HaydenMadeleine fidgeted with her fingers again.“Forgive is a big word, I do not think I could ever forgive him for taking away those who meant the world to me…but maybe I can accept the fact. I am not sure if I am making any sense right now.”I cupped her face and looked her in the eye, “You make perfect sense, Maddy.”She snorted, “I thought I was ‘honey’”A bright smile appeared on my face, “I thought you didn’t catch that.”She smiled back.“I am bad at expressing myself, Maddy. Though I am an alpha of the strongest pack in the north, I believe that I am still immature, make a lot of mistakes, and have a lot of room to grow. So, I ask your apology for everything that I might have done so far that might have hurt you…”I trailed off and then added in a whisper, “...honey”Madeleine let out a giggle and I winked.I got up and went to the kitchen to give her a glass of water. It was Maddy who had been speaking all this while but somehow I felt that I was the one to have poured myse
Hayden“I am? What did I do?”I asked, not understanding why she was suddenly praising me though I could not say that I did not want it.“Yes, Mr. Alpha. You had sucked on my finger that day…you said that just now. What if the lich sensed your presence through that? Because I had cut my finger and sucked on it before I began to hear whispers…”“Uh…even if we assume what you say is true…I hate to break it to you that I never ever heard any kind of whispers in my life. The only one time I did was when Stem called out to me and brought me to the tree.”Her bright smile disappeared suddenly so I tried to encourage her,“Do not worry, at least we found some clues to what was going around us without even noticing it before. Now the only thing we have to do is find out why the lich’s effect on you is ‘on and off’ and how to kill it.”She stifled a yawn and I could see her eyes drooping. “I guess that has been enough discussion for today. You should catch on some sleep.”“Yeah, I think we ca
HaydenMadeleine gave me a smile and I could not help it so I quickly took aShe pulled down the comforter again and I walked out of my room, closing the door gently behind me.In a minute, I was in my office and the others were waiting for me. Ben and Charlie were talking about something and laughing like school kids when they saw me walk in and immediately stopped.Garron kept a straight face too and I turned around, “So, what did you guys want to talk about?”Ben replied, “Well, Garron told us a bit about what had happened to our Luna back then when we had recently found her. It is a bit…disturbing.”I shot Garron a look and he gave me a weak smile,“Yeah, I talked to her about that yesterday night. What I am amazed about is the fact that this girl kept so much hidden inside her, never talked about it even once in the time she was here…but anyways, the past is behind us.”Charlie raised his hand and said, “So, we were just looking at the symbols and the words that you have on this
HaydenI was not interested in staying in Garron’s territory anymore and I was more than curious to see if I could find out something after decoding the various signs and symbols that Madeleine had scratched.Thus, we all left the cabin and simply hopped into my car. Garron decided that it would be too awkward to leave with us immediately after returning to his pack members after so long, so he decided to stay back.Hence, only I and my warriors returned to my pack. I was going to make them go and do something else but both my beta and gamma wanted to help me decode the puzzling symbols.I wasn’t too keen on letting them in right away because I thought that it was a part of Madeleine’s life that I should be the one to find out first about. She might have written about her insecurities, and her fears and I did not want them to read it.After all, she was going to be their Luna soon and I wanted them to think of her as a strong she-wolf who would be able to carry out the pack duties and
HaydenThe whole situation was confusing.The tree spoke in riddles and these symbols or puzzles were…puzzling. After I spent a few minutes seething in anger, I decided to clear my head and start working on my task.Maybe, I could find something in those images from Maddy’s cabin. Could all of this be correlated? I thought and wondered.My mind was still foggy so I placed my head on the table and rested for a bit as I began to replay everything in my head.There was a knock on the office door and I didn’t even have the energy to say no to my warriors again. But, the door opened nonetheless and there was only one person who would walk inside without waiting to hear a yes or no from me.“Charlie and Ben asked me to check on you…” Raine’s voice floated towards me.She came towards me and ruffled my hair, “Yeah, thought so. They must have told you what we did, right?”“Mm-hmm” “But why do you look so harrowed? Did you find out something strange?”I rubbed my forehead and drank a glass of
Hayden She blushed and I rubbed the back of my neck with one hand while using the other to point at Raine’s room, “Just look through her wardrobe, you should find something. I will go back and wait for you in the office.” I said with an awkward smile and walked away, my heart hammering so loudly in my chest that I felt my ears would pop. Luke groaned in my head, and I knew what he wanted. I wanted that too. But, I was going to be a man of my words and wait till we officially tie the knot. This was so damn difficult. My entire room, the sheets smelled of her and I was going to have to do something to not go insane. Clearing my head, I went back to my office while Raine was still sitting looking at the weird symbols. “Where did you run to?” I answered, “Your line made me think of going to ask Madeleine if she could think of something while looking at those weird symbols. Now, I believe, she has healed a bit so…maybe she could give it a try.” Raine smiled and I added, “Also, I n
