He was too close.Ran raised her hand to slap Caph.He anticipated this and caught her hand.A mischievous smile took over his face, blue eyes amused.'Just an arrangement,' he pointed out.Heat rose in her cheeks. She scowled.It was already getting difficult to tell the difference between the act and the real thing. He was confusing her by doing things they had not yet discussed.'Why are you so legalistic about romance anyway? I mean, you must have liked someone before, right?'There was a pause. A waiter filled their glasses with ice water.Ran waited for him to go away and tried to think of a way to change the topic.She didn't want to talk romance.But she wasn't interested in getting to know him better either.Caph looked at her expectantly. She sighed.'Romance is a lie,' she said to Caph. 'It's an stupid concept used by society to take advantage of people's weaknesses and undermine true love.''Oh? So what is true love?'Ran narrowed her eyes. She had not expected that questio
Caph crossed his arms across his chest.Ran noticed what he wasn't wearing a shirt for the first time. His lean and muscular torso was bare and tempting.For some reason, she felt her cheeks heat up.Caph grinned even wider. 'Does it bother you? That our arrangement has everyone fooled?'Unconsciously, she took a step back. 'That's not what I–.'He tilted his head. 'Then what's the problem? Do you like me?'The memory of Caph's hand on her face came to her mind. She remembered the electric touch when he gently swept her hair behind her ear and the glowing warmth of his blue eyes on her.The same pair of eyes were fixed on her now, but they were taunting.Ran shoved him away from her and stormed out of this room, yelling, 'No way!'Why had she come to him for help in quelling the rumours? They were proof that everyone believed their arrangement was real.Ran refused to talk to Caph until the next Full Moon Gathering. With all the rumours about them flying around, there was no need to ex
Ran kept her face as impassive as she could but it was difficult to control the blood rushing to her head.Ran glanced at Caph who smiled proudly, his hands in his jean pockets, unperturbed.Did he realise how grave their situation had become?They had to up improve their act and reassure Acamar of her obedience so that he'd calm down and not marry her off raashly!Either way, it was an official engagement now.Their act had to be flawless.The First Shifting Ceremony passed by in a blur. The bonfire was lit and music blasted from large, ancient-looking speakers. Werewolves began to mingle and boisterous conversations echoed through the clearing. People were downing cups of cow's blood so they'd have enough strength to party through the night.Usually, Ran would retreat from the clearing to her secret place to do some stargazing. But because of her uncle's announcement, people kept coming up to her to congratulate them. She noticed Acamar's eyes on her in the distance, dark gaze daring
'I'm not trying. It's just what it looks like when I'm trying to be nice.''That's even worse,' Ran said drily. An unusually serious expression came over him. His eyes glowed blue again for a moment. Static crackled ominously between them.'Have you heard about bonded mates?'.She took another sip to distract herself from the change in atmosphere, but her cup was empty.'It was a thing in the past. Sort of like werewolf soulmates.'Caph nodded. His eyes turned green as he turned to explain, 'Yeah. Our ancestors used to only marry their bonded mates. But we don't do it anymore. Because there's too many werewolves, too many packs now.'Where was he going with this?Was he implying that he was looking for his bonded mate?Was that why he accepted her proposal of a fake arrangement?'Yes,' he answered her thoughts. His green eyes pulling her in like quicksand.He was flirting with her again! There's no way to make him have a serious conversation with her.Ran brought her empty cup to her
Caph was a fast learner.In the day, he followed Acamar to various parts of Punggol and learned about every inch of Eridanus's territory. In the evening, he would hole up with Ran in her father's study for what Cass dubbed 'couple time'.As much as Ran disliked the thought of Cass coming up with more illicit rumours to spread about the both of them, she needed the cover it unwittingly gave her to show Caph what her father had been up to without her uncle getting suspicious.'He was not a brute force kind of person,' she said, unrolling a large ancient-looking map on the darkwood desk. 'He preferred to talk instead of fight, which you know is unusual for a werewolf.'Caph smiled. He peered over her shoulder at the map, his warm breath making her neck tingle.She resisted the urge to elbow him backward.'My father would negotiate with both werewolf and human, instead of burning bridges and declaring war. As a result, Eridanus territory shrank over the years. He gave up disputed land to t
One evening, Caph found Ran in the study surrounded by a pile of books on the floor, frantically flipping through pages in search for something.He was late tonight, which would usually make her snappy, but today she was too preoccupied to even notice his presence in the room.She flipped to the end of her book without finding what she was looking for, grumbling to herself in annoyance. Then, she dumped it unceremoniously on a wobbling tower of books behind her and repeated the process with the next book on the shelf.'What are you doing?' he asked. Usually, she handled the books in her father's study like they were ancient relics.Ran slammed the book in her hands shut and growled.It was banished to the top of the highest stack.'Searching.' She pulled out another book and began leafing through the pages at a rapid rate, crinkling the yellowed pages as she went.Caph crouched next to her, taking in her flustered and bristling profile. 'For your father's collection of erotic books?' H
