MELVIN’S POVWith Father’s dismissal, the weight of getting Ariel still hung heavy in the air. I knew that time was running out, and I had to deliver the results we desired. My resolve strengthened, fueling a fire within me to prove myself once and for all.While I knew that I set myself on this path to make Ariel pay for playing me like a fool, over the past few years, I now seem to have grown closer to Father and I didn’t want to lose that.All my life I never understood him. We were never close, always arguing and fighting. But for the first time in my life, I could share a drink with my father without arguing. We even ganged up against Mother, together.It felt good. I was happy even. The relationship filled a hole I never thought I had in my heart and I didn't want it to change.Having the same interests had done nothing but put us in the same boat of understanding. I would not let it tilt over now because of Ariel. It felt like she was about to make me lose everything all over a
MELVIN’S POVThe next morning, I received an anonymous message that informed me of Ariel’s next move. She was heading to Velvet Moon.Finally, I smiled to myself, my mole was starting to prove useful. I was starting to become less confident in our agreed promise but now, I have been proven otherwise.I was right all along. I knew Ariel’s next move would be to invade and liberate another one of Blood Moon’s absorbed packs.I immediately sent a message through a guard to Kyle, Kayley, John, and Jada. We were heading out again.I freshened up and without having breakfast, I went straight to the meeting room. Jada was just arriving as I got there and we walked into the room together without exchanging pleasantries. She still had a bone or two to pick with me but I didn't have time to deal with any of it.I wasted no time in sharing the crucial tip I had received with them. "Ariel is heading to Velvet Moon next," I announced, my voice commanding. "She doesn’t know we know where she is ra
ARIEL’S POVBy dusk, we were already at the outskirts of Velvet Moon. I instructed my camp to dock for the night before we continued further into the pack.That way, we got to rest and replenish the energy we exhausted during the journey. I wanted everyone recharged and in tip-top shape for the invasion.Tents were set up in no time and soon we had a proper camp settlement setting going on. I also instructed that no fires be ignited because the smoke would draw attention to where we were.Instead, we used our none flaming torches that Ikea and her subordinate witches and warlocks just recently developed.Thankfully, we didn’t need any fires to warm our food. Again, Ikea had imprinted magic on our baggage that contained our food to keep them fresh and warm.The camp started bubbling soon after. Everyone was relaxing and interacting with one another. I sat at the entrance to my tent and watched the entire camp.I smiled satisfactorily, proud of what I was building with the new Silver Mo
MELVIN’S POV*A Few Hours Earlier*We left Blood Moon as soon as breakfast was done and we got to Velvet Moon just before dusk fell. The soldiers stationed at Velvet Moon looked very surprised to see the numbers we arrived in.Since coming to Velvet Moon was almost impromptu, I didn’t really have the time or get chance to send a message ahead of our arrival.It didn’t matter though. I was dead set and more focused on the goal. If the goal for coming here could be accomplished then that was all that would matter.I walked slowly around the holding camp that served as our military base scanning every corner I walked past closely.“General!” I heard a familiar voice call out behind me.I turned around and saw Resha standing a few feet away from me.“Yes, Resha,” I raised my head and my brows at her, “Is there something I can help you with?”“Not exactly, sir.” Resha moved closer to me slowly with her hands clasped behind her, “I just wanted to find out if everything is alright.”With my
MELVIN’S POV“I thought I would come over and offer some emotional support,” Valerie said as she stopped in front of me.I squinted at her, “Uhh, emotional support? I don’t think I would be needing that. We are in a military holding camp.”Valerie shrugged at me, “I guess I just wanted to come and help in any way that I could.”“Hmm-hmm,” I hummed at her, not believing a single word coming from her, “Did my mother put you up to this?”Valerie faked a gasp and put a hand over her mouth, “Do you mean to accuse your Mother and me of being cunning and plotting against you? That could be counted as treason, you know?”I rolled my eyes at her, “You know what I meant.”Valerie chuckled, “I know, I know.”She gave me a soft smile as she watched me closely, “It’s been a while since I saw you roll your eyes. It’s a habit of yours that I have missed.”I sighed at her knowing I wouldn't be able to shake her off now and she was already here. It would just be out of place and seemingly rude of me.
MELVIN’S POV“So we are just moving forward on just your… intuition?” Niko spoke up from where he sat. He squeezed his face and almost broke into a laugh as he completed his words. Not just was he trying to underplay my words, but I could sense the anger of what I had just done to Resha echo in his voice.“Only those with superior instincts will know to trust their intuition but since you possess no ounce of good instincts and even knowledge, I cannot blame you for having an issue with my line of thinking.” I paused and laughter broke across the room.I pinched the air with my hand and squeezed my face at Niko, “Think outside the box, lieutenant!”Niko scowled at me but I couldn’t be bothered by him. He was my subordinate and he would remain as such.“Moving on, can we discuss strategy points for if my intuition comes to fruition?” I tapped my hand on the table as I spoke.As I waited for someone to speak, my eyes fell on Resha and an evil thought came to my mind. wouldn't be interes
ARIEL’S POVIt was dawn and as soon as the first crack of morning light hit, we knew it was time to lay siege on Velvet Moon.While the entire camp had to wake up and prepare themselves, I was already awake. I never went to sleep —I couldn’t. Not after what I saw last night. Not after seeing with my own two eyes what Melvin was doing.Melvin and… I couldn’t even bring myself to properly digest the sight of it. I was angry. I was devastated. My heart was shattered.Each time I closed my eyes, all I saw was them. I saw them kissing. I saw them holding each other and my heart broke all over again.It felt like the day I walked out on him, the pain was the same —no, this was stronger. A large lump sat in my throat and nothing I did could push it away.For some reason, I didn’t want Melvin to move on from me. I thought that maybe after all of this, we could resolve everything. Maybe we could be together again. Maybe that innocent love we had... maybe we could build it back up.Part of m
ARIEL’S POV“And how do you know this?” Ralph asked his tone of voice slightly indicating disbelief and uncertainty.I bit my lower lip before I answered his question, “I was behind enemy lines last night. I went to do a sweep and survey of the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses.”The chatter resumed again with them discussing Melvin being in Velvet Moon right now and me also risking my life to go behind enemy lines like that.“Isn’t the princess worried that she might get caught and then killed? That would throw us into a kingdom ruled by Joharres, what would we do then?” I heard one of them say out loud.“Maybe we should hold off for now and wait for him to leave.” I heard another say.Someone else replied, “No way. I say this is our golden opportunity to put an end to their general life. I am sure you all know that he is the son of Joharres, right? Evil begets evil. That’s how it is!”I closed my eyes as more banters and arguments were hurled across the room.“Silence!” I heard
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