King Kanyon stooped down next to the young girl, dressed in a bright midnight blue gown. Even though it was covered in mud and blood, his eyes admired the intricate designs. The stitching and embroidery down at the hem could only be found in the Blackwood kingdom, the place where his late wife, Princess Eleanor was from. He shelved his curiosity about the dress and inspected the girl for any injuries. The King had seen a lot of horror stories in his life, but this took the cake. He couldn't cipher how one tiny girl could have so many old and new wounds. When the King lifted her gown to inspect her thighs, Cameron had to turn his head away. There were burn marks and scars everywhere. “Who did this to her?” He grunted. “That person must be pure evil,” Cameron stated. He knew by the way the King was clenching his jaw that he wanted to meet this person and give them a taste of their own medicine. The King sighed and stated, “It doesn't appear that she was raped. But we're go
"Pregnant!" King Kanyon raved. “You're suggesting that someone hurt this girl and left her for dead while she is carrying a child? You wait until I find out who did this. They are dead. I don't care if they beg for mercy. I'm going to rip their spines out through their throats." The King's rage was scaring the doctor and nurses. He quickly calmed down when he smelt their fears. "Forgive my outburst," he apologized. "Is there anything else I should know?" "No, your majesty," doctor Anna answered. "For now, we will just monitor her and make sure she remains stabilized. We've given her pain and inflammation medications that are safe for pregnant women. Now we're going to bandage her broken bones." "OK. I'm going to step out for a while. But I will come right back. If anything changes before that. Come get me immediately." "Yes, your majesty," doctor Anna bowed. "Very well then," he sighed as he stepped out of the room and headed for the waiting area. He caught sight of the alpha
Over the next few days, Jessica showed no signs of change. The King barely left her side. He had his meals in her room and slept on a couch situated in the corner. He even used the bathroom that was in her hospital room. The only time he left was when he took his beast out for a run. In the late hours of the night, his beast stirred him awake. Sinbad couldn't sleep. He was worried about Jessica. ‘Hey, Sin. What's wrong? Why are you pacing around up there? I'm trying to sleep.’ Kanyon rubbed his eyes and sat up on the couch. ‘I'm worried about the girl, plus I've been waiting for you to bring up an important factor that you've been avoiding.’ Kanyon took a deep breath, stood up, and made his way to the table. He picked up the pitcher and poured water into a cup. He gulped it down and said, ‘I don't know what you're talking about.’ ‘Don't play with me, Kan. I know you detected it when we first found her and I know you can smell it now,’ Sinbad declared. ‘She's our mate.’ ‘
As another month ticked away, Jessica remained in her coma. Kanyon was growing more restless by the day. All he wanted was for her to open her eyes. "Why isn't she waking up?" He asked doctor Anna. "I don't know, your majesty. I really don't know," she sighed. "At least she's breathing on her own now." "Do you think she's fit enough for me to take her back to my kingdom?" "If you take a plane rather than travel on foot, I don't see why not. You'll be there in a couple of days. I'll even fly with you to monitor the girl." "Thank you, Anna. I appreciate it," he nodded. "I'll arrange things with Alpha Daniel. I know he has a private jet that he'll let me use." ******* Five days later, the plane landed in the kingdom of Lycania. Scores of Lycans were lined up waiting for their king's arrival. Word of the comatose omega spread like wildfire. People wanted to catch a glimpse of the girl who kept their king away from them for weeks. As they moved Jessica toward the Lycan h
Kanyon stayed by Jessica's bedside, holding her hand while Doctor Peterson delivered the awful news to him. "Your majesty. We cannot find the baby's heartbeat on any of the monitors." The doctor gave the King a few moments to catch his breath. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?" "Yes King Kanyon. The young lady has suffered a miscarriage." The doctor bowed his head, not only in respect for his king, but also because the anger and sadness radiating from King Kanyon was choking him from the inside out. "How will we treat this? She's still in a coma." Kanyon's chest ached. He hated death. Death took everything important away from him. Now he worried for the mother. Would she be the one to die next? "We need to conduct a c-section to extract the fetus," the doctor explained. "I just hope the she-wolf's body is strong enough to survive the surgery." "This is all too much for one girl to endure," Kanyon snapped. "Is it possible for us to wait and see if she'll wake
Days passed, and the orange leaves began to fall leaving tree branches cold and naked. Winter was here, and it wanted everyone to know it. The biting chill outside was so much so that it was seeping through the walls and any cracks it could find. Jessica's eyes blinked open, yet the glaring light caused her to immediately close them once more. Her eyeballs felt dry, like she had swum with them open in a desert of sand. On top of all of this, her head and muscles hurt. To her, it seemed as if years had gone by without using her limbs. She smacked her lips together, trying to soothe her parched throat with her saliva. She was so thirsty, her lips felt like sandpaper. She willed her eyes open and took in the details of the room. Everything was unfamiliar. Where am I? She pondered internally. She noticed tubes protruding from her arms and strings connecting her chest to a machine. She ripped them off. Jessica's skin went ashen. She found herself in a panic. She raised her hand to