Ran didn't expect Caph to notice the subtle change in her demeanour, much less pinpoint the exact cause of her anxiety.Werewolves could sense a person's emotions more easily than humans but they often ignored such sensations and considered them a distraction from the important stuff.Having the ability to see something didn't necessarily mean you would pay attention to it.But Caph noticed and did not brush aside her frantic overturning of her father's study as something meaningless.He also noticed that she missed a prime opportunity to make sarcastic remarks about him.'It's my first time going,' she answered gruffly. 'I wasn't Beta yet four years ago.''You'll be fine,' Caph said, resting one hand on her shoulder.Ran glanced up at him to check if he meant it.He did.His blue eyes were glowing with pride.'These past two weeks, I've been learning about what your pack has accomplished here in Punggol. Every member of your pack I spoke to thinks highly of you. You have done a lot fo
Dingo was once a member of the Eridanus pack.And when Ran was ten, she declared that she would marry him.After the rogue attack, Dingo vanished. He was an orphan. His mother died at childbirth and his father had long been banished from the pack, so the previous Alpha raised Dingo alongside Ran.He had been the one everybody thought would become the next Alpha.Ran also liked him very much.They were inseparable—until the attack.The pack mourned him just like they mourned her parents.Yet here he was, alive and well, in the arms of another woman.Ran frowned. Surely she was mistaken. Maybe she was still asleep.She had not seen Dingo for ten years. How could she be sure the man before her was her childhood sweetheart?He might be some other werewolf named Dingo.But the woman clearly called Ran his first love.And his chocolate brown eyes were the same as the ones in her memory.Uh well...in the memory she boxed up, locked three times and threw into the furthest depths of her brain t
Cass knocked on the door of Ran's bedroom even though the door was not closed.'What is it?' Ran asked tiredly without turning around.Since dawn, she had been forced to wash her face three times, sit in a bathtub full of milk and have her leg hair ripped off her skin because apparently all brides do that.She managed to avoid everyone for the past three days and locked herself up in her room, refusing to eat or get some sun. Cursa tried suggesting she should do her Beta rounds one last time, accept everyone's congratulations, and smooth things over with the pack after that disastrous and confusing gathering.Ran had told her to piss off quite unpolitely.She heard Acamar march up to her room once, ready to barge in and order her out but he had been accosted by Cass who said that her hunger strike had a plus side—that usually brides went on a diet before their wedding but Ran's had been announced too late for her to do that.Her uncle grumbled about her not needing a diet anyway but so
Ran burst into the Eridanus manor just as her family was eating dinner.Nugo almost choked on his mouthful of grilled sausage when she threw the dining room door open and let it crash into the wall. Acamar frowned disapprovingly at her.'You're three days too early,' Cass remarked, pulling out a chair for her.Ran refused to sit down.She turned to the Regent and declared, 'Gather the pack. If you won't do it, I will.'He stared at her, cheese sauce dripping onto the table.He put down his fork and grunted.He didn't ask any questions.He didn't demand to know why she came back earlier than expected, why she returned without Caph.He strode to the porch of the manor and let out an ear-splitting, commanding howl that reverberated for miles.He returned to the dining table and dunked his sausage into more cheese sauce.Ran was surprised.Cass just grinned stupidly at her.A shiver trickled down her spine.As Cursa began clearing the table, werewolves began to arrive. Nugo positioned hims
When Ran returned to Caph's room, he had fallen asleep on top of the blanket. She sat next to him and watched him breathe. His red-brown hair was still damp and messy around his face, his lips slightly parted.Ran leaned close to him, parting her own lips.He opened his eyes.'You'll fall sick if you sleep with wet hair,' she whispered.The blue in his eyes were like swirling galaxies, swallowing her whole.He reached out his hand and played with a strand of her hair.'What did my father say?'She shook her head. 'Nothing good.'Caph continued to examine her veiled expression. She met his gaze without flinching.Finally, he sat up and wrapped his arms around her waist.'I know about what my father did to your parents.' He looked away. 'I followed you to New City and overheard your conversation with the ex-Eridanus werewolf.'Ran carefully tilted his head back so the blue galaxies enveloped her again. 'And Nusha followed you?'He looked away again.She cupped his face and forced him to
