ASTRID.
I stand there, shock still washing over me. He hisses under his breath and jostled me outside of the cell."Follow me." He says, his hands tightening around the edge of my arm. I can’t even remember the last time I had walked on my legs. We climbed a few ancient stairs, the light propping through my face.My eyes shut due to the light, because it's been a really long time. As we passed the ancient stairs, I saw the portraits that lined up the wall. The portraits are the only thing my father cherished. It consists of every bloodline in the Alpha family, each family picture taken according to each generation. At least. That’s one thing Alpha Lucien didn’t take away from us.I stare at my great-grandmother, the previous Alpha. My grand-father. My father, and then me. The picture was taken on my seventeenth birthday, I had worn my finest gowns, my mother had even dabbled my face with powder.I stare at my seventeen year old self. The light long blonde hair that had always ruled our bloodline, our soft golden eyes flecked with a layer of brown. My seventeen year old self stared back at me, if only she knew what would befall her. We approached a room, and he pushed me in roughly before leaving.This was my seventeen year old room, everywhere was still the same as it was five years ago, like any normal teenager ready to begin the first phase of her life, swords I used to practice with my father still lay there untouched, I can’t even remember how to use a sword anymore. Why was I here? Was Zeke trying to torment me? The door was pushed open, wind flushed through my face. A woman bobs in."Hello. I am Evelyn." She chirps over to me. "I am the assistant pack-keeper, I am here to fix you up." She says, like it’s her job to do exactly that.I don’t recognize her, so I presume she’s newly hired after the war. She doesn’t look old, we are roughly around the same age, with her being a few years older."Let’s get you fixed up." She rings the golden bell in my room, and the other maids flood in, they take me towards the bath, and bathe me. One rubs oil onto my pale skin, another washes my hair.Evelyn orders them on what to do. I stare up from the tub, my long blonde hair covering my body. "Why are you doing this to me?" I found myself asking, my body trembling from under the warm water."The Alpha ordered for us to do this." She smiles weakly, she feels sorry for me. I can almost see it in her lids.When they were done bathing me, they led me towards the chair facing the mirror. I stare at my reflection in the mirror, even after years. My eyes haven't seemed to change one bit, and after the bath. My hair is silky, long and soft.I sighed in my seat, they dab make-up onto my face. They settle me in a red bodice gown that reveals my collarbone.When they are done. They left the room, I am all alone with Evelyn now."You look beautiful." She says gently."What does the Alpha want from me?" I ask, my throat is dry and I realize I have not had breakfast at all. She senses my discomfort and orders the food to be brought in.The trolley was pushed in, seeing the food that racked the tray makes my body savor. For years, I had been served nothing but cold toast. Seeing the different categories of food makes me almost want to say thank you.I pick up the spoon and shove the rice into my mouth."Gently." Evelyn says. "I am sure there are plenty more to come."Is there truly more to come, or will I be thrown back into the dungeon? I don’t want to think about anything as I shove plenty of food into my mouth.Evelyn watches me quietly from under her long lashes, I wonder what’s going on in her mind, I wonder if she knew about everything, about the war. I wonder if she knew that my family once ruled this pack, and if not for the war. I would have been the Alpha, I would have gotten my mate, I would have had were-pups of my own.After the food is cleared, Evelyn says. "I am going to leave now, please stay in the room. The alpha will meet you in the evening," She bows gently, before exiting the room.Again, the lonely room reminds me that I am alone. What does the Alpha want from me? Does he want to torture me the same way his father did? I am scared, afraid of what he’s going to do to me. The candle flecks illuminated light. The gold speckle of the fire reminds me of the color of my own eyes.I stay on the bed waiting. When I was seventeen, I hadn’t heard about Zeke before, though then, he would attending the academy. When a wolf turns eighteen years, they go to the academy where they spend three years, one can choose out of varieties of courses. I wanted to become a doctor, but the war took that away from me.I sighed deeply, staring at my red gown that descended down to my legs, a cut in the shoulder, giving my collarbone a splendid view from afar, my hair being held into a perfect bun, pins attached to one end.I took a nap on the bed, when I awoke. Night has stretched really far, everywhere is inharmoniously quiet. I can hear the hooting of the owls from outside, that instant, the door flushes open. My heart thrums against my rib cage, sweat forms in the layer of my brows, a shiver running through my spine, it’s like years ago when I was running, the dread that ran up my body, it was coming back to me, this time, churning my stomach so badly.My breath stilled for a moment. I hear his footsteps growling on the tile floor. He’s here.ASTRID. I stay there on the bed, sweat clanging towards my forehead. I can’t move, I can’t even stare up at him. His cologne spiked my nostrils hard, shivering. I look away. "Look at me." He says, his voice hard as gravel. With a pounding heart, my gaze locked with me, and oh. He’s way more different than his father, his wavy brown hair stops below the baseline of his neck, his eyes blue deep as the ocean. There's something on his neck, a tattoo of a dragon. I swallow, another rush of apprehension pounding through me. "What do you want from me?" I managed to ask weakly, my voice trembling. The room tightens around me, my wolf almost stumbling through her knees. "You want to know what I want from you?" I hear the most dreadful chuckle. He takes a seat beside the edge of the bed. It creaks above me. I shiver. He grabs my chin roughly and forces me to look at him, I stare at his fine face, tears threatening to rush down my face. The tip of his finger grazes my jaw, he chuckles. "
