CHAPTER 1Rose stood inside the grand hall of the Solemn Roar pack's castle. Her gaze was set on the man seated on a throne carved from dark oak and draped with many diamond and gold pieces. This man is Alpha Vale, one of the oldest werewolves alive. He was revered as one of the most powerful werewolves to have ever existed. However after living over a thousand years, which is twice the average lifespan of a werewolf, he is nothing but a shell of his former self. Rose bowed her head respectfully. "You wanted to see me, Father?"Vale’s gaze softened as he looked at her. "I can feel it," he said, his voice heavy with years of wisdom.Rose frowned slightly, accustomed to his cryptic remarks. "Feel what, exactly?"He sighed deeply, his eyes distant. "My time is up, Rose. I’ve lived for centuries and seen more than most could ever imagine. But you, my child... you are my world."Tears welled up in Rose’s eyes, and she smiled sadly. "Father..."Vale continued, his voice growing softer.
CHAPTER 2. They say betrayal is the only truth that sticks. Rose was still reeling from this betrayal. "Twenty years ago... I became the new Beta, succeeding my late father. Ever since then, I had one dream—to become the next Alpha. And that dream was within an inch of my reach. I would finally achieve the eternal dream of my forefathers. I was so close... " Reed took a deep breath glancing at the dying Alpha, "Then one day, the Alpha brought an infant with him." His voice shifted to a more calmer tone laced with sadness. "You ruined everything! You’re the reason I was denied my birthright! A right that was earned through the sweat and blood of my ancestors for centuries." Reed's face darkened as his voice shifted once again, this time, it held nothing but pure hatred. His brown irises changed into a bright, unnatural red as his glare fixed on Rose. Rose’s eyes blazed with fury as she glared at Reed. "You’re a monster!" she shouted, her voice trembling with rage.Reed shrugged,
CHAPTER 3Rose jumped high into the sky; it was as if she could fly as she leaped over the pack members. She landed with a loud boom a few feet away from the new Alpha. Without a second's thought, she charged straight at him. She moved at an incredible speed that appeared like a blur. Only a few of the omegas could keep up with her. "Traitor!" She yelled, swinging her claws as she reached her target. However, Reed barely blinked. "Too slow," he muttered, sidestepping her attack with ease.Rose landed on her hands and feet. “See?” Reed laughed mockingly, “I knew you’d kneel to me eventually.” His eyes sparkled with triumph. Rose’s face flushed with anger. She gritted her teeth and slammed her fists on the floor. She sprang back up from her position on the ground, her movements sharp and determined."I’ll never kneel to a usurper!” she declared with fierce conviction. She charged at Reed once more, her voice full of wrath. “I’ll shred you into a million pieces!”Reed stood his wh
CHAPTER 4As soon as Rose read the final line of the letter, the sound of footsteps echoed through the hallway. Suddenly... One of the guards spotted them. "The princess!” he yelled, his voice sharp and loud.Rose’s heart skipped a beat as the guard's shout caught the attention of the others. They quickly began swarming the area, their footsteps growing louder by the second.“Shit,” Rose cursed under her breath. She looked at Trusk with frustration. "They're onto us!" Trusk’s eyes narrowed as he assessed the situation. “There’s no time to argue. Run, Rose! I’ll hold them back.”She hesitated, fear gripping her as she considered leaving Trusk behind. “But what about you? I can’t just leave you here!”Trusk shook his head, a stern expression on his face.“It was my honor to serve your father, and it’s my honor to serve you now. Go, My Princess. While Alpha Reed is away, this is your chance.”Tears welled up in Rose’s eyes, but she knew he was right. With a nod, she let out a shaky
CHAPTER 5CHAPTER 5: Eavesdropping Rose made up her mind to confront the first person (Lord Grim) she had met in the forest. She didn't even know the name of the monster that just left the godforsaken room she was confined to, but she called him Grim, too.She had many questions to ask: if her Mom was indeed alive and well, then why wasn't she here at the Nostville Empire? Suddenly, her wolf, Lara, who had been quiet for a long, long time, spoke, “Do you remember when I warned you about Reed?” “Oh! You finally remembered I exist, and that you exist because I am still alive.” Rose replied.Lara chuckled, “You thought you had it all figured out. I hope you'll listen to me now, especially now that your mom isn't here like your dad said in that letter.”Rose sighed, she couldn't even imagine her mom being dead before she got to meet her. What if Lord Grim had done something bad to her?“Arrggghhhh!!! I hate my life.” Rose yelled. Just a few weeks ago, she was a princess with people at
CHAPTER 6“Speaking about the devil.” Rose heard Dale say and she froze. She suddenly regretted eavesdropping on them, she should have left when she had the opportunity to.“How dare you!” Grim’s voice thundered. Dale gave a sarcastic laugh, “She doesn't even have respect for you. Do you know she sees you as weak?”“That's not true,” Rose went on her knees and bowed to Lord Grim.“I'm sorry for my actions, it won't happen again.” Rose didn't understand why she was kneeling before Lord Grim, but she knew she had committed a serious offense, and the only way out was to ask for mercy.“So you have the guts to challenge me?” Dale kicked Rose in her stomach and that sent her rolling in pain.“Ahhh!” Rose cried, holding her stomach in pain.“Dale! What has gotten into you?” Lord Grim questioned, his voice drained in irritation.“So you want to take her side now, Grim. This is exactly why she doesn't have respect for you.” Dale answered and moved to Walk away but then Lord Grim stopped him.
