For Alisa, things seemed to be going well.Kissing Jayden Wells made her feel loved and whole. She exhaled deeply when his lips parted from hers after their kiss in the hospital, and then she just leaned into him, her hands locked in his until she lapsed into a deep sleep, thanks to the painkillers injected into her body.When she woke up the next morning, she lay alone in bed, and it felt like a dream to her, so much so that she believed it was a dream until she turned and saw Jayden watching over her like a guardian angel. She still refused to believe her eyes and thought she was imagining until his hand took hers in his, and she felt complete once again, the same completeness she felt as they kissed the previous night.Jayden had made her promise him not to leave the hospital ward, and without Alisa’s knowledge, had called Stacy to come to surprise Alisa and spend time with her while he was at work, but naughty Alisa had sneaked out with Stacy to go see Johnny in his ward.His cond
Apart from Elliott, Jayden now had one more fear.And that fear stemmed from not having a definite answer as to if he still loved Avana the same way he did when she was alive.He still dearly loved her. He could not deny it, but it was never the same after he kissed Alisa. Before he met Alisa, Avana was so prevalent in his heart that he held full conversations with her in his head as though she was still with him, speaking to her and hoping she was listening. And seeing Avana in his dreams every night felt like a confirmation that she still loved him wherever she was.But since he met Alisa Grant, Avana became less and less real. She had never really died to him, but now she was becoming less alive, like a fading echo. Worse, since the night he kissed Alisa, he had not seen Avana in his dreams, and it disturbed him that it did not hurt him as much as he would have wanted it to.He felt like an experienced murderer, who had killed so many that killing no longer ripped apart his soul a
Jayden with his wolf hearing had heard Johnny gasp, and he could smell the boy’s fear of him.He wondered why the boy was so afraid of him, so much that he wished he could read his mind.In Johnny’s mind, the memories were coming in a haze to him. The bright and sunny day on the clear road as his parents drove on the tarmac.The confusion as he sat in the back seat with his father driving and his mother beside him when they saw the black car come straight at them from nowhere.They had all shouted, and Johnny shut his eyes when he saw the other car hit theirs. He heard so many sounds at the same time— a loud bang, tyres screeching, his parents shouting, and glass shattering.He was thrown back with force into the seat, and felt himself going unconscious, wondering if he was going to die and how Alisa who had been left behind at home would feel once she heard that they had died in an accident.He remembered himself waking up again, and his bloodied hands struggling to get out of the b
The room suddenly seemed too small and airtight for him. He was finding it hard to breathe. He could feel himself wanting to morph because of the strength of his fear.“I’ll get you the doctor,” Jayden said, and without waiting for a reaction from Johnny, turned out of the ward. He hurried his steps and walked past Alisa and Stacy in the waiting room.“Mr Wells?” Stacy called out, being the first to spot him, but he breezed past them without looking. Alisa had wanted to call his name too, but she sensed the urgency in his gait.“He might be busy, Stacy. Let us go.” Alisa said and felt a kind of pride because she thought she understood him.Jayden dashed out of the hospital and wanted to take his car as he felt his bones shifting in his body, but he changed his mind quickly, now horrified by the art of driving in itself. He walked on the roadside for the first time in years, taking long strides to nowhere in particular and taking deep breaths, trying to control his body’s morphing int
Yes. Jayden Wells’ mind was troubled.He eventually turned around, went back to the hospital, and drove his car back home, but as he lay in bed he was plagued by fear that grew worse once Alisa started calling his phone, which he switched off and tossed in his drawer. Had Johnny told her the truth so quickly?The fear was intense, but he took no measure to control it this time as he was alone, and he turned the light in his room off to prevent his silhouette from showing outside the windows just as his canines shot out of his mouth. His paws grew larger, his bones twisted and turned and fur grew on his body until he had changed into his wolf form, his clothes shredded on the floor.He paced around his dark room and grunted, pawing the ground and snapping his jaws. This relaxed him, and slowly he was back to his human form. He lay on the floor for a while, weak and sapped of all energy.He usually slept with the lights on but he let them remain off this time, hoping the effect of the d
Most human belief systems share the idea that there is a constant struggle between good and evil in the mind, and that the evil has to be kept at bay to let the good flow through, or that measures should be taken to satisfy both the good and the evil to keep a balance between them.For the worshippers of the Moon Goddess who are humans with the unique ability to morph into wolf forms, they believe this too, and while they hold the view that the good in them should be let out at all times, they also think that the evil parts of them too should have its wishes done at times to keep the mind balanced. In addition, they believe that when the evil part of them is in control, it is stronger than the good because it is rarely fed its desire. Once it has taken hold of the mind, it is like a hungry man in sight of food, kept away for so long that it had silently gone crazy for want of its desire and it was now ready to do anything just to have it.Another reason it was stronger was that it co
