I opened my eyes slowly, adjusting to the light that was so bright. Where was I, and how many days have I been asleep?
Blinking rapidly, I realized two things. I had been drugged. Whatever Donae blew on my face was so strong I had lost my consciousness. I was in a strange place. I heard voices coming into the room and decided to act like I was still passed out. “She has been sleeping for three days now, a female said. “What did you guys do to her?” the voice questioned. “Donae just blew some sleeping powder on her. How did we expect her to be passed out for three whole days?” The second voice was Alex. Three days?? I had been sleeping for three days. I relaxed my muscles, trying to still my heart. “She should be waking up within hours,” the voice said, sounding frustrated. “Well, they kept her pretty shielded there. She had no access to herbs before, so she is feeling the effects more.” A hand touched my face so softly that if I wasn't awake, I wouldn't have noticed. “She looks beautiful. Just ethereal. You are sure she had a white wolf.” Alex sighed, “Yes. I saw it. Donae saw it; everyone saw it.” He sounded so patient with this person. “Very well, bring her to me when she wakes up.” It was quiet for a while. “I know you are awake.” I opened my eyes and looked at Alex Lister. Alpha of the Dark Blood Clan, the one that claimed we were mates. The Dark Blood clan was peaceful before. They were the strongest wolves. Their Alpha was one of the strongest men in the shifter kingdom. Then he got greedy, wanting all the wolves to be under his regime. He started attacking and killing people. When the other five clans joined forces and killed him, they thought they would never have anything to fear again. He had a son. Alex Lister was more dangerous than his father. He had defeated two clans before: the Brown Hound and the Golden Creek Clans. Now with the Grey Wolves clan defeated, he had four clans under his regime. He was more evil than his father. I looked at him with disdain. “What do you want from me?” I asked him. My voice sounded horrible, and my throat ached badly, but I would die rather than ask him for anything. “Right now, nothing. I did not want a mate. My goal is something else,” he answered me, coming to sit at the edge of the bed. “However, a lot of people want you. Your blood, to be precise.” “Why do they want my blood? I am no one special. I cannot shift into my wolf; I cannot fully worship our goddess, so what exactly do they want from me?” Alex bent his head to the side, like he was considering the question. “You have a smart mouth. Good. All your questions would be answered. In the meantime, he paused to get up and walk to the door. “I suggest you come along to get nourishment for your body.” I was about to decline when a loud noise came out of my stomach. My face felt warm, so I decided to push through the shame and follow him. Getting up, I took notice of the fact that someone had changed my clothes. I hadn't noticed or realized it would be so easy to kill me. It would have to change. I followed him down the hallway, having to walk faster than usual even with my long legs. He was fast, and it seemed he didn't care to make me wait for him. The hallway was lit with candles, their flames dancing and casting a shadow, illuminating the space. He turned into a room, and I followed him absently till I realized he had stopped. We were standing in a large room, and people stood and sat everywhere. It was so noisy, spoons scared against plates, laughter rang in the air. I saw a girl sit on a shirtless guy and practically make out with him. “Silence,” Alex hollered. The room instantly became still. “This is my mate, the white wolf, Clarissa,” he pointed at me. Why did he have to do that? I groaned mentally. “You will treat her with respect and protect her with your life.” A resounding “yes, alpha” echoed in the room. Satisfied, Alex walked towards a table, and I followed him, feeling different eyes on my body. Alex took a seat, and I sat down next to him, out of survival because he was the only person I knew then. The table had six people sitting already, and the girl next to me moved a bit so I could fit. “Thank you,” I whispered. She smiled at me. “You're welcome,” she whispered back. “I'm Daia” she pulled her hand forward. “Clarissa” “Sweetheart, the whole room knows who you are,” her eyes twinkled. “Can you really split? Are you really a white wolf?” Ah? Gossip moved fast, it seemed. I shrugged, trying to play it off so I wouldn't be questioned. There are meatballs, some sort of bread, and lots of fruits on the table. Grabbing a plate, I put some meatballs and a piece of bread, satisfied with what I had taken. “Would that be enough, mate?” Alex asked me. “I really wish you would stop calling me mate,” I retorted quickly. I stuffed my mouth with bread, looking directly at him so he'd be repulsed by what he saw. He just seemed amused. The spicy sauce was all over my tongue, and I enjoyed how well the flavor of the meat was good with the bread. My mother wasn't really a good cook, you see. My mother. I wiped my mouth. “Please, where is my mother?” I asked. I had completely forgotten about her. “She's safe. She is undergoing questioning.” Alex replied. “Why is she being questioned?” Alex looked at me. “Do you know anything about Shifter Kingdom and its origins?” I shook my head. “ I know you guys got greedy, and you are getting greedy again.” The hall went quiet. “Greedy,” Alex smirked. “I was not the greedy one, my people were never the greedy ones. Your people are just collateral in a war.” That was news. I looked at him in defiance. “Well, that's not what we were taught. You guys started this war 21 years ago.” Alex looked at me calmly. “You really know nothing.” He said. Shifting forward, so close that I could see the silver reflection in his eyes that matched mine, he spoke. “The war started because of you.”Alex POVWhere was I?My head hurts badly. Like I had been knocked hard on a floor multiple times. Or punched, rapidly.Where the fuck was I?It smelt like smoke and ashes. Who burnt down the village?My hands were tied behind my back. It was a strong knot. Someone moved close to me and I held my breath. They didn't need to know I was awake.