Safira almost bites the healer’s head off. Cain asked for her and a guard helped us go find her. By the time she got here a healer was already working on Cain’s back. According to the healer, Lyros had touched her. Not in a sexual way but it was intimate all the same. She walked in with ethereal light surrounding her. Every step she took shuddered with a primordial force and I felt awed by it. She said Lyros poured power into her. If she didn’t use it the way he wished, he would cause the energies to revolve and kill her. She looked excited and scared out of her wits at the same time. Safira arrived looking colder than the northern Kingdoms. “I said the skin over that part isn’t mended well!” The healer shudders yet again and Cain sucks in a breath. I summon the courage to do something I have never done before. I walk over to Safira, take her by the arm gently, and I pull with as much firm force as I can. When she turns to glare at me it’s a fearsome thing to behold, but I've
“How is this part of what training entails?”I sigh and turn to look at Safira.“Lying on the grass is a way to connect to the earth around us. The spirit of nature.”“The spirit of nature will hardly come to your rescue when you’re engaged in battle Adelaide. Stop messing around and get up so we can actually start doing something worthwhile.”I groan at her words because this is impossible. It’s difficult enough to fall asleep on the bare floor without being questioned every five minutes as to the aim of this activity, talk less of when I'm getting questioned serially. “Don’t you just feel like resting sometimes, Safira? Just taking a break to escape all this chaos?”I don’t see Safira’s reaction but her voice is melancholy when she speaks.“I would, but not when lives are on the line. Your life and possibly Cain’s rides on if you’re successful in the tournament.”Something in my chest deflates at Safira’s words because she might be right. There’s hardly anything stopping Lyros from
“I saw him.” A frown lines my face as I stare at the queen, confused.“You saw who?”“I saw him. My mate.” Her voice cracks heavily as she speaks and she wipes tears hurriedly from the side of her face. “Ashryn. I saw Ashyrn.”Chills run down the length of my spine and my skin pebbles with goosebumps.“You… saw the dead king?”She nods and something at the back of my mind tingles. It’s the tingle of suspicion so I dare to touch this subject.“The child you had with the King, the one with the dark hair and white eyes. What happened to him?”Queen Diane freezes over like a lake in deep winter. The look in her eyes goes cold and she turns away.Confusion ripples through me like a wave.“Did I say something wrong?”I get no response yet again and a strange sort of anger bubbles up in me.“One of my friends almost died yesterday while I was here with you. I didn’t wake up so a psychopath had him bound down and burnt, continuously. I was here with you while someone close to my heart was s
“The Lycan’s flame.”Ashryn the Great holds up something that burns. I look around and see I am in a room. Metal equipment of various lengths and sizes are littered around and Diane is here too. Her hair has been let down and it looks so silky it’s almost like a curtain but she has curls to them. There’s a frown on her face.She does not look happy. King Ashryn turns to look at her and he frowns, concerned,“You don’t like it, my love?”Diane’s frown falls as her husband addresses her and she sighs.“It’s beautiful. Powerful, dare I say it, but you know this isn’t safe right?”I nod along with her. Ashryn was a good king according to what I read but this might just be the only mistake he made.I feel the Lycan’s flame power up as he commands it to. The air becomes charged with energy, the kind that makes you feel like you’re breathing better and the world has suddenly become a million times clearer. I find it weird that I can feel this but I can. I can see my hands even.I am standi
“We shouldn’t be doing this.” Darkness. I can’t see anything yet I am in a memory. I can feel where I am right now and I know it’s a large space. “We really shouldn’t be doing this Diane. We could get caught, you could die.” A female voice. One of them should be Diane, but the one who’s speaking, I haven't heard that voice in any of her memories. I’m blind here and it’s disconcerting. I don’t like being trapped in memories blind. Light bursts forth and it almost blinds me. I hiss and avert my face then realize I'm not the only one who’s hissing. “What the fuck Diane?” “I’m sorry, I'm sorry. I didn’t know it would react like that. I swear this thing misbehaves sometimes.” “I shouldn’t go blind because of the staff’s misbehavior, Diane. If anyone should, it’s you. You’re the one who wants to steal it.” I hear someone’s chuckle and I can tell it’s Diane’s. I still can’t see her, I can barely see anything. “Blood’s leaking from my eyes Di, shit.” Magic hums in the air and I hear
Queen Diane helps me hold my hair back as I retch. Sea water gushes out of my mouth and what follows is relief. I always feel horrible when I vomit, yet this makes my body feel freed. Something in me chills as I come to a conclusion but that isn’t what matters right now. “Someone’s been using the Lycan’s flame.” I look up at the queen and blink back the tears at the side of my eyes. My body is still a body after all, but what I saw just now…. “You’ve known all this while haven’t you?” She shakes her head and rises. The Queen I see in those memories and the one who stands in front of me are so vastly different that I almost feel scammed. Where is the fierceness I saw in her eyes? The pride of being able to command spirits of every shape and size? The assurance of capability she exuded? “I suspected something like that was happening too, but I know it isn’t. No one could have used the Lycan’s flame, not after what I did.” Something in me curls at her words. It doesn’t just curl,
