Prologue – He’s Here!

Hermione Averoff’s POV 

I sucked in a deep breath as I looked around me, an overwhelming feeling of contentment coursing through my body. The snowy battlefield was reduced to a sea of blood with decapitated, ripped bodies strewn all over. It was a sight I had seen many times in my twenty-nine years of life, having fought many battles alongside my twin! 

But tonight was different. Tonight I smiled at the mayhem all around. 

We had avenged the death and massacre of that fateful night twenty years ago! We had wiped out the Whiteridge Pack, and its leader, Alpha Atticus! 

It was time to join in the celebrations! 

I watched our warriors celebrate the much-awaited moment of victory. We had waited two decades for this! Finally, our mission was complete. We had overpowered the enemy and reclaimed our pack and our motherland! The Luceres Pack was now ours! 

I looked around for my twin, Alpha Zephyrus, to rejoice in our victory. I knew how much this meant to him. We were just nine when we had to flee Lucania. The Whiteridge Pack had attacked us, overpowering our pack and killing my father, Alpha Dimitrios. 

For years we had trained for this moment, undergoing all hardships at our ancestral home in the kingdom of Aromania, in Northern Greece. It was my father’s birthplace, his childhood home, although it never felt like one to us. Now it was all over. We were back to where we belonged, to our little village, Lucania. Cradled at the foothills of the Astral Mountains in the Northern Territories of Canada, far away from human settlements, Lucania was our only home. 

My gaze fell upon my twin, who stood watching a white wolf lying injured at his feet. Wasn’t she an enemy? I frowned at his reaction to her, sensing the undercurrents he was experiencing! Was he considering saving the female? I grunted in exasperation, marching towards him to remind him of our predicament.

“Zeph, have you lost your mind?” I stopped before him, watching him warily. She’s the fucking enemy, Zeph. We’ve wiped out all of them. Will you treat them all with your magic potion? There’s only a bottle of it!”

“I know what I’m doing, dammit.” To my immense astonishment, he turned a deaf ear to my rantings and shifted to his human form. 

My brother was a blessed wolf, but I wasn’t that lucky. All my life I had lived under his shadow, allowing him to decide for us. With his special powers, he protected and helped us. 

Years ago, the Moon Goddess had blessed him with extra special powers for saving her life. He was just thirteen then, and she had been testing him in the forests of Aromania. He saved her from a vampire attack and she blessed him abundantly, making him indomitable. Ever since he didn’t need to worry about clothes after a shift. His touch and bite were fatal, but if he wished to save his victim, he had a bottle of her magic potion. Until now, he hadn’t felt the need to use it, but tonight, I could sense the urge in him to save the enemy wolf! 

Disregarding my words, he picked up the creature gently and strode ahead towards the village to our family home. I frowned at his strange behavior, having never seen this side of his nature before. Zephyrus had always been a focused, impatient, dominant wolf, with no time for a steady relationship. He cared only for us who were close to him since birth. Then why was he carrying the enemy to our home?

“Are you even listening, Zeph?” I ran alongside him, trying to keep pace with him. 

“What?” His impatient tone didn’t deter me. I had to know what was going on. 

“Why are you carrying the enemy, Zeph? She deserves to die!” I waited a couple of seconds, but he just grunted in displeasure. 

“Who is she? Is she Atticus’s daughter?”  

“Why can’t you answer me, dammit?” I continued relentlessly, not giving up. The only plausible explanation was the one I wanted to ignore, but for how long?

“Is she your fucking mate?” I could feel his restraints breaking as he stopped to give me a death glare. 

“Stop the questions, Hera. Help me or get lost!” I preferred being called Hera as Hermione sounded too medieval! So those who knew me called me by my shortened name to keep me happy. 

I glared back at him for his lack of explanation. We had always shared a close relationship for the last two decades, being there for one another. If he had found his fated mate at twenty-nine, shouldn’t he inform me? I felt extremely disappointed, a strange fear gripping my heart. What if she really was my twin’s mate? 

