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
NIKIOAI'S POV. “I’m not going with Sherry and that is final.” I say to Winter and leave the room without slamming the door. I can’t believe she can still say a thing like this after everything I just told her. I don’t want Sherry, I want her and if she can’t go with me to the funeral, then that’s fine. I don’t mind going alone. We still have plenty of other events to attend together. “Nikolai” she calls after me but I don’t reply or even look back. I should just leave and we can talk about it when I get back. I don’t want to say anything I might regret and not be able to take back. I inform the chief of staff, Mrs. Hyacinth about the funeral and she does the rest. She’s the most capable woman I know, I wonder how my father was able to keep her for so long after mother died. My mother was the one who brought Hyacinth to our house to work as a maid, my father was very skeptical about her eye color, he always referred to her as a witch but she never seem to mind my father’s disres
HYACINTH'S POV.I’ve been in this house for a very very long time and I have to say this is the first time that I actually enjoy being here, since the queen died that is. All the king's other wives or as I like to call them; extra wives are gone and so is the king. Living in this house for as long as I have was certainly not an easy task. It was practically torture but I had to stay, not because like torture but because I had to fulfil my promise to the late queen. She was the only person that treated me like a person when everyone else considered me an animal. She brought me into her home regardless of what her husband and everyone thought, she dedicated her time and energy to training me on how to do things that I never imagined I could. How could I not fulfill her wish? It was a very small price to pay for everything she had done for me. She practically saved my life, so I took care of the prince like he was my own and now that he’s all grown up fully capable of taking care of h
WINTER'S POV. “I love you too.” I say to Nikolai and he kisses the top of my nose. He hasn’t been able to contain his excitement since I agreed to attend his coronation and I’m really glad I talked to the scary woman who doesn’t seem so scary anymore and whose name I now know is Hyacinth. She seems to care a lot about Nikolai as much as he cares about her too. I guess she’s more than just a maid to him. She’s like his guardian. I can’t stop thinking about what she said about his mother accepting me before she even knew me. It makes me curious as to what kind of person she was. Nikolai never talks about her. When I hear the sound of the door click as Nikolai shuts it, I lay down on the bed and drown myself in my own thoughts. I’ve come a long way since I arrived in this pack, this body. I remember being enslaved by the very man I can’t do without right now. Life works in very mysterious ways, my life especially. The knob twists and the door creaks open, I sit up to see who it is
NIKOLAI'S POV. Winter sneezes for the third time in a row and I can’t stop blowing snot out of my nose, It’s a disaster. The ceremony is in just a few hours and I plan to introduce Winter to the pack tomorrow as well but if I was given a chance to start the day all over, I’ll make the exact same choices and I wouldn’t change a thing. I had fun with Winter today. A lot of fun. The feel of the water against my skin was electric and I couldn’t even tell if it was because it was cold or because Winter was in the water with me and her clothes stuck to her body like a second skin hugging all her curves and making her features more. . . .prominent. Her hair draped over her shoulders like she was the goddess of the goddamn ocean and maybe it was just me but I think she illuminated in the water. We played in the water for quite a while before finding our way back up. We kept splashing water on each other like children and competing with each other who could hold their breath under the wa