"Sleep well whore?" It's the female warrior from the first time I had come in here. The red-haired one who I now know is named Lysandra. She's staring me down, like the mere sight of me disgusts her but I can tell this is something other than normal hate. Jealousy maybe? I don't know. She has no reason to be jealous of me. Even I wouldn't be jealous of myself if I was in her shoes, and her boots look perfect on her feet, as always. Lysandra's hand swipes across the table and my breakfast goes clattering down. She's always like this but today it seems she's extra angry because she slams her hand on the table, the loud bang ringing through my ears like a thunderclap, and her eyes land on me, filled with rage and fury. "I said did you sleep well little miss fuck toy?" I don't give her a reply though I want to. I want to tell her I know how much she sleeps around too. The maids deal in secrets and gossip and she hasn't been too kind to them. They speak of her in scorn-filled tones,
We eat in silence and I feel Cain squirming in his seat. If I was asked to guess why that is, I would say it's because he's never eaten with people around him. Me, him, and Rhys, I don't know if this is a group we've formed but I can tell he isn't happy. and it's not like he's sad to have us with him, it's that he's sad about what having us with him will do to us. Lyros would pick us up one by one and for someone who claims to have no feelings, Cain does. He hasn't mentioned or admitted to the fact of not having feelings to me before, but he acts like that and it's something that made me hate him in my first days here. He would always act cold and frigid, always act mean. I sigh and drop my spoon on the table. The Lycan king's home can be horribly depressing when you have something to lose, and what do I have to lose exactly? Well, I have my freedom to lose. I won't ever be free if Lyros finds out what I'm planning, he might even kill me, but if it means Cain will have a better li
Despite Cain's warning, I don't go to train straight away. I go attend to Lyros's summoning first. I don't know why he called me but when I got to his room it was clean. I saw him folding his shirts and putting them into his wardrobe. He asked me to sit and he asked how I was feeling, and then after, he told me what Cain wouldn't. We're going to a very far place. He didn't tell me where just told me to get ready for two days at sea. I'm to act as a companion of Cain, an ambassador from the Lycan king of the north to the lands inland. The Lycan king we're going to visit is named Rafie and he isn't dangerous, those around him are the really dangerous ones so I'll have to watch what I say, watch where I step, and also get ready to live without electricity, running water, and an air conditioner in my room. It's going to be like a whole new world but I feel pumped for it already. Safira comes for me afterward and I recognize her as the lady I had seen in front of my door yesterday. The
Safira wears me down to the point of exhaustion. At first, anger is what pushes me to fight back, somehow I feel I've gotten stronger than I was and faster too. Safira comes at me with punches and jabs but I deflect the majority of them. I imagine myself in Cain's skin and his shoes. I imagine myself as him and think of what he would do if he was me. The more I do this, the more I realize my errors. Cain wouldn't let emotions rule his movements. Neither would Lyros even though he has a temper on him. They would try to see what technique their opponent uses before anything else. Safia favors attack over precision. She throws powerful blows but they're also blind blows and there's a lot of times when she could have done more damage than she did with a misplaced punch. She strikes in my general direction and not in precise areas. She doesn't care if the blows catch me or if they do not, what matters to her is that she strikes and her strike hits me. She doesn't care where. With that
Safira drafts a training schedule for us and tells me it was fun training with someone that has some backbone. I'm not sure if she just insulted all the warrior Lycans in this building or if she insulted me and every other werewolf out there. She doesn't stay back long enough to clarify, she says it and she leaves while I stay there, panting. I lay on the floor and let the silence of this place fill me. For her to have her own training space, she must be really important to Lyros. The way she's also made me so aware of the fact that I am not supposed to be here is surprising. Up until today, I don't think I ever saw myself as the daughter of an Alpha. I sure wasn't treated like one in the pack and I don't think I've ever been the daughter of an Alpha. I've always been the pack disappointment, my parent's shame, and a failure to the moon goddess. I can barely feel my wolf during the full moons and when a shift does overtake me it's so painful it feels like it's going to kill me. I a
Rhys is breathing down my neck and it makes me want to snap his.We're in my room, seated on the floor and I'm bent over a map."Move away Rhys."The words come out through gritted teeth and like he doesn't hear them Rhys moves in even closer. I turn to glare at him and he smiles before he moves away a bit.''"You draw so well that I just wanted to see more.""You wanted to see more of the map?"He looks away and I sigh."You want to say something don't you?"He nods and I go back to sketching a map of Rafie's capital, Raleigh.Lyros wants information on everything and it's already hard enough to do this without having someone breathing down my neck."I want us to talk about Adelaide, Cain."My pencil stops and I straighten my seating posture."What for?"Rhys fixes his eyes on me and I let myself become fully aware of his presence for once. He might as well be Lycan nobility himself. He's larger than me though we generally have the same body build and he looks the same way prime Lyca
Rhys is looking at me weirdly.Safira lunges at me with a bit more speed this time so I take my eyes off him and place more attention on her. There's a feeling creeping down my back that tells me Rhys is here for something, maybe he's here to distract me, I can't tell, but the way he looks at me makes me feel strange. Like he's observing me closely and it only makes me super conscious of myself.I haven't seen Cain for the past two days now and I would have loved to say the same for Lyros but that would be a lie. The Lycan king has been around, more than Cain has been around, and I'm left to wonder if that's something Lyros has caused or if Cain just doesn't want to see me."Focus Adelaide!"Safira's voice comes out angrier than I imagined and my attention snaps to her immediately. Clang!Her sword hits mine and I feel the force of it go into my arm. I spend the next few minutes dodging thrusts, deflecting jabs, repeating her words over and over in my mind as I master the art of the
Rhys blinks at my request but he nods all the same and that is when the confusion sets in. I know I'm not famed for having second thoughts but I have them now. If I'm to kiss Rhys....... if I'm to egg him on and have him take me right here and right now, what would it mean for the both of us? The answer comes to me in the form of a sound, the sound of cracking bones, and a shudder runs through me. I pull back. Rhys cocks an eyebrow up at me and when I look away, he chuckles. "You know it's wrong to give one hope and rip it away so brutally right?" I let out a frustrated sigh and flop back onto the hard floor. He's right, I do know that, but I have to stop myself before I hurt us both. "Lyros would kill us if he found out anything like that happened. He hates werewolves and he doesn't need a reason to punish me, he'd probably punish you for fucking werewolf scum though." Rhys chuckles deeply and I feel desire flare up in me again. "Who says he has to find out?" Rhys closes th
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