“What’s wrong?” Alexia asked when she stood beside me. I was so focused on Alexei and Aena, I failed to notice that she followed me to the hall. When I remained silent, she followed the direction where my eyes were settled. “Oh, who is that? That’s odd. I never recall my brother having female friends.” If I was surprised and threatened to see Alexei having such a fun conversation with Aena, hearing that information from Alexia herself suddenly irritated me in a way I never felt before. I don't know the reason why, but I do. I have never been insentient about my feelings so I always know when I’m happy, or glad, whether I’m in sorrow and most especially mad. And I was an ordinary shifter who had dislikes and seeing Alexei together with my twin sister was one of those. Watching them smiling together and incredibly comfortable with each other, it felt like my past had come back to me. Now I can't help recalling the things my sister could easily obtain in just a flip of her hair because
“Hey!” Because of Irino’s loud voice, my chains of thoughts were disrupted regarding what happened to me three weeks ago. Slightly ashamed, I blinked at him with inquiring eyes to pretend that my mind wasn’t wandering. “What were you saying again? Our plan to the Alpha was...” “I haven't started since you paced out. I was asking for your permission to begin,” Irino pointed out, making me force a smile of embarrassment when everybody looked at me in skepticism. “Are you really all right? You have been distracted a lot. When I say a lot, I mean for three weeks straight. And I wasn't the only one who noticed that.” I looked at them one by one and they had the same reaction. Worried with a mix of dismay because our plan had not advanced after almost two months of trying. Everybody was rooting for me to succeed but I, the one who promised everyone and once was confident to change Alexei’s mind, was now losing hope. “It’s because of that Luna from the Ether pack,” Alexia started while ai
“Me? Hiding? From the Alpha? No, I’m not,” I lied, shaking my head at Alina as I let out a forced chuckle. I wandered my eyes and found a plant near me. “I was enjoying this plant. Isn’t it beautiful?”Alina looked at the plant with a grotesque expression. “It’s a dying flower, how was it beautiful?”I looked at the plant again, this time carefully, and blinked several times when I realized that it was true. Damn, why didn't I notice that earlier? Seconds after, one of the maids plucked up the plant from the flower pot and threw it inside the bin together with the other waste. Now, I was left in shame, cheeks flushing red, and having difficulty meeting Alina’s gaze. I was so nervous and embarrassed, I ended up blurting words without thinking.“It was beautiful when it was alive, I mean,” I defended as I gave Alina a fake smile. “Poor plant.”“Don’t lie. You are hiding from my brother,” Alina pressed, sounding concerned as her look was sly. “I was behind you, you know, calling you many
Why is my heart beating so fast? That was the question that kept on echoing inside my head as I met Alexei’s persistent gaze. And even though it made me tense and strangely giddy, I couldn't deprive myself of looking at those beautiful grey eyes. This time, it wasn't my wolf who had her eyes fixated on Alexei but also me. There was no point in denying this rising feeling inside me that I didn't want to acknowledge before because it had to do with my past with Alexei. Given what he had mercilessly rejected me, the scathing words we had thrown at each other, that non-stop banter completed with a threat of our life, who would have thought that I would wake up one day not wanting to kill Alexei? “Aera?” When the former Alpha called my name, I snapped back to reality and realized that I was in front of Alexei’s family, who were now wondering about my abrupt halt and silence. Their reaction was plausible except Alexia had the most intolerable countenance, probably because of what I did i
“Are you supposed to look glum? I heard your male friend is coming today with Calisto, is he not?” Irino asked while his eyes were fixed on the book he always read every day, the Canidae Mythology about Demigods and Demigoddesses. One could never really see Irino without a book in his hand if his service isn’t needed. “Who told you?” I asked, darting him a rather wondering gaze when I realized he was talking about Mason. “Yelena,” he answered without even bothering to glance at me. My brow lifted in curiosity. “Since when did you and Yelena get close?” “We are not. Mikhail overhead Yelena and Svetlana's conversation while preparing the poison for your sister yesterday and then he told me,” he explained, which made me nod in enlightenment. I stared at Irino and admired his calmness despite the first day of August has come. “What about you? Are you supposed to look calm? It’s August now.” “I supposed so,” Irino replied, flipping to the next page and crossing his leg to the other. N
24 hours earlier...I winced when I saw the brown wolf drop to the ground after Alexia’s first attack. She placed her strong paw on that neck’s wolf, who was now whimpering in defeat while pinned on the ground. Since everybody already advances in their sword handles, they proceed to wolf training like planned.But seeing how Alexia showed them how to defend themselves in a wolf battle made me recall all the intense training I experienced with Mason. Every day, I would break a bone, mostly in my arms and my back. There are times that I would even lose consciousness out of exhaustion. I was thankful I had my wolf to heal me, otherwise I don't think I would ever survive.The wolf frantically wiggled her tail as a sign of surrender and then Alexia released her with a low growl. She spun around to have a respite before she stared at the next wolf to attack her. I saw how the grey wolf put her stance before charging at Alexia. But as powerful as Alexei, she sent the wolf flying back to her
