101 The evening sun cast long shadows on the ground. The slanting rays of the setting sun gave a warm orange tinge to the sky. Afternoon was getting replaced by the evening nonetheless no exceptional variation was observed in the house of Alpha Hercules.    It was as is. Occupied with Alpha males and their Betas. Books scattered all over the table between the couch. Some even littered near their feet.    Empty dozen cups of coffee and tea alongside platters with cookie crumbs sat somewhere by the side of the couch or under the table.    The ladies were tiringly yawning. The male still absorbed into the books with the intent to find out something strong and helpful. Sadly, no distinct clue could be achieved. They made no progress except for shuffling from one suspect to the other. It was hard to comprehend where and how the Ifrit came and went. For the first time, all the best Alphas and the best st

 A small luggage containing nothing more than some clothes. The wolves were all staring at her with their scrutinizing gaze when she reached inside her bag and pulled out a journal. Not just any journal but a torn, brittle journal that looked decades old with yellow pages.  It was thicker than its usual size because it had many cutouts from newspapers and photos glued in it. When the lady opened the first page for Alpha Hercules to look at the photo stuck in it, at his back Brandon gasped.  His eyes grew unevenly wide while the others sought to take a look at the picture on the first page of the journal.  "Bloody hell! I have read about him in the old library. A crazy stupid asshole he is." The Gamma's son exclaimed with wide eyes.  Yep, he was there too. Reyne's first ever friend.  Alpha Hercules took the journal and his calm expressions bec

105 "Well... I am still having a hard time sinking it in." Zander looked from his cup of black coffee to his Alpha friend as he remarked with an open mouth. "What? The weapon?" Zander guessed because it was a hot topic of discussion out there in the foyer between the Alphas who were chit-chatting amid their important conversation about how to take this animal of a man, human by birth yet a disgusting creature at the heart, down? "Um yeah, I mean, would you have thought that the axe you were using to kill that scoundrel of a creature was actually an armament of the first paladin?" Ryley said in a breathy voice. "No." Zander shrugged his shoulders. He was looking into his phone at the pictures he and Reyne clicked some minutes before her abduction. His mind was somewhere else and he failed to share Ryley's astonishment on the topic concerning the axe of the first paladin. It was too hard to accept that the weapon they had bee

 Sleep deprived for the whole night, Zander spent it sitting on the roof outside Ryley's bedroom, seeing the starry sky. His wolf was restless. He could not breathe properly since he could sense the torment befalling their mate. The entire night they kept staring at the stars, hoping for her to look at them too, assuming that she was fine and not in the basement as described by the magician's wife. Then just as the first ray of morning erupted, taking earth under its embrace and brightening the dark atmosphere, he felt somewhat relieved. Because it was time now. "Zane," Ryley peeked out of the window of his room at him.  "You are called downstairs. Come on." Zander didn't need to be told twice because the first time was enough to fill his chest with energy.  He hurriedly jumped down the roof and barged in through the main door. Zander gulped his saliva in n

109 With the sun hovering high in the sky, shining proudly down at Earth, the cars came to an abrupt halt much to Zander's surprise.   He was mentally motivating himself as he stared out of the window and when the cars pulled at the highway across from them, he broke from his deep thoughts and stared out the window.   "Why did we stop here?" He questioned, his fingers clenching at the pulled down window glass.   His father was sitting beside him in the backseat. He blinked with a small smile at Zander and replied, "You weren't wondering about flying all the way till Vegas, were you?"   Zander confusingly with his chest rising and falling as he took disappointed breaths, same out of the car like the others. Before he prepared another question, he looked before him at the Woods and things started making sense.   They were in Woods Land, the dangerous woods of their pack. It