[Lucien’s POV]
Loud hip-hop music wafted through the air and everyone in the club cheered loudly, moving their bodies to the rhythm of the beat. Every Friday in Club Ravine was a blast. It was mainly a party for vampires, but witches, werewolves, elves and even fairies could also be found partying hard. Humans being present was a necessity, how else were we going to feed?
Aside from the fact that I needed to get my mind off things, human blood was the main reason I was always present at the club every Friday night. I had a full storeroom of it, but I always longed for something fresh… something satisfying, and perhaps, at the back of my mind, I wanted something that tasted like her.
A young human in her twenties whom I had spotted checking me out as she giggled with her friends locked eyes with me. I knew how piercing my gaze could be, and I held her eyes in mine. She soon looked away shyly, then looked back at me. With a hand gesture, I beckoned for her to come, then looked away as I calmly took another sip of my alcohol.
It wasn’t up to a minute later that she found her way to where I sat all alone by the counter. She smiled then licked her lips seductively.
“You called for me,” she said.
I gazed deeply at her. “Yes, I did. Care to dance?” I asked, keeping the glass back on the table and stretching out my hand to her.
She gave a shy smile as she accepted my hand. I winked, then took her to the dance floor. With my hands around her waist, I pulled her closer to me and she smiled even more, wrapping her arms around my neck as she swayed her hips.
Eloise would be surprised to see how well I danced. She was the dancer, I never was, but when you find yourself on earth for four hundred and seventy three years, you’d get bored to the point of learning things you said you’d never have an interest for.
I was starving, really hungry, but nothing actually satisfied me and I knew it. I only drank blood to remain alive… not that I wanted it, not that I cared for it.
“What’s your name?” I asked the young girl, who had undoubtedly been already enchanted by my charm.
“Amelia,” she said sweetly.
“You smell nice, Amelia,” I whispered into her ear as I tilted my head, holding her even closer to me as my lips found its to way to her neck.
“Thank you,” she gasped, wrapping me in her fragrance.
It was why I had chosen her specifically in the first place. She smelled of berries and grapes, just like Eloise. I also hoped that she tasted similar to her or just like her. Celeste already said she might be reborn with a different face, so it was up to me to keep my options open, and even after four centuries had passed, I still had faith that I would see her again… that I would hold her in my arms someday.
I nuzzled against her neck for sometime just to get her in the mood, and when I was sure that she was deeply lost, my fangs sprouted from my mouth and I bit her softly which made a moan escape from her mouth and I began to suck her blood while stroking her hair.
It tasted nothing like Eloise and the more I sucked, the hungrier I became. I wanted to taste it, I wanted to feel it again, and I sucked her harder till the point where I could feel her shrinking.
“Snap out of it, Lucien,” my subconscious mind said.
I immediately withdrew from her and when I did, she staggered, almost falling to the floor.
“What did you do to me?” she asked weakly, almost drained of her life.
To compel her to do as I said, I cupped her face in my hands and looked directly into her eyes. “You’ll go home now and have a goodnight sleep. Once you wake up tomorrow, all you’d remember is being at the club and getting drunk. You’ll forget about me and ask no questions about the bite marks on your neck,” I said to her.
Her brown eyes darkened and she nodded her head. “Whatever you say,” she said.
I smiled at her, then let her go and turned around, leaving her behind.
Once again, my hope had been shattered or so I thought until the unforgettable scent of Eloise’s blood filled the air. I pinched myself.
Was I imagining things? No, it couldn’t be.
I sniffed the air. It was no doubt her scent. It wasn’t that I missed her so much to the point of me now making things up in my head. It was her blood. It was her scent. It was Eloise.
My eyes narrowed, quickly moving from one person to the next. I could hear the voices in my head. It was her, but she wasn’t here. She was somewhere else, and my vision got clearer the more my eyes narrowed. A girl sat on the floor in front of a temple in another dimension far from where I was, and when she looked up, I saw her face. As blurry and hazy as it was, I knew it was her. She was alive. Eloise was alive.
My heart leapt for joy as I came back to reality.
With the vision engraved in my heart, I moved to the side of the club where I was sure no one was watching and with my set destination in mind, I disappeared from the club, teleporting to the dimension where my senses had pictured her.
The leaves clearly showed it was still in New Orleans. However, it was different and when I perceived the undeniable smell of fur and wolfsbane, I knew I was in a werewolf pack.
The hope I had earlier felt began to diminish. If I was in werewolf territory, it meant my vision was wrong. Eloise was to be reborn as a human being, and certainly not as the same thing that had taken her life.
I turned away sadly, knowing now that my longing had gotten the best of me. However, as I turned, I saw I was standing in front of a temple… the same one I had clearly seen, and on the floor, she sat down sobbing hard.
She must have noticed someone was staring at her, because she looked up at me in that moment, meeting my sharp blue eyes with her green eyes. I had feared I would forget how I had loved her, but my heart certainly remembered as it tingled then melted softly.
