REGINA
“How could Beatrice have tried to kill you both?” I shot back at him. By both, he was implying Lionel as well? That was impossible."Well, I used to think that she’s just some desperate actress willing to do anything to appear in the spotlight. I just didn’t think she could go that far. Beatrice poisoned my drink, Regina.”“What?”“Yes, at the party.”I figured immediately. Of course, the party was the last place I had been seen before I went looking for Marcy, who was never there.“How did it happen?”“I’m not going to lie; it’s only speculation, but who else would have wanted me poisoned at that party? Summary is, I would have died. Hell, I couldn’t have been able to stand on my two feet as I am doing right now. It was Lionel who saved me.”Okay, that was... that was not what I was expecting.“I didn’t see him as the saving type after all.” I replied. I was yet to tell Frank that it was LioneREGINA “Oh, Ryker.”I wrapped my arms around him. He laughed as he hugged me as well. “You look good, Regina.”“Thank you and you also look stunning too!” I replied. As we laughed just then, I remembered vividly that I and Gwen had falsely accused him of every one of Lionel's schemes, which had landed him in a hospital. For some reason, it reached my conscience as my fault. “Look, Ryker, I’m truly sorry I and Gwen had accused you falsely. We never meant it that way, believe me. We were both just caught in that web of confusion and lies from the many things Lionel had put us through.”Ryker shrugged. “It’s okay, Regina. I totally understand. What matters for me now is the future. With you both married now, can we say things are going to be better?”I sighed. “Well, what can I say? I guess that depends on Lionel, right?”“Lionel will not be a problem.”I scoffed. “You seriously don’t mean that.”
LIONEL Frankenstein clearly couldn’t say the words either. “I’m sorry if I blamed you for that. I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just…” Frankenstein was saying. “It’s alright.” It just wasn’t your business; I finished in my head. Frankenstein dropped some final congratulations and carried on. I was already exhausted and ready to retire to my room, but for some of the other guests at the party that I simply needed to finish up with. When I had the slightest opportunity, I slid out of the midst of the guests and went into the kitchen to fetch myself a glass of wine. I sipped on the wine. I needed something that had more blood on it—the hunger was there. Tonight had been the night of the blood moon. I wished it was one where I was free to roam the forests and munch at something naturally fun. I paused now and took another glance at my arm, where the wound had healed and left its scar behind. I was married. I wa
REGINA“The Mountain Monks.” I tried the name on my tongue again. If I were to meet these monks, I would be travelling so far away. How would I be able to embark on this journey without drawing attention from his grandpa or my father as to where I was going?“What are these monks to help me with when I get there? What do I do when I get there?”The priest sighed. “I won’t lie to you, Miss Regina. Werewolf history is in-depth. There’s so much to it. Modernization and all have taken the place of our history and past, but there are still some people that have not left the old practice. The Mountain Monks are some of such people, and that’s why they live secluded from every other human. I don’t even know how to tell you to access them. When I did go there, it was such a long time ago, and you would never find them within the mountains, unless they wanted to be found.”It sounded ancient. It sounded scary.But I knew I was going to try.
REGINAIf anything was even going to prompt a connection between me and Lionel, I was going to cut it off. I had other plans and one of them was to wait for the right time for the entire dust to settle and I would break away from the devil I got married to and live the life that waited for me out there. “Really?” I asked. “Then I shouldn’t joke with such a bond. Don’t worry, I’d see to it that I and Lionel put whatever feud we’ve had for each other aside for this one night.” I replied, putting on my best action costume.Sir Leonard seemed impressed as he gave me a tap and continued through the house, mildly giving orders to keep everything else in place. As I made my way now to the room, climbing up the flight of stairs that led to the top floor of the mansion, I spotted Ryker looking through the door of the study right at me. He had a blank expression on his face as he only stared for a while and looked away.He seemed angry or disappointed. I could tell he was frustrated, though. L
LIONELI tried to imagine it. I, in the same room with Regina Donovan, on the same bed, doing what? I couldn’t even picture it. It was not realistic.“You see…” Grandpa was saying. “When two wolves just get married, the first wedding night spent together is a sacred night. It’s one that completely seals your marriage. I strongly believe that after this first night, it would spark up the intimacy between the both of you. You would see that after tonight, it would all begin to change—the way you feel towards her.”How could I explain to Grandpa that the case of Regina Donovan was not a matter of just not liking her? I hated her from the very roots of her family. That wasn’t something that just one night of forced sex was going to change.“So as it is, Regina would be in my room tonight?” I knew the answer to that. I was just trying to believe it wasn’t going to be real.Grandpa nodded quietly. “She’s your wife, son. Treat her as one.”I swallowed speechlessly.“I’ve arranged with some o
