“I did?” Alexei inquired in frustration, oblivious to my distress and simmering jealousy. “Darling, I didn’t. All I did was smile and greet her.”“That’s exactly why she’s mad at you,” Yelena explained, giving him an intense and harsh look. “You should have kept those teeth to yourself that day. Not only you infuriated Aera that day, but also me and Svet. How could you?”“Darling, believe me, I was only greeting your sister,” he defended himself, ignoring Yelena. “It was normal to smile when greeting someone.”Yelena nodded at me in the mirror before stepping closer toward Alexei. “You greeted the sister who has never done anything but aggravate her. You should have known better!”I gave thumbs up to Yelena and she smiled at me in return, while Alexei scoffed in frustration and looked at both of us who were giving him a cold shoulder. “This is impossible. Since when did you two read each other’s minds, huh?”Nobody responded, so he sighed.“Look, darling. Can we talk? I mean, talk tha
12 hours earlier...“Everybody must be prepared before sundown...” Irino finished with a warning look before he continued eating.A few minutes later, Alina excused herself after taking breakfast, and then Svetlana arrived with a warm greeting and a respectful bow to everybody. She headed beside her cousin’s chair even though there was still a vacant chair beside Irino. Suddenly, an idea popped into my mind like a lighting bulb and I took it as my chance to get even with Irino.“Svetlana, please. Sit near to me...” I motioned the chair beside Irino, exactly adjacent to my seat. Svetlana contemplated for a while before she obliged anyway.“I’m glad I made it for breakfast. I just harvested a Delphinium flower and extracted it,” Svetlana said, picking up her utensils and started eating.Almost all of us were finished with our breakfast except Mikhail, who decided to go for his seventh steak. We could have left just like Alina but we decided to stay because of Svetlana. Ever since we los
10 years ago...“Then kneel...” Aena demanded without an ounce of remorse. “Kneel and apologize.”“W-W-What?” I asked, my body trembling out of fear when Aena gave me a cold stare.Her friends had evil grins on their faces as they looked down upon me, effectively making me feel that they were already tormenting me in their minds and that I should be scared and wary. And the longer I looked at them, the more I wanted to run.“You heard me. Kneel and apologize...” she repeated, but this time, it sounded more like a taunt. “You want me to stop it, right? Then do it.”“But s-s-sister... I d-d-didn’t do it,” I defended myself, hating the fact that even just a little matter would already make me cry. “It’s h-h-h-her. S-S-She was the o-o-one who hit me f-first. You h-h-have to b-believe me, s-sister.”“Don’t call me that! Don’t you ever call me that!” Aena screamed at me, her eyes shooting daggers before she took a deep and harsh breath. “I don’t have a sister who stutters and is a weakling.
“What you did in the hall was amazing...” Alexei said, his lips vehemently brushing into my jaw down to my neck as we headed towards the bed with urgency. Without breaking the kiss, his hands caressed my hair, down to my shoulders, and then locked into my waist.I gasped against his lips when he suddenly lifted me and he seized my astonishment to capture my tongue, suck it with his lips, and sweep it with his tongue until I drowned in his taste. Instead of placing me on the bed, he pushed the object above the bedside table and placed me down, settling himself between my legs. And it seemed like undressing me would take a lot of his time, so he tore my dress and breathed through his nose in need when I faced him naked. He was never patient when times like this, so it was never new to me.“Alexei...” Gasping for air when he finally broke the kiss, I hastily untied his pants and he tore off his shirt. When Alexei was fully bare naked in front of me, I made sure to feast on his ripped bod
“Aera... D-Darling...” Alexei's low moans filled the room and made my body hum in triumph.The way his hips slightly buckled at the stroke of my tongue and his breath hitched whenever my lips would wrap around his crown gave me confidence in what I was about to do, even though it would be my first time.I heard that doing it with exceptional manhood like Alexei would surely make one gag, but nevertheless, I would try my best to exchange his efforts. If he can always please me down there, there’s no reason for me not to do it with him. I just have to endure and put in a lot of exertion for me to be able to do it. Making him cum into my mouth is my goal tonight, whether it will turn out well or not.Licking the corner of my lips, I looked up at Alexei and stroked his shaft at a steady pace, not too fast but not too slow as well, just enough for him to produce low and sexy grunts as he stifled his erotic moan. “Would you like me to use my mouth?”“Yeah?” he answered, but sounded more lik
“Aera...” Alexei’s smile faded and he moistened his lips. From the way he didn’t call me by his endearment, I already knew that he wasn’t in favor of my idea. His shaft inside me didn't stop throbbing but I suddenly lost the eagerness to move. “A child... it’s another responsibility we have to face. And you are in your prime, are you sure you want to lose it all? Having a child is not as easy as imagining taking care of one.” “I know.” I pinched my lips together and sighed. I didn't know why I sighed but it did fall on my lips before I knew it and it concerned Alexei when his expression even softened. I tried to get off above him but he made me stay by locking his hands on my waist. “Stay, darling, please. I love it when I'm inside you,” he whispered and tightened his grip on me. It was one of his sexual innuendoes that would easily arouse me, but that didn't affect me as much as before. Perhaps that’s because he expressed it from his heart and from his desire anymore. What we had be
I froze and recalled what happened earlier. Alexei was right because I saw it too. But then, I was so excited to be alone with him that I disregarded it and treated it as normal happenings between two friends despite my rising sense of suspicion. “They are close friends. It’s normal to hang out after a party.”“I am well aware that those two were close, but what is wrong is hanging out at this time of night,” Alexei pointed out, his voice laced with concern. “Only mates do that thing. I remembered what Alina said and I worried. I worry that those two might cross the line.”I bit my lips and thought of Irino and Svetlana. The more those two hang out together, the higher the chance that what we have in mind may happen. Although I hope that it won’t, but eyes can never lie and their gaze on each other was obvious. Friends don't throw such gazes at each other.But then, I couldn’t bring myself to suspect them of committing the most forbidden deed in the whole region. Those two knew better
Ten years ago...“I can’t do it anymore, dear Aera. I think I’m near my end,” my mother, Aerana, whispered in the early morning air. Her voice was soft and awfully ripped, like she had carried the world on her shoulder.“No, mama. Y-Y-You need to fight. We have been taking your medicine on time just l-like the doctor advised, I am confident that your health is going to be w-w-well soon,” I said in my most encouraging yet persistent voice. “I am not ready to l-l-lose you, mama.”“But everybody in this world is destined to lose the one they love at the right time. It’s just you, Aena, and your papa is going to lose my early,” she said, smiling sweetly to me as if her words didn’t scath my heart.“No, mama. D-D-Don’t talk like that. We are n-n-not going to lose you... I’m not g-g-going to lose you,” I pressed, unable to accept the possibility that I may lose the only person who cares for me and didn’t scorn me for being weak and my stutter. “I’m not ready to lose y-y-you. I don't want t-
“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