She glanced at her son in Roderick's arms.
In the end, she said nothing.
Today marked the thirtieth day since coming to Luna Palace.
Exactly one month.
She actually wanted to ask where the other werewolves were, what happened to them, if they were okay.
Thinking about it, she decided not to ask.
Although she had a good relationship with the werewolves, she was still a pure human. In reality, she was an outsider in this house, the only pure human.
Everyone (werewolf) had their own privacy. They wouldn't share everything with her, and she understood that.
If they wanted to tell her, they would do so.
And she would listen when they did.
After the meal, Draven offered, "Alpha Roderick, let me drive to Grassland."
Black quickly said, "No, let me drive."
Roderick looked at them, "No need, I'll drive myself."
Catriona was surprised, so this trip was just the three of them?
She had thought it would be a large group.
In the end, Roderick drove out in another black luxury car from the garage. Catriona was no longer surprised to see the child safety seat inside.
The weather was nice today, sunny and pleasant. May in Capital was neither cold nor hot.
She brought a small water bottle for her son, wolf milk powder, and fearing it might be cold there, she also packed a small jacket.
She also packed some fruits and snacks.
She put insect repellent spray in the bag as well.
Roderick drove for three hours, taking mother and son to Grassland.
The grasslands, spanning an area of 5,300 square kilometers, stretch vast and open, rich in resources and seemingly endless. When the sheep graze with their heads down, they look from a distance like clouds that have drifted down to rest on the earth.
Often, Arden, responsible for procurement, would place orders with the local herdsmen.
This place was not far from Capital and was a favorite destination for the werewolves.
Even during the day, if they showed their ears and tails here, no one would notice.
Roderick had a reason for bringing the cub here.
He needed to teach his cub something.
He had leased a large area of the grassland, keeping it off-limits to outsiders.
It was Catriona's first time here, and she was completely captivated.
In the sunlight, with a gentle breeze brushing past, she stepped onto the tender grass, where tiny, fragrant wildflowers had already bloomed across the prairie.
At first, she held back, mindful of Roderick's presence, but soon gave in, lying fully down on the soft grass, feeling so comfortable she nearly sighed.
Even the small troubles back at the manor involving the werewolves faded from her mind, if only for a while.
Not far away, Roderick was teaching his son.
"Retract your ears and tail within one second."
The cub was a bit nervous, beads of sweat on his fair face, and he obediently followed the instruction.
In the next second, she heard Father say sternly, "Your tail is still out!"
The little tail behind the cub stopped wagging unconsciously, and with a swoosh, it retracted and disappeared.
Roderick said in a deep voice, "Do it again."
This time, the cub didn't forget the little tail.
At first, Catriona was basking in the sun, taking photos, and enjoying herself, but then she started to sneak closer to the father and son, perking up her ears to listen.
She was quite curious about what Roderick was going to talk about.
"...our werewolves has four forms."
"The first form, the full wolf body." Roderick somehow produced a book, showing a picture of a large brown-black wolf on the grassland, its mouth open wide and its fangs bared.
Cedric tilted his head, "Is this Mr. Brownie?"
"Yep." Roderick nodded, "Two seconds, turn into the full wolf form."
Cedric said 'oh,' and did as told, performing satisfactorily.
Roderick flipped another page, "This is the second form..."
The picture showed a brown werewolf standing upright in human form, wearing clothes, with a head and limbs indistinguishable from the full wolf form.
"This is the third form."
Then, Cedric saw Black from the mansion, unchanged, with big ears on top of his head and a big tail behind him, wearing white casual clothes and smiling at the camera. Just as he usually looked in the mansion, he looked the same in the picture.
Roderick flipped another page, "This is the fourth form..."
Then, Roderick pursed his lips tightly.
In the picture, a fifteen-year-old boy wore a white shirt and loose black pants, his chin slightly pointed, staring at the camera with a somewhat gloomy expression. He looked completely like a pure human.
The fourth form of a werewolf is exactly like a pure human, as they are now.
Cedric furrowed his small brows slightly, "Who is he?"
He found the person familiar. If he wasn't mistaken, it was that person he didn't like very much. Once, he had seen that person look at Mother with a look of disgust.
"e only heard Father's voice after a moment.
"He's called Grey."
Cedric responded uninterestedly, 'Oh,' confirming it was indeed him.
Roderick took one last look at the picture, his expression unchanged, and closed the book.
A breeze swept across the prairie, and he recalled Grey's early days at Luna Palace, back when he'd only been there a month. At that time, Grey had shown a sliver of warmth solely to him and remained distant from everyone else.
The werewolf who took the photo was Draven.
Catriona also paused upon hearing the name Grey.
Since that day, she hadn't seen Grey again.
In the days after that night, she had wondered where Grey had gone. Although she had indeed been injured because of Grey, thinking about his history of abuse made her feel conflicted.