No, the Moon Goddess couldn’t be so cruel to me! She couldn’t be so unjust! Zeph hardly believed in fated mates, but I did, having waited for mine since my first shift at seventeen. Now, almost twelve years later, I had given up hope of ever meeting him. Maybe I was destined to live and die alone! It had been a solace for so long that my twin and my friends were in the same boat as I was! But now? I couldn’t accept this reality! 

Jealousy coursed through my body at the sight of my twin and his mate. Now that he had found his mate, I knew he would forget me. “What do you want me to do? Just throw her into the dungeons already. She’s our war prisoner!” I sulked as I walked away with a toss of my dark copper hair.

I could see our friends celebrating the victory over a bonfire built on the sprawling pack house premises. There was our Beta, Stavros, and Leandros, our Gamma with his twin, Alexandrios, who was the only doctor in our pack. These were our close friends who had fled with us that fateful night, sticking together through thick and thin for the last twenty years. I noticed how happy they looked tonight but I couldn’t share the feeling with them!

“Hera! Come over and tuck in before it vanishes!” I smiled half-heartedly at Stavros, but all my appetite had left me after seeing Zeph with his mate! The food looked appetizing, and I knew I should be celebrating, but my heart ached. A strange restlessness gripped my body. All my dreams of a happily ever after with my fated mate crumbled to dust. Would I die a loner? What had I ever done to deserve this life? I had never prayed to the Goddess for anything but a loving mate! I didn’t bear a grudge against her for so long, but now I felt devastated. 

I knew what this meant. I would have to surrender to my extended family’s wish and accept the hateful Alpha Oreias of the Orvelos Howlers Pack as my mate! It was my uncle’s wish, but I preferred to escape from Aromania than to surrender to his wishes. With Zephyrus finding his mate, the pressure to get me settled would increase manifold now. How would I avoid it? 

I walked on, not bothering to look where I was headed. The snow crunched beneath my feet, and the need to run drove me wild. I surrendered to the wish! I could feel my bones cracking as my wolf, Hye, took over! 

‘Let’s run, Hye!’ She didn’t need prompting. She knew what we both wanted. 

We zigzagged, darting through the snow-covered trees, the wind howling past my ears. I sprinted as fast as I could, eager to stop the dull ache in my heart. I hated Alpha Oreias with a vengeance! He was selfish, cold-blooded, and everything I hated about a wolf! He could never be someone’s mate. It was no wonder he was a loner, even at thirty-eight! 

I hiked the steep snow-covered slopes of the Astral Mountains, yet couldn’t outrun the fear gripping my mind. Hye stopped at the edge of the highest peak, bringing me to my senses. This had been my favorite place since the day Zephyrus brought me here twenty years ago. Nothing had changed here! It was still the same: tranquil, beautiful, chilling and refreshing! 

On the other side was the White Ridge Village, the original home of the Whiteridge Pack! Tonight, it was bathed in darkness! Maybe they were mourning the death of their pack members! They deserved it for using unfair means to overpower us years ago. That night they had snatched away everything from us too! 

I closed my eyes and let the icy wind chill my mind. For a moment, I wanted to escape the reality. I wanted to feel happy for my twin, but I couldn’t. Was I a bad sibling? 

Suddenly, the hair on the back of my neck stood straight. There was a sudden quietness all around me. It was the sort of silence that alerted me. I could feel someone’s presence behind me! My heart thumped wildly in my chest, knowing there was no one around to help me now. 

It was an unknown scent of a stranger! It cautioned me, yet Hye whimpered as if recognizing it immediately! Who could it be?

I slowly turned around to check before fleeing but froze, my feet transfixed on the spot. I couldn’t even budge an inch, let alone flee. My eyes fell upon a humongous copper wolf as big as my twin, staring back at me from afar. His hypnotizing, glowing red eyes held my gaze, making a shudder go down my spine. There was a terrifying glow emanating from him!

The fierce look in his eyes was enough to make me panic. I hauled air into my lungs as I struggled to get a grip on myself. I had to outrun the creature before it killed me! He approached me with slow, calculated steps and I came out of my daze.

“Hermione Averoff!” His furious growl made me freeze. How did he know me?  

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of my imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. 

Copyright © Rituparna Darolia. 

All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.