ARIEL'S POVWhen we returned to the camp, everyone had retired to their tents and I was most grateful to the goddess for that because my hair was a mess and my wet bra didn't help either. My entire chest region was wet and despite the darkness of the night, anyone who looked closely enough would see through it.We held hands sniffling our laughter like young children who had gone on a forbidden trip.We could only let out our laughter once again the moment we were secured inside my tent and the flap was let down.After reminiscing about the wonderful day we had, we finished up the last of our food, and then the heat between my legs started to return as time to sleep drew closer.Unlike me, Melvin was very comfortable. He took off his clothes and once again remained in his birthday suit as he curled himself into my bed."Do you always sleep naked or this is a new thing?" I asked, glaring at him.The first night we had shared, I figured it was because we had sex that was why he slept n
MELVIN’S POVThe second Ariel’s eyes found her drawer empty, her face went blank immediately, and as soon as her expression changed, I knew something was wrong.I was standing a few feet away from her but I was watching her every move. I easily saw the slip in her mood. Ariel was frozen at first, not believing what her eyes were seeing.“Hey,” I called out to her immediately, “are you okay? Is something wrong? Your countenance suddenly changed.”As if I snapped her out of her trance-like incognito mode, her eyes drifted from the drawer to me and then back to the drawer in almost an instant.Ariel began to move frantically, digging her hand into the drawer as if searching for hidden treasures within the empty drawer.I moved closer to her immediately, my first line of thought being to calm her down. “Ariel?! What is wrong?! Talk to me!” I called out to her again as she didn’t answer me the first time. My voice increased in pitch with care and concern as I darted across the room toward
MELVIN’S POVIn a split second, Ariel appeared beside me and grabbed onto my arm which was tightening its grip around Resha’s neck.“Melvin, please let go!” Ariel said to me persuasively. “Please!”“Why should I not kill her right here, right now?! She stole the moon crest from you and I just know she was taking it back to Joharres!” I yelled out, responding to Ariel but not turning my attention to her at all.“She couldn’t make it out of the uncharted lands and so she has returned to beg like the dog she is, isn’t that so?” I chuckled softly with disgust.Resha shook her head at my question as she still struggled against my grip on her neck.“I really should just snap your neck right now!”“Melvin, don’t! Please…” Ariel tightened her hands around my forearms, “…please, let go of her.”I finally turned my eyes away from Resha and looked at Ariel. Deep within her eyes was the soothing my anger needed to yield and calm down.I sighed as I freed my hands from Resha’s neck. Resha dropped
ARIEL’s POVWhile the whole camp continued to give loud cheers of joy and happiness, Melvin moved closer to where I was.“You are better than me,” he said, leaning close to me so he could whisper into my ears, “If not for you, she would have died for sure and justice wouldn’t have been tempered with mercy.”I immediately knew he was referring to how he almost killed Resha earlier. I was grateful to the goddess for this too. Getting there on time; Stopping Melvin; It was all the goddess.Because if there was anything I wanted, to be the order of the day in my regime, it was the end of the cycle of violence. I strongly believed that there was always a choice and another way out rather than simply just blood and death.I held in high esteem our ability to be able to forgive and learn to forgive the unforgivable. It was what we mostly needed right at that point to heal all our people and to bring about unity.I wrapped my arm around Melvin’s neck and pulled him closer to me so I could wh
ARIEL’s POVI scoffed in disbelief at his assertion. “How come we don’t know anything or have any records of this heir?!”“Well, sadly, Ares had a daughter, and many at the time considered female leadership to be absurd. In their perspective, they had allowed the abomination of Queen Idara sitting on the throne but they didn’t want a repetition and so they denied Ares’ only heir her birthright.”Adam reached to the small table in between us and picked up the small brown hard-covered book that was lying on it.“My great great grandmother, Queen Idara,” Adam started slowly as he began to flip open the pages of the book, “and her son, my great-grandfather, tried to keep a logbook that contained our family tree for as long as they could.”He got to a page and he stopped flipping. He used his palms to smoothen out the pages so they could be visible before passing them across to me.“Here,” He said, shifting to the edge of his seat and handing the book to me, “Her name was Isabela. Ares’s d
ARIEL’S POVTraveling out of the uncharted lands was quite easy. Now that we had three navigators in the group, it was a smooth journey from the forest and through the desert.As soon as we got to the desert area, all Jada, Selene, and I needed to do was focus together and close up the distance between us and the border.In no time, we were at the border ready to crossover to the other side. Melvin already told me of the other group that didn’t follow him and the others into the uncharted lands and so he left them behind the border.So I informed everyone to be alert upon our entry to the other side. We could be met with force. Although it was nothing to be bothered about since it was just a handful of werewolves I still felt a little uneasiness.Slowly, we made our way through the border, stepping through the barrier that separated the two lands. We entered the other side cautiously, ready to fight our way through whoever might try to oppose us, but to our surprise, nobody was there.
