Damian P.o.v:
"Hey, man, wake up! We are going to be late!"
"Mike, get out! I'll be ready in twenty," I exclaim.
You'd think a twenty-five-year-old would have the freedom to sleep-in. That's not the case when you're the Alpha of a wolf pack.
I get out of bed, do my morning routine, then I go downstairs. Antonella, my sister, walks up to me with the biggest smile.
"Good morning, big bro," she greets. "Don't forget you promised to take me to school today."
I groan. Everyone is after me today.
"C'mon then. Let's go," I say.
"Yay!" Nella squeals. I wince. Dear God, no, please.
Nella happily beelines to my car and gets in. I follow suit to the driver's seat. I take her to US University, twenty minutes away from the pack-house. We enter the gated campus and drive to the main building where I'll be dropping her off. As a former alumnus, I know my way around.
Walking in the hall, I feel something soft hit me. I look down and see the most beautiful girl is about to fall, I catch her before she goes down. When she opens her eyes and sees me, I realize she's my mate.
"Ace, we found our mate," I told my wolf.
"Ugh," I cleared my throat.
As I'm looking at her, I feel our surroundings come to a pause.
"Oh, um, hi. Would you be able to point me towards the registration desk?" she asks.
"Of course, my sister comes to this school. I can take you there. Let's go," I say.
"Here we are, cutie pie."
She blushes. Damn, she's cute.
"Thank you..."
"Damian Gray. Nice to meet you," I extended his hand to me."You are?".
"Jessica Jones, nice to meet you," she replied.
"I will see you later, cutie," I said.
"Damian, she is cute. I can believe our mate is that beautiful" Ace daydreams.
"Me neither, Ace. Me neither"
I went straight home after dropping off Nella.
"Alpha, we have a problem. There are rouges at the border"
"Where?"
"Near the north border"
I shift into my wolf form. I run towards the location I'm told.
~*~*~*~
"What are you doing here, rogue?" I ask with a sneer.
"I came here to warn you," the boy says.
"Warn me?" I raise an eyebrow.
"Yes, the Alpha of the Half Moon pack is starting a war," he says.
"What do you mean with war?" I ask.
"I was walking around his border and I heard one of his guards saying that their alpha is planning a war and every pack who doesn't join them will die," he says, point-blank.
"Why shouldn't I believe anything you say?"
"Because your life - and the lives of your pack - depend on it," he says. "Find a way to survive or defeat them, once and for all, before it goes to down in human history as the biggest mass murder."
"I don't trust him," says Ace
"Me neither, Ace. The way he is saying it seems like he has no intention of lying to us."
"When did you pass the bother?" I ask him.
"Last night. I came here as soon as I could," he says. "I wanted to warn you guys because you are closer."
"Who else knows about this?" I ask.
"Some of my rogue friends, vampires, and some witches," he replies.
"Ace, weren't the witches banished last year?" I ask.
"Not all of them," Ace says
"Come with me. This isn't a good place to discuss this situation," I say out loud. "Who else is with you?"
"All the people who know about the war," he says.
"How many are there?" I ask.
"We are 30 in total," he replies.
"Every kid needs to go inside now, don't let any kid outside," I mind link my pack. "I want a group of 40 warriors with me now, All the high ranked warriors will guard the borders. No one can be out of their house until I say so! UNDERSTAND?"
"Yes, Alpha," the whole pack answers.
"Tell them all to follow me to the meeting room," I say. "If anyone, I mean anyone, does something that I don't like, he or she will be locked in the dungeons. Deal?"
"Deal," he said., "My name is Austin Montes. I was the head of warriors of the Brown Wolf Pack."
"Weren't they killed?" I ask.
"No, some of us escaped," he says.
~*~*~*~
"Hey, man," Mike greets me. "Antonella just called me to ask if we want to go to the frat house party."
"Let me guess. You said yes," I say.
"That's a lucky guess because it's affirmative," he grins.
"You do know that we have a group of rogues, vampires, and witches in the pack right? We're also too old for this," I counter-argue.
"Yeah, I know. We could use a break," Mike says. "Also, you could use this opportunity to see your mate."
"What are you talking about?" I ask.
"Did you forget that my mate, your sister, goes to that same uni?" he asks. "She told me that in the morning you were showing a new girl to the office. She also told me about how you were watching the new chic, that's how she knows she is your mate."
"Why can't she keep her mouth shut?" I roll my eyes.
"Because she is my mate and we don't hide anything for each other."
~*~*~*~
"Damian!" Antonella yells my name.
"What?" I yell back.
"Are you done?" she asks.
"Yes, let's go," I say.
"Can I drive?" Nella asks. "Pretty please?"
"Fine," I sigh. "Please don't scratch my baby."
We arrived at the Jones mansion. Wait, she is one of the Jones? This can't be true. That would mean she is one of the most powerful Hybrids ever. Does she know that? But this morning, she didn't smell like a wolf. I thought she was human.
"Ace, our mate is powerful. She is a royal," I say.
"I think that's why the half-moon pack wants to start a war," he said. "The Royals are back."
"Mike, she is a royal," I mind-link him.
"Is that why the Half-Moon Pack wants to start a war?" he mind-links back.
"Ace and I think so," I reply.