For days, King Kanyon had been running in beast form, killing every animal he saw in sight. He was so angry with the Moon Goddess for taking yet another thing that he had come to love away from him. He wanted the pup to survive so he could grow up and call him papa, and he wanted to train him so that maybe one day he could take over the throne. 'I think we should go back now,' Sinbad stated in a worrying tone. 'We've been at it for almost a week. I'm tired and you need a shower.' Kanyon said nothing as Sinbad slowed down. He let his beast take him back to the castle. He sneaked into his bedroom without raising any alarms and then enjoyed a lengthy, hot shower. While he was slipping a T-shirt over his head, Cameron's voice thundered in his brain. 'Kanyon, where are you?' 'No need to shout! I'm at the castle. What is it?' Kanyon answered, frustrated. He wanted to sleep off his journey and then deal with problems the next day. 'It's the girl, she's awake!' Kanyon's face wen
Jessica pressed her bare feet into the dirt at her son's grave. She felt numb all over. She was unable to cry, move, or even blink. This man explained to her that her son had already died before entering the world. She blamed herself. She was too weak. A low bred omega. She was nothing but scum on this earth. Had she been stronger or persevered a bit longer, her son would still be alive today. She needed to see him, to hold him in her arms. 'King Kanyon,' doctor Peterson's voice spoke through the link. 'I just got her test results back. I'm afraid I have bad news.' 'Tell me what it is.' 'The girl was so badly beaten that her womb was detached, and it's not healing properly. That's what led to her miscarriage. I'm afraid by the looks of things, the young girl can never bear any more children.' 'Thank you for telling me, doctor. I will break the news to her myself.' Kanyon felt a bitter taste in his mouth, realizing he had to deliver yet more terrible news to her. He con
The land beyond the northern ridge was unrecognizable.What once was fertile farmland had turned to ash and bone. Smoke curled from still-smoldering fields, and the wind carried the iron stench of blood. Birds no longer sang here. Even the crows kept their distance.Kanyon led the charge, his beast just beneath the surface, itching to break free. DJ rode beside him, stoic as ever, though his knuckles were white against the reins. Behind them, a hundred of the kingdom's best warriors moved in formation, senses sharp, weapons drawn. The silence of the land disturbed even the most hardened among them."Your Majesty," Cameron said, eyes scanning the horizon. "Luxair Valley's gone. Burned clean through. No survivors."Kanyon didn't speak. He couldn't. His chest was a cage of pressure, tightening with every step closer to the truth. This wasn't the work of mindless beasts or rogue packs. This... this was war. And whoever had started it, they knew the kingdom intimately.He had a sinking fee
The night air was thick with mist, curling like fingers along the crooked streets. In the distance, lycans howled, but here, near the edges of the kingdom, the shadows moved differently—heavier, hungrier.The Baktu glided through the mist like smoke, her form barely visible to mortal eyes. Where she passed, streetlamps flickered and dimmed, casting long, twitching shadows over the cracked pavement.Her target stumbled out of a dingy bar, reeking of ale and regret.Cory.Once a proud man, now reduced to a shell of himself, unshaven, bloodshot eyes, clothes rumpled. He lurched forward, muttering slurred curses under his breath. Constance followed silently, savouring the desperation that rolled off him in waves."Oh Jessica," he muttered, lifting a bottle of moonshine wrapped in a brown paper bag to his head. He still obsessed over her. Still pined for what he had lost—and would never reclaim on his own.Cory kicked a broken bottle down the sidewalk, his boot scuffing the asphalt as he s
June's hands hovered above Daniel's broken body, magic swirling at her fingertips. Her lips pressed into a hard line as she tried spell after spell. The lights flickered, danced—and fizzled out, but nothing else was happening. She felt drained and she felt like giving up. With a frustrated grunt, June finally sat back on her heels. She wiped the sweat from her brow and looked at them all."I can't summon Opal," she said heavily. "Her magic... it's too strong. It's like trying to leash a hurricane with a fishing net. She'll feel the attempt and shake it off."A heavy silence fell over the room."The only way to get her here is," June added. "To go to her and convince her to come to us. The only thing I know is she lives on Mystic Mountain."Ariel tightened her arms around herself, staring down at Daniel, whose pitiful, animalistic whimpers were growing weaker by the second."Mystic Mountain..." Jessica murmured, exchanging a worried glance with Kanyon.DJ's jaw tightened. "Then we go.
