XAVIER’S POVWe moved under the darkness of the sky, sticking to the darker shadows. Our direction was the remote side of town where Abigail’s family stayed. I tried stopping Nico and Edna from dragging Abigail’s family into this but there was no convincing them. The only way was to hope that now that she was in a position of power, she would have taken her family away from the slum to a place I didn’t know about.The night was quiet, it was almost like the insects and animals of the forest knew what was about to happen.It was a three-team attack point. A larger number of the team were headed to the front gates, headed by Nico himself. Edna and a dozen other men went to the forest to find the scouts. My mission was somewhat simple. Get Abigail’s family and take them to the safe house.This way, if things got out of hand, we would still have the upper hand.Lartes had nothing we could use against him which was already difficult to defeat him but the people around him had a lot more t
ANNA’S POVMy heart was shaking as I thought of ways to get this information to Xavier or even Xena. Then my mind went to Charles, surely, he would come to my aid. He was only helping Lartes because he had no choice. Lartes had his mate.But if I offered him a chance to get saved. It was going to be a win-win situation for him and Lartes didn’t even have to know that he was in the background. All he had to do was tell Xena about the location of the weapon so that she in turn would find a way to send the warning to Xavier.If we won this war, he would get his mate back but if it happened that we lost, then that wouldn’t be a problem —well, at least for him. Nothing would change in his situation. His mate would still be with Lartes and whatever agreement they had might still work.With that in mind, I slipped out of the corner I was hiding and started heading out in the open. I hoped that the sea wasn’t too far. Since the men were bringing in the boxes, I guessed that it was coming from
XAVIER’S POV“What took you so long?” Edna hissed the moment I got there with the men. “And the explosion was slow. Did you freeze after seeing your girlfriend’s portrait or something?”I wasn’t in the mood to argue, so I just ignored her words. “What’s the update and what’s the plan now?” I asked instead.She rolled her eyes and pulled up a tablet from her bag. She turned it on, and a map of the pack came onto the screen. “As we speak, Nico is already on this side of town. The gates in down and reinforcement is already on the way, but he managed to push through. My men would join him as soon as your girl leaves the palace…”“By now she should have found out about her mother and brothers, has she made a move?” I asked but Edna shook her head.She swiped the screen to a live video that I had no idea where she got from. “An old invention I stole from Kelvin,” she said with a shrug, answering my unasked question.I frowned as her words rang a bell in my head… Did Kelvin invent something
ANNA’S POVThe fight outside intensified yet it didn’t come to the palace. Everyone was becoming agitated as we waited for the fight to get to us.After Abigail yelled at Kira, she ran back out to continue organizing the men. While I remained in the room, trying to hide my excitement at their misfortune. It was amazing how restless they were all becoming, and I could only pray that this fight was successful.I prayed that Xavier continued with whatever idea he had going. Because it was making them restless.Lartes had the guns, but it seems the attack Xavier’s men brought exceeded his manpower. So even if they took the guns, there was a limit to the number of people they could kill before they got flipped over.Xavier was playing the siege game and if he had his cards right, he could win this. Lartes and his people couldn’t stay stocked up in here forever. It would get to a stage where he would want to leave.Their food will finish, water will finish, and they will become cornered rat
ANNA’S POVMy eyes didn’t leave Abigail as she returned to the entrance and spoke to her walkie-talkie. She was obviously up to something.I slowly moved out of the way and moved on the side, while Lartes continued growing with frustration. It was clear that this attack had shaken him up. He would pace for a few minutes and drop back on his seat before getting up again to repeat the whole thing.“What’s the update now?” he asked Abigail.She stared at him and shook her head. “It is not looking good. The attack team I sent, and the scout team have been knocked out—”“Damn it!” Lartes growled, kicking the small side table that was beside him and he sent it riling behind to the ventilation opening.I followed the movement trying my best not to laugh at his misfortune. Even if Xavier didn’t get to kill him, this was a good one and he was going to live the rest of his miserable lives regretting it.“I think we should send in the guns, my king,” Abigail suggested but Lartes refused yet agai
XAVIER’S POVI held my breath as Edna positioned herself by the vent, letting the tube of the arrow pass through. I knew that this was the most crucial part of the mission. A slight mistake and she was going to miss her target.I knew she had practiced all her life for this. She kept singing it to me even before we got here but as we stood in front of the enemy, I couldn’t help but think of the worst. If she failed, we were going to be stuck here. Returning to the tunnel was going to be a death sentence and waiting behind was going to make us sitting ducks.I closed my eyes and prayed to the goddess to give me the strength I needed. Lartes had to be brought down. He had to. he had done too much harm, not just to me but to everyone else. We couldn’t fail.“Edna, let me do it,” I said, and she paused. I didn’t know where the confidence came from, but I just believed that I was the one who was meant to do it.I reached to where she stood and held the hand, she was using to hold the tube.
ANNA’S POVAbigail was going to remain very useless no matter what sort of stone she was sharpened on. Even though Xavier was already seated on the throne, she still thought she could threaten him or make demands.I wanted to move towards her and show her where she belonged, but Xavier held my hands tight. I snapped my head in his direction and saw that his eyes were fixed on her but this simple action of his spoke volumes.“Your family is safe, Abigail. Unlike you, I don’t betray my friends…” Xavier said and for the love of the goddess, I hoped he wasn’t about to go soft on her. She was a traitor and should be treated as one.“Your mother and brothers are safe. As soon as everything is reinstated. They will be moved to a new and better location…” Xavier explained, and I glared at him hoping he could hear my inner screams.Abigail was not someone he could show mercy towards. She was full of herself, and I was certain that she was crazy too.“Now, all I request from you is a simple ans
ANNA’S POVXavier had a very fierce look and as much as I didn’t want to defile him, especially in front of Edna, someone had to go get his sister, who happened to be my friend too. And then again, even my father was still on that same island. Someone trustworthy had to go. And I could only nominate myself in situations like this. There was no other way to do it.Except if Xavier would go. I trusted him enough to know that he would do the job, just like I would have. But he couldn’t. There were still a thousand and one thing to do after the war that he would have to resolve. Which left me as the only candidate. “I may go as well but I would rather not. Kelvin and I have a very long and complicated history I wouldn’t want to do something that would later jeopardize Xena’s safety,” Edna said, and I could see Xavier begin to struggle as the weight of the situation crashed down on him.I could tell from his eye
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