/ ABBY / I woke up and found myself lying in a comfortable bed. Opening my eyes, I realized I was in someone else's bedroom, with windows being shut and covered by black curtains. The lights were turned off and it was hard to tell if it was night or day time. And it was pretty cold, which I soon realized was coming from an air conditioner in a corner. The dim room has basketball posters on the wall and looked rather empty except for a desk at the side of the bed that contained nothing but a bottle of water. It must have been left there for me to drink. But I was not interested on it. What seemed to be interesting was the fact that this room might belong to a young man, possibly one of my captors. They had brought me here and left. I got off the bed and went over to the door. It was locked from the outside. "Hello! Anyone there?" I called out. There was no response though.I sat back on the bed, not knowing what to do. So much running to make my escape only to end up in their hands
/ ZHASK /The address on the note was somewhere I was not familiar with so I sought the help of Genebeth. She told me where it was and even gave me instructions to get there. It wasn't far away from where we lived. Genebeth wanted to come, but the message said I should come alone if I didn't want anything bad to happen to Abby.She wanted to call the police as well and report it but the message also said not to involve the police. So I left Genebeth there at the apartment as she called Shade and Adam to come. But I didn't wait long enough for them. I was desperate to find Abby. I took a taxi as Genebeth had instructed. She had told me that they would follow after me and stand watch outside. But I didn't want to rely on them. I knew they wouldn't be able to help anyway and I didn't want them to get involved too and end up getting hurt. So anyway, I arrived at the address written on the note. It was a small house, a two-storey one. But it was well protected with metal gates. I stood
/ ABBY /Tears blurred my vision well as I cried so hard, trying to apologize to Zhask.I was making impossible demands out of him, telling him to just go abandon his life as a prince, abandon his kingdom, his family, and the throne he was trying so hard to secure. But I was so desperate now to save him.I would do anything to get us out of here, disappear together. We could always think of another way back. Let me just save him today. There would always be another chance.But before I could tell him that, something unexpected happened.Zhask lunged forward towards the man who was holding the gun at me and impossibly transformed into a big grey wolf in mid-air. Then he landed on the man who wasn't quite prepared for it and pinned him against the floor with his sharp claws.The gun that he was holding was thrown at my feet and Adam took his chance to fetch it and pointed it at the magnificent form of a wolf in front of us.&n
/ ZHASK /Before my consciousness faded out, I caught a glimpse of Abby leaving with Adam. For a moment, I was angry at how my plan didn't work out. But in the end. I was glad I kept Abby safe. They didn't kill her and I knew Adam would keep her safe.The thought of my mate safe in another's arms pained me even more as I lay there in the pool of my blood. But I'd find her again, even if it meant in another life.They said werewolves chose the same mates over and over again in different lifetimes. I liked to believe that in my past life, Abby and I shared the same story and we both love tremendously until we died and now we were living our hundredth life or it could be our thousandth life and yet we still managed to find each other and got mated. I liked to believe that when this life was over, I'd be able to find her again, in many more lifetimes, as many as destiny would allow.
/ LYLION /*A Few Hours Earlier*EASTERN WEREWOLF KINGDOMSomething wrong was going to happen. I could feel it in my bones as I walked along the hallway to the throne room where The Council gathered. The servants in the palace and the omegas seemed to be hiding and avoiding me. They were keeping their mouths shut and those usual whispers about gossip and rumours were gone. All I could hear in the hallway was the deafening silence. There was an unexplainable tension in the air. I could sense something bad as I approached the entrance of the throne room.I opened the massive doors and went inside. The meeting had just begun. The Sentinels were speaking, there was nothing unusual about their words. Nothing strange except the fact that Beta Caden and his mate were not present in the gathering. I started getting worried. All the Alphas and important people from different packs in the kingdom were there, but he was nowhere in sight. Now that was unlikely of him as he wasn't often absent or
/ LYLION/My head swirled and my vision got blurred as the smoke engulf me. Suddenly, a blinding bright light exploded and I had to close my eyes. I felt my body twisted and turned and the next thing I knew, I was on a hard floor, knees down and throwing up. When I opened my eyes, what I saw was a bloody scene. His Highness was laying on the floor, stark naked with blood oozing out from underneath him."No!" I muttered as I crawled towards him."Stay back, let me handle this," Elvon stated. He crouched in front of His Highness' body and pressed his hands on his chest, which was filled with wounds. "He's still alive, I'm going to heal him," he added. I watched in fear and worry as Elvon's hands glowed in what seemed to be an illuminating bright light. He uttered some incantations that I couldn't understand, and I was left there, frozen in grief, witnessing his real magic. This was the first time I saw him heal a wounded person. I thought Seers didn't have the power to do it, but n