Jayden drove into the parking lot, parked his car and sat in thought, still carrying his hatred of Johnny in his heart.He needed it to remain in his heart so that he would not halt or have pity at any moment until Johnny was dead. He also needed to get Alisa Grant away so that she would not interfere with it because he did not wish to kill her. That made her his only obstacle right now, and he smiled as an idea popped into his head.He called Clifford and gave him instructions on the phone before going out of his car and into the hospital with a bag that contained the food in his hand.A few strides later, he paused to think before turning around to go put the food back in his car. There was every chance that someone the food wasn’t intended for could have it if he wasn’t alone with Johnny, and the person did not have to be Alisa under any circumstances at all. Not his Avana replica.He smiled at the thought. She loved him excessively, but she was like a toy, or a slave to him, kept
Seeing Johnny as he lay still with his eyes closed in the bed was the most unexpected thing, not even when he planned to kill him. He still carried his angelic looks with his face carrying the most peaceful expression, as though he was not dead but quietly asleep.Alisa had been crying, and he held her tight to himself, her head cradled on his chest. He was not comfortable himself— to laugh and have fun with a kid in the evening only to find out they had died the very next morning.His eyes were wet and he blinked the tears off.Since Avana, no death had hit harder. He had watched Avana grow weak and die and had had the time to prepare himself mentally for her death, but Johnny had been lively and happy the previous evening as the clouds gathered, and Jayden guessed that he would have been the same when Alisa was with him.Jayden remembered himself listening to the drumming of the rain on his window. How was he to know Johnny was transitioning into the afterlife in that same rain?Sta
TWENTY YEARS LATERIt still stunned Alisa that she was called the Mother of Wolves. You killed the one who killed the King, they told her when Jayden Christopher Wells breathed his last. He should have been King for winning the duel, but we had not honoured him yet when you killed him.Now she had three strong sons. Elliott Jr., who was now twenty-seven, Melissa and Elliott’s son Felix, whom she had adopted, and her third child.The one born because Elliott had deposited one last child in her before his death. For some reason, she had named him Jayden. The Jayden before him had had a good heart in his life but had let evil control him.So it was that Elliott’s son with Jayden’s name was the King of the Winter and the Spring in the end.The snow stopped when Jayden died, but it was known to fall from time to time, in its own season. Palm Springs City was no longer an all-spring city, but snow fell in it now.Humans were still oblivious to the wolves around them, even though the number
Alisa was close to jumping out of her skin when the cub wolf ran into her room.Its fur was black with streaks of white, but somehow she had recognised her son and was even more stunned to see him in a wolf form.Only...He ran off into the night and she had no choice but to follow, but not after throwing on a wolf skin cloak gifted to her by Elliott even though she had dreaded the wolf meetings. It did not worry her as much as the safety of her son did, so she followed, at least to keep him safe.But he was a wolf and she was a human, so she lost him and ended up wondering why she had followed him in the first place. She needed more protection than he did.He would have gone to the rock, she guessed, and Elliott would be there too. She had to be there, to see what was happening, so on and on she continued until she got to the rocks and saw even more wolves bigger than any she had ever seen at the Palm Springs meetings gathered at the foot of the rocks, all looking up.Atop the rocks,
Elliott ran towards the rocks after he had morphed into his wolf form, rage coursing through his body and pushing him to run faster.He remembered something Melissa had told him long ago when he went to see her in Snowfall one last time. It was about being king. “The King of the Winter and the Spring.” She had said, but now he was not too sure if she had told him the truth.The howl. Another wolf was here to challenge him.He was more powerful than many wolves, Elliott knew, but he did not know another wolf with a howl so loud. And the snow in the distance too. What signs were these?The rocks loomed high in the distance, and Elliott could see the wolf atop. His challenger. The one with the howl. All the snow he had seen in the distance melted before him once his paws touched the ground, and the place was back to looking as though no snow had ever been there at all. Only a slick wetness remained to show.He soon came up the rocks, catching the scents of other wolves from the other sid
