The morning was close by, she could feel it in the air and she could tell by the weather. The forest had been dark and cold and lonely, she was torn between emotions, being happy for Maya finally set free to return home, and sad about the fact that she might not be seeing her anytime soon. She consoled herself with the fact that as long as they both were alive, there would forever be chances for them to meet again.She rode her horse in a slow gallop out of the forest, heading back to the Elyrian castle, it was possible that both Triston and Alpha Ardon would have returned by now and she wondered if Alpha Ardon would immediately notice Maya's absence. She doubted that because he ever since the day he had captured her, she had never seen him go down there. But whatever be the case, by the time he would come to learn of her absence, Maya would have already been long gone, probably enjoying a refershing hot bath in her room.She chuckled at the sight in her imagination and it warmed her
Triston tried to reach out to her in worry but she held a hand back to stop him from getting closer or touching her."Did you see her off to the edge of the Nyxorian forest then?" he asked her again and Ivone again shook her head.She was gasping now and the discomfort she was feeling in her heart grew into a painful squeeze and without thinking, she reached out to Triston for support as she felt her legs begin to grow weak."What is happening to me, Triston?" she asked him in between gasps. Triston held on to her as she slowly gave her whole weight to him, and gently he lowered them both to the ground with Ivone protectively in his arms. She grabbed the dress around her chest and squeezed, feeling the pain build until it was most unbearable for her so she let out a scream and started rolling about in his arms.Triston held her to his chest now and cradled her head in his hand. He shut his eyes as she begun to cry from the pain she was feeling in her chest. Already, he knew what it wa
Alpha Korvin Thorold sat on the throne of Nyxoria with his his Delta, Kaiser Archon beside him, he had the other Deltas in the throne room as well and even Zina had been invited. None of them in the room were sure of why they had to be here but Dathan, under the command of Alpha Prince Reyes Thorold, had requested that Alpha Korvin and the others who held positions of high authority in Nyxoria be present as well."What did you say this was about, Dathan?" Alpha Korvin asked Dathan. They had been in here for almost thirty minutes now and he was already running out of patience, the only reason he was here was because his son had requested the meeting, but still it was just too early in the morning.Dathan turned to Alpha Korvin and bowed to him in respect, "I do not have all the details, Alpha, only that Alpha Prince Reyes had requested for this."Alpha Korvin sighed and reclined against the throne on which he sat. He turned to face Kaiser who forced a smile, signaling for him to remain
Murmurs broke out from among the people in the room following their gasps of shock, it was still very early in the moring, the sun was just beginning to shine and most of the citizens of Nyxoria were still asleep in their beds, yet this tragedy had come to the royal family of Nyxoria.Maya's body laid displayed on the table in the throne room before her father and the Delta's in high positions in the kingdom. The sight was gruesome, she had a gaping hole in her chest and was covered entirely in her own blood. Her hair was in a shambled mess, soaked in her own blood and clinging to the skin of her face.Reyes stood a couple of distance away from the table, he had his eyes fixed on his father who was shocked to the bone staring at the lifeless body of his only daughter. He had one hand stroking her hair while the other shaky hand hovered over her abdomen, slowly making its way up her body where it stopped at her chest, right over the hole in there and he trembled even more."How did thi
Zina had retreated to the back with her ladies in waiting, standing behind the Deltas who were now rallying in support of Reyes' ambition to bring war down upon Elyria."We will take one of theirs, we will take all of theirs and we will take more!" she heard him shout out in anger and zeal, and then the other Deltas yelled out in support.She could not get the image of Maya's dead body out of her mind. Although she and the girl really didn't see eye to eye, one reason being the fact that she herself found it repulsive that she was mated with a girl, and that girl was Ivone and Maya stubbornly refused to reject her. She disliked her for that."Enough of that, Reyes," Alpha Korvin finally spoke up and everyone went quiet. Reyes turned to face his father with a look of confusion on his face. His eyebrows furrowed in anger and he slowly approached his father."Enough of that?" he said and pointed a finger to his sister's dead body, "That is the result of you saying "enough of that" to me
Reyes smirked and his head rose in pride as one by one, the other Deltas fell on their knees and pledged their loyalty to him and his head swelled for a moment before his frown returned. He strolled up to the throne, stood in front of it and turned around to face the people in the room with him. He took one look at his father's body lying in the pool of his own blood and he smirked then scoffed, and his eyes went to Maya's body and his anger returned as memories of that scene replayed itself in his mind."I, Alpha Reyes Thorold of the Nightshade pack and ruler of Nyxoria, declare war on Alpha Prince Triston Valtor, on every member of the royal family of Elyria and on the kingdom of Elyria, for the brutal murder of my sister Maya Thorold, princess of Nyxoria," he announced in a deep baritone voice as he stood tall and proud, "For the sins of their Alpha Prince Triston Valtor they all would pay, every man, every woman, every child, every animal, every livestock.""Yes Alpha!" they all c