When Dingo's warriors burst out of the adjacent hotel rooms, shifting into their wolf forms, the logical thing for Ran to do was shift into a wolf as well and defend herself. Instead, Ran hauled a winded Dingo to his feet and shifted only one arm, holding a bared claw to his artery.'One move and your Alpha dies,' she said.They stopped instantly, skidding to a halt in front of her, helpless because of who she held hostage.'Bow,' she commanded.The wolves lowered their heads reluctantly.Dingo groaned in her arms.Nusha pulled herself into a sitting position, spitting blood from her mouth.'You can't threaten me with his life,' she rasped, staggering towards her. 'Kill him if you like. We were just using each other to get rid of you.'Just as she was about to shift into her wolf, Ran dropped Dingo and plunged her hand into Nusha's chest, digging past the bones to rip out her heart.Her fairy-like face lost its colour, her yellow eyes dimming like a latern that had been blown out.Now
'I'll cooperate,' Ran repeated to a dumbfounded Dingo.She frowned at him when he didn't respond. She jangled her bonds. The silver burned her wrists, making her wince.'Hello? Dingo? Are you there? I said I'll cooperate, so tell me about Caph.'A sinister smile stretched across his handsome face. 'Ah, I've hit the sweet spot, haven't I? I was right,' he mused to himself. 'You don't really like Caph after all.'Ran shrugged. 'Like you said, I'll do anything to achieve my goal. If Caph is behind my parents' death, then I will kill him myself.' The look she gave Dingo made his hackles rise. She meant it.He smiled again. 'Good. We have a deal then.'Slipping on a pair of gloves, he unlocked the silver handcuffs and began to undo the many knots tying Ran down to the arms and legs of the chair.She watched him warily. 'How much do you know about what Cassiopeia has done?'He glanced up at her and went back to work on the knots. 'I'm not telling you anything until you pledge to become my mi
In his wolf form, Caph followed Nusha's scent to the bus stop. After she left the castle the previous night, she took the last bus out of The Citadel. It wasn't difficult to guess where she was headed.Caph chose to run straight to New City instead of shifting back and taking the bus.There was no time to lose.Nusha had too much of a head start.She could be anywhere in the large metropolitan city.'Think!' he commanded himself as he shifted back, ignoring the humans staring at his drenched appearance. Ran had met her ex-pack member at Starbucks before she caught Nusha kissing him. She probably went back there—or at least headed in that direction.It was the only place in New City that she knew about after all.Maybe there were traces of her scent left.Even better if they overlapped with Nusha's.Once he reached the bus stop where Nusha cornered him, her scent was indistinguishable. There were too many people passing by.As he passed the tall metal tower that marked the exact centre
When Ran opened her eyes; every part of her body had gone numb. Her hands were chained behind her back with silver handcuffs. When she moved, the silver burned her skin. The rest of her was tied down to a chair—a surprisingly comfy one.Her head throbbed.This was a weird situation to be in.Her captor reclined on the large bed that took up much of the hotel room. He held a remote control in one hand, his eyes fixed on the large TV screen behind her. Heavy curtains decorated one wall and soft yellow light glowed from hidden crevices in the ceiling and furniture.They were in a hotel room.As Ran surveyed her surroundings, Dingo turned to look at her.'We're still in New City,' he told her. 'For now.'She shot him a death glare. He smirked and shuffled to the edge of the bed.Ran tried to wrench her leg from its bonds to kick him. The rope didn't even budge.He clucked disapprovingly, then said to himself, 'Well I suppose you don't like me very much anymore.' Dingo turned her chair arou
Nusha had guessed right: Caph didn't go after Ran because he knew Nusha would follow him. He wanted to avoid a confrontation between them.And as much as possible, Caph wanted Ran to have nothing to do with Nusha.For all he knew, Nusha might have known about the attack on Eridanus.If she was privy to his father's schemes, it would be detrimental to Ran if Nusha knew she met up with an ex-member of her pack and now knew everything.It had taken all his willpower to resist going after Ran.She had seen something unsightly. He wanted to explain.She was pissed. He wanted to watch her get jealous.She wanted him to go after her. He wanted to go to her.Her wolf was calling for him.But he couldn't answer her cry.He had to make sure Nusha was preoccupied for the rest of the day.Thinking about what he overheard from Ran's conversation with Fang was something he'd have to do another day.The bus lurched and Nusha threw herself at him for the umpteenth time. He gently pried her fingers fro
Caph stepped backwards. 'Not now, Nusha. I'm busy.'She stepped up to him firmly. 'I dropped out of Middleton University.'He stuffed his hands into his jean pockets and let out a sigh. 'I guessed that much. You're here in the middle of the semester after all.'Middleton University was a prestigious one, difficult for humans to get into—even worse for werewolves.'What did your parents say?' he asked. Nusha shook her head and stepped forward again, snaking her arms around his neck. 'That doesn't matter, Caph. I'm telling you that I'm home for good. I quit school so that I can be by your side.' She hugged him tight and whispered, 'Will Ran do that for you?'Caph unravelled her arms and put them back by her side. 'She doesn't have to. You don't have to either.'Nusha interlaced her fingers with his, her yellow eyes running across his skin sensuously. 'I know I don't. But I did it because that's how much I want you. I will wait for you, Caph.' She tilted her head. 'I will always be be he