Jayden thought he would cry and fall to his knees when he saw Palm Springs City in the distance.The city was covered in darkness, a sheet of inky blue sky hanging above it, with yellow lights coming out of square windows. Behind him was the Moon, and it felt to him like a sign of favour from the Moon Goddess.He stopped at the border and took in a deep breath. For a moment, he doubted. He had returned home for vengeance, so he wondered why he felt the fear.Jayden took in a deep breath before he crossed the border gingerly as if expecting to have the ground swallow him when his paw touched the ground. But nothing happened for a moment and then...The wet loamy brown earth beneath his paw froze and small cracking sounds were made as ice covered the ground. He lifted his paw and there was ice under it. He was the Reincarnation of the long-dead Alpha of Snowfall, and now he had brought the snow with him to the city, a city that had never seen snow.His other paw touched the earth once a
They were back on his bed, both reaching their climax at the same time. Alisa’s eyes locked with his as their lips parted from one last kiss, and time seemed to stop for them. She could feel nothing but him inside her, could hear nothing but the sound of his heart beating for her, could taste nothing but his kisses on her lips, could see nothing that was not his eyes and could smell nothing but his scent. All her senses were connected to him, and only him. His finger brushed against the strands of her blonde hair slowly, smoothening it. “Where have you been, my love?” She heard him say softly, as though she was a pigeon in his hand. “How could you see me and not know me, when I have loved you for so many years and through so many lives? Did you forget me so easily?” For some reason she could not explain, she wanted to cry. “I am sorry.” She whispered in response, not knowing why she was sorry or what she was sorry for. All she knew was that she was sorry. “We have loved each ot
Alisa was watching her son cradle his puppy to his chest and plant gentle kisses on its head. It had grown considerably these past two weeks, and though it was still little, she knew it was going to grow big and strong.And for some reason, the puppy reminded her of Elliott. There was a certain shyness it sometimes showed that reminded her of how he used to act when they were together in school, and a certain playfulness too. Elliott had shown neither of both qualities these past few years, but well...“Can I go out to play, Mummy?” Her son asked, interrupting her thoughts.The sun was setting for the evening, and a mild breeze blew as an orange glow lit up the sky. Fine weather, harmless for her boy. “Don’t stay out for too long.” She warned him, but he was far away before she was done talking, carrying his puppy with him. The house was quiet once Alisa was alone, and it made her sad. She was trying to be a strong woman, but that was exactly where it hurt. She was strong, but she
The farther away the wolves of Snowfall went from the beloved mountain they had lived all their lives on, led by their fiery leader with his unusually large form and bright blue eyes, almost bright enough to cast a blue shade on the floor, the lesser snow they found on the ground until all they saw was green, a new and uncomfortable sight to them as their paws and feet found it unfamiliar.They moved through the night, male and female, Beta, Omega, Luna, and cub, treading through the thick woods to avoid being spotted by humans and spending the daytime in caves or in hiding, taking the time to sleep. Hunts were done by night, with their leader Jayden bringing in the largest game, and for a pack where a man’s measure was by the size of his hunt, they could not entirely see any leader better than him.Yet, there was something sinister about him that they all feared. They had gone to sleep only to be woken by the most evil sound they had ever heard, and when they heard it once again, th
It was so strange that it had to be a dream. It could not be real.He was lying on the floor of whatever place this was, that somehow had form to it like a small cell. It was a strange place; bleak, dark and foreboding, with barely any light in it even though he could see the four corners at the top, and how he could see in it was a miracle to him.Jayden was now sure he was dreaming because this place was as dark as the darkest hour of the night.He tried to get up and that was when he saw the form of Melissa’s body in the darkness, lifeless and far gone, and the memories of the previous night began to come back to him in the dream. He stood frozen with his mouth open and watched her sprawled body and the blood that stained the walls of the cell. Her stomach had been torn open, and her innards were spilling out.“I did that,” Jayden whispered to himself.“We did it.” A voice in his head answered him back in another whisper, and the sound echoed all around him, as though it was spoken
“For five hundred years, those of us in Snowfall have remained under the frozen chains of the curse. While you who live in Palm Springs City are slightly less wolf than we are, with your smaller bodies and more time for your little ones to learn to morph, we remain here in the snow, waiting for the curse to break so that we can get the sunshine our fathers dearly wanted.”“And with one King over you all, a King from Palm Springs City,” Jayden added. His body was relaxed now. There was no enormous power struggling to come from his body. Melissa’s words had calmed him down.“Yes. All we want is the sunshine, and a happy place for our children.”“I will lead you there. I was to be King, wasn’t I?”“You were to be King. But many times, fighting to get what is ours only takes it farther away from us. Don’t you think so?”Jayden said nothing in reply.“Do you remember the first blood you shed, Jayden?”It had been Alisa’s parents. He remembered it clearly.“You like to tell yourself you we