HECTOR“Halt!” I boomed, raising a clenched fist as the noise of chariots deadened to silence behind me, the only sound breaking the quiet being the whistle of the soft draft that swirled dried-up leaves across the path, and the metallic clang of the footmen's armor.A stretch of silence ensued as I peered into the fog, a lock of my waist-length gray hair flying into my face before I whipped it back, unsettled.Silence.“What's wrong?” Kalden’s frantic whisper came as his brown horse marched up beside mine, and I risked a glance at the woman he had cradled behind him, suppressing the bitter tang that barbed my chest.I raked my eyes across the landscape once more. The hills had leveled to a cluster of birch trees and intertwined foliage some while ago so that the winding dirt path was now surrounded by sticks of ash and black forest.“I could have sworn I saw...Never mind, it was probably -” I sighed, gasping and whipping my head violently to the side as a silver-tipped arrow whizzed

HECTOR BAYES“Nola! No!” I bellowed, leaping up to the carriage with a loud thunk to grip the woman's hand a second too late before she brought the sword down on the creature’s neck and I watched on in horror, my hands going around her waist and pulling her away a split second before I heard the loud snapping of the creature’s mouth falling closed, the sound of teeth connecting with flesh.“Nola!” I gasped as blood spurted from both extremities, one the black gooey ink of the creature’s substance, and the other was the thick viscose of werewolf blood.I felt it, the point when the chaos on the dirty path deadened to silence, and all eyes turned to face us as the creature fell to the dust path with a thundered gurgle, the slack mountain of its ashy jaws falling open to reveal the large stalagmites of yellowed canines with the hint of a stub of pale neck flesh peeking through the gaps in its teeth.The girl went rigid in my hands, before doubling over to vomit over the sill of the carri

HECTORThe woman from the village pushed me again, so much so that I felt the distinct shape of her puckered nipples through the black Muslim fabric of my loose-fitting dress shirt.I inhaled a reflexive breath before leaning forward, the tent in my groin pushing stubbornly in disagreement with the heavy bulk of my pants.Why was she doing this? Why wasn’t I stopping her?“Nola,” I groaned when she leaned into me again, darting out her tongue to lick my ear that was peeking through my hair so that I jerked in shock. The hard rod of my shaft lurched and strained against my pants pleasantly until I felt my wolf getting ready, getting excited.I could see that some of the horseback riders were taking surreptitious glances at us, snapping their head away when they thought I’d caught them looking.I turned to glance at the woman and realized her eyes had glazed over, hooded over the black eyelashes, she was fluttering at me.“What- what are you doing to me?” Nola gasped, wrapping her arms

HECTOR“Where are you going, Nola?” I groaned but the woman just shook her head wordlessly.It was the second time she’d stopped smack dab in the middle of the procession.“You’re going to get a fly in your mouth at this rate.” I chuckled, looking down at the woman who had jumped off the horse the minute she saw the city lights, slack-jawed with wonder.We were almost to the city gates, and I could tell, even from the distance, that the city had not woken up yet, the yellow of my wolf eyes picking off the triangular metal heads of the watch rower guards that were nodding away with sleep.The crack of thunder rumbling overhead was just about as ferocious as my digestive juices that were currently chipping away the muscular walls of my empty stomach.The Alpha always eats first, but what did the old boy do?I let the maidens have the leftover food for the remainder of our voyage.I’d gotten only a glimpse of what the green-eyed imp looked like when she was hungry and the small pouch of

HECTOR BAYESThe werewolves inside the stone castle bowed so low I was sure at least one of the many kissed their feet as I wordlessly strode past.“Welcome back your highness,” They chorused and I threw a cursory glance around the gritty foyer, to see the food trucks and horsemen’s carriages that filled the large space. The brown springy hat of the scribes bobbed up and down as they curtsied, before stumbling in through the side entrance to the castle throne room, the stack of books on their spindly arms tethering dangerously.The castle court was a large, chess-piece-shaped square building with gold railings wired through the walls and on the sides, the large redwood of the double doors falling open just before I passed through the opening.“Y-your highness, you're back s-so soon?” Rudolf screeched, breaking away from the pink-tinted glass table where the lot had been sitting with enough force that the portly elder almost toppled over his chair.”Y-your highness...oh-” One of the wr