimed by him all along. He'd choose to abandon the whole damn wolf pack just for me. Even if we're twins..." She paused for a beat, her voice growing softer yet resolute. "Even if we're twins, he's ready to embrace this bond, refusing to let it tear us apart."
"But... You…" The words were squeezed out of Kent’s throat, barely escaping through clenched teeth. "I'm not blindly believing that you're my Luna based solely on a few words from the Moon Goddess, you know? Haven't you noticed the pull? That undeniable pull, that inexplicable power between us? Can you honestly deny its existence? It's that power that allowed me to recognize you in a crowd. It's that pull that made me believe what the Moon Goddess said is true."
Celeste blinked, momentarily taken aback. "What... what the heck are you talking about?"
Celeste furrowed her brow, giving Kent a puzzled look. She had no clue what he was blabbering about. Seriously, where was this "power" and "pull" between them? But Kent was staring at her with such intensity, his eyes brimming with sincerity. No hint of a joke or lie in sight.
Her confusion halted Kent in his tracks. "Can't you feel it?" he asked, his hands gesturing between them, as if trying to conjure up something invisible in thin air. "It's this indescribable connection that tells me you're my Luna."
Celeste scrunched her face even more, shutting her eyes tight in an attempt to tune in to whatever the heck Kent was referring to. She took a deep breath, feeling his warmth so close, catching a whiff of his unique scent.
But she didn't sense anything particular.
Instead, Jeremy's presence hung heavily in the room, impossible to ignore. Even with Kent’s scent and warmth pressed up against her like glue, her attention involuntarily wandered to Jeremy. It was like comparing a flickering candle to a blazing sun when it came to the pull between them.
Determined to shake off Jeremy's interference, Celeste focused back into the darkness. And that was when she caught it. There was a faint sensation of Kent's presence. It was like an invisible thread delicately weaving them together, so subtle and easy to miss, yet strangely captivating.
What in the world was that, then?
Celeste fixated her gaze on that thread, the one that linked her to Kent. She couldn't help but realize that this connection had been lurking around for a while. It didn’t seem new to her. It was just that she had never paid attention to it.
Maybe it was because this bond seemed like a speck of dust compared to the wild hurricane of a connection she had with Jeremy. For so long, she and her wolf had only focused on her connection with Jeremy, completely oblivious to the one between her and Kent.
Taking a deep breath, Celeste decided to dig deeper and inspect it with a more discerning eye. Lo and behold, she was surprised to discover there were even more threads connected to her, like a cosmic spiderweb reaching out to other werewolves in the room. Those threads extended to Kate, Ben, Emma, and even Nick. Yet, compared to her link with Kent, they seemed insignificant.
Yet, the connection between her and Kent, when stacked against the one she had with Jeremy, well, it was like comparing an ant to an elephant. Seriously, that was how mind-bogglingly different they were.
As Celeste pried her eyes open, she caught Kent shooting her a look that could only be described as a mixed bag of emotions. "You mean to tell me you never noticed it?" he said, his voice dripping with something she couldn’t recognize.
Celeste shook her head, her expression filled with regret. "Nah, sorry, but I just don't see any spark between us. And this power, compared to the power between mates, is insignificant."
She mumbled the last sentence, thinking Kent probably couldn't even catch it. But, to her surprise, the man standing right in front of her stiffened, like someone had zapped him with a taser.
But Kent quickly recovered. He took a step back, creating a noticeable gap between them. He pressed his lips together, crossing his arms with an air of defiance. Celeste couldn't help but notice the mix of surprise, anger, dissatisfaction, and disappointment swirling in his eyes.
But despite the look on his face, their connection didn't snap like a brittle twig. It still shimmered faintly, like a delicate thread of light that stubbornly refused to break, tying them together.
Kent seemed to be catching on to that too, a flicker of surprise passing through his eyes.
Would he still consider Celeste to be his Luna?
"So, what's the deal, huh? Now do you trust me? Will you undo the spell on my friends?" Celeste asked.