REGINA“Isn’t that what we both want? We both want to pretend like neither of us exist. I mean, you didn’t want this marriage and I didn’t want it either so how about we talk about how we can make it easier for the both of us?”It wasn’t easy to have to stand right before him—the alpha Lionel—and lay my terms for a marriage. However, I could tell where my source of strength had come from, and no, it wasn’t from Ruby.This was rage.The sheer rage from the gross nature of him having to be so relaxed in the room while I undressed. Who the hell did he think he was?Thinking about Ruby, the thought came to my head. Why hadn’t you told me he was in the room, Ruby? I thought within myself.Ruby had received enough bullets for one night to be too weak to give comments about everything that was happening. I could sense him out; Ruby replied weakly. I may be powerful with intuition, but that is only when I’ve even got energy to pull from,
LIONEL“What?”I couldn’t understand what she was saying. First, she had pushed me to the wall and I couldn’t exactly tell she was doing it on purpose. All I knew at the moment was that I had to put her in her place this very night. She had to understand that she was not in the position to decide how it played out in this marriage. She had pushed me to act on my wolf instinct—to do what Lucius would do because Lucius would devour his luna without thinking twice and just as she wished, I had given it to her. Losing my cool, I had pinned her down and made my point once and for good.She was mine!It was not the other way around, and there was no other way around it. I owned her and she was to act as property for whatever I wished to do with her, whenever I did wish to act.It was when I had made my point that it dawned on me that I was clearly choking her. She had gagged for air, hitting at my arm. Her struggles were nothing compa
REGINAI told you, Ruby. I was not going to back down without a fight.Ruby was weak; I knew it, but I had my own strength, and on this very first night, the rules of the game of this marriage had to be laid out this very night… even if it meant threatening Lionel to save our heads. That was when the idea popped into my head.The most infuriating part of it all was him denying everything that had clearly taken place. I had him red-handed and he just didn’t have the courage to own up to what he had done? Did he really think the smartest way out of this was to lie that he never kidnapped me? Richie had confessed it before he died—Lionel Williams had sent him. There was no deceiving me.The part I actually hadn’t expected was that I could threaten him with what he had done. It was not my calculated move. I found myself naturally doing it, and clearly, it was beginning to look like that was what he deserved.“You will tell Grandpa n
LIONEL“We are an organization known as the Institute of Paranormal Research. We take your species and find ways to duplicate your species for more of your kind to flood the earth. Isn’t that amazing?”“You kidnap us and use us as lab rats, conducting experiments that seek to create more werewolves of humans that were never wolves before?”This lady was insane.“It’s just like in the movies.” Isabel was saying. “You know, it’s believed that when a werewolf bites a person that is not a wolf, the abilities transfer like some sort of virus, but that is only in the movies. In reality, your type only transfers through your blood, from children to children. Do you know how limiting it is that we humans cannot enjoy that privilege you enjoy as werewolves, having super abilities? The only way is to marry a wolf and even then, it is only when the pair bears children that it can be so. We at the IPR want to put an end to that and make it possible for every
REGINAI didn’t know how sure I was to answer that. “I am married.” I replied. “Well, then… you should have healed.”“I am married to the man who rejected me.” He paused and appeared puzzled a bit. “And how is that so?”“My husband had a dislike for my entire family and the moment he found out I was his mate, he rejected me without thinking as a result of the hate he felt towards me. It turned out shortly after that my father had betrothed me to him after an agreement he had made with his grandfather.” I guess that broke it down in the simplest form. “And how did they allow the marriage to proceed knowing you have been rejected?”“Neither of them knows. We kept it to ourselves.” I gave it a thought. Perhaps I should have told Grandpa Leonard that I was rejected. It may have changed something about the marriage. But I doubted though. That marriage was bound to happen and there was almost nothing we could have done to s
LIONEL“What are you doing? Feeling so comfortable about suddenly erasing two people off the face of the earth. Where the fuck did you keep the bodies?”“That’s none of your business.”“How the fuck had you taken those bodies out in the blink of an eye, almost like the crime never happened?”“We were protecting you. We needed to save you the stress of having to be investigated for both their deaths.”“And you changed everything in just the snap of a finger?”“We have technology much beyond the scope of our present age. That part was easy. See, that’s why you need to cooperate with us. Imagine all the things we could do together with this technology that we’ve got.”“Stop trying to make something that is totally abnormal from your end sound all normal. I’m not interested in helping you with shit!”She appeared less tolerating of my attitude now. “And between us both, who is the man and the beast, huh?”“
REGINAI stopped, trying to catch my breath as I watched the man closely. “What do you want?” His English sounded plucked but he was speaking English anyway! He could speak what I could speak! This could be much easier. “Does your tongue sound so strange on mine that you don’t get to understand what I asked?”My silence had lasted too long. “I’m sorry.” I replied calmly. “I do understand you. I need your help.”“Many people come here every day with their display of all the vanities the world has to offer, seeking us out to take pictures and put out there everywhere. But our kind have lived within these mountains for hundreds of years and don’t want the disturbance of those from the outside. Your disturbance was of the different kind. We felt your energy and your call of faith, and now we have answered. State what you want.”I took a deep breath. “I need to restore my energy core.”He paused. “And what must have happened to you?”
