Chapter Five

Maximo PoV

I’ve gone by many names.

Some call me the Grand Alpha. Some call me the Nemesis. Some call me the Witch-hunter, but the name that stuck to my head was the name my father called me, Murderer.

Yes, I’m a murderer, and my first victim was my mother. It really was no surprise that my father hated me, I did kill his beloved wife after all. Although it wasn’t my fault, but who cares whose fault it is, all that mattered was that I did it. I’m a murderer that shall never ascend to the throne of my parents, the outcast, that shall never be a part of a pack, exiled into loneliness.

But all that would soon change. I spent the last five years of my life plotting my return to glory, and everything is going according to plan; all except one.

Axel was supposed to keep my nemesis under lock and key. His job was to keep her away from her destiny, and force her to live a miserable life until she succumbed to the cold hands of death. Instead, my servant, to whom I had entrusted the most important part of my plan, had failed me. He had set loose the only weapon in the world that could hurt me, kill me even.

“Come in Axel,” my deep voice resonated through the dimly-lit cave, bouncing off its dark walls, “I’ve been expecting you.”

“You knew I was coming?”

“I could hear your paws pounding the ground from a mile away,” I stood up from my wooden chair, which I had fashioned like the throne of the Werewolf-king, and climbed down a couple of natural staircase to face Axel, “I heard your heart beating wildly against your chest when you transformed, and I can smell the fear that’s oozing out of your body. Your presence before me means she’s escaped.”

“Sire, I…”

“Who is the young man you brought along?”

“That’s Klaus, my beta, He…”

“Ah! Klaus,” I mused, “I bet Klaus would make a good Alpha, that is, if there’s still a pack left to be an alpha of.”

“Please, I beg you,” Axel fell to his knees. He was smart enough to detect the threat in my voice, and to beg for his life and that of his pack, but his pleas merely infuriated me.

“I gave you only on job,” I growled as my anger welled within up me, struggling to burst forth and consume me, “only one task, one itsy, tiny task, yet you failed.”

“I’m very sorry, sire.”

“Sorry? You’re sorry, aren’t you?” I thundered, “unfortunately, sorry isn’t going to undo the damage you’ve caused, and sorry is definitely not going to save your life.”

I charged at him with incredible speed. My power and strength was fueled by my rage, making me incredibly powerful. I grabbed him by the neck, squeezing my fist around his throat, pulling him up until his legs were dangling.

“I…I…”

He tried to speak, but I was past listening to words.

“You only had one job, Axel,” I snarled while my hand began to transform into that of a wolf’s. My sharp, long and deadly fingers slowly pierced his skin, drawing blood that ran down the length of my arm, soiling the long-sleeved, red robe I wore.

“You’ve not only forfeited your life with your ineptitude, but also the life of your entire pack.”

“We’ll find her,” Klaus charged into the cave, yelling like a mad man, “we’ll find her. Please, let him go.”

“Klaus,” I smiled warmly at the young man, waving at him as though I was not squeezing the life out of his alpha with the other hand, “how nice of you to join us. You are going to find her, which means I no longer need Axel.”

“There’s no one to replace him,” he yelled

“Don’t be silly,” I chuckled, “there’s you.”

“There’s no one to replace me,” he continued, “the pack needs an alpha and a beta to function. Please, if we’re going to find the prophetic girl, we need him.”

I paused for a few seconds, considering my options. I stared at the man, trying to understand if he truly meant his words, or it was just a vain effort to save his alpha.

“Fine,” I decided that he meant his words and dropped Axel. Axel landed with a soft thump, wheezing loudly as he tried to regain his breath.

“What do you know about me, Klaus?” I asked

“Not much,” he replied, awed by my presence, “you were supposed to be a myth, a story told around bonfire to inspire fear and dread.”

“And what stories are those?”

“They say you can choose which part of your body transforms to a wolf, that you’re fully attuned with your wolf. It’s a gift unlike any other.”

“That, dear Klaus, is where you’re wrong,” I walked back to my throne and sat down, “it was not a gift, it was a curse. You know how werewolves are able to keep their wolf form, and all the heightened emotions that comes with it, separate when they’re in human form?

“Yeah.”

“I can’t do that. Both my human and animal forms are fused together, each struggling for control,” I explained, “I am unable to separate my wolf form from human form, making me do stupid things. At childbirth, my animal side took over, and I ripped my mother’s intestines from her belly as I travelled down her thighs.”

“But wolves are only supposed to manifest at puberty.”

“There’s a reason it’s called a curse, Klaus,” I said impatiently, “keep up.”

“But who would curse little child?”

“It wasn’t me that was cursed, my dear beta, it was my mother, but the curse took hold of me. It was a witch’s vain idea of winning the war. Curse the royal queen, make her go on a rampage and kill the child in her belly, with her husband, then plunge the entire kingdom into a warzone as the nobles fight for power.”

“The war between wolves and witches have been going on for ages,” Klaus said.

“Well,” I chuckled, “it’s about to come to an end. I’m going to annihilate the witches, then eliminate the usurpers on the throne, and you both are going to find the only person that can stop me.”