Alpha Ardon stood in his room facing the window, he was fully dressed like he was just about to head out but he had remained in his room when one of the workers had come to tell him that his son had requested an audience with him. He had found it strange because Triston almost never requested an audience with him, if he wanted to talk with him, he usually would just find him and talk, but this time he had requested?He had considered it too much of a hassle to go down to the throne room, so he had sent back his message that Triston meet him in his room instead, and now he waited for his son to come, he was intruiged to know what exactly it was that his son wanted to talk to him about, although he could guess that it had something to do with the Nyxorian princess he had killed earlier.The sun was high in the sky, Alpha Ardon had planned on going to Goral to see how the people there were faring after the attack yesterday. He might be seen as a cold, unloving and hard to please person,
"That is impossible," Alpha Ardon said lightly and turned away from his son, walking back towards the window, "There is no way they could be mated, right?""You have called for war with this, and Nyxoria would be sure to respond," Triston said but that was not what was really bothering his father right now.Alpha Ardon looked at Triston in disbelief and then pointed a finger at him, "But you had called her yours the other day. You had called Ivone yours."Triston sighed and placed both hands on his his, looking at his father in unbelief, was that really his problem right now and not the war that was now inevitable?"Should that really be the issue bothering you right now, Alpha Ardon of Elyria?" he asked but his father was unfazed."You had called her yours, what about that?"Triston gritted his teeth, "Ivone's scent is muct too similar to her sister's, Damaris, who was my mate, it confuses my wolf into taking her as my mate."Alpha Ardon chuckled and clapped his hands once, wearing a
It was dark out when her step mother came back again to the basement, this time she was bringing with her another set of food. Ivone groaned at the sound of her footsteps on the stairs, she still sat on the floor with her back against the wall for support because it was difficult staying upright on her own."It would seem Zina has allowed you to grown on her," she said as she got closer with a frown on her face, "And she even went on to tell you everything we should have kept away from you, do you know what that means?"Ivone heaved. She was feeling so weak that even breathing was taking up more strength than normal as she had to actively choose to breathe. She fixed a stern gaze on her step mother as she placed the tray of food on the floor in front of her and then she gave reply to her earlier question."It means you both are sick people..." she managed to speak with difficulty."No, not quite," Her step mother chuckled and then sat on the chair facing Ivone. She shook her head and
Ivone woke up still dizzy and her head felt very heavy like she was carrying a weight on it, she had slept off quite easily after having the meal her step mother had served her, she knew that the meals she was served mostly at night was obviously drugged to knock her out and keep her too weak to even contemplate an escape, but she could not refuse the meal because she did not want to starve and her step mother purposely gave her very little portions each time.It was daytime when she opened her eyes, the sun light filtering in from outside was not all that bright and she could not tell if the sun was just rising or about to set. She groaned and sat up, a meal had been kept in the usual place, on the floor by a corner and although her stomach grumbled in hunger, she knew she should not be eating that. She had lost count of how long she had been kept here and she knew she could not continue staying here because her step mother and step sister were determined to keep her here forever, i
Triston stood in front of the decaying horse, the earth around it had been thoroughly soaked in blood and the smell of death was heavy in the area. He could pick up two distinct scents from the blood, one belonging to the horse and the other belonging to a human, Maya's, he presumed."That was a stable horse from the castle," Xaren pointed out, drawing Triston's and the others attention. He had gotten down to a squat position at the head of the horse and was holding up a brown leather patch he had taken from the horse, pressed into the leather was the Elyrian royal crest. He stretched it over to Triston.Triston reached over and took the atch of brown leather and studied the crest on it, it was definitely the Elyrian royal crest so this was a horse taken from the stable, one that Maya had ridden that night no doubt. He looked down to the ground where he stood, in the middle of the soaked up earth, Maya must have been killed right here, at this very spot."Focus Xaren, the dead horse i
