I visited grandma on the way back to the castle. She told me about the stone that Mydia had given me, that it was actually a part of a broken key. The key that locked the exiled creatures in the secluded part of the world, which no one knew where it really was.According to the legends and myths, the key was destroyed to avoid the possibilities of someone freeing the creatures, before their time. The broken parts of the key were three stones. First stone was the protector, which refused the creatures to cross the border and the second one, manipulated fire. The fire surrounded the border so no one would come near it.The final and the third stone was actually a source of power. It drew energy from non-living beings like stones, mountains, soil and water and used it as a physical owner to the other two stones. Which meant, the security was always active. It was meant to be like that until the creatures were free to return. Until the war.All the three stones were distributed by the god

"What are you doing here, brother?" Princess asked the Alpha King, quirking her eyebrow up. "Whatever happened to the females of my castle? They don't pay me any respect, anymore." He commented, passing me to stand where the princess sat on her bed. His arm barely touching mine, separated by just a breath of air. He yet had to make eye contact with me and I was already having sweaty palms. The princess rolled her eyes at him, whilst everyone else's were gazing downwards, standing upright. "Alright. What brings you here on this fine day, oh brother?"she asked with an overly polite smile on her face. The Alpha King chuckled. "I thought I might just stop to see my sister, while I'm passing by her room. I don't get much time nowadays to spend it with you, do I?" He said his eyes turning apologetic."No, you don't." She grumbled back. "So, tell me what are we doing, right now. Oh, this looks like a lot of fabric. Ah, are you preparing for the ball, Ellyana?" He inquired sitting on one

"Queen?" My eyebrow quirked up. "Have you already decided that? And how can you be so sure? We haven't even discussed about that, yet." My toes twitched and fidgeted inside my boots in apprehension."What is there to discuss? You like me and I like you, I deem you capable enough to stand by my side and…And which female wouldn't want to be the Queen of this entire Kingdom." He chuckled, sensing my change of mood and trying to dissipate the tension.But that was actually what did it. "I thought we had established that before that I am not like the others." My muscles tensed, dissolving the ease that I had come to feel with him. "That was not what I meant to say, Seraphina. I meant that there are so many options of what type of Queen a female can be. You can choose your own way, I'm not generalizing you with the others." He was calm as he said that but, his eyes were trained on my face with conviction. He had sensed my withdrawal by the way my face was now giving nothing away from my em

Paws thudded in the darkness crunching the soil beneath, snout up in the air trailing behind the scent he left in his wake. A crescent moon was hanging in the dark blue sky, providing its light on the ground.The route was familiar to me, maybe it was the trail that led to the small lake the princess came oftentimes.A howl pierced the otherwise silent night and I immediately knew who it come from. Was he really in that much pain that he couldn't suppress it physically? Did my rejection hurt him this much? But he shouldn't have been mulling over just some female's words. From an outsider's perspective I was just another female who the King admired, so what? He could find someone much better than me, someone much, much prettier and willing than me. Stepping out of the treeline, the lake came into my view and there he was, sitting at its shore now in his human form, stark naked. I wanted to retreat, now that I knew he was safe—not that he needed anyone to protect him if he encountere

I watched as his face crumpled in shock, as the wetness pooled in his eyes and as the first drop slid down his cheeks. I watched as the first whimper escaped his lips without his permission to mourn for the mother he never got to meet. He—my brother that I never knew of.Watching him cry was like I was seeing myself when I cried for her for the first time. Not when I was just a newborn and needed my mother to feed me, I was regarding the time when I saw other children crying because their mothers were fussing over them. After gaining my senses and having faced my struggles, I never cried openly for her again. Not even in front of father.But in that room, where we both shared the same grief of not knowing the one who brought us into this world, I cried. I cried, I wailed, I sobbed, I broke. Maybe it was because now that he knew I was his sister, he wanted to protect me or maybe it was just because he knew how I felt. But either way, he crossed the room and took me in his embrace and s