Orion's POV “He's always away,” came my awkward response but it had been the truth. My father was a businessman to the core, it was why our pack was so rich. My father had his faults and I blamed him for mother's death but he was a good Alpha. The well-being of his pack was his utmost concern and he had dedicated his entire life to it just like his father before him and just like I would someday. He was a man who believed in luxury but he had principles too and he cared genuinely about people. He had also taught me to live the same way. Perhaps that was why I had been so terrible at sword practice at seventeen that I had hurt myself with my own blade. My tutors had told my father that I was hopeless in combat.“But he's here in you,” she had said, her eyes fixed on mine.Instinctively, I took a step backward.This was my father's wife and she was once my mother's best friend. I could not do this even if she gave me an invitation to her bosom. It would be the greatest betrayal a son
Orion's POVThe truth was that I was scared. I was not sure what scared me more, my stepmother or death or the two.I had faced many terrifying things in my life but nothing ever unsettled me quite the way she did, and that included the time I had been chased by a wild boar.So when I got home I knew that there was only one thing to do — play dumb. There was no other option, I did not think that any other thing would have been acceptable.There was no time to plan, no time to ask for advice from anyone, and definitely no time to escape.She appeared to be buying my act too which was either good or bad. With my stepmother one could never know.“I would not have minded being in charge. I mean, I am to assume his position one day, you know? With his failing health, that could be sooner than we think,” I said to her in the plainest tone I could muster. She did not look too pleased with what I had just said and she expressed this with a smile, “we must not say such things, dear prince.”I
Alira’s POVThe stuff of Lengend… Some people called me that.I wondered if this man who was now pacing before me, I wondered if he knew who I really was, if he would tremble in fear. After all, as the rumours went, no one who saw me had ever lived to tell the tale.“You say that your stepson was kidnapped and you suspect Alpha Damien?” he asked me, not quite believing what I had just told him.This was Elder Zigmund. He was considered by most as the highest authority in the council. The others on the council had not been hard to convince. Most had visited Alira and so it was not difficult to convince them, they said it was blackmail but I did not see it that way.I believed it was a necessary tactic. I had worked hard to gain the trust of these men, and now was not the time to let sentiment ruin everything.“That is right,” I said to him in a confident tone.There was no way Orion would return to the pack after the message I had left in his dinner. He had run just like I had told hi
Damien's POV I was hurt. My feelings were hurt, deeply. Olivia really sounded like she was over me. She had matured a lot since she had first left my palace or more like run away from here. She looked at me with eyes that told me that she did not trust me. It broke my heart to be looked upon that way but there did not seem to be anything I could do to change how she felt about me.I had wanted to bring up Jeremy. I had wanted to talk about letting him know that I was his father but it did not seem like the right time to bring it up, the problem was that it never felt like the right time.“The guards said I will find you here,” we both turned to see Jeremy bouncing into the room. He looked happy today, like a burden had been lifted from him. I was glad to see him so cheerful. I knew that Simeon's abuse and his consequent kidnap had taken an emotional toll on him.It had been difficult watching him retreat into silence at night, often curled up beside Olivia with his arms tightly wrapp
Olivia's POVI had crawled out of that day to meet no one in the study. I forgot about the book for a while too because my life was just more important than some book. The fear of execution had been my greatest nightmare in my childhood. It had been because lots of servants got executed, even those who had been wrongfully accused or just unfortunate to get caught up in a misunderstanding.But curiosity got the best of me and it was not the book this time that led me to the study even though I had told myself that. It was the hidden room in the Alpha's study I was curious about.I returned to the same place I had hidden myself and discovered it was a short corridor that led to another room. I had discovered so many other tunnels and secret passageways and by the time I was twelve, I could disappear for days at a time and no one would miss me.When I turned fourteen, I had a plan to escape the palace but I had fallen in love around that time and soon those plans had faded into the backg
Olivia's POV “I think Austin has left,” said Orion to me. I could not make out his face in the dark but his voice sounded scared.“You can't go back in there,” I told him, holding his hand to stop him from going into the study.“I cannot stay here, forever,” he said to me, sounding frightened.“I know, follow me,” I said to him. I held onto his hand and walked slowly through the narrow space that we were in.We walked for a while and then I hit a wall. I paused, then tapped the wall six times. It opened to a room that no one but me knew in this palace. By the look of things this room had remained untouched.I glanced at the book that I had stolen from the Alpha's desk and it brought a smile to my face. I spied something else too and picked it up.It was full of dust and as I lifted it, a lot of dust blew up in my nose.“What's this?” Orion asked me.I tore a part of the large paper, “Here, this is going to take you out of the blood moon pack.”“Olivia? What's happening?” he asked me,