ARIEL’S POVMelvin turned to look at me, anger evident in his eyes. He took one more glance at his Father and the army that stood before us before he reluctantly walked back toward me.“Yeah, you do just that! Run back to the little girl that controls you with your tail between your legs! You are not even qualified to be a man! A pussy, that is what you are!” Joharres yelled at Melvin as he walked back to me.I placed my hands on his face as he got to me. “Don’t listen to a word he says. He is lying and he is the real coward because he doesn’t have what it takes to broker peace!”Melvin gave me a small smile, “Don’t worry, Ariel. I stopped listening to my Father’s stupid words a long time ago so his words now don’t bother me. They are all falling on deaf ears.”“Good,” I said as I planted a kiss on his cheeks. I withdrew from him and stared into his eyes. No matter how much he tried to hide it, what was happening right now still hurt him deeply and I understood.Not wanting to put any
ARIEL’S POVA devilish smirk settled on Joharres’ lips and I knew instantly that whatever he demanded, it would be a price we would be unable to pay.“I want the moon crest. I want your head on a silver platter and I want Melvin handed over to me, hands bound in chains,” Joharres growled at me.I just knew it! I knew his demands would be outrageous however, I kept my cool in front of him. I couldn’t let my anxiousness show or be perceived for the slightest bit.“Impossible. None of your demands can be met as long as I am alive and breathing,” I shot back at him as calmly as possible.“Which is why I am asking you to die. Off with your head, Ariel, what part of that don’t you get?” Joharres sneered at me. He was enjoying this.“I see,” I nodded at him, finally coming to an already obvious realization. Although I wanted to give some benefit of the doubt, Melvin was right all along. His Father could not be reasoned with.“Let me relay your demands to my camp then,” I said, turning around
Ariel's POV We had all settled into our new lives and the past had long become a thing of history, left to be shared with our children and their children after us.Fiona returned to her father's pack and she had grown strong as a leader and as a banshee. Seeing how much of a help she had been, her people had no choice but to reinstate her as their ruler.Selene was elevated as my right-hand person just after Melvin and she performed her duties with more than just loyalty. The war had made us closer than ever. She became that family I had sorted out for."My Queen?" A soft voice called out to me and I snapped out of my reverie to see who it was.A smile immediately covered my face as my eyes settled on her."Gio, you shouldn't work so hard with that bump," I said and she rolled her eyes."Ikea and David have refused to return from their honeymoon, someone is supposed to keep things running in here!" She mumbled as she wobbled toward me.She and Igor had been mated for a few moons now.
ARIEL’S POVIt had been three weeks since the whole debacle and like they say, the show must go on. The council of the court of the Alpha King had arrived in Silver Moon to officiate my coronation ceremony and officially crown me as the Luna Queen of the entire kingdom.The council had wanted this ceremony to be done two weeks ago as soon as we got back from the uncharted lands because they felt the throne had been vacant for way too long but I delayed it. Melvin was still mourning and I too mourned along with him.The ceremony was meant to crown me as Luna Queen and also crown Melvin as my Prince Consort. In truth, the ceremony would also serve as our official mating ceremony. So it didn’t feel right to hold it when each of us was still trying to come to terms with their loss.I wanted to delay the ceremony even longer to give Melvin enough time to heal but he came to me himself and told me not to delay it.“It is okay, Ariel,” He had said to me a few nights ago, “I am more than rea
ARIEL’S POVI instantly made the moon crest cast a bright glow toward Joharres, blinding his vision, so he wouldn’t see Melvin coming with another attack.Melvin ran through the bright light at Joharres and before he could see Melvin coming from within the light, it was already too late.Melvin punched Joharres in his guts making his upper body fall forward towards Melvin and he landed a more powerful punch across his face that sent him tumbling in the air before he fell to the ground with a loud grunt.I made the moon crest return to its normal dim light and quickly sped to where Joharres lay sprawled on the floor still dazed from Melvin’s punch.I lifted him, with his back to me, and held his arms out, spreading them apart, but I kept him on his knees. Melvin stopped in front of us.Joharres started to wake up from his daze but was still relatively weak. His strength was yet to fully return. Seeing the position I had locked him in and Melvin standing in front of him, he started to g
