Chapter Five

Emily's POV

I spent three weeks in the room before I decided to give the king my answer. During those three weeks, I had his undivided attention all through as he seemed to have abandoned all kingly duties. He made me his main topic and we did everything together. We dined together, talked together and I even started to confide in him a few details of my past.

Whilst all this happened, I was thinking critically to myself about the choice I was going to make, it felt as if I really had no choice but to say yes. Before I did, I wanted to make sure the man I was involved with was as kind as he proposed to be. 

I mean a man who was four hundred years old, why would he fall in love with me? So I spent a few weeks watching his mannerisms and the hidden glances behind his gestures but I found nothing amiss. Maybe he was real I thought, maybe there was a chance that he really loved me but I knew deep down within the hollow in my soul that something was amiss. 

I sat down at my mirror on the fateful day, I was already prepared to tell him yes and move on with it. It was better to be a queen than die as a servant, that was my preliminary thought. At least by being a queen, I had a preliminary control over my life, no matter how little. 

I stood up from the mirror, and I could see the jealousy of the maids making my bed. They envied me and even bore a bit of hatred for me. For some reason they felt we were the same, they didn't have the slightest inkling what I was. If not for the tides of fate, I would never be at the mercy of a king. 

A knock sounded on my door and one of the servants rushed to open it but I stopped her. “Let me get it, I am closer,” I walked to the door and opened it but there was no one there. I furrowed my brows in confusion but then my gaze wandered to the ground and I saw a small piece of paper on the floor. 

I opened the paper and it held a simple note. “Follow the claws, Now!!” the note said. I glanced around and then shut the door.  

I put the note in my gown's pocket before I decided to head out. I wanted to know who sent me the message. I walked down the hall and I hadn't walked long when I saw a peculiar claw mark on the wall pointing towards the north. I followed it and on the way I encountered a series of claw marks and I followed their directions. 

At last, I reached a point where it wasn't pointing anywhere. I was in a secluded area of the palace and I could hear my own heartbeat with the kind of silence exuding from the area. I was about to turn around in fear when a hand gripped my arm and I shuddered. 

The hand pulled me into a long narrow passage and I was face to face with Aiden, the king's twin brother. 

“What is this?” I asked and he clamped his palm against my mouth forcefully. I froze, my mind wandering toward another awful encounter but after a while, he released me and gestured for me to be quiet.

He turned around and then started to walk away and I suspected he wanted me to follow him. I did and at last, we reached an opening. When I stepped outside of the passage I was thrown into a large expanse of land that exuded a pungent odor. I sniffled and sneezed from how thick the air was but then my eyes fell on what the expanse entailed. There were bodies… series and series of mutilated bodies of people.  

“What is this?” I asked, shrinking backward.

“You in about two weeks,” Aiden replied with a nonchalant tone while smiling at me.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You want to marry my brother, don't you?” He said.

“Yes…?” I replied offhandedly, taking backward steps each time he spoke. “Well then get ready to join the biomass here,” he chuckled.

“This isn't funny,” I retorted. 

“It isn't? I kinda find it funny but I picked up weird humor over the centuries,” he smiled. 

“Centu…?” Then it clicked in her head, Alan had called him his twin brother. He was old too. “You are that old too?” I asked. 

“We wouldn't be twins if I am not,” he replied. 

“Okay, so what are these bodies about,” I said walking away completely from the area. 

He walked forward and yawned. “Let me tell you our story,” he said. “So you will understand one or two things. My brother is not necessarily evil, but a predator cannot fall in love with a prey and my brother is the apex predator,” he said. 

“I am listening,” I replied.

“See I come from a long line of wolves called the primordial wolf,” he said with a smile. 

I widened my eyes. I have read about this in the past, in fact, my tutors had told me tales of these wolves. They were the first wolves, the ones that were tied to the first curse that brought about werewolves. They said they had a ridiculously long life and were functionally immortal. 

“You…?” I muttered. 

“Yes, and you see my twin brother is not. Our mother committed an abomination during our birth. She basically slept with two men, if you catch my speed so yeah. I ended up with my primordial father's DNA. Alan ended up with the other side,” he said.

“So he didn't have a long life like you?” I asked. 

“No, in fact, it made him ill as a kid. He got very ill due to my mother's genes as primordial and his father being an ordinary human,” he explained. “This illness made him crazy for power, so he sorted out the shamans and they found a way for him to keep living healthily, as long as I did,” he gestured to the dead bodies. “He uses their souls to buy his own back from the realm of the dead,”  

“By the moon!” I exclaimed. “All of them?” I asked. 

“Yes, but the catch is, they cannot be a werewolf, and you technically are not a werewolf are you?” He asked. 

I shook my head. “Why are you telling me this?” 

“Because I find you quite likable and it would be a shame to see you die,” he said. 

“What do I do now?” I asked, my head pounding as my heart smashed against my chest.

“I will help you escape,” he said.