PATRICK'S POV.“Congrats son.” I greet Nikolai making sure there are enough people to witness it. I give him a side hug and pat his back gently. He smells nice, like he always has. I don’t hug him very often, unless the occasion calls for it but I know what my son smells like, I always do. In the eyes of the crowd we are a loving team and it’s not entirely far from the truth. We are a team, just not a loving one. I felt Nikolai's love for me. . . . and practically everyone else fade slowly after his mother’s death, all his emotions slowly being swept away by pain and loneliness.As a good father, I should have been worried and I would have been worried if he weren’t my first son. He was going to have to rid himself of the emotions anyway, it just happened sooner. I watch my son go from a loving, sweet ever-cheerful kid to a cold hearted warrior. The soft look he used to have in his eyes, vanished. As an Alpha, I was proud. Proud of the monster I created, proud of what he grew up to b
HUNTER'S POV “The king is dead!!” someone cries and gets the attention of everyone in the room. They all turn to face him with different expressions, some angry, some shocked and some amused. I stare at him with nothing on my handsome face but utter confusion. “Hey, what did you just say?” Nikolai asks walking towards the guy in his unnecessarily long and shiny royal regalia that is making his movements so slow, it seems like he’s walking but not leaving the same spot. I almost forgot he’s the king's son. Wait, the king is dead?! “I saw him, lying on the floor, he was lifeless.” The guy repeated, breathless. He’s panting heavily and balls of perspiration roll from his face ceaselessly. His clothe is soaked too so I take it that he ran all the way here from wherever it is that he claims to have seen the body of the King. I take a closer look at his face and he’s not someone I know neither does he familiar. I take an even closer look as if I can validate what he’s saying by looking a
NIKOLAI'S POV. He died way sooner than I expected, not that I’m sad about it, I’m not. In fact, I don’t know how I feel about his death, yet and I don’t know if I might figure it out or not but for now, all I know is that I don’t feel anything. I am completely devoid of any emotions whatsoever. I watch as Hunter and the guard struggle to carry my father’s dead body, he’s not a large man, he’s bulky but not large. I’ve seen enough dead bodies to know that it has nothing to do with their size or how much they weighed when they were alive, dead bodies are just naturally heavy. I guess that’s why people say “dead weight.” I think. Bringing just a few people here to see him in this state was me doing my father a favor. He would never have wanted to be seen like this, he was a man of great pride. I can’t believe he’s now a “was.” It feels so unreal. “Where are we taking him? Hunter asks. I saw a smile creep up on his face when he was staring at my dad's body. I remember how confused he
WINTER'S POV. Turns out Patrick didn’t die unprepared. He’s still haunting me even in death. The guards are determined to leave as many bruises as possible on my body before killing me as instructed by their king. Their dead king. What are these guys? Zombies? “I know he instructed you guys to do this but I want you guys to know you no longer have to. He’s dead.” I say trying to talk them out of doing whatever it is they intend to do with me before the inevitable but they pretend like they don’t hear me. Maybe they don’t so I try again and one of them snaps at me. “Shut up!” he yells in his deep voice and I comply. No need to hasten my death by making them even more angry than they already are. They haul me out of the house through the back door. I wonder why they go through the back? It’s not like any of the maids can stand up to them except maybe the one with red pupils, that woman can scare the shit out of anybody without even trying. Her face does not in any way match her v
HUNTER'S POV. “Where is he? What’s going on?” Sherry asked me, worry washing all over her flawless face. Everything is okay but he’s busy kissing someone else and he never even had any intention to marry you in the first place. “Hunter?!” She yells and I realize I’m staring at her instead of answering her question. Wait, she knows my name? “Sorry, what?” I say and she walks past me in frustration but walks back when she realizes that I’m her only chance at finding Nikolai. “Do you know where he is?” I don’t know what to tell her or how to tell her. Would Nikolai want to tell her? My dilemma comes to an end when Nikolai emerges from a corner hand in hand with Winter. I guess I don’t have to tell her anything now. I walk past her but I don’t know where I’m going. I just want to get out of here. “Hunter.” Winter calls but I pretend not to hear herm. I keep walking and she catches up to me and touches my shoulder. Her touch sent sparks flying through my body. She doesn’t eve
NIKOLAI'S POV. Sometimes, i just don’t understand Hunter. Whose side his he even on? I return to the house with Winter, hand in hand. The maids stare at me as I walk in but they don’t dare to say anything. “Get me a towel and a bowl of warm water.” I say to one of them. “There's no need, I’m fine.” Winter protests but I ignore her. She has bruises all over and it’s hard to even look at, maybe I should just take her to the doctor but I don’t want to draw attention to us. My father just died, I can’t be seen parading the pack with a woman. It’ll raise a lot of suspicions and they’ll consider it disrespect to my dead Father even though we all know the man deserves no respect whatsoever. The maid comes back with towel and warm water. Their presence seems to make Winter uncomfortable so I asked them to leave before pulling her to sit beside me on the couch. “Do you even know what you’re doing?” she asks as I hopelessly fondle with the towel. “I may not look like it but I’ve do
PRIEST'S POV. I awake at the first crow of the cock to prepare for the meeting at the palace. I wonder what it is going to be like, truly. Since the spirits have refused to speak to me, I can no longer see far and beyond like I used to, I am left to predict things with my half-baked wits and I’m now reduced to “wondering” like the rest of the pack instead of “knowing” like I used to. I slick my hair back with saliva and hope that it stays in place but it doesn’t so I just give up. No one is going to be looking at me anyway. That’s one thing about being a priest; if you’re not passing on a message, no one sees you, it’s like you’re invincible. If they don’t have a problem to solve, you’re practically useless to them. So unless you’re solving a problem or being a mouthpiece of the goddess, you can not be seen. Invincibility has kind of become kind of my superpower these past few days. I grab everything that I think is necessary before making my way to the Palace. It would have been
NIKOLAI'S POV. These old men are starting to get on my nerves with all these questions about how my father died. Why do they want to know? To thank who did it? Because we both know they’re not asking because they care, they’re just curious. My father never really respected them or their opinions and I know they wanted him gone so what is this hypocritical behaviour they’re exhibiting? “The burial should take place immediately.” The eldest says and I couldn’t agree more. He’s the first to say something reasonable since the start of this meeting. The priest looks like he’d rather be anywhere but here, I guess he’s not a big fan of the elders either. “Are there any special rites of passage that we should be performing?” They ask the priest and he shakes his head sideways. “It will be done in the normal way.” He answers and I begin to wonder why the spirits are still silent. I used to think that the day my father dies, it’s going to be a big deal and we’re going to have to perform a