"Why would he get married again?" Alpha Ardon asked the question to himself but Ivone, thinking she was being asked, gave her reply."I believe it would be for us, his daughters. So it would be easier for us to fit in and learn from having a mother figure."That caught his curiousity, "Fit in?""A strange man in a strage land could not successfully raise two girls all on his own.""How old are you?" he suddenly asked and Ivone looked up at him, only briefly before she lowered her gaze back down as he still had this cold look in his eyes."Eighteen..." she stammered. The question, as simple as it was, had thrown her off.Alpha Ardon hesitated for a moment. He just stared at the girl but his mind had begun to wander even as he still questioned her, "Your father, do you remember his name?""Lothan Thane. That was his name.""Lothan-"The doors to the throne room was suddenly thrown open, interrupting their conversation and both Ivone and Alpha Ardon turned their attention to the entrance
"We should declare war on Elyria for this!"Alpha Prince Reyes stood before his father in the throne room pacing and trying to argue his case. He hated the fact that his father was being too lenient about handling this matter that had been dragging on with Elyria. If he were the one on the throne, this would not be an issue, he would have gone to war with Elyria long before now and conquered them.Alpha Korvin Thorold sat tired on the throne, resiting his head on his fisted hand which rested on the arm rest. He was tired of having this conversation, or argument, with Reyes every now and then, despite making clear to him what his stance on the matter was and will continue to be."Reyes, I have told you this several times before and I will repeat it again for your understanding," he said to him with a sigh, "I will not be the first to... Nyxoria will not be the first to strike. As long as neither kingdoms attack, we will remain in peace.""Peace?!" Reyes was amused and he chuckled, desp
Dathan smirked and remained humbled before him. He was Alpha Prince Reyes right hand man, a delta werewolf, and just like Reyes, he too wanted to declare war on Elyria. It was in support of Reyes wishes, even though he had something selfish up his sleeves that he planed on revealing, but it would all be in due time. For now, he would help Reyes achieve his aim in any way that he could."I feel you are delaying on that aspect, Alpha."Reye smirked, he liked being addressed as Alpha. He shook his head, "Skip that, are they all gathered?" he asked him."Gathered and waiting your presence so you can address them," He replied with a nod, bowing even lower and maintaining that sly grin on his face."Good," Reyes let out a forceful breath and turned to walk out the room with Dathan following him closely.For months, he had been gathering men faithful to his own cause, feeding them with what the new Nyxoria would be like under his rule. Knowing his father and his soft and meek ways, he knew t
Her room was at the far end of the castle, with the window facing the sables. Beyond that was the village, and beyond that was the forest. She stood there, by the window, leaning in to rest her elbows on the railing with thoughts in her head as she fixed her eyes on the forest. The sun was still up in the sky, but it was beginning to set."Too slow," she thought to herself, talking about the sun still holding up in the sky. She let out a sigh and turned away from the window, walking to her bed then said it out loud, "Too slow."She wanted to get to Ivone right now and it wasn't just because she wanted to tell her about her brother's plot, it was a little bit more than that. The last time they had seen had been days ago. Or weeks? She hadn't been keeping count but she knew it had been a long time ago. Her wolf howled and her body craved.As she sat on her bed, she allowed her fingers climb up her shoulders to the nape of her neck and caress the marks Ivone's teeth had left there. She b
"What is wrong with you?" she asked him, "Seriously! What is your deal?!""Everything I do is for the good of the kingdom, Maya!" he said out loud in frustration, "Everything I do is to protect you!""No!" she lashed back at him, "Everything you do is for your selfish interest!""So I should have allowed you be mated to a commoner who can not and does not have the resources to take a proper care of you?! Is that is, Maya? Is that what you want?!""What I want is for you to act like a brother to me!" she said and threw a pillow at him. He caught it and set it down on the table, bringing his attention back to her, "What sort of a brother would cause his sister to remain unmated! What sort of a brother would kill off anyone who makes their intentions known to me?!""The sort of brother who only means well for his sister!""No you don't!" she screamed at him, "You do not mean well for me at all, Reyes!""I see," Reyes said in a low voice and frowned. He fisted his hand and squared his sho
She was laying down lazily on the bed with her eyes fixed on the ceiling when she heard the call. Immediately, she jacked off the bed and ran to the window. She held her breath and her heart in her hands and fell silent, listening again for the call just to be sure.And then she heard it again."Maya!" she screamed in her heart.Her heart fluttered and raced and she quickly ran to her wardrobe to take off the night wear she already had on. Filtering through the dresses she had come to own, she chose something simple from the wardrobe to put on and she quickly got dressed, the excitement of seeing Maya again tonight drove her on.Just as she finished dressing, she made for the door, paused to calm herself down before she placed her hand on the door knob. In that moment, a knock came to her door and her heart skipped several beats. She felt like she had just been caught doing something she should not have been doing and her heart refused to settle."Ivone," came Triston's deep baritone
"Well done!" she commended herself and then transformed into her small brown wolf. She paused when she saw Jaxon making his way from the stable to the main building, he was cradling something in his arms but she couldn't make out what. She wasn't interested in finding out, she just needed him to walk faster so she could sprint out of this place undetected.She watched him walk into the main building and disappear down a corridor before she dashed across the courtyard, heading for the section where the fence was the lowest. She looked around once more before leaping over the fence, making her way stealthily through the village and towards the forest to her lover.Maya sat uneasy on a tree stomp by the clearing, rhythymically shaking her legs and rubbing her palm against her arms as she looked around the darkness. She was not afraid, no. It was not fear that moved her but her eagerness to meet with Ivone.It had taken her only a couple of minutes to reach the forest from the castle and
"You are a long way from your castle, aren't you?" he smirked micheviously, "Maya Thorold."Fear settled in Ivone's heart as she read the look in Triston's eyes. She heard a bark from behind her and the huge wolf they had initially thought to be Reyes settled down into his human form. She recognized him, he was Jaxon, Triston's delta."I was right to follow my instincts and trail you," Triston said, speaking to Ivone who brought her attention back to him, "I wanted to know where it was you were constantly running off to, I never did expect you would lead me right to a Thorold.""Triston, listen to me," Ivone began. Her hand left Maya and was held out in front of her against Triston. Knowing where his mind was going to, she tried to reason with him, "Maya is not her brother, she is not Reyes.""You should step aside, Ivone.""Triston please!" Ivone said in desperation, "I know you want your revenge, so do I but she is not Reyes!"Triston shook his head, "No Ivone, you do not want this
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