ASTRID. He pushes me back gently, and I stare at his dark gray eyes shimmering in the dark. My heart throbs ever so painfully, I want to look away but my eyes stay glued to him. "Where are you going?" His dark eyes never leave mine, electricity cackles in my bones. Look away, I so badly want to do that, but my hands tremble. "Who are you?" I asked, my voice shaking badly, his eyes roamed to my tiny nightgown, a layer of dark forming in his eyes, he steps closer and I inhale the sharp smell of his cologne. "I am the Alpha of this pack." I stare, mouth agape at me, my head throbs and I think I am going to faint. I catch a whisk of a dragon tattoo at the baseline of his neck. Earlier, I spotted it on Zeke’s neck. Is he Zeke? "I am not Zeke." As if sensing my question, he snarls. "I am Logan, his twin brother, we are both the Alpha of this pack." When did my father’s enemy have twins? I stare at them both, there’s only a slight resemblance, their eyes are different, while Zeke's is
ASTRID.The next day came hurriedly. I sprinted out of bed, my primary job as an Omega was making sure that the pack-house was clean, and ensured that I fed to the high rank pups.In the last floor of the pack-house, I was sweeping the artifacts room, it’s the room that stored all the history of the pack, when I was young, I had remembered being here, my father showing me around, he had said that for me to become a good ruler, I would have to know the whole history of the pack.Tears fill my eyes as I recount the way my life had changed in so many ways over the past few years, I sighed. The door busted open and Juniper ran inside, her brunette hair tied into a messy bun."Astrid." She says in panic, her light brown eyes which itched for gossip yesterday etched with nothing but plain horror.Has something happened? Worry twists my gut, I let my broom fall to the floor, the bucket of water splashing around the floor, but I couldn’t seem to care less."What’s going on?" I hurriedly asked
ASTRID.There’s a deafening silence in the courtyard, and Zeke approaches us, everyone immediately bows to him, his aura is strong, I feel weak, I feel tiny."Logan." Zeke calls out hardly, the twins glare at each other, their eyes a layer of red. Do they hate each other? Is this how their life is? I see the disdain that flashes through Logan’s eyes. "Why are you here?"Zeke seethes his teeth, rapping his knuckles together. "I am just claiming what is mine."Logan steps further, and I think a fight is about to ensue, the Omegas are all watching with dubious eyes, my heart is thrumming against my rib cage, what if they hurt each other?Zeke finally relaxes, but his aura doesn’t leave him. "Pick another surrogate, brother. She’s off limits."I hear a sigh from Logan, I stare at his face, he doesn’t look at mine. I see his eyes snap over to Juniper and I inhale."Her. I pick her." He turns and walks away, the image crosses my eyes.Zeke turned around and walked towards me. "Follow me."
ZEKE."Let’s just get this over with." I almost growled in my seat, my brother gave me a straight look and I felt the urge to smash his face.He smirks again, this time, and I know what he’s doing. He’s playing with me, toying with me. That usual smirk of his never leaving his lips.Sometimes, I wonder how we are related in the first place, aside from the dragon tattoo that’s located at the baseline of our neck, it’s hard to tell that we are related.The room is quiet, Logan and I are in our late father’s office for the reading of my father’s legacy statement. He's not a good man, even I know that and being here makes me want to throw something.The door bursts open and the pack priest walks in, holding a scroll, behind him is Madam Yv, she has been my mother’s chamber lady and has since taken care of us.She gives us a sharp look, warning us to be on our best behavior, she stands behind the priest and waits for him to speak.The priest takes turns in bowing to us both, "Your father o
ASTRID.Oh goddess. What’s wrong with me?I held my breath and ran back into the hall. I was almost caught, my heart beating rapidly at the prospect of what I was doing.I could feel it in my blood, he knew I was there, the moment he swirled, I ran. What’s happening to me?‘You can’t run from your mate.’The word came back to me, and I almost snapped, mate. Could it be the mate bond? My mother told me a lot about the mate bond: It was a bond felt within two particular werewolves, it was so strong, it couldn’t be ignored."It’s more than love." She had told me, while picking out the dress I would wear. "It’s like power, like strength. The feeling is so good, mates have a tendency to talk to each other through mind-link, they can wish for the other to be there and they will."I listened, hoping, day-dreaming that I would love my fated mate, I remembered praying to the moon goddess, hoping like a fool.I walk towards the pack-library, the Liberian gives me a smile as I walk towards the s
ZEKE.The ride was everything that I needed, cleared my stormy head, even riled up a conversation with my brother, Logan.I stopped at the door of my room, peeling my shirt open and certainly when I opened the door, I did not expect to see a blonde vixen inside my room."What in the fuck are you doing here?" I growled, she didn’t wince, nor did she recoil.Her eyes studied me down unto my chest, a blush rising up to her cheeks. "You like what you see, blonde vixen?" I take a step forward and she inhales deeply, this time when she stared up to look at me, those mysterious golden eyes didn’t reeked of fear.It reeked of something else, pleasure."What if I say that I do?" She takes a step forward, licking her lower lips.This woman is tempting me, making me want to growl, making my wolf want to peel open."Did you say something, temptress?" I chuckled deeply, the memory of her body haunting me like a dream.Her eyes travel towards my bare chest ever so openly, she stands there, saying
ASTRID.This morning, I woke up with a headache.Everything that happened last night comes back to me, I can’t believe I have almost cried. How dare he joke about mates like that?"Fuck!" I growl to no one in particular before pushing myself out of the bed, my body connects with the floor and I whimper in pain.I stayed there on the floor of my bedroom, not even making an attempt to get up, when I pushed myself back up. I see something.Gleaming under the bed, tucked so nicely, one could barely see it, I squint closer, peering my eyes into it. I stretched and retrieved it.The diamond sparkles in the light, the rope a little dangling, it’s ancient, I think."What is it?" My wolf, Aya calls out to me, I can hear her early morning purr.My eyes study the necklace, the green gleam flashing in my eyes. I don’t ever remember owning this even when I was a little kid, my parents didn’t give this to me, so what is it?I reach for it, and strap it towards my neck, it comes so fast, a series of