CHAPTER 7Rose's lips were still locked in Lord Grim’s when Rose suddenly pulled away from him. “What happened, angel?” Grim asked, laughing.“You just want to take advantage of me, I can see that.”“Don't speak like a child, Rose.” This was the first time he was calling her name. It sounded strange on his lips.“Please I want to be alone,” Rose replied. Lord Grim chuckled, “I know you want to take your revenge on Reed but you can't do that alone. You need guidance.”“I don't need your help, the only reason I'm still here is because of…” Rose wasn't done when Grim cut her short.“Your Mom?” He asked. Her silence made him laugh more.“You don't even know what you've gotten yourself into. I'll get my maids to bring you some dresses, dinner is in ten minutes. I don't condone lateness so let that stick now.”“What do you mean by what I've gotten myself into?” Rose blinked her eyes to stop the tears that she had been fighting; she was getting more confused and regretted ever coming to No
Chapter Eight “Where is this woman and what is taking her so long to get ready?” Grim wondered aloud.He had assigned her a maid to get ready and she still couldn't make it to the dinner table in time. A few seconds had clicked past the ten minutes he had given her to get ready.A maid volunteered to go check up on them.Grim groveled and was about to grant her request when Rose barged into the dining room.Her movement was rid of any grace or poise. She strode in like a woman on a mission and stopped in front of Grim!“You better have a reason for storming in here and you better have an even better reason why you are standing beside me with your breath fanning my face!”In the heat of her rage, Rose had forgotten the instruction Grim had dished to her the last time they met.“Do you know one mistake you should never make? Raising your voice at me, disobey
Chapter 34It still felt like a dream hearing Grim speak the truth. She would never have taken him to stoop so low to not only say the truth but also apologize for what he did. “He went on his knees and begged for your forgiveness?” Judy repeated just to be sure she heard right. Could you blame Rose for spicing the details? She may have exaggerated some of the details of how it had happened but now that she saw Judy's reaction it was worth it. By now they had returned to Nostville. Lord Grim had specially put Rose in charge of taking care of him. That was the only way he could think of getting her to spend more time with him on the ride back home. As you would expect, Feria wanted to skin Rose alive but the warning from Grim stopped her from making a move. All she could do was stare with evil eyes and keep making plans to finally make Rose flee. “I was just as shocked as you are. I was expecting him to leap and tear me to pieces but instead, he was asking for my forgiveness,” sh
Chapter 33“I can't do it,” Rose told Judy for the umpteenth time. But Judy wasn't giving up on her anytime soon. “I know you're scared, but it's fine.” Her next words were to be for Rose to ‘trust her’ but she knew better than to request for her trust after the way things had ended the last time. “But Lord Grim is personally requesting to see you.” Rose felt like she was in trouble. Maybe he wanted to punish me for walking away from him earlier, she thought to herself. ”Don't worry I'll be by your side this time. I'm not going to let anything happen to you,” Judy assured.Rose mustered the courage to follow Judy into the chambers where Lord Grim was being kept. All eyes were on her when she walked in and the different gazes were for different reasons. If looks could kill, Feria's eyes would have turned Rose into dinner as soon as she walked in. She held onto Grim closely as if just Rose's presence was enough to capture her fiance's heart.Dale didn't bother to give her more th
Chapter 32Grim had felt his world turn blank. He would have screamed for help or at least tried to convince Rose to stay but he had lost his voice. He didn't blame her. He had treated her worse and if she saw this as payback then that was fine. His last wish was for her to at least believe his words because they were the truth. Then she came back. When he thought all hope was gone she came back and took him up. She had risked getting spotted by any vampire and getting hurt. That sacrifice from her meant a lot to him. Literally, he blacked out from the pain before they could get to the shrine.The healer walked out when she heard the commotion outside. She was an elderly woman with her silk white hair fixated with ornaments of sorcery. Bracelets and rings of different shapes and sizes adorned her hand. She was clad in a robe that showered down to her feet. She walked down and collected Grim from Rose. “Thank you for bringing him,” the healer appreciated. “Wait here, I'll take him
Chapter 31Rose jumped out of the bed she had been placed in and raced to a corner of the room raising both hands in surrender. “Please, don't kill me, please. I'll do everything else you want but please don't kill me,” she begged. There was no escaping this time. Grim looked at her with concern. It was kind of hilarious that the woman who had been making fun of him would be so terrified of him. Meanwhile Rose saw death flash before her eyes. This is not being said metaphorically, poetically, or in any other fancy way. Grim looked like death straight up to her. Only when her back was pinned to the back of the wall did she realize that her dizziness had set in. It came like a wave and she had to place one hand on the wall to avoid slumping from her weak knees. Her first instinct was to look for the best way of exiting the room. The door looked back at her seductively but she knew she wasn't getting to it before Grim, especially in her weakened state. The window was the worst optio