They fell into darkness.The air tore at their lungs, thick and heavy, smelling of iron and old stone. The echo of their own screams trailed behind them, twisting into voices that were not theirs. Dust and shards tumbled past them in slow motion, suspended by some cruel gravity, and then everything slammed to a stop.Mia hit the ground hard, rolling instinctively to absorb the impact. Pain shot through her legs, but adrenaline carried her forward. Around her, the others were sprawled, coughing, groaning, and already gathering themselves. Damian helped Lysandra upright, checking her for injuries, while Kael’s eyes darted in every direction, blade drawn. Eryx groaned, trying to gather his sigil stones from the rubble. The Seer was already rising, staff in hand, eyes scanning the darkness.The chamber they landed in was unlike any they had seen. Black stone stretched upward, seemingly endless, pulsing faintly with violet light that ran through veins carved deep into the walls. Shadows mo
The chamber convulsed.The floor cracked like brittle glass, jagged lines racing out from the mirror-pool as if the stone itself rejected what had just been unleashed. White light still bled from Mia’s pendant, clashing with the black fire of her reflection’s crown, and the air between them warped—sound bending, vision trembling, and the boundary between what was real and what was reflection shattering by the heartbeat.Damian staggered but didn’t yield, raising his shield again even though it was already fractured. His double pressed harder, relentlessly, its blade shrieking against the metal as sparks rained. Blood ran down Damian’s forearm from a deep cut, soaking his sleeve, but he gritted his teeth and shoved forward, answering steel with steel.“Mia!” he roared, his voice hoarse with strain. “Don’t let her pull you under!”But his warning was nearly lost beneath the chaos.Lysandra’s firestorm whirled wild, torn between her will and her reflection’s. Her double laughed in the fl
The first clash came like the crack of thunder. Damian’s echo surged forward, steel drawn in a mirror’s shimmer, the blade gleaming with an otherworldly luster. It was his stance, his precision—yet warped. The reflection’s strikes carried a crueler, sharper rhythm, as if every flaw Damian had ever corrected in himself had been honed into a merciless advantage.Damian parried, sparks igniting as steel kissed steel. “Stand firm!” he barked, though his own breath came heavy, the weight of recognition burning behind his eyes. He was not simply fighting a foe—he was fighting the embodiment of every shadow of doubt he had buried beneath his vows.Lysandra’s echo erupted in a storm of flame, searing across the chamber. Her reflection’s fire wasn’t golden-red like hers—it burned a sickly, violet hue, twisting as though hungry to consume rather than protect. The real Lysandra raised her hands, meeting it with her own flare. Heat clashed against heat, the air shuddering under the pressure. For
The gash in the floor yawned wider with a groan, exhaling a wind that reeked of iron and ancient stone. The scent carried a bitter tang, like blood left too long on a blade. Below, a staircase spiraled into the abyss, its steps glowing faintly as though veins of light were stitched through the rock itself. It didn’t look carved so much as grown, a structure birthed from something living, now petrified into form.No one moved.Mia stared down into the darkness, her heartbeat quickening until it matched the unnatural rhythm pulsing from below. Each step seemed to hum like the throb of a buried heart. Her throat went dry. The pendant at her chest responded with an answering pulse, as if recognizing the place—long before she consciously did.Lysandra’s firelight wavered in her hands. “We shouldn’t go down there,” she whispered, her usual confidence fraying at the edges. The flames sputtered with her nerves, their reflections jumping across the black stone walls like frantic shadows. “What
The ruins breathed around them.Walls half-swallowed by roots leaned in close, as if the forest itself wanted to reclaim them. Symbols etched into cracked stone glowed faintly as the group passed, their light dimming and flaring in response to Mia’s pendant. Each step felt heavier, like they were not merely walking through stone halls but sinking into memory itself.“Don’t stray,” the Seer warned, her voice echoing unnaturally. “These passages are older than the pact. They were built to confuse intruders, to strip them of self.”The mist had followed them inside, pressing at their ankles, slithering up the walls like smoke that refused to dissipate. Every now and then, Mia thought she heard voices within it—half-familiar tones that tugged at her bones.Damian kept his shield raised, his other hand brushing her arm every few steps, grounding her. Kael prowled ahead like a predator, every muscle taut, blade ready. Lysandra’s fire lit their way, though the flame sputtered often, as if sm
The night stretched on, heavy with the weight of promises unspoken. No one slept, though they tried. The fire had burned down to glowing embers, but every flicker seemed to carry the echo of Mia’s words—Let her come.Damian sat apart from the others, sharpening his blade though it needed no honing. His eyes never left Mia, who leaned against a moss-slick boulder, her pendant dim now but still pulsing with the faint rhythm of a heartbeat not her own.“Every time it glows,” Lysandra whispered, crouched near the ashes, “I feel the queen’s shadow pushing against me. Like smoke seeping into cracks.”Kael grunted, his hand resting near the hilt of his sword. “You think you feel it? She’s inside her. If Mia falls, we all fall.”Mia’s eyes snapped open at that, the firelight catching in her irises. “Then I won’t fall.” Her voice carried a steel that silenced them. “But I need more than will. I need truth. No more fragments, no more riddles. If the queen’s end was rewritten, then someone alive