“What?! No, Mikhail. I am in no position to execute a life given by the Moon Goddess. I would never. I could never...” I shook my head in objection and started to frantically pace in and out front of everybody.“Yes, you would! Unless you want Alexei dead!” Mikhail snarled while pointing outside. “And if he’s dead, you are dead. We are dead, and every member of the pack will taste the reign of the Fedorovs they never wish to experience. He’s a usurper, can’t you see? The only way to save Triton is by ending his life. Not only will you protect Triton from his bloody reign, but also his vowed omega. They would be free like Yelena.”Confused and torn by the choices I had, I looked at Irino with inquiring eyes, seeking his advice, since this is where his main job lies as the pack’s strategist. There was no other who could advise the highest rank but only Irino.“No shifter should be a leader when he is willing to offer the life of his member for his own gain... his own gain,” Leonid empha
“Stay resting, Aera,” Mason said in his most forbidding manner. “You fainted last night. Miss Ivanov, the pack’s doctor, strongly advised that you should rest and avoid putting yourself under strain for a while because you might get head trauma from that fall. Don’t persist.”I shook my head, tugging the blanket covering me and placing it on one side. “No. I am fine, Mason. I need to see Alexei. I need to see my mate now.”I got up and then held my head when it rankled as my vision spun all of a sudden, making me draw back and sit back on the bed. I heard Mason cluck his tongue at me before I turned to him with a wince only to see him giving me a disappointed look.“Why must you insist, Aera? Since when did you become so stubborn?” he asked before he poured me a glass of water on the metal glass and handed it out to me. “Thank Goddess, I came to see you in the dining hall before I decided to head to my room. The pack’s doctor was frantic and in need of help when I arrived. I don't kno
“I couldn’t believe that shifters here in Buenavista forgot the siblings after just two decades, what are your plans for the Martinez siblings and Calisto now?” Irino asked, breaking the peaceful silence I had with Alexei.“Well...” I looked at Mason and Miya and exhaled deeply. “I would love to give them a proper burial and let the Calisto know that they were the Martinez siblings who survived the fall of the Martinez twenty years ago. The shifters who should be the ones ruling Calisto and not the Alvarez. I would also love to conduct a rescue and search for anyone who survived other than Mason and Miya that day to give Calisto back into their hands.”“What if they were the last of their clan?” Irino asked.“I have no choice but to let Akim take Calisto as the new Alpha like everybody was expecting him,” I answered and paused before I faced Irino and the others. “But I won’t let the others face the same leadership here in Calisto, so I will take the shifters who wanted to leave the p
“I’m sorry, Miya...” I uttered under my breath when she dropped at the last blow.Witnessing how Miya shifted back to human, my knees gave up and I threw the gun in outrage, fear, and sorrow. As much as I was thankful that the gun saved me and Alexei, it was still the most dangerous weapon anyone could have possessed to kill one’s wolf.I immediately held my belly and made sure that the baby was alright inside me by caressing it several times. I watched the siblings' dead bodies lying on the ground and heaved a deep sigh.With a heartbreaking sight, I suddenly remember their fates read by the wolfsayer six years ago. It was blank. Unreadable, as the wolfsayer called it, saying she had trouble reading their mates and possibly that they were one of the few that aren’t fated for another. I recall refusing to believe our wolfsayer before, thinking that she only made a mistake.And it turned out that wolfsayers don’t make mistakes. Because the meaning of Mason and Miya’s blank fate is beca
Miya let out a horrified scream before she shot me using her malevolent, trembling eyes. “This is all because of you... this is all because of you! You killed my brother.”Stunned and weeping, I ignored Miya’s outburst and held onto Mason’s stab wound, pulling him closer to me as I refused to believe what Miya had done to her own brother. Mason's eyes were fluttering when I looked at him and his vision was unfocused while watching the setting sun.“Mason, look at me...” I told him as I kept tapping his cheeks. He slowly complied and gave me a sad smile when our eyes finally met. “The Moon Goddess is very kind to let me see you before my life ends, Aera. I had no regrets about saving you, so you should feel the same.”“No, Mason. You will not die! Do you hear me? You will live!” I persisted, but Mason’s breathing started to become shallow and short, making me panic more than I already was.I was now covered in blood. And I didn’t know where to place my hand when Mason suddenly reached
“I will not mess this up, sister. You can trust me,” Mason said, avoiding my gaze as he faced his sister and undisclosing the state I was in.He could have told Miya that I wasn’t unconscious anymore. Kill me the moment he had crouched down since I was secretly listening to their conversation when I should not. Slit my throat without waiting for me to gain consciousness but he didn’t. He remained pretending that I was unconscious for my own sake.With that considerate gesture, I felt like there was still kindness in him, which Miya had totally forsaken a long time ago because of her rage and her intense need for revenge. I most definitely feared that my life was possibly coming to an end, but I felt rather confident about Mason sparing my life.Silently, I just wished I was right.“I trust you,” Miya said to her brother and then she left the cell afterward, leaving Mason who suspiciously trailed his eyes on her sister and let out a big sigh of relief when she was finally out of sight.