HaydenThis was the most bizarre thing that I heard from her. Not that I did not want to marry my girl, but I had no idea why she was suddenly talking about my personal life when we had been discussing about some voodoo stuff.“Don’t you see?”“I clearly don’t.”“Madeleine is the yin and you are the yang. Didn’t Stem mumble something about that to you?”I scratched my head, “He did not say that we were those but he did mention those terms.”Excited like a small child, she began stating, “The tree chose you to give one piece of information. The lich had been latching onto Madeleine since she was a young girl. And, those images…those were from your childhood…”“Her childhood…I wasn’t even born…”“That is not the point…just think why those images were specifically chosen to show to you. There was a powerful mage who was brought in to make sure you were born and there was an opposite darker force that was tailing Madeleine since she was a little kid…you guys were fated.”“You mean, I am h
HaydenAfter a moment, she turned to see that I was still looking at her and she gave me a weak smile.I gave her a weak smile back.Damn, this was awkward.Charlie whispered but his voice was not low, “Don’t worry about our Luna, Raine will look after her.”A look of realization appeared on my face. Now it made sense. “So this is Raine’s idea. Now I know why she dragged Madeleine away from the office.”Ben simply cleared his throat and stepped away from me while Charlie did the same, leaving me no option but to stand in front of them.I could feel butterflies in my stomach which was weird and exciting at the same time.“Guys, I haven’t even asked her out officially. Should I not do that first?”I asked both of them and they slapped their foreheads in unison.“What? You didn’t even propose to Luna…I mean your girlfriend?”They corrected themselves midway upon realizing that the human attendant was still around.Both of them glared at me and I shrugged my shoulders. “I mean how I was
Hello, all my lovely readers, The last epilogue marks the end of the story of Hayden and Madeleine. Writing this book has been a roller coaster of emotions for me and I hope I was able to do justice to the characters and to all of you who read the story, felt what the characters felt, rooted for some of them, and hated a few. I am still a novice writer and there is a lot for me to learn and improve. In these past few months, I have received a lot of love from you all which was my biggest dream; to be recognized as a writer. Putting my story out there was like putting my bare self out in the open for everyone to judge. I know I might have made mistakes, and that there is a lot of scope for improvement. I want to thank every single one of you for giving me and my story a chance, for giving me hope that I can write captivating stories that make you forget the real world and your worries, if only for those few minutes in which you read it. Reading your comments and reviews is the bigge
Epilogue (A month after the gruesome battle) Soft afternoon light spilled into the room where Madeleine was sleeping. The curtains rustled in the soft wind as she turned from side to side on the bed. For a month after the epic battle between her and the demon, she had been having nightmares. Pack doctors, herbologists, occultists and everyone who her family felt would be able to help her were called to her aid but their efforts bore little to no fruit. She was tossing and turning in her bed as Raine worried at her lip outside the room. She was carrying a tray in her hand that had a lot of different potions and medicines along with a cloth and a bowl of water. She quickly dabbed her eye and was about to reach for the door to open it when a hand stopped her. She looked at the man nervously and asked, “Are you sure, you want to do this?” He nodded his head gently and took the tray from her. “But the doctors say that it might shock her even more…” She said in the same nervous voi
Epilogue IISelene smiled at Madeleine, teasing her, “You really love him”Madeleine merely studied her body lying on the ground and thought of a remark but could not come up with anything.Selene spoke, “It is your wish, you have to ask for it”“I want Hayden” Madeleine spoke in a low voice.“Sorry? I can’t quite hear you,” Selene acted as if she had not heard a word.Madeleine opened her mouth and closed it again. She realized that the Goddess was making fun of her but then how long would they cry and mourn over the lives they had lost?“Please give Hayden back to me”Madeleine repeated herself and Selene said, “Louder please”“Give me Hayden!!!!”Madeleine screamed and immediately clasped her hands over her mouth. She was horrified that she had almost yelled at the Goddess but Selene did not mind.“Somebody found their voice it seems”Madeleine smiled and turned to look at him.“Come”The Goddess said and Madeleine’s soul drifted towards her. Slowly, they both neared Hayden and Mad
