Kayla’s POV
As I walked through the Crystal Palace, I tried to keep my jaw from dropping. But it was really hard to act unimpressed when I saw the gleaming white marble floor, crystal chandeliers that glowed with magical light, and the walls that were covered with gemstones. I did a double-take when I saw the animated waterfall scenery on the wall from which the water was falling into the ground before vanishing into nothingness. The fae sure loved to show off, didn’t they?
I followed Sara as she walked with purpose towards what I assumed was the throne room. Gone was the girl who was fumbling around and joking nervously. With her graceful steps and calm demeanour, now I saw how she could be a court member.
As we walked, the palace workers kept glancing at me with expressions ranging from curiosity and wonder to downright hostility. I paid them no heed and continued walking confidently. Finally, we stopped i
Kayla’s POVI gave a nod to Aleria, acknowledging her demand. Now that the Queen was no longer trying to get a rise out of me, I needed to handle the situation carefully. I didn’t want to alienate the Queen and have her decide she didn’t want to help me. So, I pasted a polite smile on my face and walked closer to her.I noticed the fae court members who were all leaning forward in their seats with blatant interest to see what I was going to do. I hesitated and looked at the Queen, hoping she would get my message. I couldn’t just demand her to throw her court members out of her throne room; it would be too rude even for me…The Queen raised her brows at me before smirking. Then she rose from her seat and addressed the room in a soft voice that somehow still resonated in the huge hall.“I would like to talk to the female Alpha privately. Let’s disperse the court for now.&r
Kayla’s POV“Great! So now let’s talk!” Aleria said, snapping me out of my thoughts.I nodded at her in response.“So, what exactly do you want to know?”Well, now that I was close to those answers, I started getting doubts. What exactly shall I ask now? Should I ask about who was behind the attacks on my pack? Or should I ask about the rogue who has escaped that night? And if I ask about that man, how would the Queen know who I was talking about? Would she know the answer to my question? If she did, then it would mean that she would know everything, including my biggest secret. Did she know already?I stared at the queen doubtfully as questions ran wild in my mind. What should I do if the Queen knew it? I can’t let anyone know about it!Aleria rolled her eyes at me.“I am not all-knowing. You simply staring at me wouldn’t gain you the answers y
Kayla’s POVI fell on the palace floor on all fours, and I had no shame in admitting that it wasn’t graceful. I must be a sight with sweat soaking my dress as if I had run a marathon. I was gasping for breath as I looked up at the queen with tears brimming in my eyes. Frankly, I didn’t even know if it was tears of pain or relief...“Well, I hope I don’t have to go through that shit ever again in my life,” I snarled as I stood up from the floor on shaky legs.I blinked my eyes furiously to keep the tears from falling. I had promised Martin that I would never cry and I would never break that promise...“You are your own worst enemy, Kayla. If you get over your fears, no one can defeat you. Even if you have to go through such things repeatedly, if you stay strong, you will be fine.”“I don’t have any fears!”“Really?”
Kayla’s POV“I guess that means I have to go to the Dark enchanted forest,” I said.“If you want to catch him, you most certainly need to. But it is very dangerous. The forest is filled with dark faes, Night shadows, and even scarier creatures that would make the Watchers seem like kittens,” Aleria replied.I remembered the creepy feeling I had when the Watcher had been observing me and thought of how it would be when I would enter the territory of beasts that were only supposed to exist in nightmares and not reality.I shook my head at the thought. I wouldn’t let anything hold me from finding that guy. He was the key to avenge the death of my family and I will find him, even if I have to face death itself. I wouldn’t back off like a scared puppy just because he chose to hide with monsters!“I don’t care about the dangers. I will find him and make him a
Kayla’s POVI landed in a crouch and looked around. From what Sara had told me, this was a part of the Neutral territory since a Portal that directly opened from the Seelie territory to the Unseelie territory was against the rules and this was the closest the Seelies could get to the Dark realm. I looked at the forest with confusion, as it didn’t look anything like the part of the Neutral territory that I had crossed on my way to the Seelie realm. While the other one was full of life, this one was exactly the opposite. It radiated gloominess with withered trees and no sign of life anywhere.There was an eerie silence that felt worse than a thousand screams because it said that either it was empty of life or the creatures in the forest stayed silent due to fear of nightmarish monsters lurking in the forest. I knew that it was the latter because I was supposed to find the rogue camp here itself and not inside the Dark ench