MIYA26 years ago...“Yes, honey. You heard your father right. You will be the first female Alpha of the North and the North Canideans will love you once you take the highest rank,” my father, Manolo Martinez, said to me, twirling me in the air and my laughter and shrieks filled my room that blissful night.My mother, Susan Martinez, gave me a warm smile before she walked toward my father’s side. “Okay, that’s enough. The heir to the highest rank will need to get a lot of sleep so she can be the first female of the North when she turns twenty. And that is fifteen years from now. You need to be strong and brave when that happens, Miya honey. For your shifters and for Calisto.”“I would be strong and brave, mother. I promise,” I vowed with my hands spread in the air and then explained excitedly when my father twirled me even faster.After a few turns, my father placed me down and gently tucked me into bed. They kissed my cheeks and wished me good night as their daughter and now the newl
I woke up in a dark room with fear and anger filling me, my hands and feet tied behind my back and I was helplessly facing the floor, trying to shout for help but no words could emerge from my mouth other than a silent moan.Struggling yet determined to move, I tried to free myself by flinging my hands constantly behind my back but my whole body was still numb that I even find it hard to blink or even turn sideways so I would not put all my weight on my stomach since I was a month old pregnant. I am soon to become a mother and I couldn’t lose the most precious blessing the Moon Goddess has given me when other shifters are struggling to bear a child.I never thought that a shifter like Miya, let alone a shifter whom I treated as one of my closest friends and a sister more than I treated Aena would do such a thing to me. And maybe— no, certainly, I am to be blamed as to why I am here in this dark and cold room only the Goddess knew where it was located. It appeared that I trusted Miya t
A week later...Wearing a black dress, I made myself inside Calisto’s hall without minding the mixed gaze of everyone was piercing me.All eyes immediately turned on me when I stepped inside and they gave me a deep respectful bow when I walked past them. Not just Calisto but all shifters from other packs who paid a visit to my father’s funeral. After everything that I had been through, the praise and the exaggerated appreciation, seeing them treat me like I was next to the Moon Goddess was never new, especially when there was a rumor that I helped Muck and not long after when Andras revealed that it wasn’t a rumor but the truth.Aera the Great. That’s what they called me even before the revelation. Now that the truth was out, they began to worship me for driving out all the Antartis as though I did it by myself. I had help. Andras could receive some attention as well, including the Muck’s brave shifters who fought with me during the riot, but the North has never been a fair region eve
“I am what?” I blurted, holding my stomach, unable to believe what Yelena said. “No, I am not.”“You are. Look.” Yelena held my waist and made me face the mirror. And then she tilted me to the side and carefully scooped my bump I never knew I had. “You are pregnant.”I gasped when I realized Yelena was right and my hands flew to cover my mouth in shock and delight. “Oh, my Goddess... I am! I am indeed with child, Yelena.”“You are...” Yelena gushed and did a little jump while holding my hand. Out of excitement, the news made me jump as well with her, but Yelena stopped me immediately. “Careful, Aera. You cannot jump or fight, or do straining activities from now on. You have a precious life inside you now. Oh, what a blessing for you and your mate! We shall tell the others, especially Alexei.”“No,” I cut her off, making Yelena's eyebrows arched in wonder and confusion. “I'm afraid we have to keep it for ourselves, Yelena,”“Why?” she asked with a little wondering laugh that turned out
“W-What?” Mason asked, his tone in utter disbelief and rather contemptuous. “Aera, are you hearing yourself? Are you forgetting yourself? He is your father.”The corner of my lips arched and I looked away, dropping my gaze to the table with a silent yet spiteful laugh before I looked back at him testily.However, this time, my lips turned into a thin line and my reaction turned cold, my face went slack quite intentionally, not because I regretted what I said but because I was disappointed by the fact he had the courage to ask me such an absurd request when he knew my painful past. And seeing how he gave me the reaction, right exactly the opposite reaction I would like to receive from Mason, I knew that the madness inside me that had been kept and caged for long awakened, wanting to spew forth and wild.“A father who abused me mentally and physically,” I corrected him, my voice rising in fury. “Now, let me return the question to you, Mason. Are you hearing yourself? You know exactly wh