Ivone looked at Triston confused. She could still feel the pull in her heart, and the pain and she pulled him even closer and with tears in her eyes, she asked him, "What are you not telling me Triston? Where is Maya? what happened to her?!" "While you were passed out, my father went after her," he said and her eyes widened in fear and shock, "I think he..." "No!" Ivone said and pushed Triston away from her. She jumped off the bed and raced to the balcony. In the courtyard, she saw Alpha Ardon in his wolf form and he was holding something - or rather, someone - in his paws. Ivone held her breath and fixed her eyes as she watched him toss the person to the ground and tell some guards to take her. "Keep her locked up in the dungeon below the castle," Alpha Ardon ordered and the guards bowed, "And under no circumstances should anyone be allowed to go down there to see her. Not even Triston." Ivone began to hyperventilate even more as Triston came up behind her to hold her up from fal
He had meant what he had said to Ivone, about a chance still being possible for Maya to return back to Nyxoria, they just had to play it safe this time because his father was now aware of her identity and would make sure to have his eyes and ears on her. He stepped out of the room and onto the hallway with his heart racing. He dreaded meeting his father right now but he knew he could not postpone it, unless he would find a way to avoid his father in this castle or he would leave the castle all together for a few days, neither of which he could do all because of Ivone. Her scent had come to her fully now and he could sense her as well as he could sense another, and this made things quite a bit complicated and even more difficult for him because now he was overly aware of her, most especially when they were close enough to be in the same room, and even more aware when he had held her. When he had held her down from leaving the room, his wolf had gotten too sensitive because he had
"If you had not gone to Nyxoria in the first place, with the nonsensical idea of trying to find a way to avoid the war or make peace, you would never have complicated things by getting mated to a Nyxorian! You would have settled down with a girl from Elyria and you would never have betrayed Elyria like this!" Alpha Ardon was angry and was not filtering his words, he just let whatever came to his head out through his mouth without thinking of how they would affect Triston as he barked at him. "Fine then!" Triston snapped at his father, "Call it a betrayal, but if presented with the exact same scenario, I would still come to the same conclusion, I would still have made the same decision!" "You brought a Nyxorian princess to live under my roof!" Alpha Ardon yelled and threw a punch at Triston, striking him in the side of his face and bringing him down to the floor. He stood towering over Triston, ventilating like a wolf who had just run a marathon. His anger was returning to him an
The morning was just as cold as the night had been and it was much cooler in the forest. Reyes sat atop a horse in silence, he had his attention towards the much denser part of the forest leading towards the border. He had been in this position all night with Dathan on another horse and by his side, waiting for signs of the men he had sent earlier with the specific instruction to get Princess Maya Thorold out from the Elyrian castle. They should have been here before dawn. "The sun has risen, Alpha," Dathan said to Reyes. He sat uneasy on his horse and was already tired as it was because he had not slept a wink throughout last night. "I'm not blind, or am I, Dathan?" Reyes asked the man without even sparing him a glance. He was already frustrated and was beginning to wonder what set of morons he had sent into Elyria on such an important mission. "Just pointing out that they should have been back hours before now," Dathan said with a shrug of his shoulders and then added in his mind
They had fallen asleep in each other's arms sitting on the floor with their backs pressed against the door after Triston's ordeal with his father. Ivone was the first to wake, she had her head resting on Triston's shoulder and his arms were wrapped around her. She lifted her head and turned to look at him, when she moved, his hands fell away from her and he stirred but did not wake. His head was tilted back, resting against the door and he looked quite uncomfortable in that position.Her eyes remained on him for a while as she just stared, a corner of his lips were swollen and he had long claw marks that drew small tiny red lines to run down the length of his neck from underneath his ear towards his chest. She suspected that his body must be aching him because no one could have taken such a beating without sustaining any injuries, buth then asides being tired from the beating, Triston had shown no other signs of being injured.She let out a sigh and looked away then stood up from the
He stood by the bathroom door fighting the urge to break into the room and take Ivone. It was his wolf that he needed to keep at bay, he knew he would never do such - that was what he kept telling himself as he stood outside the door, but he knew all that was to remove the blame from himself, he could not deny the fact that he had never wanted Ivone more strongly than he was craving for her now.While he was fighting his demons of desire, Ivone opened the door and walked out. He knew what she had been doing in there but he had asked anyway and she had given him the most obvious answer."Having my bath?"He groaned as she walked past him and he could feel his wolf wanting to tear out of him. He knew he had to keep it together and not give in to his desires but this one was very ery difficult to ignore. Ivone was in her heat and his wolf could sense it all too well. He doubted that she knew what feeling she was in right now and he would not tell her or he feared he might just come off a
It had felt good in that moment, what he was doing, the pleasures he was experiencing, her hands on his body and him in her. It had felt so good and he thought she was or would share in his feelings because even though he had initiated the whole thing, she could not deny that she had enjoyed it too, yes she had wanted it so it was a mutual consumation. Until he heard her speak."What the hell have we done?"He remained on top of her with his face buried into the nape of her neck justtrying to catch his breath and regain his strength. It was not the first time he was having sex, but it was the first time he was having sex with his wolf all so very into it, and fuck! It had felt so good. But then after hearing Ivone's words, he could not help but feel the pang of guilt that washed over him. And he remembered Damaris' face.He groaned as he pulled himself up and hovered above her for a while just staring at her. She looked at him with her eyes wide and teary, and almost immediately, she
Xaren chuckled and nodded his head, then shrugged his shoulders and turned away from her, "Well if you are, he should be down for the meeting. Bye Ivone." "Wait!" she said and grabbed a hold of his arm, stopping him from walking away. Xaren turned to her with a confusing look on his face, he could see that she was distressed so he gave her his full attention. "Anything the matter, Ivone?" "The dungeon..." she swallowed and pulled on his arm a bit, "Where is it? Where is Maya being kept?" "Ahh..." he chuckled uncomfortably and shook his head, trying to pry his hand away from her hold, "You know I cannot do that Ivone." "Please!" she begged and tears began falling from her eyes, "Maya is my mate, if you are mated you should know how that is like. You should understand how I must be feeling right now Xaren, please, I'm begging you." Xaren hesitated as he was torn. He knew Alpha Ardon's words were the law in Elyria and he had said no one was allowed to visit Maya or go down to the du
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