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 POV“Wake up, Ariel.”I woke up with a jolt and poked my index fingers through my earlobes in a bid to shut out the sound, the monstrous growl that I had been hearing every night for the past three months, the voice that threatened me to wake up from my sleep at exactly 11pm every night.I stared at the old clock that hung loosely on the wall in my room. It was 8 a.m. and I sighed remembering that the clock had stopped working a long time ago. My phone beeped beside my bed and I turned quickly to have a look. It was a text from my best friend, Valerie, and as expected, the time on my phone screen was 11:01.Someone was haunting me through my dreams, and I desperately needed to find out who, and why.Telling my parents was not an option. They would never believe me. Telling my elder brother, Aaron was even worse. He would yell at me and call me a freak and probably chip in something like: “no wonder you don’t have a boyfriend yet. Who would want to date a nineteen year old weir
MELVIN’S POVI stared in disgust at the disturbing images on the huge screen in front of me and I resisted the urge to puke. Why had my father chosen to put me through the unnecessary torture of staring at the images of his unlucky victims?“I like this one best,” he mumbled and took a sip of wine. “The splash of blood on the floor, the texture and contrast, looks like a Michelangelo painting don’t you think son?”I turned to face the man I was forced to call my father in disgust and he smiled at me. “You don’t like this…this work of art?” he frowned.“You murdered a whole family in cold blood,” I shot back at him. “There’s absolutely nothing artistic about that.”“But you can’t deny the fact that the knives sticking out of her chest look like…like, eh…paint brushes in a jar, can you?” my father retorted.That was definitely it. I was not ready for such a conversation with him and so, I stood up from the chair and made for the door.“Melvin!” his voice resonated through the throne ro
ARIEL’S POVIt took me barely five minutes to trace the problem to it’s roots.After my disappointing findings earlier that night, I couldn’t get as much as ten minutes of sleep. Yes, my brother was the worst, and my parents were pretty much nonchalant, but selling us out to the Alpha of a neighbor pack? That was very low. I never expected that Aaron would do something like that, and once again he had shown me that I never really knew him.I watched my phone beep the next minute and when I looked at the number on the screen, it was Aaron’s. “Hello Ariel. It’s me, Aaron. I know you’re still mad about your hair and won’t come out of your room. Forgive me for that. I kinda need your help now.”For a second after reading the text, I dared to imagine he was being framed. I dared to imagine that my brother had not been in touch with the evil Alpha of a neighbor pack to kill our own parents. I dared to imagine it was all a setup and he was another pawn in Alpha Joharres’ games. I replied hi
MELVIN’S POVI stared at her, my mouth wide open in shock. Even from a distance, I could tell it was her. The same green eyes, alluring as ever. Her long hair was short however. I frowned. Was I making a mistake? She couldn’t have cut her hair overnight right? What was she doing in our pack? Was she out of her mind? If only she knew that her life was in danger!Tons of questions flooded through my mind. I needed to get her away from my father, but first, I needed to verify if she was actually the one. The pack square was brimming with people that day and I knew I could get up to her without her actually noticing me. I walked up to where she stood and brought out my phone from my pocket tactfully, pretending to be on a call. She didn’t give me much attention however, as her eyes scanned the perimeter of the pack house. With my phone to my ear, I allowed my eyes wander down her body and I marveled at how beautiful she was. Like Aaron, her hair was dark brown and curly, and even with the
ARIEL’S POVThis was it —the beginning of my revenge or the end of it.I stood side by side with the son of the man I hated more than anything. We were waiting in front of a large wooden door that supposedly led to the throne room. The door was a large two-piece with a split down the centre. It had a moon carved into one side and a howling wolf carved into the other.My heart was ricocheting inside of me. I could hear my ragged breathing deep within me.This wasn’t the plan at all.This entire trip to the Blood Moon Pack went south and it was all his fault. If I hadn’t met him, I wouldn't be on the verge of being found out right now.“Is this how you plan to keep me safe, my prince?” I hissed through my teeth with sarcasm, “You’re doing a pretty good job at it.”He turned to look at me with a sharp glare as if I had insulted him. “This is all your fault. If you hadn’t been so stubborn and just listened to me, we could have avoided this mess. I am trying to help you here!”“So your go-
MELVIN'S POVI came up with this plan at the last minute and I couldn’t let her know of it either. I was certain she hated my guts more than ever now but I could deal with that later.Right now, my worry and focus were on getting her out of there.I turned around to my despicable Father and his Elders. “Father, she has passed out. I need to get her to the healer.”My father and his men burst into loud echoing laughter like they had finished watching the best comedy show in all the lands."Father?" I called trying to get his attention but they just wouldn't stop laughing.Crazy lots. All of them.The sight of blood and violence was an art to them. It turned them on and increased their life spans!"Father!"“Fine, fine, get her out of here,” he finally replied as he turned to Elder Jon who was seated at his right hand.“I thought she would put up more of a fight. She carried herself like she had a chance,” he said to Elder Jon as they burst out into laughter again.I rolled my eyes and
ARIEL’S POVMy head felt heavy.I slowly opened my eyes and it took a few seconds for my vision to clear up. I stared cluelessly at the wooden ceiling that appeared before me.What happened? Where was I?“Welcome back to the land of the living.”I turned to see who had just spoken. At first, I was confused and didn’t recognize who he was. But as soon as I started to recollect what had transpired before I blacked out, anger slowly spread across my body.“You!” I hopped off the couch and launched at him. He backed away immediately.“Ariel, you need to calm down and listen to me!" He yelled with hands out to protect his face in case I made another sudden move. He looked back to make sure he didn't misstep as he continued to withdraw from me and I kept advancing toward him in a slow menacing way.He was the prey and I, the hunter.“What do I need to listen to?!” I yelled out uncontrollably at him, ”you nearly killed me!”He stopped moving and made the mistake of dropping his hands —that
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