Chapter 30 Rose woke up to the sound of crackling fire and the distant sound of screeching owls. She held her head trying to battle her dizziness. She looked at her legs and all the wounds that she had sustained while running away were cleaned and healed. She turned to see Judy at the other end of the fire. The latter was watching the flames as she brandished a penknife on a rock. “Where the hell are we?” Rose asked, looking around. It felt like they had fallen into a hole.“We are in a cave I spotted on our way coming here. It should give us enough shelter for the time being until we can figure out what is going on.” But her words didn't bring Rose comfort. “What about the guards? Did we lose their trail?” “Yes, we lost them a long time ago. Judy grabbed a cup of freshly brewed tea and handed it over to Rose. “Take this, it should help with the headache.” Rose peered at the drink with a skeptical gaze. Just smiled. “Don't worry I will not try to drug you like you did to me. It
Chapter 29 The only way out seemed to be the window. Rose slung the satchel over her shoulder and walked to the window. It was just a floor down but it looked like she was gazing down a steep bottomless hill. At the end of her view was a trashcan loaded with trash. “Please tell me we are not landing on those bags of trash,” Her wolf said. “We have no choice, Daisy. Either we get out of here now or risk being hanged in front of everyone.” That was the most gruesome death Rose could imagine. “Never!” Daisy rebuked. “Then brace yourself for impact. We are jumping out of here and we are jumping out of here now!” This time the banging on the door has increased. It was so intensified that Rose began to fear that the door would give way. She first dropped the satchel off watching it fall into the bags of trash. One of the trash bags expanded as soon as the satchel landed on the heap. Rose climbed on the window frame looking down at the incinerator hoping that she would make a safe
Chapter 28 Rose stood transfixed staring at the figure leaning on the doorpost. Her first thought was that she was sleepwalking but nothing about those wide-opened eyes said that she was in a slumber. “What are you doing here, Judy?” Rose asked, clearing her throat. She was sure that she had applied the sleeping liquid to the food in enough amounts to knock everyone out. How then did Judy manage to escape being affected? “Nothing, Ma'am. I was just looking for you. When you didn't come back from dinner I was worried. I had just walked out of the room when I found you here.” Her words are calculated and she didn't want to give off her true intentions. Rose was baffled. She couldn't stop wondering if the other woman had seen her take out the poster from Dale's coat. If Judy was awake did that mean that she had noticed her walk into the room before?“Oh, I was just rounding off a few things before I came to rest. I was about to walk past when I noticed Dale's door was open. I wan
Chapter 27By the time Rose returned to the table, the food had been exhausted. Every flesh of meat has been cleared out and the jug of blood has been exhausted. “Too late, Rose. I had quite an appetite today,” Feria sympathized mockingly. “There are some leftover bones in the plate for you.” Feria pointed to the bones in a bowl, the same bones she had conveniently crunched to bits. “But those are already eaten?” Rose muttered shockingly. Her face exuded disbelief but her heart exuded happiness. Feria scoffed. “The way I see it, you either suck on these bones or you stay hungry until the next meal.” She paused to down a cup of blood. When she lowered the glass she stood up. “Also Rose, make sure you clean the table.” Grim stood up and accompanied her as they made their way back to the room they shared. He felt pity for Rose for how she was treated but he stayed out of it. He planned to take her out later in the day and he would get her something to eat. Right now he needs to res
Chapter 26Wanted? Rose couldn't understand why her mother was being wanted. How could a hero be wanted? She couldn't see what was written clearly but there was a list of reasons why Vanessa was wanted. It was confusing. This didn't sound like the Vanessa that she had heard about. Rose walked towards the poster. Right then a pair of telescopes would be highly appreciated but unlucky for her they are not lying around anywhere. She looked around. No long rods were lying around. The only thing that would give her a clear view would be climbing onto one of the buildings, especially the one that overlooked the pole directly. A strong wind swept by brewing up dust and dirt. Rose muttered insults for the breeze until she noticed that it was in her favor.The poster was swaying in the breeze. It was barely hanging on to the pole. One side of the paper was already off the pole while the other half was still stuck. Rose waited under the pole ready to grab it. When it finally came off, it