LIONELI was still in the middle of fighting my way out but with that one moment of contemplating mercy came my downfall.Just then, another latch came and then another, and another until the latches formed complex strings around me, pulling me from all sides and throwing me to the ground. I roared in anger, trying to break free, trying to move my arms or legs but none responded. One of the men came closer now and from the distance I could see he was holding up a syringe. “Do not come close.” I growled. He hesitated, clearly moved by the threat at first but then he continued forward and slowly placed the syringe by my neck. Fuck! I cursed within my thoughts. I could feel the liquid slide in through my veins and I knew quite well that it was over. I felt my heart rate slow and everything in my body slowly came to relax. What the fuck would happen now, Lucius? I asked within me. They don’t want to kill us, that’s for
REGINAI was still waiting for something to take place. But for now, all that was around me was the darkness. These people had a new way of trapping their prisoners. I had expected that since they took me in as a prisoner, I was going to either be chained or kept in a cell. No, the Mountain Men had a different prison style, one even worse than being chained or trapped in a cell. I was in a dark room with a darkness that was seemingly unnatural. It was pitch black here to such great intensity that it felt like the darkness was light itself. It felt dangerous to move around as I couldn’t even tell in a bit what lay ahead, nor could I see through with my night vision or smell anything that was different from nothingness. All I could do was remain still where I was left and wait. “Had we made a wrong decision?” I asked Ruby. I could hear my voice echo. Oh, Regina. I can’t tell anymore what is going on. Ruby replied. Since your w
LIONELI glided through the forest slowly and cunningly. There was so much risk attached with the swarms of men I could feel moving through the forests as well. It was goodbye to the hotel now, and the plan was to get to the mountains and find Regina. Afterwards, we would leave this goddamned Maldives like we were never there. But for now, to get to the mountains at all was to pass through the forest alive. I could hear sounds as my senses picked on my surroundings. At first, it appeared to be the men, but it was only the ordinary activities of the forests. “We need to take the wolf form now.” I whispered to Lucius. I knew he consented. I crouched to the ground and slowly drifted into my wolf form. Now, Lucius was the one dominating the most. Things were about to get destructive. Lucius had no stopping. I continued through the forest and shortly, I heard another sound, like a footstep. Then another footstep came an
LIONEL I was in a world where I was just having a little fun and both women fell dead right before me while I barely escaped an attacker that could clean up a murder scene in seconds. I was in a world where everything was uncertain. What if I just found Regina to be dead? How would I explain it all to Grandpa? How would Grandpa ever forgive me when I wouldn’t even be able to forgive myself? Forgive myself? I gave it a thought. Had I done something wrong? Well, I had been careless with her. I should never have let her out of my sight, no matter how much I despised her. I should have ensured she was always there. Staying in a different room was a bad idea. Now, there was only one way to right all these wrongs. I needed to goddamn move! There was also the detective, though. Nicholas had called the night before and I had never reached out to him again. Perhaps this was also a good time to talk to h
LIONEL “No, Lucius. I think something is beginning to make sense. This cars speaks about healing... restoration of energy... ” Lucius waited, almost like he was beginning to see what I was seeing as well. “Do you remember the night at the wedding, Lucius? The moment when I and Regina were to heal from the blood bonding... We were not healing because our energy core was broken, but then Regina was not healing either.” Are you saying Regina has an issue with her energies as well? “I can’t conclude for sure, but it was most likely that somehow, Regina also had the problem with her energies. You said it yourself that the fact that we were broken did not in any way affect her own healing process, and yet she wasn’t healing fast enough. So what if she had come here…” To find healing? Lucius completed. Oh, dear goddess. I ran my fingers through my hair in realization. It was like an ima