Chapter 3

Aiden

The darkness made us blend in. The forest and the noise of crickets hid us from plain sight. Finally, we arrived at the Creekwood pack. My jaw clenched at the sight of the well lit pack house in the distance.

My mother is in there, hiding away from the consequences of her crime. She has successfully hidden from me for the past years, but now I’ve found her, and she’ll pay dearly for her sins.

Although, my sole mission here was to find and kill my mother. But then again, something else calls for me inside this very pack where my enemies reside. Something powerful. Something that feels like a part of me.

This feeling made my wolf unsteady, but I was quick to throw it off as mother using one of her magic spells. She could be trying to trick me. After all, that’s all she ever did—trick people into doing her wish.

My attention is divided when my beta, Troy, crouch beside me where I was monitoring the activities of the pack house.

“Sire, we have word from the pack,” he announced, and I couldn’t help but notice the owl sitting on his wrist.

Only my warriors are capable of sending messages in the darkness. One of the things I take pride in as their Alpha.

“And?” I asked nonchalantly, hiding the pride in my tone

“Everything is under control. Kieran has successfully taken your place in disguise. The elders are completely fooled, and no one has noticed your absence—yet.”

“And no one will, if Kieran does his assignment well enough.”

He nods. “I’m sure he will without fail, sire.”

“Good,” I responded with a nod. “Now, we need to focus on our mission here. From our observations since the past days, the high-ranked wolves should all be having their late night meeting by now. We should strike.”

Troy said nothing, and judging from his reluctant body movement, I could sense something was bothering him so I asked with a sigh; “what is it this time?”

He shook his head and was lost for words for a moment, but when he finally got the courage to speak, his voice came out soft and persuasive. Too soft for a beta with too much blood on his hands.

“Do you really have to do this? She is your mother,” his voice is so sympathetic that I’d view him as a traitor this very moment, if not for the many years he’s been by my side.

Troy knows better not to test my patience, but at the same time, he is the only one who speaks insightfully and wisely, sometimes even more than my elders. So I listened to him further.

“I know how much the death of your father means to you. I know how it feels to lose someone like Alpha magnus, but this……..” he trailed off as his attention snapped to another direction.

I followed his gaze, and when I saw what he was staring at, I grinned.

“There’s your chance to get in,” Troy pointed at a figure, standing not too far from our hiding spot.

A warrior of the creekwood pack, meant to be stationed at the back entrance of the pack house, was out near the tree lines, taking a piss. His new position was barely lit, and also a blind spot to the remaining warriors. It was a golden opportunity not to be lost.

I motioned to the warrior, but Troy stopped me with a thug on my cloth.

“But—”

“No more buts,” I said, cutting him off as I yanked the edge of my jacket from his grasp. “If you truly know what it feels like to lose someone like my father, then you wouldn’t even try to stop me.”

I left a disappointed Troy behind to watch my back as I crept towards the careless warrior. The asshole let out moans as he relieved himself, unaware of the danger that creeps behind him.

In a moment, I was already behind him, making sure not to make any noise as I snapped his neck. His lifeless body fell to the ground and I wasted no time in stripping him naked and putting on his armor and cloak.

I released a breath as I motioned into the pack house, slipping in unnoticed. The helmet did a lot of help to disguise me perfectly. My strides were calm as I walked through the busy kitchen that seemed to be preparing for something big.

The aroma of roasted chicken and beef filled my nostrils, paired with the savory flavor of mashed potatoes and freshly baked breast roll. However, one scent was greater, sweet to my nostril and senses. It was the same that has been calling my attention from outside, but what is it?

I don’t think much of it before chalking it up to one of mother’s deceitful spells.

I nodded at the chef who gave me a suspicious look before I exited the kitchen. I needed no map or blueprint to find my way. Her scent was getting stronger as I took each and that was enough for me to track her.

I turned my face down, pretending to rub my forehead in an attempt to hide my face from a pair of warriors approaching. I mumbled a greeting back to them as they passed me without suspecting a thing.

Finally, I got to the hallway that was drenched in her scent. Or maybe not only hers. There was something else tangled in the air. A tantalizing scent of jasmine and honey. I made a mistake by letting it fill my lungs because the moment I did. My wolf malfunctioned.

“Mate,” my wolf, Eryx, grumbled.

At this point, I had to conclude that my mother’s magic is getting stronger because we haven’t had a mate for the past twenty-eight years of my life, and I’m definitely not going to find one in the household of an enemy.

I shook my head, trying to clear the romantic fog that was forming in my head, or the one my wolf was itself forming. My feet made little to no sound as I crept as if the floor could crack at any second. I was about to make a turn into the next hallway that was no doubt where my mother was hiding, but just then, a sound pierced through the quietness.

The sound was so sudden that I jumped, and unsheathed my blade, whipping my body in its direction for a potential fight. But to my surprise, a meek figure appeared, peaking from behind a door as she giggled at my clumsiness.

I recognize her. From the hours I spent lurking in the woods and spying on this pack house, I was able to tell that she was the Alpha’s daughter. Judging from the amount of guards that followed her around the pack, it was easy to tell.

I placed my finger on my lips, urging her to be quiet, but she laughed instead. The sound of clicking boots, approaching from a distance, urged me to rush to her, cover her mouth and guide her inside.

I acted on impulse, and maybe out of fear of being caught, but I knew deep down, something inside her was calling to me. That magnetic pull that I was feeling outside the pack house, it wasn’t my mother’s magic. It’s her. She is my…

“Mate,” Eryx, my wolf, grunted with undeniable pleasure.