ARIEL’S POVMelvin nodded at me and we started walking to where his Father had landed when Melvin dealt him a blow earlier.However, he wasn’t there but neither of us was surprised. Joharres wasn't a common werewolf like the others that would stay down from one measly punch. We looked around the area searching for where he might be.“I guess you are looking for me, right?” I heard Joharres’ hoarse voice say behind me. Melvin and I spun around immediately to face him.Our faces were straight and focused and our fists were already firmly formed. We came ready for him. We came to put an end to all of this madness and violence.Joharres let his fur coat slowly slide down his body to reveal his large bulky build that was concealed under his large coat.“You know, you had me stunned for a while,” Joharres said with a chuckle, “but then I realized that Melvin must have made all this plan. Disrupt and attack. Divide and conquer. Create chaos and then triumph.”Joharres paused and laughed at
ARIEL’S POVI never back down from a challenge so I was ready to give him the pleasure of losing woefully to me. I leaned forward to caress the side of the Rinitor to calm it down.“Easy boy,” I said to the Rinitor as I stroked it under the chin, “why don’t you let me handle this?”As I continued to slowly stroke the scales of the animal, its camouflage came undone and its scales began to vibrate. I thought it was starting to cave into my petting and was becoming calmer as I asked it to. I was so wrong.The Rinitor roared aggressively at Darius and along with its roar came fire. I jumped backward with shock at the release of the bright yellow flames and stumbled off the animal, falling to the ground.I looked up just in time to see the flames from the Rinitor’s mouth engulf Darius completely. By the time the animal stopped breathing its yellow flames, Darius’ upper body had been burned to a crisp. He dropped down to his knees and fell face-first into the ground with a thud.I slowly s
ARIEL’S POVImmediately I heard Melvin’s command, I gave him a nod and sprang to my feet. I bolted past the surrounding soldiers who were surprised by my sudden movements and couldn’t think fast enough about what to do.As I ran in the direction of the uncharted lands, I took a glance behind me and saw that Jada and Selene were hot on their heels too.We got to the barrier of the uncharted lands in no time and rather than run through it, we all instinctively just jumped through it.“Alright, we need to focus and call as many Rinitors as we can,” I said to Jada and Selene as soon as we landed in the uncharted lands and they nodded back at me.Selene and Jada closed their eyes and stretched out their hands and I did the same. First, we had to make a reconnection with the uncharted lands before we could reach out to the Rinitors.I started to feel some sort of tingle all over my body. It felt like something was rapidly welling up inside me and it continued to build until it got to a cre
MELVIN’S POV“How do we bring the uncharted lands to them? It is not like we can move the thing,” Selene’s face squeezed with confusion as she reacted to what I had just said.I chuckled a little at their cluelessness. “You are all taking my words literally. Just calm down and listen to me for a second. We have three navigators of the uncharted lands at our disposal and we also have a land full of mythical creatures that could wipe out an army in the blink of an eye.”I looked over at the Blood Moon army, “They currently have the upper hand with their numbers. That is an army of about a thousand soldiers and we are barely up to a hundred and fifty. Since we are outnumbered,” I looked back at the group in front of me, “I say we level the playing field and even out the odds in our favor.”“Balance our numbers out with some mythical friends from the uncharted lands. With three navigators, I bet we can invite just enough of our friends to this party,” I straightened myself with pride and
MELVIN’S POVI gritted my teeth as I struggled to find the exact harsh words I wanted to use to describe him. No words could qualify how angry and frustrated I was at the moment.“You think you are a big bad wolf meanwhile you are just a sad little man inside who just craves to make the whole world feel the same shitty way he does too. I see now that nothing will deter you from doing what you want. Fine!”I took a step closer to him, stomping my feet on the hard ground, “But I will also be doing what I want, whatever I like, and with whomever I choose. You don’t tell me what to do!”I turned around and started walking away from him towards the camp I had chosen as the one for me. The camp that had my heart and my home with it."You are my son and as much as I hate to say it out loud, I have the right to stop you from making a grave mistake!" He yelled but my counter was ready.“You lost that right a long time ago.”After walking a few meters away from Father, I stopped. “And as for Mo
MELVIN’S POVI was able to get Ariel back to our camp. It was good I was able to get to her on time and held her down before she let loose and did something drastic.I completely understood how she was feeling but I couldn't let her attack... Not yet.I saw Niko rip Ralph’s head off his neck. It was gruesome. A grotesque sight to behold. Anger welled up in me too but I believe not as much as Ariel must have felt it. Afterall, she was closer to Ralph than I was.After getting back to our camp and a few words of consolation, Ariel was able to calm her anger and the color of the moon crest went back to being blue.Falling to her knees, Ariel broke down into tears almost immediately. I went down to her to pull her into my arms and offer a consoling embrace.“Ra—Ralph… h—he is dead,” She sobbed, “J—Just like that… and… and there was nothing… nothing I could do…to save him.”I pulled her into me, tightly wrapping my arms around her. “I am sorry, Ariel. This is mostly all my fault. I am trul