“Hey, wake up.”My eyes flutter open to Safira gently shaking me and I blink back the bleariness I feel. My eyes scan the room immediately and I’m relieved to find that it isn’t in a state of destruction.Lyros doesn’t seem to be here and Safira…. Looks okay.She frowns when I continue to stare at her so I look away. I sit on the bed and stretch to alleviate the ache in my back.“I think I’m up. Can I know what time it is?”Safira is silent for a while before she answers.“It’s the sixth bell. Dinner should be waiting for you in the castle by the next hour.”That means I slept for at least six hours. It didn’t feel like six hours, but maybe that’s just the thing with Diane’s memory realm. Maybe the place is getting used to me.Or maybe it’s because I viewed only two memories.“Cain should be awake by now. Want to come with me to see him?”I nod almost eagerly and Safira chuckles as she slips into her clothes. The jacket makes her look formidable, and the leather pants are also beauti
“Tell us the truth, Cain.”Adelaide sounds cold. Like the wind in winter.When I look at her I can see it’s the concern she feels for me that’s making her sound like that. The concern and the suspicion in her eyes.She knows something new and I hate the fact that this has to happen in front of Rafie. I wouldn’t have minded showing it to her alone, but Rafie is a wild card. I don’t know what to do with him.“I have other things to do, Cain. Don’t make this harder than it already is.”At the sound of Rafie’s voice, I feel something in the air change and memories tingle the back of my mind. To have a King care for you is a deep and violent thing, sometimes they cause you harm without meaning to. I consider how much harm this will cause if I do tell them, but the truth is that it will cause more harm if I don't.“The first time it happened was when Lyros used his magic to heal me.”Adelaide tenses up immediately and I take a few steps away from her just to put distance between us. I don’
Cain grabs onto my waist and kisses me, hauling me up and plastering me against him. His voice is a rough husk in my ear as he whispers “You did it, Adelaide.” Tears run down my eyes and he hugs me, holding my body to his as I sob into his chest. I don’t think I'd believe what just happened if someone told me it would a few months ago. All I wanted was to be free and run off to hell knows where, but I'm glad for what I did. Now I know I have parents, parents who loved me and a mother who would have done anything for me. I’m not just the pack omega destined to be maltreated and beaten for all of her life. The suffering I went through changed me. It gave me tougher skin and with the power of my heritage… I've just won back my kingdom. Freedom is mine if I want it. Freedom, and power, and love, if I want any of it, and all of it, and I do. I really do. I kiss Cain again, just to cement the fact that we are a thing now. We’re more than a thing. I’m wearing his ring. He’s as much
Lyros is no longer the all-powerful Lycan lording his majesty over the weak populace. We are powerful in our own right now.And in the face of real power, the Lycan king can only do one thing, cower, like a coward.Lyros attempts to run but almost like he knows it’s futile there’s no spirit in it. Lycan speed might have given him a chance, but running was just one final way of making a dash for his life.I flash and slam Lyros with my sword, the blade slapping the side of his face and drawing blood as he tumbles to the ground. I lean down and whisper close to his ear,“I don’t intend to kill you Lord Lyros.”I feel his heartbeat intensify as my words graze his ears but I continue confidently, “I intend to make you pay for all you’ve done. For the young girls you plucked from weak werewolf packs, only to kill them after torturing them, their dreams ended and hopes cut short because of your wickedness. I intend to make you pay for the cities you’ve attacked, the people you have killed,
I rip through the fabric of space as I burn.I feel the Lycan’s flame coursing through my being and it sets me on fire with the force of a supernova. I feel the strength of a thousand stars in me. The flames lick at my dress, burning it short and tattered, turning me into a version these men see, but which they don’t see at all.I wonder how many times Lyros has looked at me and seen nothing but skin. Nothing but clothes in pieces, flesh for the taking, a body to be claimed, and a mind to have fun with.I wonder how many times he’s seen skin and ignored the fire that rages in my heart. Ignored the love I have for the simple things. Ignored the fact that I am more than just skin and flesh, that I am heart and brains and emotion. That I am not his plaything.I am a Queen, and this Kingdom is mine.I kill the King beyond the border first. The battle with him takes less than an hour.In my hand is a sword hot as flame and solid as diamond. Rafie attacks me next so I slay him too.Raymel
