Astrid stays glaring at me while Yori and Sage remain ahead of me. It doesn't help. Winter is getting worse, and leaving the room means walking past her."It's pathetic!" She steps closer, and I see Yori nod to Ash, and he rushes out. "You're just a whore, everyone knows it. This entire thing needs to fall down!" Her words are loud, and my body shakes as I try and stop myself from shifting."Astrid, I have sent someone to get the king, so step back and speak to him." Yori looks at her, but she ignores him."The king who lies? Who is covering up something to do with murders? He's so great. The fact he let the mutt stay proves he's weak!" She growls at me."Focus Elara. She wants you to snap, don't." I nod to Sage. I'm trying. to stay in control."The king isn't weak." That is all I can say.She laughs and steps closer, my back now against the wall."No? Where is he now? Hiding away, no doubt." Yori pushes her back, and she continues to laugh. "Yeah, he's hiding. He's good at that, righ
I feel like I'm asleep but seeing things, yet they don't seem right. Why am I looking up at my mum? Something isn't right. She's crying. Why is she crying? I hear wolves fighting, and a loud roaring sound has her placing me down. The sounds of wolves fighting get louder. "The baby lives. Take their wolves as well." "It stated all were to die." "We killed it. We have no knowledge of where the body is." I see Ethan's face appear in front of me. "I have a plan for it." Waking up, I scream. "Hey, it's fine." Kellan looks at me. "Calm down, please." His arms wrap around me. "It was just a dream." "I don't think it was a dream." I think it was a memory. Was it mine? It must have been I recognised the woman, she was my mum. "Okay, so what was it?" He looks at me. "A memory." It has to have been a memory. His hold gets stronger. "Alpha Draven can't get near you to hurt you again, I swear." "It wasn't him, it was Ethan." "He won't get near you either." "Kellan, it wasn't a memory o
The cameras are ready, and Darius smiles at us. "The events you all planned are now over. Each event was marked and scored by your guests. The lowest number of guests was one hundred and fifty. To make it fair, that is the amount who could vote for each event regardless of your number of guests." "As always, the one with the lowest votes will be leaving." Kellan looks at us. I hear Astrid mutter something but ignore her. "Each person could give a score out of up to three points. With 436 points, is Sage." I turn and hug her. "431 points is Elara." I relax slightly. "420 points Lyra, 401 points Callista and 324 points to Astrid." Darius looks at her. "Your comments from your guests are here. Feel free to read and find out where you went wrong or right. That means Astrid is leaving." I watch as William guides her out. I expect them to stop, but they don't. The cameras stay fixed forward. "Tomorrow will be the next event." I still when I hear his words. This is quick. "The palace wil
DariusHe stands waiting for me to agree, but I can't. No part of me can agree to walk away from her."Your children with her become a new species. The wolves you see now will forever change Darius. This was all to protect you.""Fuck you! This was all you manipulating us, using us to gain what you want." I'm not doing it."You will not choose her." He steps closer.Laughing, I nod. "You're too late. I already have. You can't stop me.""If you choose her, I will have an army within this palace that will instantly ensure she doesn't breathe. Then Kellan, just for fun." Growling, I step closer to him, and he laughs."You dare to threaten her and Kellan!""I was nice and let her stay with Kellan. You pick Lyra and leave the mutt alone!""No!" The word roars from within me, and I step closer. "You're not strong enough to force me to." I'm stronger than him. He moves and grabs me, my body slamming into the piano and smashing it."You were stronger, not now." His words are full of humour. J
Breakfast was quiet; no one spoke, and I feel like it's because we're all mentally preparing ourselves for today. While they are mentally preparing to face people and have to decide if they should offer them help or not.I'm preparing myself for that, along with the fact someone might actually take a shot at me. I'm also preparing myself to control Winter, who likes freedom and being wild. I feel that's more because she has spent twenty years in a cage. Then, I'm also preparing myself for the overwhelming feeling of being close to Kellan or Darius."Okay, ladies, I will select the first person now." William picks up a box and opens it. "Callista." He points towards a door. "The king is waiting on the other side for you." She nods and walks out. We now have to sit and wait an hour before finding out who is next."How are you feeling about this?" Sage looks at me."Nervous, it's a risk." It's a very big risk, but I guess I can't avoid it."There will be plenty of guards in there." Willi
William calls our attention to him, and Kellan is still sitting beside me, looking far too happy.“Elara, you’re next. We will have the TV on so you can watch it here. It gives you all something to do as you wait.” William smiles at us.“Come on, I will escort you.” Kellan jumps up.“It’s in the other room.” I don’t need escorting. I watch as he does anyway. He guided me through, and I found myself sitting next to Darius.“They will come up, express what they need, and you decide. Then I will confirm whether I agree or not.” He keeps his eyes forward.“That is fine. Are you okay?”“Totally, now concentrate.” His words are quiet, and I nod.I watch as people come up and speak to us. They ask for a range of things, from permission to open a new business to help with projects. I’ve seen parents come up asking for help with money or renovations on their homes that cost too much.Darius barely says anything. A simple nod or hum. Even when people start conversations and are genuinely friend