“The Alpha fell into the trap easily. Yomen would be pleased,”said a voice.“You did well,” another voice I recognized to be the witch said. “What will you do with him?” the first voice asked.“None of your business. You've shown your allegiance to Yomen. Your village will be spared.” the witch replied. I heard grunts come from the other party and then silence again. I had to think fast. I struggled against the bonds, noticing the rope had silver twines. That would scar but it didn't seem enough to cut it off.“Do you think he's awake?” a woman asks the witch. “He shouldn't be,” came her reply. Then I heard her come closer to me.I counted deepl
“Will she be okay?”Donae closed the room's door quietly so the sound wouldn't wake Susan up.“She'll learn. Grown into it,”she replied. “I didn't mean to hurt her,” I whispered. My innocent friend, always quiet like a mouse. “She would have been better off as a human.”Donae glanced at me. “You can't decide that. It's her choice to make.”“How long do you think it would take them to return?”I shrugged. “I don't know. They've been gone a whole now.”Recently, I had been going down to the dungeons to look at my mother and talk with her. She never replied to me, but it helped me immensely that I told her.“I think we should do something in the village today. A lot of little riots have been happening recently.”Whenever wolves are far away from their Alpha, they tend to start bickering and they are extremely restless. Suddenly, fights come up and sometimes, chaos that even the return of the alpha cannot help the pack.“You should come,” Donae said. “You're his mate, they'll respect you
EIGHTClarissa’s POVThe days went by slowly. All I did was train, train harder. I went to see my mum.a few times.but she still wasn't talking to me.Daia was relentless in her combat skills, and I was improving daily.I missed the Alpha. It made me hiss to even think so, but I guess what I missed the most was our banter. The back and forth. The feel of his lips on my skin, his rough hands pressed against my body, pulling me tight against him. I missed his fingers inside my body.“How long will they be gone?”I whined. “Girl please. You're acting like you're in heat.”Daia replied to me. We were sat at the edge of the cliff, after our daily run.I hadn't shifted or spoken to my wolf in a while, but I could feel her asleep in me. Sometimes it felt very surreal, to be able to be aware of a beast inside of you, hear it's heart breat—in perfect tandem with yours. “They'll be back soon. Alex is probably having to convince the Alpha there.”“Daia” a shout came from the bottom of the cliff. “
Alex POV“We should be returning to the pack now”, George plops down next to me. It seems everytime I want peace and quietness, he finds a way to interrupt it.“We will. Soon. Jerome needs to get his pack in order.”, I reply. “Well, I miss my sister. She's been asking of you.”Argh, Cassie again. “You've contacted her?” I ask.He nods his reply. “We decided to get phones. She gives me updates on what's happening in the pack.”I look at him, “So. What's happening there?”It's a fake ploy to ask about Clarissa. If I asked George directly, he could very well strangle me.“Well, apart from your mate”—he spat the word out as usual— “causing disruptions, nothing much. They're safe.”That was good. They all had to be safe. “Good then.”“When exactly are we leaving here?”“I just told you. Let Jerome get his pack in order.” George snickered. “Gee, you're really getting soft. We should be matching out of here by now.” I stood up. “Well, start organizing our troops. We'll leave tomorrow.” He
Clarissa POV “Alex and the pack have been gone for a week now, do you think you can contact them?” A girl was asking Cassie. I came down to have dinner and I hoped my friends will be there. None of them was but I couldn't resist the scent of meat so I decided to just suck it up up yet, although Donae kept reassuring me she was fine and responding to treatment, the fact she had not opened her eyes yet still bothered me. The triplets were in some trance when I walked in. The held hands, eyes closed and I was tempted to disturb their trance. “Clarissa, child. I wanted to see you.” The shaman looked good, she put her hair in some type of braids and it made her look like Donae, with her own runes dull on her skin. “Alex has connected with the Brown wolves clan,” she informed me. “How do you know, mother?” I said, cutting another piece of meat and putting it in my mouth. That made her frown. “I have told you not to eat here child. Also, Sukihana sent me a message.” “Who's that
“I had no idea anyone knew about what had happened. The burial place of the great king was hidden”, Jerome says.“Well, the shaman told me. All the covens were alert when it happened. They tried to help.”Jerome punched the table, leaving a huge hole. “They're noatch for that witch. She sold her soul to the devil”, he says. “Same as her lover. He killed my parents you know. And I was just a boy.” He stretched and looked at me.“Pray tell me, how old do you think I was when my mate died?” He put a hand up to stop me from answering. “I had just completed. 15 full lunar moonns. She 14. My parents told me I was so lucky, to find her so early in life.”I said nothing in response. “You being a child when your parents dies doesn't move me to sympathy. I am not helping you for any reason. I want to kill her.”“Very well”, I say. “The witch will die by your hands.”He nods. “Good. Well, your men need nourishment, so do you. I'll go let them come in.”“Where would they go to?” I looked around