ANNA’S POVHer question caused my eyes to blink a couple of times before I could come up with any solution in my head. But she was already a step ahead of me. Before I could speak, she turned left and right, confirming that there was no one watching, and then she pulled my right arm towards an empty room in the corridor.“You have been with Xavier; I can smell him all over you!” she hissed as soon as the door closed behind us.“I… we—”“You don’t even need to deny it. That is not what bothers me. My concern is why you are here. I told you to stop coming here. We have nothing in common anymore and the king, my mate, doesn’t want you here, yet you came and as I can see it, you are here for him,” she said with eyes that stared down at me as if she wanted to touch my soul with those orbs.My mouth opened and closed like a fish as I tried to come up with a good cover story but in the end, I couldn’t keep it within me anymore. I have tolerated her cowardice for long enough.“I am here to se
ANNA’S POV“There is nothing here, Anna,” Xena repeated, and something snapped in my head.This wasn’t right. The weapons were here… unless…“Shit!” I cursed, turning away from the room. I started heading out with a frown fixed on my face like a detective on a mission. This was a sabotage.“Anna!” I could hear Xena’s footsteps behind me, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop now. It was like I had started a streak of activities that I couldn’t stop until they were completed.I was just about to step out of the warehouse together when Xena pulled me back with such force I got pulled out of the firestorm in my head.“Anna, where are you going so fast? Where are the weapons… if they ever existed, that is?” she cried out as our eyes met in a fierce battle.Then it occurred to me that she didn’t understand the magnitude of the situation. “I need to inform Kelvin. This is a major issue. What if it has been stolen? We need to go after it before those weapons fall into the wrong hands!” I said
XAVIER’S POV“I see that you have made your choice?” Edna said the moment I walked into the house.I was exhausted and my heart was heavy but as I heard her voice, my mind closed off every drawback I had. I had to finish this. I had to end this madness with Uncle Lartes. I had to put him in his place and if Anna still wanted me after it was over, then I would know that she was being sincere. For now, I had to move on with my plans.“Are you with me on this?” Edna added, taking a step closer to me.I took a deep breath and my fists tightened. “Yes,” I said coming to stand before her. “I have made up my mind. Let us end this.”Edna let a small smile slip off her lips and then she turned away from me, heading out of the room. “Good, I was just speaking to Nico. Everything is ready. We should set sail by morning.”A frown formed on my face, not because we were leaving so soon but because Nico was supposed to speak to me and not… well not just her. “Did he come here?” I asked as I went af
XAVIER’S POVA frown covered my face as the name settled into my head.“Charles is her friend,” I pointed out to her.She nodded and sniffled at the same time. “That is what baffles me. Because it means that Charles has been lying to us all. I thought he cared about the people’s happiness… but this only proves that he works for Uncle Lartes. He was his spy. His eyes were on the island, and I was so stupid I thought we had bought our way through all the sailors and none of them reported us to Lartes…”She let her fingers get into her hair and she pulled at it in frustration. I could feel the aura of pain coming from her and I drew closer once more, offering her comfort from my hands even though deep down I was developing my own theories.Anna wasn’t weak. She wouldn’t just let Charles and a couple of men take her away. If Charles was a spy for Uncle Lartes, then I could as well say Anna was working for him too. Or maybe this was just their plan to disappear.Anna was good at disappeari
ANNA’S POVThere was an intense banging in my head as my consciousness started weaving itself back to life. I tried to open my eyes but the bright light around me, didn’t help with the banging going on in my head, so I closed it once more.I held my head and tried to figure out why the light in my room was so bright. I felt around my bed cover, trying to guess the position I was sleeping in so that I would know if I was closer to the switch and then I would turn it off.But as my hands connected to what was supposed to be my bed, I felt a very hard surface that was nothing like I had expected. My eyes flew open once more but this time I was prepared for the bright light. I turned my eyes down to the surface I was on, and I found that I was on the ground.A very cold ground.The realization caused a very cold chill to sweep through me but as soon as it passed my brain, it turned out to be just what I needed. It jumped started my brain and memories of the last couple of hours returned.