/ ABBY /I was dragged by force into some kind of boat or almost like a yacht and I had to kick until the last amount of my energy faded but despite all efforts, I was too weak to free myself from Adam. In the end, he managed to bring me inside the boat, despite his sister's complaints not to bring me along.He made me sit inside one of the cabins and shut the door and locked it with only the two of us inside. "I am all doing this for you, Abby. One day, you will thank me for this," he told me.I glanced away from him out of spite. I felt so much hatred towards him now and I could feel my chest beating in rage. There was only one bed in the cabin. I sat further away from him and refused to talk.But he went on. "They would have killed you."So was I supposed to thank him now?Zhask was dead. All I could see in my head was the blood flowing from his body and I gritted my teeth trying to shake those thoughts away.What's gonna happen to me now? I am in a boat travelling to a place I
/ LYLION /* 1 week later *The past few days were the hardest. Elvon and I didn't have much of a choice but to entrust ourselves and the safety of the prince to a powerless human who offered us a place to stay.Her name was Shade, and she owned the rooftop shelter where we were staying. She was kind and made sure we had enough food to eat and supplies to last until the prince's health improved. As of now, he was still in deep sleep, and Elvon was doing his best to watch over him.Genebeth was the other girl I met at the house where we were transported to. She was kind as well and every day, she visited us in the shelter just to see how we were doing. Sometimes she would give us updates on what was going on outside.This time, she told us about Princess Greya whose name in this world was Abby."We had no news about her," she said sadly. "We reported Adam to the police and they're still looking. Don't worry, I told Abby's parents she will be fine. They're worried but I promised them th
/ ABBY /The woman who saved Zhask and me took us both to her house a little further away from where she found us.She treated our wounds and gave us water and a proper meal. She even gave me clothes to wear and made Zhask lay down on one of their beds to rest.Her house was small but it was spacious, with big windows which remained open for the rest of the day. It was located in what seemed to be a small village with people whose main source of food was farming. The village was surrounded by fields of crops and small green hills, and little streams. It reminded me of the island where Adam and I used to live, except this village was even more traditional than that place. There was no car, no technology, nothing that the modern human world ever owned. Or maybe we were just too far from the mainland?The portal had sucked us up and brought us out into the open field near a river. That's where the little kid found us. Now, I had to adjust my state of being before I could decide what to d
/ ABBY / It took me a few minutes to recover from the impact. I bit off my shirt and tore some fabric to wrap around my wound.Things were all over the place in the kitchen. All that stuff Elvon owned was scattered on the floor, it felt like an earthquake happened.But there was no earthquake. I looked around and found a glowing and pulsing white light where the counter once was.I saw Genebeth standing up, gushes on her face as well, as she shook off dust and broken shards of wood and glass off her.Mark and Elvon were in the corner, all over each other, struggling to stand up. Mark was still holding a piece of chicken in his hands, his face looked like he had seen a ghost."What the hell was that!" he yelled in panic.Elvon finally gathered his strength and stared at the white glowing light in the corner. It looked exactly like the light I had seen back in the woods when I first met Zhask. "It can't be...." I muttered and stared in wonder."It seems like someone has opened a porta
/ ABBY /Elvon and Mark gathered weird stuff in the kitchen. Stuff we barely recognized, some of them were amulets, pearls, potions, and other witchcraft stuff. The scent of smoke was heavier than usual and the whole room just felt so weird and dark and moist.We sat in the living room for ours, just letting them do whatever thing they were doing and just waiting until something would happen. So far, nothing happened yet and we were bored to death.It was already evening and we were starving. We couldn't cook our meals there because they had transformed the kitchen into some sort of magical room or whatever. So Genebeth decided to just eat outside.We didn't want to disturb the two magicians in there so we left them behind, promising we'd come back with food later. There was a small fast-food restaurant down there near the apartment building and we all went there to eat. They served us some chicken and some soup and ramen. I didn't realize I was hungry when I finally tasted food."S
/ ABBY /"You're taking me to where?" the man asked, clearly confused about what madness we just brought him into."To our apartment. To meet our friend," Shade replied, trying to convince him to come.We were standing just outside his house, making a deal with a man who possibly had no idea what he was about to do. "I guess this is too quick for you, isn't it?" Genebeth muttered beside me. "Why don't we introduce ourselves first? I'm Genebeth, for a start."Genebeth nudged at me, urging me to say something. "I'm Abby," I said, extending my hand to him."And I'm Shade. You are?"The man shook my hand first, "I'm Mark."Then he shook Genebeth's and Shade's after."Done with the introductions. Let's get to the point now," Shade said, pulling out her wallet. "Here take it. It's all yours.""I can't possibly...""Just take it," Shade cut him off. "Take it and get in the car. We won't ask you anything more."Mark took the wallet and his eyes widened upon seeing how much money was inside.
/ ABBY /The car slowed down as we drove back to the blue house by the river. We took it as a chance to listen to what excuse Shade had to say."I stole some money from my parents and ran away from home," she explained to us. I could sense the desperation in her voice. There was also a look of disappointment on her face.Now it made sense where she got all that money. There was no way someone like Shade, a student without even a job, could pay for all our living expenses. There was no way.Genebeth gasped and we both went silent. "Oh my God, Shade," Genebeth muttered, reaching a hand to Shade's shoulder to empathize with her. "No big deal, I've done it a few times before, they always let me come back," she added, trying to be nonchalant about it but I could sense her worry. "Yeah, you're right. Probably this time, they're going to abandon me. I stole a lot. Like a lot. Enough to sustain my independence, including the bail money I got Adam and Zhask out of prison, and yeah, the money
/ ABBY /"Are you seriously going to pay him?" I asked Shade as we got back into her car. "Yeah," she replied nonchalantly, starting the car up and pulling into the driveway."How much?" I asked again, not sure if I would agree with this one."Not for you to worry about, girl. Let's just get back and tell Elvon about him," she told me as drove our car back to our apartment."What if he's not the one we're looking for?" Genebeth asked, leaving over from the back seat to get closer to us."Then we'll keep looking," Shade answered. We got back to the apartment and rushed upstairs to the rooftop.We found Lylion sitting on a bench by the floor, eyes closed and snoring."Lylion!" Genebeth called out to his surprise. He stood up and alerted himself."What's the matter?" He asked, his hands already on his sword, probably thinking we were in danger."Where's Elvon? We found the man in his dreams!" Shade muttered out loud."He's inside," Lylion replied and opened the door for us.Elvon was
/ ABBY /"Who the hell are you?" the man asked, staring at us with a very annoyed look on his face. He looked like he had just woken up with his ruffled hair and drooping eyes.Shade cleared her throat. "Uhm, you may not know us but we're here to ask for your help," she explained."I think you got the wrong person!" He snapped and started closing the door."No, no, no... Wait!" Shade stopped him and pulled something from her pocket. "I got something."It was a necklace, but not too fancy to be called a piece of jewellery. A charm, maybe. And she raised just at the man's eye level."You know about this, right?" Shade asked again, showing the man the object and letting him study it for a while.He seemed to know about it because his eyes narrowed. "Why do you have something like that?" He asked, getting curious now. "Because a friend of ours is one of you and he needs your help," Shade replied, trying to smile and convince the man.He debated against himself for a moment before he fi
/ ABBY /After I met Zhask, I went to visit my adoptive parents with Genebeth and Shade. They were worried sick about me but I told them I was fine. I explained to them what happened, but it was more kind of a lie as I left out a few important details. I didn't want them to worry about me."Mom, Dad, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I didn't want you all to worry. I was trying to recover my memories and I went with someone without saying goodbye. Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm so close now but I need you to understand that there's always a hole in me that can only be filled once I figured out who I was before you found me four years ago, and I'm not going to stop until I remembered everything. Not when I'm already so close."Mom hugged me and carressed my back. "I understand, sweetie. It's your life. Your father and I knew this would happen but we're always ready to let you go. Thank you for being the daughter we never thought we could have again. Thank you for being Abby. We never
/ ABBY /We arrived at the mainland at six in the morning, just in time before the folks in town woke up. We returned the yacht to its original place in the port, and Shade welcomed us with warm hugs.I hugged her back, and we were crying. "I thought we'd never find you," she whispered to me."I never thought I'd see you all too," I replied, wiping my tears. "You're safe now, Abby. You're home," she told me and hugged me again.She paid our driver and told him not to speak anything about her elusive act last night or her parents would definitely ground her again or worse, send her out of the country for school."I guess that concludes our mission for the day," Genebeth declared. "Now let's go get some food. I'm starving.""Yup, let's go," Shade added, ready to walk towards her car which was waiting for us across the road.But I stopped her. "Uhmmm. I want to see Zhask first. Can you take me to him?" I pleaded desperately.Shade looked at me and understood how I felt. "Okay, hop in!"