I’m bored, and I need something to do. Walking to the door, Yori looks at me.“I want a laptop, please, Yori.”“Erm, you’re not meant to have access to one. You shouldn’t see about the Luna Battle Elara.”“I don’t care about that. I want to look up my parents and find out more about my family, my pack, and everything else. I know nothing, and I’m fed up with it. How can I agree to be called Xenia when I have no idea about her?”I watch him smile. “I will get you a laptop. Just promise me that you will not look through competition things. I will get in trouble if you do.”“I swear.” My fingers are crossed. I need to watch and see if I can figure out why he’s acting differently. I walk back in and wait. Ten minutes later, he knocked and handed me the laptop.Walking back through, I sit down and open the laptop. I pull up the website with videos of today. Each one begins when we are sitting and ends as we walk out.He’s entirely different with me. Why? I continue to scroll through and lo
Walking in, I sit down. I have Kellan on one side and Sage on the other. Opposite us is Darius. He has Callista and Lyra on each side of him.“You left early, why?” Kellan looks at me.“I just didn’t feel like doing it anymore.” He sits, confused by my words. “Forget it, Kellan.” Maybe I did overreact, and Sage is right. Darius is making it look like he’s indifferent to me so people don’t suspect he’s choosing me.That thought washes away when I see him and Lyra laughing and talking. She’s leaning into him and touching him a lot. There are no cameras now, so why?Winter is still quiet, and I don’t understand why.“I’m not hungry.” Standing, I push the chair away from the table and walk away, hearing Kellan shouting at Darius. I don’t care. I shouldn’t care.“Elara.”“No, Yori, don’t make fucking excuses, or I will stab you.” He nods and continues following me. There’s no reason other than he’s back to picking Lyra.As I stepped into my room, Kellan joined me.“Okay, something is going
Asher POVI look down at Katla. She's only a few days old. After speaking with Zyra, she decided that the space in the mountains would be a retreat—a place for us to escape to, somewhere Katla could get used to what it is like to live in the Dragon Kingdom.We have spent a few days there, but not many. Apparently, she wants to be in the palace close to the others. Part of me feels like that's because they were her support while I was hiding away.It's shown her what having a family around can do. We're close, minus Aurelia. She seems to be thriving with the Bears and keeping her distance. Other than returning that day when I was going crazy and needed help, she rarely came back. We've adjusted and got used to that, however.She wants her life away from here; she wants her own life, not one that is connected to us. She should have that if she wants it."Hey."Turning, I see Elijah walk to me.He laughs slightly and takes Katla from my arms. "You look exhausted; fun night?"It's only 4
Asher POVI walk out of the room and go to where I know they will be. As I step into the office, they turn to face me.Darius shakes his head. "You should be with Zyra.""I was, but considering this is brought on by the Dragons, I should be helping." I walk further in and look at the papers."Nothing to help with," my dad shrugs. "His son is clean, Seraphine can tell. Things were explained to him. He had no idea about the arranged marriage and, to be honest, was shocked, as he apparently had a mate."So the son won't be an issue. Is that what he's saying?"Look, both Eliphas and Durnalin are in the cells, away from each other. The son has gone. Apparently, he has a whole life with his mate. His dad told him the dragons had requested their presence at events." Darius explains.It makes no sense, though. "Why? Why would the dragons want the warlocks there?" How didn't his son question it?"Apparently, because Eliphas and his son are the strongest warlocks, they invited them to make a un
Asher POVI wait and watch."Prince Asher, soon to be King, tell me something." He walks to the bars and leans against them. "Where do Warlocks belong?"My head tilts; they belong wherever they want to. I don't understand his question."See, there is no answer as we don't belong anywhere. There is the werewolf kingdom, fae, dragons and everything else. Witches and warlocks are forced to live in one of those kingdoms, with no real power."So this was all about getting power? My body is pushed back, and my eyes widen as I see King Drakon reach through the bars—his hand clamps around Eliphas' neck.I guess he's fixed, and his curse is gone. My dad and Darius drag him away, and I watch Eliphas drop to the floor, clutching his neck. The blood runs down from where King Drakon's nails dug in."We need answers; killing him won't get them." My dad turns and faces Eliphas."Apparently, this was all for power." Which still makes no sense."It wasn't just for power. We wanted our own kingdom, our