Ariel didn't stop running until she reached the far end of the hallway. She had Dante wailing against her chest with one hand and the other holding her phone. Her hands shook so badly she almost dropped her phone as she fumbled to call DJ."Come back here. Now," she gasped the moment he answered. Her voice cracked with panic. "Please — it's Daniel. Something's wrong!"She hung up before he could say anything.Seconds later, DJ came tearing around the corner, his face pale and panicked.He skidded to a stop in front of her, reaching for Dante without hesitation."Take him to Reniece," Ariel choked out, handing the crying baby into DJ's arms. "Don't let Daniel near him. I have to get Queen Jessica and King Kanyon!"Without waiting for a response, Ariel spun and ran. The corridors blurring as she pushed herself faster.She found the King and Queen in their sitting room, hugging. It looked like they had made up after that heated argument earlier. They broke apart the second they saw Arie
The guest suite was too quiet. The kind of silence that pressed down on Ariel's chest and made it hard to breathe.She sat stiffly on the edge of the sofa, nervously twisting the hem of her sweater. Across from her, Daniel shifted in the armchair, his movements stiff, mechanical, wrong.His eyes, which were once so warm and so full of life — now looked hollow, like windows to a house long abandoned.DJ grinned from ear to ear, then he clapped a hand on his father's shoulder."Man, it's good to have you back, Dad," he said, his voice thick with emotion.Daniel smiled weakly but said nothing. His gaze flickered between DJ and Ariel, confusion and unease poorly masked behind that ghost of a smile.Ariel's heart squeezed painfully.He didn’t remember me. Nor did he remembered their son.But worse than that — worse than the empty look in his eyes was the smell.It wasn't fully vampiric, it lacked that sickly-sweet pungency, but it was there.Lingering in the air. Just wrong and unorthodox.
The heavy doors to their quarters slammed shut behind them with a deafening boom. Jessica flinched at the sound but refused to cower. She stood her ground as Kanyon paced in front of the fireplace, the muscles in his jaw ticking furiously. Yes, he was upset when he found out that Jessica dabbled in dark magic to bring Daniel back to life. But this, finding out that Constance is now a Baktu made everything even more detrimental. The temperature in the room felt hotter than the flames licking the hearth, the fury rolling off Kanyon in suffocating waves."You went behind my back," Kanyon growled, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "You. My Queen. The one person I should be able to trust above all others!"Jessica crossed her arms defiantly. "I did what needed to be done, Kanyon. You don't understand—""No! You don't understand!" he roared, whipping around to face her. His eyes, usually molten gold with warmth, now blazed like wildfire. "You brought back a dead Alpha using forbidden mag
"King Kanyon!" Daniel bowed. "What is going on and why am I here?" Daniel strode over to the king while he finished buttoning his shirt. "Alpha Daniel. Is that really you?""Of course it is, Your Majesty. Is this some kind of April Fool's joke?" he scoffed. "I wish it was," Cameron mumbled. "What's the last thing you remember?" Kanyon asked. "Well, Sofia and I had just celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary. First, we wandered through the park, then we ran a bit in wolf form, and after that, we went to bed. The next thing I knew I was waking up on that table over there," he finished, pointing to the mage's gurney-like table. "Father, that was over ten years ago," DJ spoke up. "Mom has been dead for fifteen years."Daniel's eyes landed on the tall, muscular man that just called him father. He looked like his son, but a way more mature version. "DJ, is that you? But you look so old. And Sofia is not dead. She can't be." "I'm thirty-five now, Dad, and yes, mom is dead." "How
"Cameron, what's going on? Everything started shaking, and I thought we were having an earthquake," Ren rushed into her husband's arms the moment she laid eyes on him. His gaze wandered to Theodore, who had a terrified Falcon in his arms."No, it's not an earthquake." He kissed the top of his wife's head before spreading a viral message through the pack link, urging all castle residents to get to their bedrooms, lock their doors, and widows then fortify the entrances with Moon Petals. He instructed the guards to secure every entrance and exit in the castle with Moon Petals as well. No one should come in or go out. "Are we under attack?" Falcon asked as he sank his face into Theodore's chest. The vampire prince held his mate tightly, stroking his shoulder for comfort. "No, but someone is doing something inside the castle that they shouldn't be doing," Cam let out. "Everyone stay close together and follow me. We're going to Lucy's chambers."******"Your Majesty," one of the nannies b
King Kanyon sat down at the head of the table while he conducted this meeting. “Cameron, is the Graceland kid still lurking around the town?” Kanyon inquired. “You mean Cory? Yes, he’s still being a creep. My informants told me he has been spending most of his time in the crafts shops,” Cam chuckled. “Why the hell was he still here?” Kanyon gritted his teeth. “I don’t know, but as long as he doesn’t come near the castle, and near Twinkle, I’m good,” Cam added. “Is there anything you’d like to add, DJ? Do you need any help with anything?” Kanyon asked DJ. “No. I cannot think of anything right now, but if I do, I’ll let you know,” he stated and the king could taste the sorrow on DJ as the young Alpha spoke, but he kept his composure. DJ's voice didn't crack once. “So Annabella is really gone?" he asked, leaning back in his seat with his palms resting flat on the table. "I'm sorry, man. I know how much she meant to you," Cameron rested a palm on DJ's shoulder. "Thank you, Master