ARIEL’S POV“Hey, Ariel,” Jada called to me from the cabin, “Where are you?”I turned to look back at the cabin, “Jada, I’m out here.”She popped her head out through the doorway, “Can you come over here for a second?”“Yeah, sure,” I pulled away from Melvin, “I will be right back, let me see what she needs.”“Yeah, sure,” Melvin said as I walked back towards the cabin.I walked into the cabin and Jada was already waiting for me by the door.“Hey, what’s up?” I spread my arms in front of me as I asked her.She stretched out her hand towards me and when I looked down at it, I saw that her phone was clamped between her fingers.I looked from her fingers to her face twice, expecting her to tell me why she was giving me her phone and what she wanted me to do with it.“Uhh, are you going to tell me why you are handing your phone over to me?” I raised my brows at her.“Valerie wants to talk to you,” Jada said, shaking the hand she was using to hold the phone.“Val?” I squeezed my face in co
MELVIN’S POVI followed Ariel into the cabin but instead of the living room, she led me to her bedroom.“I thought instead of the sofas in the living room, we could both share my bed and get comfortable,” Ariel said as she turned the doorknob and opened the door to her room.I smiled awkwardly at her, “Yeah, sure. I could definitely use a soft bed right now.”Ariel crossed into the room and held the door open for me. I was about to take a step into the room when I heard Jada’s voice behind me.“Be very careful, Melvin,” Jada stated in a mocking tone, “I am watching you.”I looked back to see Jada poking her head out through the kitchen doorway. She pointed two fingers at her eyes and then at me to let me know she was watching me.I separated my lips to reveal my grinding teeth, mocking her right back but she didn’t back off.Jada repeated the same movement with her fingers, “My eyes are on you, mate.”I rolled my eyes and shook my head as I walked into Ariel’s room. Ariel was chucklin
ARIEL’S POVI lay awake in Melvin’s arms but he had slowly drifted into sleep as we cuddled in bed. We lay down in the spooning position with Melvin being the bigger spoon.It had been a little over an hour since I spoke to Valerie over the phone. If Joharres and his betas were moving at the intensity she suggested then they would have searched almost the entire pack by now without successfully finding me.This meant Jada’s place would be next since she resides on the outskirts of their pack.Placed my hand on Melvin’s arm that he placed over my body to hold me and I rubbed it gently, absolutely dreading what I was about to do next.But it was necessary. I had to do it to save myself while also protecting Melvin.I squeezed his arm gently before proceeding to lift it off me and place it slowly by his side. I sat up on the bed to start preparing myself.I turned to look at Melvin and started to get second thoughts about my plan as my eyes fell on his beautiful face. Moonlight seeped th
MELVIN’S POVBy the time I started to feel my body wake up, I could already hear the cock crow. I stretched my hand out to my side to feel Ariel but my hand landed on an empty bed space.I turned my head to my side and slowly opened my eyes but nobody was there.The sunlight coming through the window made me squint. I put my arm over my eyes to shield them from the sun.I turned my head away from the sunlight and faced the ceiling but when I removed my arms from shielding my eyes, I was met by Niko’s face with his signature scowl.“Good morning, Your Highness,” he said to my face.I hurriedly jumped off the bed to the other side. I landed on the floor and crawled further away from the bed.I turned to look at Niko, staying glued to the floor, “Jeez! What the hell, Niko?!” I roared at him.Niko straightened himself up and walked around the bed to cross over to the side I was on.“Welcome back to the land of the living, Your Highness,” he said, still maintaining a calm demeanor.I frown
MELVIN’S POVWith a heavy heart, I dragged myself back to Jada’s cabin and allowed my body to crash outside, unable to bring myself to enter the cabin.I sat up against the cabin and stared into the open space. My mind was blank and devoid of any thoughts whatsoever.Ariel couldn’t have just disappeared on me. There was no way on the goddess’ green earth that she would just leave me. Nobody just disappeared like that, especially not from the person they love.I closed my eyes and pinched myself trying to wake myself up if this was a bad dream. I squeezed my eyes tighter and tighter but I felt no sudden jolt to wake up."Sir, I found this letter on the bed beside Melvin before he woke up." Niko’s voice floated into my ears from within the cabin.A letter? Did Ariel leave that for me? She probably did. I opened my eyes and decided to focus on their discussion."Let me see that." Father’s deep voice echoed in my ears followed by the sound of crippling paper as he collected the letter
MELVIN’S POVAll the times we shared together couldn’t have just been a lie. It just couldn't.I refused to believe that the first woman I genuinely fell in love with would lie to me. I refused it!I squeezed the paper in my fists and threw it away. It suddenly felt like my worst nightmare was coming to life.Ariel wouldn't do this to me. I remembered how much time we spent just the day before. I remembered how her hands had felt when she touched my cheeks. I remembered the feel of her lips...This couldn't be true."Jada!" I exclaimed in my head as my mind drifted to Jada. She knew something!She was the one who brought up that stupid story about using a disguise and all that crap. She must have known where Ariel was hiding.I jumped to my feet and stormed into the cabin. “Jada!” My voice boomed throughout the cabin as I called out her name in anger, “Jada, come out here!”Jada stumbled out of the kitchen. My blood boiled with anger as my eyes fell on her.She stared back at me wit
MELVIN’S POVI returned to the castle downcast and defeated. I was broken in more ways than a fight with my father would have caused me.I stayed holed up in my quarters for a couple of days without coming out or showing my face to anyone.I felt ashamed. I felt stupid. I felt broken.Mother came to my door a few times to talk to me but I never responded to all of her incessant knockings. I couldn’t show my face to her, especially. After all, she taught me, I tried to do the right thing and see what that got me.I took the few days I stayed holed up in quarters to come to terms with what had happened. Ariel had played me, that much was clear now. She played a beautiful game and now it was my turn to play my hand.I finally came out of my quarters with my mind set on what I wanted to do. I made my way to the throne room where I knew Father would definitely be at this time of the day.I got to the throne room and Father was seated on his throne addressing Niko and his squad. Niko sto
ARIEL’S POVA few days went by before I got back to my pack and I knew I needed to put a plan in place as soon as possible.Joharres was most likely already plotting his next assault right now, especially, since I slipped through his fingers again.My mind drifted to Melvin. I could tell just how angry he must be feeling right now because of how I left him. Maybe he would understand when it all became clear to him later or maybe not.All I knew was that I made the right call for him. For me. For us. Now that I was away from him, my heart just continued to ache and long for his presence and touch.I discreetly made my way to Ikea’s home with a hood over my head. As usual, her door creaked open as I got to her porch.I walked into Ikea’s house and she was already seated and waiting for me as I got in. I removed the hood from my head and dropped it behind my head.“Welcome back home, Princess,” Ikea smiled at me, “You didn’t come back with your boy this time?”I shook my head, “He cou
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