Kayla's POVMy night vision had fully clicked in by now and I could see everything around me as clearly as if it was broad daylight and not pitch dark. The perks of being a werewolf…I avoided the debris in the ground skillfully and dodged the low hanging branches of the trees all the while focusing on the scent of the rogues. With each step I took, the pungent scent grew stronger and then, the smoky smell of fire mixed in with the stench of the rogues. Sure enough, I saw tendrils of smoke rising from the other end of the forest and knew that the rogues must be sitting in front of a bonfire. Well, camping time is over, you filthy demons!Finally, the trees thinned out to reveal a clearing in the forest and I spotted a band of rogues in human form. They were lazing around merrily, not knowing the
Kayla's POVMy eyes locked with the amber eyes of Zane Black and I wondered how he was here, so far away from his pack. And he appeared right when I was about to get the answers I had been desperate for. For a moment, I just wanted to carry on with my plan and interrogate the rogue. But then I sighed as I realised I couldn’t do it. I can’t let him know what exactly I was going to do. I should make him believe that I was here by accident...He looked at me with a confused expression before it was replaced by determination. He then looked me up and down, making sure that I was fine. His eyes fell on the torn state of my dress and his eyes narrowed in rage. He gritted his teeth, and clenched his fists as a myriad of emotions flashed in his eyes that met my gaze again.I broke eye contact with
Zane's POVAfter deciding that I would track the rogues instead of the Feral Assassin, I sent out my warriors in all directions to gather the information about hotspots for the rogues. Whenever I got the information about a place where more than three rogues were spotted, I marked that place in the map because I had a hunch that the Feral Assassin was targeting groups of rogues now. His recent killing spree was pointing towards that.Once I was done, there were four such places where rogues were said to band together that the Feral Assassin hadn't struck at yet. I stationed warriors at all four of them and demanded them to report all activities of the rogues without alerting them. In case there was an attack by the Feral Assassin, they were ordered to report me before restraining him.I dec
Three weeks later…Kayla’s POVAfter I killed Stephen, we searched the mansion and found the papers of his research. We destroyed everything to make sure that no one would ever get the idea to create a race of wolves with magic ever again. Once that was done, we covered our tracks and ensured we left nothing that led to us. Done with our work, we left the place since the spell that blocked us from escaping had already gone down by then.The next day, I announced our relationship to my pack since I had no more reservations about it. The man had literally faced death for me several times, and I loved him as much as I could ever do anyone. There was nothing that stopped me from accepting our relationship wholeheartedly. The pack received the news with far more enthusiasm than I had expected. Even Ethan appeared to be genuinely happy at the way I accepted Zane, and I decided that it was time to let g
Kayla’s POV I stalked towards Stephen, and he stood there looking at me with wide eyes. He was no longer sporting the smug expression from before, and he didn’t look interested in my wolf anymore either. “Kayla darling…” he called out in a coaxing tone that one would use to soothe an aggressive dog. I let out a loud growl at him and he flinched and took a few steps back. “I am your uncle, remember? I am the only one left in the world for you. You don’t want to harm me, right? You don’t want to be alone in this world, right?” The red in my vision darkened at his stupid words, and I snarled in response. ‘And whose fault is it that I have no one else left? Weren’t you the one who killed my entire family, you bastard!’ I mind linked him and his eyes widened in response. That’s right. He never left the pack officially, and hence he was still a member of my pack. And I am still his Alpha…
Kayla’s POVI looked horrified as the men laughed and approached Zane. I tried to hit my hand against the golden cage I was imprisoned in. But just like the last time, I was thrown off by the electric sparks from it. My hand sizzled for a moment before the burn healed. Well, it means the burns would heal at least. If I could just tolerate the pain, maybe I could break the cage?With renewed vigor, I took a few steps backwards, stopping right before my back hit the edge of the magical cage. Then I gritted my teeth, ready to endure the pain, and leaped towards the cage and kicked it. But all my efforts were for nothing. Even though I forced myself to endure the pain, it didn’t help like I had hoped. Instead of passing through the cage with some burns, it just repelled and threw me from it. I fell on the floor and panted hard, not even feeling the burns in my feet. My heart was suffering more pain than my body. If I couldn&