The werewolves seemed to have a pretty good relationship with Grey. Sometimes, when they inadvertently mentioned Grey, they would quickly stop and look at her cautiously, as if expecting her to get angry.
Actually, she really wasn't angry.
Gradually, from their conversations, she had recently gained a clear understanding of Grey.
Grey's werewolf parents had once descended from the mountains during his puphood. In the human world, they struggled, lacking skills and quick wits. They took on labor work at construction sites, hauling bricks to earn money for meat, hoping this way they could avoid the need to hunt.
If they could earn a lot of money, they would have endless meat.
But something happened at the construction site, and both of them died.
Overwhelmed with grief, Grey couldn't maintain his human form and reverted to a young wolf, which a drunkard caught and kept as a dog, abusing him for a long time.
In his full wolf form, he couldn't speak, only howling and whining.
After escaping, he managed to survive on his own until he was fifteen, when an accident led to Roderick rescuing him and bringing him to Luna Palace, where he lived a decent life for a few years, not yet reaching twenty.
Now, the life he had worked so hard to achieve was gone.
That conversation was the day before yesterday, and listening to it made her feel uneasy.
"Actually, I'm... not very angry anymore. Can he come back?" she said to Black.
After all, she was only staying for half a year and would leave after that.
As long as Grey promised not to harm her, he could stay at Luna Palace as long as he wanted. Compared to them, she was the one who didn't fit in, the sudden 'intruder.'
Yes, Catriona felt she was the 'intruder' at Luna Palace.
Everything made her feel this way.
First, the complicated relationship between Roderick, the owner of Luna Palace, and her.
Second, she is a pure human, always feeling out of place.
Third, she is merely a passerby here, staying only because her son needs a special cold spring for his health.
Fourth, it might also be due to Catriona herself, having grown up under others' roofs, she no longer wants to live in someone else's house, so she works tirelessly to buy her own home.
This made her feel like she was the 'intruder'.
As for her son, he was the only child of Roderick, the darling of the household, the young master that Arden often mentioned; he was the one most deserving of living in the Luna Palace.
And she, as the intruder, actually "chased" away Grey, an original resident.
She felt uncomfortable. After saying those words, Black said, "Alpha Roderick wouldn't agree, would he? You're the mother of the child, and you're injured; he's very angry."
"Well, I'll talk to him another day."
These past few days, she had been so busy she almost forgot, waking up early to restock supplies.
On the way back in the car, the child was tired and was sleeping, leaning his head against the seat.
Roderick was silent, driving the car.
The car was very quiet.
Catriona slowly spoke up, "Mr. Nightblade, there's something I want to talk to you about."
"Go ahead."
"It's about Grey... I'm not mad anymore. Can you let him come back? I think he's quite pitiful." Catriona sat in the backseat, looking at Roderick's profile.
Roderick was silent for a long while.
He pulled the car over to the side of the road.
His usually deep voice betrayed no emotion.
"He's dead."
Catriona froze. "What... What do you mean?"
"He was eaten by a fully fallen lone wolf."
Catriona's eyes widened, her mind blank, and she was stunned.
"Catriona, listen, I'm being serious right now." Roderick, sitting in the driver's seat, lifted his gaze and met her eyes through the rearview mirror. "Grey's matter has nothing to do with you; this is my opinion."
Roderick paused, then added, "As for what the other werewolves think, don't take it to heart."
It took Catriona a while to snap out of her shock—Grey was dead?
Really... dead?
Eaten bite by bite by a fully fallen lone wolf?
It must have been painful.
Was Grey's death her fault? Catriona tried to think calmly, her mind a jumble—it wasn't her fault? But her heart tightened.
It seemed no matter how she thought about it, she couldn't shake the feeling of responsibility.
She suddenly remembered that morning, when no werewolves came down to eat the food she cooked, and encountering Brownie at the stairs, his stiff smile, and the way he fled from her.
So, it wasn't that she was being hard on herself; the attitude of the group of werewolves who greeted her cheerfully every day already spoke volumes.
They were resenting her.
"You say it's not related to me? Then who is it related to?" Catriona asked in disbelief.
Roderick gripped the steering wheel tightly. "The cause was me, not you."
If he had told Grey early on that bringing Catriona to the Luna Palace wasn't causing him such agony, unwillingly.
If he hadn't openly shown his resistance to Catriona in the werewolf community from the start.
Grey wouldn't have tried to scare Catriona in the middle of the night for his sake.
He just hadn't expected...
A twenty-year-old werewolf, leaving the Luna Palace, would die.
He knew that even though he expressed his feelings and thoughts to Catriona, she would still suffer and feel uncomfortable.
From a certain perspective, he and Catriona were standing together on a sharp edge.
Later, Catriona would recall.
It turned out that this was the beginning of a thread connecting them beyond their complicated relationship.