"It has been six days since Ivone left the castle Triston, are you not even a little bit worried about her? Where she could be and if she is doing alright?"Jaxon had come to the stables with Triston who seemed relaxed most times, and then out of it the other times, and he was sure that this Alpha Prince was worried about Ivone but was it his pride that was keeping him from actually showing concern? He suspected that they might have had a fall out but how big of a fall out would they have had that would have been enough to make Ivone leave the castle and probably leave the kingdom as well and Triston would not do nor say anything about it.Triston remained quite, standing beside his horse and stroking the animal's neck. He was worried about Ivone but he had refused to show it because he had been angry at her, for the words she had said to him and her behaviour towards him, he had been so angry at her. He had not noticed her absence on the first day and even on the second day until Jax
"What are you talking about?" Reyes asked him with a frown and Kasier's head came up, his gaze rested on Reyes. "If you are going to have me killed or imprisoned for life, I am requesting that you allow me see my family one more time before yoou carry out your judgement on me." "I'm not going to have you killed, Kasier Archon," he said with a relatively calm voice and a weight lifted off of Kasier's heart, imprisonment may be better than death, he thought, but Reyes continued, "And I am not going to have you imprisoned either." Kasier Archon was perplexed and it showed in his facial expression, if the young alpha was not going to do either, then what was it that he had in mind to do to him? Surely, letting him go was not part of what he had in mind. It could not be. Not for Reyes Thorold at least. Reyes observed the confusion in Kasier's facial expression and in his eyes, and somewhere lurking behind that confusion he could still see the fear. He grinned. "I am going to reinstate
He had only been Alpha for a couple of days now but he felt he had been carrying the title for much longer than that, one of the main reason he had wanted to become Alpha was so that he could have the free will to rain down attacks and war on Elyria, but for some strange and unknown reason even to him, he had delayed all that and instead had been dwelling on the kingdom's affairs, affairs that could easily be dealt with even in his absence.He sat on the throne in the throne room, a place where he had been for hours attending to one problem presented to him to another. Frankly, all these seemed boring to him and it was easy to tell because he had been yawning more frequently now like someone that had been deprived of days of sleep. Dathan stood beside him facing forward, with Reyes rise from Alpha Prince to Alpha, his own rank too had increased and now he was the second moost powerful person in the whole of Nyxoria."When will this all end Dathan?" Reyes asked him as he sat lazily on
She opened her eyes slowly but her vision was still a blur and somewhere in the back of her head ached. She blinked severally until her vision was cleared and she looked around the place she had come to find herself in. Last thing she remembered, she had been in the forest surrounded by three men and had been knocked out by a drug of some sort, and now she had woken up in a place that seemed like it was a basement in a house. Her head still ached and she tried to lift her hand up to her head, only then did she realize she had been tied up. Her eyes widened as she looked at the ropes binding her by the wrists to the arm of the chair she sat in and her feet were hels in chains. She suddenly began to hyperventilate and struggle against the ropes but it was of no use as they had been tied tightly. If this kidnap had been orchestrated by Reyes, then she needed to do everything possible to get out of here or her life would be in danger. She cursed as she looked around the place for anythi
She was back in the forest, back to the exact same spot where Maya had been murdered by Alpha Ardon of Elyria, the air still carried her scent and the strong smell of both her blood and that of the mutilated horse. She tried to imagine how Maya must have felt in that moment, if she had been here scared of dying alone, if she had felt the cold, how much pain she must have been in, and the feat that must have invaded her heart knowing that she could not escape death. She went down on the ground and squatted, then placed the flat side of her hand on the patch of earth that had drank Maya's blood and she cried. "I'm sorry," she sobbed and buried her face in her knees. She hated how she was feeling now, so very guilty and so very unworthy, like she should have been the one to die in Maya's stead. Maya would never come to learn of her betrayal and she would never get to apologize for that. She lifted her head up and took in a deep breath, trying to stop herself from sheding any more tear
"Did you find her?" Triston had asked her calmly but she didn't give an answer to his question immediately. He watched her from behind as her shoulders heaved and she brought her hand up to her face before crossing them. He guessed she had wiped a tear and then he heard her sniff before she responded to his question. "No," her voice was choked, "There was blood though, I saw that, enough to soak up the forest, there was also a bloody tree branch and a dead mutilated horse." Triston took in a deep breath and let it out, he wanted to console her so he took a step towards her but then Ivone spun to face him, she was crying hard and he could see clearly the pain and anger in her eyes. "Did he have to kill her in that manner?" she asked Triston, "The same way Damaris was killed, using a tree branch?" He didn't know what to say to her, he was not sure how he should reply her but he so badly wanted to console her, he just didn't know how, "Ivone... I..." "And where is her body, Tristo