The Messenger( Iva) novel Chapter 63

< Unwanted Attention-1

+25 Points

Unwanted Attention-1

The silence after the royals vanished did not feel like relief.

It felt like the world had inhaled and forgotten how to breathe.

For several long seconds, Caleb did not move. The lake behind him lay black and still, reflecting nothing. His aura, once a crushing force, now withdrew inward like a storm folding into itself-contained, controlled, dangerous.

When he finally turned toward her, something in his expression had changed.

Not suspicion.

Not anger.

Conflict.

Real, unguarded conflict.

“You will not speak of what happened tonight,” he said quietly. “Not to anyone. Not about the bond. Not about… what you claim to be.”

His gaze sharpened slightly.

“Especially about being the Messenger.”

Iva swallowed. Her chest still ached from the pressure he had unleashed earlier, but something fragile rose through the fear.

Hope.

“So… you believe me?” she asked, her voice softer than she intended.

For a moment, he did not answer.

His eyes searched her face as if weighing consequences she could not even imagine.

“There is a way to verify your claim,” he said at last. “At the next full moon. Two weeks from now.”

The words landed like a verdict suspended in air.

“If what you said is true…” His voice lowered, tone turning grave. “Then you carry a greater burden than you understand.”

A chill spread through her spine.

“What do you mean?”

His jaw tightened slightly before he answered.

“You would have a bounty on your existence,” he said. “Every pack would seek to claim you. Some for reverence. Others for control. Many for power. And those who can’t have you… you would have a bounty on your head.”

1/3

< Unwanted Attention- !

Her fingers curled instinctively at her sides.

know,” she whispered.

He frowned – not at her words, but at her acceptance.

+25 Points

“No,” he said firmly. “You do not. Being the Messenger is a blessed role… but it is also a cursed one.”

The weight in his voice carried knowledge earned, not assumed.

“Blessed,” he continued quietly, “because you see what others cannot. Cursed… because once known, you cease to belong to yourself.”

–

Iva felt the truth of that settle heavily in her chest. The thread between them pulsed → not painfully this time, but with a strange, solemn awareness.

“What happens if I am confirmed?” she asked.

His gaze held hers steadily.

“Then I will tell you more,” he said. “Everything you need to understand what you are… and what it will cost.

The words were not a promise.

They were preparation.

He stepped back slightly, the moment closing around them like a sealed door.

“I will take you back.”

The drive began in silence.

The car moved smoothly through the private roads, then back toward the distant lights of the city. Inside, tension hung thick as fog.

Iva sat rigid, every sense painfully aware of him beside her. His presence filled the space without effort. The scent that surrounded her was steady, grounding, impossible to ignore. Avalon shifted restlessly beneath her skin, alert, drawn, unsettled.

How could he be so composed?

So unaffected?

The bond roared inside her like a storm… yet he sat like carved stone, eyes on the road, hands steady on the wheel.

Finally, he spoke as they approached the city lights.

“Where do you live?”

She gave the address quietly.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify