From inside the woods came a spine-chilling scream that woke everyone, including the Alpha.The crows flew from their branches, equally in distress as the wolves on the ground. Their hurried footsteps and weary eyes signified their growing fear of the recent unrest in the woods, the borders of the pack’s territory. A shrill, evidently terrified scream, is never a good sign. For nights, the guards have been walking on thin ice on high alert for the danger that lurks in the woods.In fact, this is not the first scream at unholy hours of the night inside the woods. Some days it is a man’s voice, sometimes it’s a woman’s. Regardless, they are all victims.“Search the woods!” Flavian’s authoritative voice boomed and suddenly everyone is on their feet, with their wolves ready to surface at his order. “Do not let a single creature escape!”That night, just like all others, the woods were turned upside down by the guards. And just like the past nights, the body is found in the same exact plac
Of course, I ate my own words again. Managing the pack’s affairs in the absence of my husband is not at all easy, nor is it comparable to the affairs in the palace.“Ma’am, the blacksmiths are complaining. Since the trade is temporarily stopped because of the dangers at the border, our coal and metal resources are nearly depleted. This delays their weapon production and they won’t be able to sell…ultimately, they won’t be able to provide for their family. They are begging for your help.”I am currently in his office, where political or economic affairs do not cease to exist and every passing day my headache worsens. As I hear a new complaint, I massage my temples and attempt to manage my problematic expression. “I will have to discuss this matter with the elders first,” I say, as I really am out of ideas. My help is limited in matters of trade and leaving the borders, because I cannot open or reopen the trade deals, else the lives of the traders will be my responsibility—especially n
Somewhere far from the House of the Wolves, past the continent and to a foreign land, stood a tall man surrounded by curious women, all speaking a foreign language. Clad in his traveler coat and boots, he reached the hidden society of the witches. Just like his pack, the witches’ coven is hidden and protected by the rainforest, where vicious hurricanes and storms brew and keep outsiders—like him—away.It had been a rough trip. Crossing the continent and traveling straight for a week without companionship was not an easy feat, however, his willpower is more than enough to keep him on his feet. Though, now that he has reached his destination, he does not know how to progress into the army of warrior women and enchantresses safely.It’s becoming crowded, but Flavian could not think of a way to evade the crowd. This is his first time here. He had successfully forced himself here, past the strong weather changes of the rainforest, but that’s all he had planned. He imagined it’d be easy get
A pile of books, with dust gathered on top of each, greeted Flavian that morning. As he was led to this library of sort of the coven, where a bunch of books crowded him. If yesterday it was women, today, it was books. It appears he’s a man who can gather a crowd wherever he goes.Nevertheless, Flavian sat down and ought to start browsing through these books as it’ll take him an entire day to finish them all, however, he ran into a problem early on. The books, knowledge-filled as they are, are written in a different language.He cannot understand a word in these books. His shoulders slump in defeat.But just then, a pair of footsteps come into earshot. He turns around, hopeful, and freezes on his spot.“G-Good morning…” she whispers, awkward air hanging around them. Her timid forest eyes looked at everything but him. While he looked nowhere else but hers. “I apologize…for the mess. I thought nobody else would come in here so I left it as it is.”As if waking up from a fever dream, he s
“A-Ah…I see.” He turned away, eager to be alone to console his wounded heart. Yet again he is reminded of why he and Phaedra could never be together.He could see why the witches have become so self-sufficient. After all, they have a long history with men who would burn them at the stake at the mere sight of one. All because they believe they are spawns of the devil. Now, witches have grown and become powerful enough to defend themselves, and now they see the men as the spawns of the devil—born only to be a menace to the world. The longstanding prejudice of the witches against men has established this culture. And it would be difficult to break it.He sighs and walks away, shoulders slumped in silent defeat.—On the other hand, the High Priestess who had left him to his own company stopped a few blocks from him. She stayed to watch him slowly accept his defeat; his aura dimmed as he walked away with slumped shoulders.She did not feel guilty to fill his heart with lies.In truth, the
It was undoubtedly awkward around them as they waited for the High Priestess and Pantheia to come in. They made sure to not look suspicious, but their avoidance of each other is suspicious enough. Thankfully, neither of the two suspected a thing.The High Priestess sat on the settee while Pantheia joined Phaedra on the circle. Flavian loitered around awkwardly until the High Priestess called for him.“Alpha, do you mind sitting with me?”“Not at all, ma’am.”He did as told and sat in front of her. She watched him for a moment before speaking. “You seem uneasy. Did something happen?”“No.” He was a little quick to answer that, so he smiled to reassure her. “I was just…in deep thought of what the news is. Pantheia has been delaying it, see.”“Oh, has she?” She slightly threw her head back and chuckled. “Pantheia, dear, come here.”The unsuspecting Pantheia leaves Phaedra’s side to come to them until eventually, her older sister was forced to follow. He notices this and coolly clears his
Handling the state of affairs in the pack is naught but tricky. It’s past two weeks since Flavian left, and I’m expected to do damage control, but I’ve yet to show any good results. I know it in myself, and I know the others know it too—I’ve only been doing ‘just enough’. I’m barely keeping it together. But I’ve done my best.With the state Flavian left the pack, this was as much as I could do to keep it together.The trading is shut down, so we’ve been relying on local resources. The expedition team is too wounded and needed rest, so I ordered the ban on the woods to prohibit anyone from freely going in or out of the borders. And the rations we have are scarce, so we’ve been growing our own crops despite the poor soil and unfavorable humidity.I’ve provided poor remedies to unsolvable problems.Now it is time for Flavian to return.Proving myself to be a wise leader is difficult. This is my first time having an entire race’s survival rest on my decisions. If it is already too much fo
The fight became brutal and long. Almost the entire squad is being outsmarted by the rogue.Throughout the fight, I watched and watched. I watched his moves. I watched his cunning agility and witty attacks as he used the environment to his advantage. I watched as our shifters fell one after another. Slowly, I was also starting to devise a plan of my own. It was getting clearer and clearer to me that he’ll wipe out the guards and will surely come after me.Should I come to the other groups?I slowly backed away as the rogue and Hadji fought fiercely, bodies thrown to trees and spine-chilling growls noises of both growls and cries of pain ringing in this part of the woods. As I left the area, I muttered a small apology to Hadji.My feet picked up the pace and eventually, I was running, sprinting, to get to the nearest squad. But they were nowhere to be found.Where are they?I specifically told them not to wander too far.As I searched and searched through the woods, catching my breath
Well, you've flipped to the last page of this book. Thank you for seeing it to the end with me. I'm sorry for the errors. I will edit it diligently now that I've completed it. Please leave your thoughts in the reviews! I'd really appreciate it, constructive or negative! I'll read it all. ^^ Love, zav
Spring has arrived. Its breeze welcomed the new blooming flowers in the flower shops, the redolence of the Capital’s symbolic flower, a daisy, circulating down the streets of the city. It was the perfect weather for a festival, a rather young festival only celebrated for three years.Amid the bustling townspeople, a young girl wandered around, her simple straw slippers softly hitting the cobblestone as she glanced around seemingly lost, eventually stopping in front of the flower shop to admire the daisies. Her wide, curious eyes neared the daisy and sniffed it, sighing at its alluring scent.The old man running the shop spots the young girl, wearing nothing but a humble dress and straw slippers, visibly a farm girl. He smiles, plucking a daisy from its bunch. He hands it to the girl who looks up at him, surprised.“Happy cleansing day, lassie.”“Eh?”He chuckles at the girl’s tilted head with confusion spelled out on her face.“Don’t ‘ya know what day is today?”“Uh-uh.” She shakes he
“She’s taking too long, is she not?” Flavian wonders aloud as they look up at the sky, violent and storming with frequent flashes of lightning and thunder. It had been thirty minutes since they took to the sky. The vampires and trolls are all absorbed and rotting in the clearing, ending the battle. But they were still yet to see even the two’s silhouettes in the sky.Beside him, Fenrir was frowning quietly. He could not feel her. Something… or someone, was intercepting the bond.“What if the purification failed? Will she be alright?” Phaedra worriedly asks and turns to her mother. “Does it really take this long, Mother?”Priscilla crossed her arms, a similar frown on her face. “Let us wait a while longer. It is no easy feat, but I believe in her. What do you say, Fauntleroy?”Two ears perked in her direction. She clears her throat and clarifies, “The older one.”“What?”“Do you still feel your mate?”Only the rustling leaves of the trees answered her. All heads sharply turned to him a
My mind drifted back into the discussion we shared between the advisors, before everything.“Thank you. I’m feeling well enough to hunt down the plague again.” She meets everyone’s eyes. “But I doubt I’ll get lucky and find it at the first forest I go to. Do you have any ideas where it would likely be?”And just like that, the table was open for discussion.The hunt for the plague continues.“How about this?” I pitch in. Expectant eyes meet mine as I continue, “We take a different approach. If I absorb any more, I’m afraid I will explode.”“That is realistically possible,” Priscilla confirms, and my face blanches.“Then, what approach do you have in mind, Your Majesty?” The generals ask after darting a narrowed glance at the retired priestess.I shrug. “Anything that would not include me having to ingest any more power is preferable.”It’s true. I felt like puking the day after I absorbed the plague. It was like eating a dirty cloth, with all the corrupted souls it absorbed. It was no
“Aren’t you tired?” I ask, my eyes warily scanning him from head to toe. He really is here. Right in front of me. In the flesh.That same tall, slender, build with a ghastly white complexion and gravity-defying black hair.The same man in my dreams—nightmares, rather.He looked as if he was swallowed by darkness, with the smoke all around him. He was a terrifying opponent. But I was not one to back down. I bared my fangs and summoned Celeste’s eyes, making mine slit and glowing a brighter purple. If I could, I would’ve sneered and tested the firmness of his will, just to see if I could do to him what I did to my past enemies.Hearing my question, a slow grin spreads out on his face, sending goosebumps down my spine. I felt Flavian flinch from my left.He spoke, his voice thick and yet silky smooth as if he hadn’t been around for centuries.“The pursuit to a peaceful world is a tedious task, thus one must not feel lethargic.”I narrow my eyes at him. “Pursuit to a peaceful world? You m
Expert bodies move out of the way with a smooth tilt of their body, easily evading a lethal charge to the shoulder. Xiao’s murderous glare pinned on the vampire that dared to charge at him.“How foolish,” he remarks and brutally stabs its chest with his wooden staff’s pointy end.Despite the chaos that ensues around him, he keeps his cool demeanor and composure as he breezes through the swarm of enemies that outnumbered them. Realizing a stab to the heart that was long done pumping would not kill the vampire off, he calls for the attention of the wicked witch on his back.“Do finish off this one, Priscilla.” He flings the vampire overhead, using the poor soul’s attempt to charge on him another time as momentum to take him flying.She scoffs from behind and he could already imagine a scowl on her face.“You cannot even finish a mindless vampire? Tsk. This is why I do not desire to live too long,” she says just as the ground that the vampire landed on was scorched. There was no need to
The crisp leaves of the Witches’ Forest greeted us as we arrived, the rich, wide forest being the place we theorized would house the world’s oldest living plague. It made sense. This forest was rich with the energy of the witches, and the coven was temporarily abandoned for the sole reason that the plague was strongest in the forest.Priscilla told me during our meeting that the number of victims in the coven never decreased when the rest of the world did. When I absorbed a fraction of the plague’s strength and weakened it, I thought it gave the world a few weeks of respite. But it never reached the coven.After learning about it, guilt gnawed at my stomach. I immediately ordered the witches and their families to seek refuge in the palace, where the rest of the witches I took to war were. Now, we arrive at a barren coven in the middle of a dark, ominous forest pulsing with energy.I could feel the earth’s power in my veins. Pulsing. Throbbing. Like a streak of power terrorizing my blo
It was a quiet, sunny day for the palace.It was on that quiet and sunny day that the Queen’s advisors were summoned into the meeting hall. They quietly shuffled inside, Priscilla meeting Xiao’s eyes. She observes him. They had not crossed paths in the castle for weeks. She, preoccupied in the witches’ tower and he, cooped up in the archives. The two places were almost on opposite ends of the palace. And yet he looked no different.Xiao feels her gaze and turns her way. He raises an inquisitive brow and she shuts him off with a roll of her eyes. The man, confused, tilts his head. Quietly, they occupy their spots on the right and left of the end of the table, where the Queen’s seat was. That was and had always been their position—they are the left and right hand of the monarch.Two of the most unique hands, at that.All advisors rose at the arrival of the Queen.She wore a modest gilded purple gown with simple gown shoulder caps that drape to her back. Her humble tiara sat atop her bra
“Don’t you look pathetic down there?”Her sarcasm was spot on, her voice crystal clear.Perhaps he truly is nearing his demise. He yearned a little more of her tonight than usual.He waited for the pain of Rognac’s vicious bite, but it never came. It must’ve tripped or something because Flavian heard rustling and struggling. However, when Rognac growled and his heavy claws fumbled on the wooden floor as if lunging, the pain still did not come. And he heard her voice again.“Will you continue to pathetically lay there?”Puzzled, Flavian flutters his eyes open. And the scene before him just felt… impossible. As if he was hallucinating. He gaped at the situation for a while, belatedly registering to him that they were in the middle of a life-or-death situation.Against Rognac was Phaedra, in all her petite glory. She looked at an ant next to Rognac’s giant form. Yet she could still hold her ground as specks of dust of magic floated around her, her hair floating, and her hand up against R