ANNA’S POVI couldn’t hate Charles because I understood how he felt. I didn’t approve of his ways of getting what he wanted by selling others but because I was going to use him to get to information that could help me get Xavier, I didn’t blame him.When he left my determination increased. I would make sure my death left behind a massacre. My entire being was prepared and when the door opened for the third time, I was more than ready.Four bulky guards came into the room and a smile covered my face as they stared at me, trying to see if I was going to attack.“It’s good that you have learned.” I laughed, waving my hand in the air. “But it's fine. I am not going to bite. Take me to Lartes.”They stared at one another before one developed the courage and came closer to me. He reached his hands to my arms, and I happily raised my shoulders to give him better access.They led me out of the room, and I took my time to study the outside world. Who knew, in my massacre, I might find just a p
XAVIER’S POVMorning came and we began to prepare for the journey. Edna was very good with preparations, I had to give her that because by the time I woke up, she had the ships ready, and all weapons were already loaded into the ships.“Is there anything I can help with?” I asked when I got to the ship.She came before and cocked her head to the side with a smile on her face. “There is a lot I would want you to do to help…” she whispered, and I saw that strange emotion I couldn’t define swim through her eyes again.My brows furrowed as I waited for her to go on with the talk, but she didn’t. she just stood there taking in my face as if this was the first time, she saw me.“Edna?” I called softly, hoping to snap her out of whatever she was seeing.She blinked and turned away. “There is nothing to do from this end. Get into your cabin, and we will set sail in…” her voice trailed as she moved her eyes to the small silver wristwatch in her hands, “In five minutes. Is there something you n
XAVIER’S POVI lied to Nico.Knowing that Lartes had Anna was more than a distraction. It was the most destabilising news ever. I knew she was strong and could take care of herself, but I also knew that Lartes was going to hurt every single cell on her body till he got what he wanted —and not knowing what it was he wanted was what bothered me.I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t think straight. Every second that passed was a moment that she had to endure pain from Lartes. If he could try killing me, who was his nephew, I didn’t want to even begin to imagine what he would do to her.My wolf was restless. My mate’s bond was pulling apart. I hated myself on top of that, over and over as the thoughts of how I had treated her the last time we met reflected in my head.She had come to me herself. She had given herself to me. She dropped her pride and she had opened up her heart to me, but I was a jerk. I left her there to cry.I heard when her knees had touched the ground. I heard when the first
XAVIER’S POVAs the vessels landed on the shores of the island, a war cry was let out and everyone took position.At first, everything seemed perfect. The people in the town were packed away from the scenes. They were led to a safe location. Our aim wasn’t to kill them but to liberate them from the monster who was growing under their noses.As the people got cleared, we proceeded straight to the palace entrance with full attack, but it wasn’t met with force as the few guards present in the town were not even expecting what awaited them nor were they prepared for war.They were easily whisked away, leaving the gates bare. But as soon as we got to this point, that was when I realized that Kelvin knew we were coming. This wasn’t a surprise attack; it was a well-precedented attack.His men appeared from all sides of town as if they had been waiting for us to finish clearing the people away so that they would attack. They were more than we had anticipated and to top that up, their arrival
XAVIER’S POVLeaving Anna behind made me stronger. The further I got from the room, the more determined I became to end this war and curse once and for all.“Xavier, the men are ready,” Edna said as she joined me on the corridor as we headed out of the palace through the warehouse, which led us straight to the vessels.“The men are yet to be addressed and they are all waiting at the beach,” Charles said, and I nodded at him.“But there is one problem,” Nico’s voice filled the space and all three of us stopped to stare at him.There was a frown on his face as he joined us. “What is the problem?” I asked as he got closer.“We will have to do your coronation before you leave. It needs to be official before the realm’s flag can be raised.” Nico explained and I could already feel Edna’s hesitation beside me, but I had the perfect solution to this.“Call the elders, they shall be going with us,” I said and started walking away but Nico ran after me, stopping right in front of me.“But Xavi
ANNA’S POVAs I got to Xavier’s chambers, I went straight to the bed, hoping I could get some rest but as I lay on it, there was nothing relaxing about it.Every scenario and circumstance kept playing into my head. My father’s kidnapping. The change of the details of the curse. The probability of Edna being Xavier’s half-sister and then Xena wanting to place her life on the edge of danger…How could I rest?Xavier’s plan was a full-on attack but what if… that one question held the key to the outcome of so many lives. It was true that with a perfectly planned attack with everyone’s support, we could win it, but would Nico change his mind?Unable to calm my head as the thoughts came moving in and out of me, I got up and walked to the window. Watching as the men outside, sat gathered in groups.It was Nico’s men and Xavier’s men too. They were sitting together in groups as if they had not just been enemies a few hours ago.A small smile danced on my lips. It was a good development and ma