Kayla’s POVStephen looked startled at my sudden confidence, but then he smiled at me condescendingly.“My dear niece, I hope you have no illusions that you could fight against all of us? Being a girl and a measly wolf at that, you wouldn’t have stood a chance even if they were ordinary wolves. But with their magic, you have lost before you even start.”I didn’t bother to respond to him before looking over at the men next to him. With narrow eyes, I speculated about their strengths and anticipated their moves. I couldn’t ignore any details without knowing what would help me in dealing with them.“Aww, the little girl really is thinking of fighting us!” one man teased me.I walked backwards, and their eyes twinkled merrily, thinking I was going to run away. But they frowned in confusion when they saw that I just stood behind Zane.“Oh, the p
Kayla's POV I looked at Zane with wide eyes and slowly turned to see Stephen standing there with a wide smile. He looked just as I remembered. As if he hadn't aged a day since the time I saw him five years ago. Come to think of it, he looked even younger than how he looked then. Either the life was really good for him or he had a few tricks up his sleeves to keep aging at bay. Given the crazy hunger for power he possessed, he couldn't have had a peaceful life that prevented him from sporting grey hair. And from the magic raging around us, he was definitely dabbling with wizardry and I had a feeling that it was also responsible for his youthful looks. I looked at him with a blank expression pasted on my face and even though his face looked exactly the same as when I had seen him when he was younger, he felt different somehow. Then I realiz
Kayla’s POVAs Raymond got busy with shouting instructions to his loyal followers, I slowly slipped away from him and walked over to Zane, who was standing there with a sour look.“Relax. You know I don’t care for his attention, right?” I whispered.“As if you cared about that when you saw Maggie flirting with me.”I flinched at the reminder of the witch and bit my lips when I realised that he wasn’t clueless about her pining like I thought he was. I had to give Kudos to his act, though. Even I was fooled into thinking that he didn’t notice her efforts.I looked up to see Zane’s nostrils flaring, and then he narrowed his eyes.“Just as I thought.”Huh?Zane looked at me with a smirk.“Guess who is reeking of Stephen’s scent?”My eyes widened in the realisation that Zane got Stephen’s
Kayla’s POVI stared at the skinny guy who stood staring at the unconscious man with a proud expression. He dusted his hands off before looking around the hall as if waiting for anyone else to challenge him. People looked at him and then the brawny guy on the ground before scampering off while a few lingered around, praising his strength.I watched as the bigger man who was still unconscious was dragged away from the hall by his peers. For a werewolf to become unconscious and to stay so for this long, how much force should have been used on him? That too by a guy who looked as if he couldn’t even stand straight on his own.It smelled really fishy, and I just knew it in my heart that this was all linked to Stephen. I didn’t have any evidence that said so, but my instincts were screaming at me that this has Stephen written all over it and my instincts had never let me astray so far.As the g
Kayla’s POVWhen I thought of going to hunt Stephen, what I pictured in my mind was both of us getting dressed in badass spy costumes and searching for him stealthily until Zane gets his scent trail. And I thought it wouldn’t be much of a hassle since we were fairly certain that he was still somewhere in the state and we only needed to stop by in each of the towns before he could come across the vile man’s scent. We wolves could sniff out our prey for miles, and with Zane’s superior tracking skills, he could track the scents even farther than regular wolves.I had mapped it all in my head, and that’s why I was surprised when Zane declared his brand new plan that had nothing to do with what I had in mind.Zane had vetoed my grand plans by telling that it would look suspicious if we go to every town and sniff around for Stephen. He may get wind that we were searching for him, and we would nev
Kayla’s POVOnce Zane informed me that he got Stephen’s scent, I thought that we would start hunting him right away. But he insisted he needed to get some things done before commencing the tracking. My excitement took a nosedive at his declaration, but I decided I could use the time to check the snake’s diary.We locked the cottage, and I ignored Zane’s ill concealed laughter as I buried the key back in the plant pot. What is wrong with having a hiding place for a key?!When we reached the hotel room, I made a beeline for the couch and sat with the diary in my arms. I wanted to know what all nasty secrets it carried.Zane looked at me with amusement shining in his eyes, but seeing my determined expression, he left me to it before going to the balcony with his mobile.I opened the diary and noted that it was from the year of the rogue attack. For him to lock it in a hidden compartmen