When she saw me, she got up and dusted the sand off her dress. She wiped her tears with the back of her palm. “Who are you and why are you staring at me in that manner?” she asked, throwing me a cold look.
I hadn’t even realised it, but I was staring at her with an opened mouth with my eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. Her voice still sounded the same way; like music to my ears.
“Eloise, it really is you,” I muttered, then took one giant step and appeared in front of her.
She seemed to be befuddled, and before she could get a grasp of what was going on, I pulled her into my embrace and hugged her tightly like I was never going to let her go ever again.
For a moment, she just stood there and let me hug her. “I missed you terribly, Eloise. I missed you so much,” I whispered into her ear.
It wasn’t until seconds later before she eased her way out of my embrace, wearing a dumbfounded expression. “I think you’re mistaken. I’m not Eloise, and I don’t know who you are either,” she said, taking more than a few steps backwards.
“You… you don’t know who I am?“ I asked.
She shook her head politely. “No. I don’t.”
I shook off the disappointment I felt. “If you’re not Eloise, who are you?” I asked, curiously.
“My name is Nivera. I’m the famous cursed and possessed Omega who was abandoned in the Crescent Pack as soon as I was born,” she introduced.
I chuckled. “That’s a weird way to introduce yourself,” I said.
She ran her eyes all over me. “Why are you standing there? Aren’t you going to run away?” she asked.
“Why should I run?” I retorted.
She shrugged, then with a sad look, she said: “Everyone leaves when they find out who I am.”
I moved closer to her and lifted her chin, so her eyes met mine. “Not me, Eloise… I’m sorry, Nivera. I’m not going to leave you. Never ever,” I promised.
“Why? You don’t even know me. Are you even from this part of town?” she retorted.
“No, I’m not, but I…”
I was interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching, and she quickly led me to the back of the temple, pushing me against the wall.
“You should go. If anyone sees you here, they’ll take you to Alpha Tyler, and you’d be good as dead,” she said.
“Alpha Tyler should be the one to run from me,” I said.
“Everyone says that before they die. You’re not from here, so you should hide. I’ll leave first,” she said, and proceeded to go, but I stopped her from going by holding her by the hand.
“What do you think you’re doing? Do you seriously have a death wish?” she inquired.
“I need to speak to you. Please, stay a little longer,” I said.
“I’m already in so much trouble as it is. I don’t even know who you are. What if you’re a spy from another Pack? I’ll be accused of treason and I’ll be beheaded. I know my life is shitty already, but I have no intention of dying anytime soon,” she said with fear in her eyes.
“Then, tell me something. When can I see you again?” I asked her.
“What?”
“Please, give me an answer or I won’t let you go. I only just found you, I can’t afford to lose you again,” I told her.
She appeared confused, but as the footsteps drew nearer, she didn’t have an option. “I’ll be at the cleansing river in three days. You’d meet me if you come around 7pm,” she said, and with that, I let go of her hand and she quickly hurried away without looking back.
I leaned back against the wall. I had waited for four centuries, and she had been reincarnated finally, but why did she have to be reborn as a werewolf, and most importantly, how had she forgotten completely about me? I had never stopped to think that unlike me who still lived in the present, that was her past life and I might as well be past tense to her.
[Lucien’s POV]I stormed into Celeste’s small cottage behind the sea, furious at her with a thousand and one questions on my mind.There she was, sitting on a small wooden stool and brewing a potion as always. It had a foul stench, and the yellow mixture bubbled with intensity as the fire increased.“You knew, didn’t you?” I fired at her, marching furiously towards her.She placed the lid back on the pot, and began to hum a slow tune as she peeled oranges, without even looking behind her to see me.“Answer me!” I yelled angrily.She still didn’t say a word.Annoyed, I threw the lid of the pot out the window and set the pot down, then with one quick blow, I put out the fire.There. That got her attention.Seething with rage, she stopped humming and looked up at me as though a look from her eyes could kill me. “The potion isn’t ready yet. How could you just put out the fire?”’she fired angrily.“So, you can speak. For a second, I had thought you had suddenly gone deaf and dumb. You’re l
[Tyler’s POV]Could my life get any worse than it already was now? It was one thing to be mated to an Omega; it was another thing to find out in the presence of almost the entire Pack. Most werewolves believed in the Moon Goddess, but growing up, I hadn’t been one of them.My parents died when I was just five years old and I had to assume leadership over the Pack immediately. I hadn’t even had the chance to just be a child as the welfare of the Pack rested on my shoulders. I had needed to grow up and be a man even before I reached the age of puberty. I couldn’t play with friends, shed a tear or act like I didn’t know something, and for this reason, I hated and regularly cursed the Moon Goddess.I had recently just started paying her homage through offerings and sacrifices due to the fact that I had never lost a war, and my regime as the Alpha King over the last sixteen years had been generally prosperous and most would say I was the best Alpha the four kingdoms had ever known… but onc
