XAVIER'S POV"Never in your flipping life, you pull a stunt like that ever again!" She screamed at me when we had pulled out of the palace and on our way."You would have gotten us killed! What was wrong with you?! " She yelled. The colour on her face had returned but now she was red with anger.I did not say anything to her. I just kept on checking for the spies that were definitely going to trail us.There was no way that my uncle was going to believe that excuse I had given him. I knew he was going to send a spy to follow us and ascertain where we were."Xavier?! Xavier?! Are you listening to me?!" She called out angrily.She had indeed been shook by what had happened as I could feel her body vibrating next to me.I felt the strong urge to pull her closer and hold her in my arms and assure her that she was okay. I was sorry for causing her to feel the way she was feeling but I did the exact opposite and kept to my space."Ouch!" I shouted as I felt a huge bout of pain as her small
XAVIER'S POVShe looked tired and I wondered whether her brothers were causing her trouble again. Those two boys were quite a handful for her.I watched as she came out to sell to a customer. I could not hear what they were saying as my head and ears were filled with the many sounds of the marketplace but I could guess they were bargaining.They took a while going back and forth and I watched as she journeyed from calmness to craziness.I had guessed she was going to go crazy on the man when I saw her start to tap her hand against the table. That had always been my cue to know that her temper was going to flare very soon."Fuck off!" I read her lips when she had sent the man away. He probably must have bargained way below the cost price and had ticked off her fragile temper.Today was the first time I had set my eyes on Abigail ever since she had come to the palace and tried to rat me out to my uncle. I had still not gotten over that incident."Are we moving along or is there somethin
ANNA'S POVI stood waiting for Xavier just where he had instructed me to wait for him. I felt so minuscule under the towering building and the massive clock that hung on it.There was a time when I would not have agreed to be left alone by him, especially at a place I knew nothing about because I would have suspected that he would leave me and go away but there was this amount of trust I had grown towards Xavier.I did not know when it had started growing but I knew it was there.And so I waited for him with the hopes that he would come for me.My mind kept on wandering back to Abigail. I had suspected that there was something between the both of them the time I had first seen her in Alpha Lartes' throne room. but I could not place my finger on what it was. Today, however, my questions as to who she was to Xavier were answered.I had seen the way he looked at her. She had been more than just a friend to Xavier. There had been something between them.I did not want to admit it to mysel
XAVIER'S POVMy heart dropped when I could not see her where I had asked her to stay. It had taken a while for me to make sure that our followers had given up their chase. Even after they left, I walked in circles as I kept my eyes on them to make sure they were not coming back. And when I came back, she was nowhere to be found."Anna?" I called out hoping to hear her annoying voice answer but all I got was silence. I looked around me, maybe she was planning a jump scare because she was full of surprises.I searched every corner of the building where I felt like someone could hide but everywhere was very empty.I was lost for words.I wondered what could have possibly happened. She wouldn't run off because she was excited to come. Or was this just part of her plan?No, I had to push away all my thoughts, maybe something happened. Maybe the goons had taken her away.I was tempted to scream her name but I did not want to draw any attention to myself that would end up reaching my uncle's
ANNA'S POVWe rode in silence till we got to a stop."Come down," Xavier said to me as he alighted from the carriage.We were in front of an inn and I thought of how they had their hideouts in the most weird places like the palace."Try to keep up, we are already late," Xavier said to me as he started to walk away from the inn and onto an isolated path.I followed him without saying anything even when we were going far away from civilization and from any help in case I had to call out for help. But I followed him still. The trust I had in him kept me safe.Some moments later, we came upon a dilapidated building and I watched as Xavier knocked on the door.He knocked in a particular pattern, three consecutive knocks, then silence, then two consecutive knocks then silence, then another three consecutive knocks."Are you a friend or a foe?" A voice called out from within."A foe," Xavier replied, and then the door creaked open. The feeling I had when I was coming and found its way back.
XAVIER'S POVMy blood went cold when I heard the voice speaking.I looked for her with my eyes but I could not see her."The same woman whom you were with when we were being slaughtered like rams is the same woman you have the guts to bring to our midst! You have no respect for the lives that were lost for your pathetic cause!" The voice said again."Mind your tongue, Abigail. Lest you lose it today," Peter warned Abigail.The people started to murmur as they tried to understand what was going on. I watched as they paved the way for Abigail who had been standing at the back of the room to come forward and speak her mind."I shall not be threatened to keep quiet with the truth by men who are too blind to see that they are risking their lives for someone who doesn't care about theirs, neither is he worth the sacrifice," Abigail said in that voice of hers that I had always thought was too much for her little frame.She finally made it to the front of the room and I was blessed to look at
ANNA'S POVI loved the look I saw on Abigail's face. It made me feel some type of joy I had not felt in a while. This was just supposed to be a game for me to save my people but for some reason I became thrilled with the direction this particular scene was taking.She looked like she was looking at the most horrific thing she had ever seen in her life. Her eyes were expanded to the corners of her face and her mouth was wide open in shock.I held Xaviers hands tight in my hand and smiled at Abigail. Taking in the aura like it was milk and my skin needed it more than anything.The only thing that made me happier than the look on Abigail's face was Xavier's hands in mine.I had not expected him to say what he had said when he started to speak. I had thought he was going to apologize to the people but he had left all of us stunned.Abigail's face went from shock to anger till she became red. Her ears looked hot red and her nose flared.As the seconds passed the anger on her face tripled a
XAVIER'S POVI had tried to protect her but I was too late. It had all happened way too fast.Abigail had changed into her wolf form in a split second and had charged at Anna immediately without giving me any time to act.Before I could come in, Abigail had already knocked Anna to the ground and had tore open her chest with her the claws on her sharp paws.I watched Anna tumble to the ground and I had felt the impact of her head in mine. It was as if she and I were connected and I was able to feel her pain.I arrived just in time as Abigail was about to grab Anna in her mouth which was wide open.I pushed Abigail away with my entire strength, knocking her to the ground.I heard her whimper in pain but I paid her no mind and ran to Anna's side.I tried all I could to bring Anna back to consciousness but she was slipping away so fast.I placed my hands beneath her head to cradle it but then I pulled it out as I felt the warm, sticky, liquid.I smelled the blood and knew it was blood lo
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