Asher POVI'm anxious. It's been two days since the curse was lifted, and I'm glad to be back to normal. All that is at risk, though. Tonight, I have to be close to whoever is pretending to be King Drakon. That then risks it happening again, and if it does, will it start slow again or begin where it was removed?I've noticed Elijah, Storm, and Aurelia are quiet. Whatever was done has worn them out, which I didn't want."Are you ready?" Zyra hugs me, and I nod. I'm not. We need answers and to figure out who it is."Be careful, okay?" I don't like that I'm not going to be there."It's you who needs to be careful. You will be in a confined space with him. If anything goes wrong." She looks at me worriedly.Wrapping my arms around her, I smile. "I'll be fine; once he's in the cell, he can't do anything." I kissed her and gave her a final hug before walking away.Getting to the cells, I sit in one and wait. I'm hoping the plan works. If we can get him in the cell, then his magic and power
Asher POVI can see Zyra is struggling, and I don’t blame her either. She just found out her brother is missing.“Look, when Seraphine checked trying to find out the issue with him, she saw King Drakon, but it wasn’t him. Whoever it was is who we believe Cursed Asher.” My mum grasps her hands and smiles. “We’ve got people tracking down where your brother really is. There’s a reason for this, and it’s you, Zyra. Seraphine could sense the curses were put on Asher and Elijah to try and push you to return home.”Zyra looks around the room and seems increasingly worried. “What about Ryker? Is he okay? Does he know?” She waits, and I don’t know the answer to that.“I’m sorry, we don’t know. You need to stay here, Zyra. We have a plan, and we’re hoping Seraphine can uncover more when the person comes here.”She nods and sits, looking lost.“We are expecting Seraphine to return late tonight or early tomorrow. If they can’t fix the issue, then we will keep working to.” My mum smiles and hugs h
Asher POVAfter about an hour of sitting in the cell with Zyra, I ordered her to leave. I wanted to spend time with her, but she shouldn't have been sitting in the cells with me.So, I've been alone for hours, waiting to find out their plan. They hadn't thought this through. I need to leave the cell to go to the room. As soon as I step out of this cell, it will come back. Then what?I'm willing to agree to anything right now if it gets me out of this cell and back with Zyra. The footsteps have me standing, and I watch my dad and Darius walk towards me."What's your plan? How am I to do this?" They haven't thought it through."You need to shift." Darius looks at me.I laugh at him. Is that some kind of joke? "You want me to shift, so that what? I can kill people easier?"My dad sighs and steps forward. "Please do as you're told. You won't understand why we're saying you can shift, but shift. Into your wolf, not dragon."Of course, I won't understand; they haven't explained it to me. If
Elijah POVI sit in the office; Seraphine has left. She's meeting her family halfway in the hopes they have something that can help. Merfolk are powerful creatures with extraordinary abilities.Curses and such are something they specialise in."We're going to request that King Drakon attend a celebration for Zyra's pregnancy. It means we can get what we need and figure out who it is and what their aim is." My dad looks at me, and he makes it sound so simple. This isn't simple."He's going to ask why Asher isn't present, then what?" We can't lie and hide him. "It will look suspicious.""Not if Zyra invites him, she won't know, remember. She can invite him, and whoever is portraying King Drakon won't suspect anything. We're going to be honest and explain something is wrong with Asher, and he's not well."So we're not hiding the issue."He could be in the cell for weeks, so we've had things moved down there for him. The plan is later to test how he is with someone in the cell with him. T
Asher POVI watch as Elijah glares at everyone and backs up more."Elijah, we need to know." My mum steps towards him."I saw him once, just once! You all need to focus on Asher, not me! He's the one that is cursed, not me!" He shouts and steps back. He backs into my dad, and he grabs Elijah as Seraphine steps forward and grips his head.His screams echo around the cells, and it's all over just as quickly as it starts. His body falls to the floor, and he cradles his head."Well?" Darius looks at Seraphine."You're going to need a warlock, or I'll need to contact my family and see if they have something to clear the curses." Her words make me look towards Elijah. So, he is also cursed."Asher's curse is to make him push everyone out and make him think he has a mad wolf so that Zyra leaves. Elijah's was to hate Asher, likely to intensify it." Seraphine smiles slightly. "There's no mate, Elijah. The curse is what's stopping us from having a baby. There's no third mate." Her words have hi
Asher POVNo one speaks, likely because they know what I said is the truth. I need to die; there is nothing they can do to change that."Explain the process, what happened, how it started, when it happens." Darius pulls a chair over and sits outside the cell.I laugh. "Why do I need to talk? Why do I need to explain? You're proving you believe me by keeping me locked in here and being too afraid to come near your own son."Nothing I say can change that."Asher, I'm not opening the cell because I don't trust you to try and run. So explain it to me, tell me how it's progressed, and let's be sure that is what is happening." He waits, and I watch my mum, Elijah, and dad sit with him."It began with whispers. The words were barely audible, but I heard whispers in my ear. They got louder and began to sound like words. Whispers were one thing, but then I began to see people dead and my wolf above them." It was a warning to me to hide, to push them away, and not let them close to me."When do