(All the epilogues are in 3rd POV instead of 1st POV)It was dark and gloomy while the pungent smell of smoke, charred flesh, and death hung heavily in the air.A silhouette of a woman was sadly walking through the ground, as silent drops of tears flowed down her cheeks. She was in pain; she was grieving and her ethereal form was blipping in and out of existence just like a candle’s flame that would fight against a breeze of wind to stay alive.She was Selene and she looked around at the wreck of a forest that she had lovingly and painstakingly nurtured. Her feet slowly took her to the demon’s corpse and she studied it impassively to see if there were any signs of the wretched demon left in that hollow vessel that he called his body.Then her eyes flicked to the severed head that lay not too far from the corpse. She picked it up and looked at it, dead in the eye.The demon’s eyes were thrown wide open, probably in shock and surprise at the way the dagger had cut through his neck. Sh
“Noooooooo”I let out a shriek. My eyes could suddenly see well beyond my limited vision and I saw that the crack fell just short of affecting the tree, the giver of life of the forest.The cracks stopped just a few meters away from the tree that shuddered from the impact of the demon's fist that cracked open the ground.It sobbed and gave out a terrifying cry that I had never heard before. I did not even know that it could cry but maybe it was the Goddess who could hear it and not me.I looked around wildly, wanting to find something that could stop him...something, anything...My eyes spotted the very same dagger that Valrok had hurled at me to make me cut myself and give my blood.I got up and swayed a bit but made my way towards the dagger. He saw me get up and let out a mirthless laugh.“Running away from me? That is what you should have done earlier, Selene”He taunted and looked back at the tree that was far away from both of us. And, I knew what he was going to do next.“You a
MadeleineAs I turned to the side, I saw Hayden looking at me, holding a long pole. I stared at him in shock as he raised his hands with the pole and brought it down upon me, smacking my back hard.I was so taken aback by his act that I was flung away from him and the demon. I crashed to the ground as the demon’s laughter reached me.“Fight your children, Selene”He mocked and I could feel the Goddess fuming inside me. She had been calm and composed all this while despite the demon taunting and jeering her but even a Goddess has a limit to her patience.I got up from the ground as I felt the anger wafting off me as it reached its peak. My hands shot to either side of me as I felt an uncontainable energy surge through me.The demon shot his hand forward in response as a ring of white light began to form around me. The ground below me began to crack as hellfire shot up from every possible opening, shooting straight up.The small crowd of onlookers who had dared stay back to witness our
MadeleineI took a step forward and I saw him curl his fingers into fists.“Hello my old friend Selene, took you long enough”He greeted me and I looked at myself in confusion. It was then that I realized that I had turned into a living, breathing halo. All of my body was glowing brightly as if I was made of nothing but pure, white light.The words that left my mouth were not necessarily mine but it did not matter. The Goddess had chosen me as her vessel and I would gladly let her.“I thought you had learned your lesson last time, Valrok.”'Valrok? That must be the name of the demon', I thought.The Goddess or rather I continued speaking, “I gave you enough chances to stop this madness, to not let innocent lives suffer because of your selfish goals but you leave me no choice.”Valrok snarled, “You gave me chances? You are the one who reduced me to this state! It is because of you that I had to rely on puny humans and werewolves until I grew strong enough”“There is still time, stop th
MadeleineEverything happened so fast but it was as if I was seeing it in slow motion. As I watched in a daze, the white beam hummed with a vibrant and restless energy. It was so bright that I had to shield my eyes for a while. I believed it must be so bright and big that almost the entire forest must have witnessed the spectacle. The entire dark night that was filled with terror and gloominess and all the negativity surrounding the demon was suddenly punctured with that beam of light. Even the demon stopped chanting for a while and looked up at the sky.His expressions, at first, were of confusion but quickly it was replaced by rage. He had left the cave and came up on the land, left his stronghold, and decided to walk on the surface thinking that he was now undefeatable.Looked like he had gotten it all wrong.A smile appeared on my face as I looked at him for a brief moment and he grimaced. I did not say anything but my expressions were more than enough for him to understand what
MadeleineI opened my eyes and felt that my face was wet. I touched my cheek and realized that tears had trickled down my eyes. However, what I had seen was just a memory but a powerful one. My mind began to come up with various theories as I replayed them in my head. The runes, the chants with me in the centre…that had to mean something.I was not sure why the memory had been hidden from me all this while or why it had resurfaced only now but my guess would be that the similarity of my current situation with the past memory might have brought it up in vivid clarity.The words of the old man and his conversation with my parents told me once again that the lich wanted to use me not harm me.I recalled everything that had happened in the cave and realized that it had been true. Whenever Amanda tried to hurt me, the lich shunned her. My blood had been too precious for him and now I knew why.Somehow, the wizard, which was what I called him in my head because of his appearance, had combi