XAVIER'S POV.We watched each other.I could feel our kin's blood boil within us.I pondered on his question. Who was I?The problem was I had been asking myself the same question ever since I woke up to find my parents dead and my birthright snatched from me and as I stood today, I still haven't found an answer."I am Prince Xavier Octavian of the Black Moon pack," I said out loud with my shoulders high and my chest pushed outwards with pride.I saw a smile play on my uncle's face. I had said exactly what he had wanted to hear.I had intentionally and deliberately left out the part of my introduction which stated that I was the rightful heir to the throne.I had done it intentionally to make him happy. My words would show him that I accept his leadership and would throw him off my scent."And where does your loyalty lie?" He asked but this time, his tone was more subtle."To the throne," I said with a bow.Once again, I had intentionally chosen my words.I had not called his name as
XAVIER'S POV"Give it to the Prince," My uncle said to the guard —much to my surprise but who was I to refuse such an opportunity?I was handed the sword and I held it up, admiring the sheer beauty of it.I knew that legend had it that the sword was forged in the faraway lands of the dwarves with a craft that had been lost to men. The blade was carved out of a metal whose origin was unknown to any one of us still alive. The hilt of the sword was decorated with twelve diamonds embedded into a golden case.I knew all this because this sword once belonged to my father.I could still hear him tell me, "One day when I'm no more, you would wield this sword to protect our people who I have left under your care."A sadness washed over me as I admired the sword."I have failed you Father," I said to myself."Xavier, do the honors of ridding us of this buffoon," My uncle said to me, breaking my reverie."It will be my pleasure, My King," I said and I meant it."No! No! No!" I heard Reed cry out
ANNA'S POV There was no way on Earth I was going to share a bed with this spineless wolf, I declared to myself.When Alpha Lartes had said it, bile had shot up into my throat as I was filled with disgust.I would rather stay in the pig sty than stay with an imbecile.I watched as Uncle and nephew argued our fate, my fingers crossed that for once the spineless imbecile, I was forcefully yoked with would show a bit of spine and refute his uncle's decision but it turned out that once a coward, always a coward.And so I walked, with my head held high and my heart feeling like one condemned to her death along with the maids, to the room of my betrothed.As we walked in, my eyes opened wide at the splendor of the room. The splendor was so magnificent that it left me, a princess dumbfounded.The Black River Pack was indeed evil. To live in such splendor when the people in other packs met their deaths from starvation showed the level of their callousness.I walked around, admiring the room,
ANNA'S POVI wished so badly that I could turn back the hands of time and change my actions. I would have allowed his head, which was full of sods, to roll to the ground instead of innocent Reed.Slowly, I spat out all the grapes into my hands, my tongue all of a sudden turning bitter.I threw them back into the bowl and walked to the bed where I went and slumped into its soft embrace.I was exhausted. More from anger than from the journey.I needed a plan and I needed it fast. I needed to take my vengeance.Moreover, my imbecile fiancé was a liability to me. With him in my way, he made my task more risky.I needed to move very fast before he destroyed my chances of saving my people.As I devised my plan, my mind drifted off to my father and Kira at home till it finally drifted off to sleep.I was awakened moments later by the voice of a woman talking above me.I opened my eyes fast, my mind waking with so much speed that my body quickly positioned itself in a defensive position read
XAVIER'S POV"Stop here," I said to the driver.The carriage creaked to a stop, the hooves of the two stallions coming to a halt."Come and pick me up at this exact spot by nine p.m.," I instructed the driver before opening the door of the carriage and climbing down.I walked to the front of Phillip's Bar and got in casually.I had already donned my coat and hat back in the carriage. I had my head slightly downwards, avoiding eye contact with anyone in the bar.I went over to the counter and plopped into a chair."What would you have Sir?" The barman asked me."A glass of water would do," I said.My body was craving alcohol so badly. I needed it to be able to get over the exhilarating events that had happened today.Losing my comrades most brutally and gaining a demon as a roommate all in one day was something that needed one to get drunk to a stupor over but I could not. There was work to do.But a little alcohol wouldn't hurt.The noise of drunk men and giggling women filled the air
XAVIER'S POV "I was almost caught. I slipped out of the guard's reach narrowly and it was thanks to Harrison," Abigail said with a sombre look. Harrison. The sound of his name brought sadness and guilt to me. "When he came into the hideout from the tunnel, it took the guards by surprise and so I acted on that and dashed out of the room," Abigail explained further. I felt guilty. Why was I not there? I deserved to be there. I deserved to be killed and not them. I also did not tell them that I was with Harrison. I did not tell them that he had been tortured before his death. I did not tell them that it was he who had saved me from death by warning me not to come out. "It was bloody Xav! So bloody," Abigail said as she broke down into tears. I held her in my arms once again. It was so hard to see her in tears. The last time and first time I had seen her in tears was years ago when she had been narrating to me the story of how she had seen her father's head in a box. "I'm sorry.
XAVIER'S POV "What?! Why?!" Chorused the four people with me.I was looking at no one in particular as I wondered to myself why I had blurted that out in the first place."Has the devil finally bought over their Alpha?" I heard Tim ask."But that is impossible! I stayed in the Black River pack for a while about a decade ago and I know Alpha Faustus! He is a good man and a great leader. He would never join an alliance with a tyrant!" Peter protested."Well, it could be that Lartes has him in a chokehold. We know how dubious that man can be," Tim said.I was quiet hearing their debate and considering whether to let them know the truth or not."So what is it? Do you want to recruit her as one of us?" Henk, who had been quiet through the debate, finally spoke.I turned my head to face him sharply as if a tear had cut through my skin."Of course not!" I spat out of my mouth as if I had tasted something disgusting."I don't know why she is in the palace," I lied and I hated myself for look
ANNA'S POV I soaked in the huge bathtub far longer than I should have. But my plan to delay in the bathroom proved fruitless when they came for me."Ma'am! We have a lot of preparations to do before time and we are running late," A maid said after knocking on the door.The voice sounded strange and unlike that of the maid who had earlier woken me up.I drew in a deep breath and went under the water. My aim was to drown. At least that would save me the shame of attending the feast in rags as I would be in recovery or maybe in hell.In less than a minute, I came up for air gasping hard.I could not do it. My wolf had been thrashing inside of me in fear —She hated water so much.After catching my breath, I sighed.I had no choice but to attend the party after all.But I had a new resolution in mind. I would wear my old, raggedy clothes and walk into the feast with my head held high.I was the princess of the Black River pack and no one should have the power to make me feel less than I w
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