We all stand in wait for her.Me, Rafie, Alizadeh, and Galan, all four Lycan kings, we wait for a weak omega female and something hollow rings in my chest. It was stupid to think I could find love.Even before the truth of Elara’s betrayal was revealed to me, I already knew. I already knew something was wrong with my heart and that I couldn't love properly anymore.I should have left it out of the cards, left love to those foolish enough to crave it but instead, I had to go ahead and try to keep her. Adelaide made me imagine something hot and exciting between us, something fiery and passionate, but at the end of the day, she’s expendable.She’s always been. Only I matter.A kingdom rests on my shoulders.“Is she on her way?”Rafie’s voice grates against my nerves but I nod. I’m not angry at him anymore. He’s doing what I didn't have the strength to do.Galan chortles where he stands and I feel my hands clench. I should kill him for using his trickster magic on me, but he saved my life
“How sweet.”Cain’s hand stops immediately and my foggy brain can’t even make sense of what’s happening. Has Cain taken me to the point of release this morning? Yes.I’m worried I might be a horndog.I turn to see Safira leaning on the doorframe. Her dress is so pretty, it drapes over her body like liquid and damn, I almost forgot how pretty she was.She smirks as her eyes meet mine, “Should I leave?” Cain answers sweetly before I can and his reply makes me chuckle. He goes “Yes please.”Safira’s hand twitches and a pillow launches itself at the back of Cain’s head. I let it hit and burst into subdued chuckles when he lets out a slight “oof.”Safirs sighs and shakes her head “You have a meeting in like six minutes. Will you be down?”Cain smirks lazily and shrugs. Safira’s gaze darts to me and she fixes me with an inquisitive stare, “Will he be down?”I nod because despite how much I want him to stay with me and kiss me silly, he’s already explained to me how things are here.He has
Diane visits me one last time in my dreams. She smiles at me and though my heart breaks, I smile back at her.I know this is the end. This is the last time I will see her, and as we stand on the sandy beach, our eyes locked on each other and the resemblance undeniable, I let her embrace me as a mother would her child, and I cry so bad my heart feels like it’s going to break.Diane kisses my forehead and wipes my tears, “You’re stronger than your pain my love. You know that right?”I want to nod. I desperately want to nod. The moment I saw Cain, the reality of what had happened to me seemed to come crashing down on me. The moment I saw Lyros instead of him, saw flashes of me and him behind my closed eyes each time I blinked….. How do I live with that?How do I live with the knowledge of all the things I did with the man I hate? A man who used me?I wish I could forget.“This is fire Adelaide,” I clutch Diane closer as she pats my hair down, tears still streaming down my cheeks “Like g
Anger makes my teeth crack as Adelaide asks me a question. She looks up at me, uncertainty in her eyes, her expression scared and bleak.“Would you still love me, if I showed you what Lyros and I have been doing these past few months?”Something threatens to snap in me but I know what this is.I’ve seen this before. I’ve done this once.I nod and Adelaide’s shoulders shudder. I can see how fervently she’s trying to control herself. How ferociously she’s attacking the emotions that are surging forth.Something’s happened, and when I ask her, she tells me everything.Trapped in a memory chain of the Lycan King’s making for three months, her magic being the thing he used to fuel that spell, Lyros turned her magic into her trap, and then she tells me what the memories were about. Entire years' worth of memories of her waiting for him patiently in the fortress.Memories of how he saved her from her pack and brought her to a better life in his care, Memories of how she became his personal p
Cain and Safira comfort me and tell me it’s okay. I can feel Cain’s concern for me like eyes at the back of my head.He’s always staring at me. He looks at me with such intensity that I feel all the things in my stomach churn and my thoughts go filthy. Memories flash past my eyes each time I close them.Memories of me and him in this world.Memories of me and him in a cave, happy sated smiles on our faces and our bodies totally unclad. We’re nude, and we’re comfortable.I see memories of deep and easy loving. Love that took me to the peak of pleasure, and threw me off the edge of my climax, again, and again, and again.My body begins to warm and Safira hits me on the arm, “For skies’ sake, Focus Adelaide. Are you sure you’re okay?”I turn to her and at the sight of familiar deeply tan skin and obsidian black eyes, a smile lights up my face. “I haven’t spent a day here and I’m already being mothered.”Safira grins and chuckles at that, and I feel light in my heart.She and Cain give
My heart melts with each passing moment i listen to Cain’s words and I almost can’t believe this is happening.My mind tells me if I blink he’ll go away, so I keep my eyes wide open, and I stare at him. I know it’s real when he stares at me in that same way.The lines of Cain’s face look new to me now. His warmth feels so familiar yet so alien. There’s an air around him that I can’t place, but I love every bit of it.I love it the way I love him, and when he leans in to kiss me again, I can feel the desperation in his touch. He’s as scared of me leaving as I am of him not being real in this moment. Finding him shouldn’t be this easy.It shouldn’t have been this easy, yet it was and I can’t seem to believe that.A sudden scream makes me cling to him like a frightened puppy until my brain realizes i know that voice.I know the texture of that squeall. I’ve heard that feminine tilt before.Safira’s scent invades my senses immediately and a warm body plasters itself to mine. She’s sobbing