XAVIER’S POVThe room fell into perfect silence as they stared at me with shock in their eyes. My eyes narrowed especially on Nico who was trying to play me here like I was a fool.“So, according to you, it isn’t a crime for me to mate with my half-sister and also, it is perfectly fine if we go against what the elders said?” I said shaking my head and watching their reactions.While Nico had a defiant frown and I could guess that he was already scheming for the next words he was going to say to frame me up into his selfish wishes, Edna could no longer look at me in the eye.It was funny because the idea of her being my half-sister was still very strange to my head but nevertheless, as I said it and they were reacting like this, then it could only be true. The problem now was how they birth to her.“Xavier, listen to me,” Nico started up and I raised my brows ready to listen to his trash for a second time. “I know all this information is a little overwhelming but none of these stories
XAVIER’S POV“What?” We all echoed out in the room in shock.Our voice was of different intensity. Where Charles had the gentlest of them, I couldn’t control mine.“This is unbelievable. How can it be possible?” I cried out. I couldn’t believe this. “Edna can’t be an Octavian, from who? We all know that Uncle Lartes was never even into women to begin with! The man preferred men!”My eyes were narrowed, and my temples were squeezed into a tight knot as I tried to unravel the truth or even basic idea about the information that Xena had given me.“She is not from Uncle Lartes,” she whispered and the cloud of confusion in my head got even thicker.“How then?” I growled. “If she isn’t from Uncle Lartes, who then birthed her?”My father had just one brother and that was Lartes. If he didn’t have then whose child was Edna— as soon as the thoughts crossed my mind, I froze. This meant one thing, if she was an Octavian, then she was…“She is our half-sister?” I whispered, unable to say the word
XAVIER’S POVHer question left a ringing in my ears and the way she collapsed to the ground, caused a panic to start within me. I knew what her argument was based on was the right thing but why did loving her also feel right? Why did fighting for us, feel right?Haven’t we been through enough already?I left my position and went to her with a troubled mind of my own, but I was certain we could figure it out together. I reached out my hands to her and as they came into contact the flame spreading between us was the assurance I needed. This couldn’t be wrong.“Anna…” I whispered with a blank head but at least it was a starting point.She raised her sad tears filled eyes to me and I was about to start cooking up the first plan that came into my head when the door opened and Charles, the vessel captain, stepped in.He bowed before us and held the position. “My king, I have news from your sister, the queen of the island,” he said, and my brows rose instantly to my hairlines.“What about my
ANNA’S POVThe hours on the journey back were ridiculously cold and silent. Every man was to himself, and I couldn’t help but begin to wonder if there was something I missed while we were all there.As the water danced around its waves, I seemed to be the only one rational enough to notice. It got to a point that I became worried for the men as they could fall or worse could happen to them.But the goddess stayed with us. We got to the shores of Black Moon safely without any casualties. Yet the mysteries surrounding the men didn’t stop. Rather it seemed to spread even to the others as we got down.Even the men in Black Moon all seemed to carry around them a strange dark aura that felt wrong.“Let’s go see the King,” Charles said and we picked a representative from the two teams of soldiers we carried along with us.We were going to the head to the throne room but we were redirected to the conference room where we found Xavier, Edna and Nico all seated with long faces.My wolf was itch
ANNA’S POVI tried to think of an explanation to what I heard, but there was none.Everything around me started feeling off, and my heart was no longer beating in the normal way.I pulled out my walkie-talkie, and I wanted to dial Charles, but with no idea where he was or how it was in there, I decided against it.I returned my device to my pocket and moved the one I got from my father and his diary into my backpack, then I did a double back to the vessel.There was nothing I could do but wait, hoping that he would have more information when he returned.“Princess Anna, we got an interception from Black Moon but the connection was not stable enough for us to pick up anything,” the man we had left as a scout on the vessel said.“Oh, we will try again later in the night, connection is always better then,” I said, based on what Xavier had told me when he handed the devices to me.It was what Lartes had used to pass information from Black Moon to the island. It worked, we just had to fin
XAVIER’S POVI wasn’t even the one to reject it. Edna herself slapped her palms to the table and jumped to her feet.“No, uncle Nico. I am not going to be mated to him!” She cried out like I was some sort of plague but surprisingly I felt no hate towards her because it was a mutual feeling. I didn’t want to be mated with her either. I already had Anna.“Sit down Edna and listen to me,” Nico growled and for the first time since I have come to know him, I saw agitation in his eyes.But Edna had gone wild.She stepped away from the table and shook her head like she had suddenly become possessed.“Why should I listen to you?” She spat out and Nico narrowed his eyes and he searched for the right words to say but before he could even come up with them, edna continued.“No way! I have listened to you all my life. I have done everything you have wanted.” She beat her chest and pointed in my direction. “But you see this particular one, I am not going to do it. I am not even going to sit here a