[Nivera’s POV]I was slapped hard across the face, and I looked up slowly, trembling in fear.“Where were you last night?” Delilah demanded.“At the temple, I swear on my life,” I responded.“That would mean something if your life was valuable enough to swear on,” she retorted; a response that got the other girls cheering and laughing so hard.Alice stepped forward with her hands folded underneath her breasts. “Tell me, what did you do? How did you do it?” she asked.“I… I don’t understand,” I stuttered.“Well, that makes two of us. I don’t understand either. How was I left mateless, and a wench like you didn’t just find a mate, but the Alpha King himself? Tell me something, Nivera. Are you practicing witchcraft?” Alice asked, with a fixated look as though trying to read me.“Shush. That’s a very serious allegation you’re making,” Lexa, the oldest one in the group said.“What? Am I not even allowed to say that? Isn’t that what we all are thinking?” she retorted.“You can’t say such wi
[Lucien’s POV]Her hands felt cold as I held them, but thankfully, her heart had started beating steadily. I felt terrible. No one deserved to go through this much trouble, especially not someone like her. She was too pure and good to suffer this much.“What are you thinking about?” Celeste asked.I heaved a sigh. “I’m wondering if her life would have been any better if I had met her earlier,” I said, not even bothering to look up at her. I was still mad at her, but she was the only one I could think of that would make Eloise better.“Once again, I am very sorry. You can hate me for the rest of eternity. I don’t deserve to be forgiven,” Celeste said.“At least, you know that,” I said, then continued. “She has been like this for three days now. When will she regain her consciousness?” I inquired.She had just opened her mouth to speak, when the girl stirred in her sleep. She soon began sweating profusely as she twisted and turned, panting heavily and whispering inaudible words.“Eloise
[Nivera’s POV]“Find that slave girl and bring her immediately to me, or you’d pay with your life,” I heard Alpha Tyler scream at the warriors just before I opened the door to the throne room and stepped in.As soon as the door was opened, everyone present in the room looked up to see who it was, and the shock boldly written on their faces told me that a lot of time had passed by and I was in for a lot of trouble.“There she is,” one of the warriors said, pointing at me.“We can see that, Jerry. Neither of us here is blind. The question is, where was she all this time?” Alpha Tyler asked, stepping down from his throne as a maid dabbed the sweat that had trickled down his forehead with a napkin.The eight warriors who had assembled before him parted in two halves and he walked through them and came to me, staring at me as though he had just seen a ghost.“Where have you been?” he asked, gazing deep into my eyes with his brown eyes.I couldn’t look away from him as much as I wanted to.
[Tyler’s POV]I was very skilled when it came to many things, especially martial arts, and I never skipped a day of practice. Things had been less chaotic in the palace ever since the Omega girl was sent to a prison cell and everyone was back to just doing their own businesses peacefully.The elders were pleased with how I had handled the matter and they were thrilled to hear that I would not be taking her as my Luna. It was all they wanted to hear, but I didn’t do it because of them. As long as it made Malia happy, I was happy.“Where’s Fred?” I asked the guard who had gone in search of my training partner, but had come back without him being anywhere in sight.“I just got back from the security house. Apparently, he dropped off a note this morning stating that his father is sick and he needs to tend to him,” he replied.“In other words, his father is more important than I am, is that it?” I demanded.The guard was quiet, and I hadn’t really expected him to say anything.“Let Fred kn
[Lucien’s POV]As the girls massaged my neck and arms, I closed my eyes, finally able to feel calm and relaxed. There were two of them; Elda and Angela, my private masseuses, and sometimes, I fed on their blood. They were humans who dwelled amongst us and they also knew who we were, but kept it to themselves.Elda reached for my thighs and began to massage the left one, while Angela was massaging the right one. It felt so good, and I moaned softly, asking them to go on with it.“Do you perhaps want something else?” Angela asked with a sly smile, mildly touching my groin.“I’m hungry,” I said to her, returning the smile.“I’m all yours, then,” she said, then gently pushed Elda away and sat on my laps, trailing her fingers across my chest then leaning in to me, exposing the vein on her long neck for me to see. I smiled as it seemed inviting, and proceeded to just suck on it before letting out my fangs to crunch it and probably down in enough blood for the rest of the evening.“Lucien, y
[Nivera’s POV]Tears streamed down my eyes as I sat in the far end of the dark cell, isolating myself even when I was already isolated. My ripped blouse was held firmly to my chest and I kept on rubbing my fingers again and again as the event that took place an hour ago kept on playing and replaying in my head.Maybe it was no big deal to be seen in just a bra by most people, but often, Omegas were paraded and used like sluts and so, it sent a negative message like I was no different from them. It made me feel really uncomfortable and even though my stomach was empty, it wretched with disgust and I wanted to puke.I might have ended up in a bar, serving customers while topless, but somehow, I had been lucky enough to end up as a maid in the palace where everyone saw me as cursed and wanted nothing to do with me. I might have been treated like dirt all my life, but I found it way better than being forced to live a life as a sex worker, and after what happened earlier on, I felt like I