XAVIER'S POV"I don't know what you are talking about," I replied to him before starting to walk out on him.The longer I stayed with him, the more loopholes he would find in my demeanour."You know you can confide in me right?" Jehu said as he ran after me.I said nothing to him. Ignoring him was the best I could do."Xavier!" He called taking hold of my arm as he closed in on me.I stopped walking and turned to look at him with a stern look on my face."What is happening?" He asked again.The frown on my face grew stronger and my eyes turned into it as I retorted;"I advise that you mind your business..."My words left him shocked. He did not believe that I would say such a thing to him. I didn't want to cut him off like that either but I was left with no choice the instance he threw the question at me.Jehu and I met when I joined the army for the mandatory military training I needed as the heir to the throne.We had hit it off so fast and I had been happy he had been posted to the
XAVIER'S POVI swallowed hard as my brain tried to think of the perfect lie to give while I calculated when he saw me. Did he see me step out of the secret door? Did he suspect something?"I am sure that wherever you are coming from isn't so hard to remember is it?" His voice growled behind me, causing my eyes to squeeze tight as frustration started getting into me.I tightened my hands into fists and turned to face him."It's nothing like that Uncle... I am just stressed out from the battle." My fingers went to my forehead for good measure. "I have a terrible migraine...""Shouldn't your pain come from your neck?" He growled with eyes that told me one thing.He knew more than he was letting out.My fingers instinctively left my head and went to my neck as if I had just suddenly remembered that I had been attacked there."Yeah... I mean, not exactly. It was just a minor scratch. What is important is that he didn't get to you..." I said as my lies finally started coming together.My e
ANNA’S POVThe moment I told Xavier what was happening he looked like he would pass out. He turned pale and though he tried to appear as if he could handle it, I saw it in his eyes. He was loosening control.He couldn’t handle it. The poor thing.At this point, I knew I would have to do something, or he would be in great trouble with his uncle. He needed me but his ego wouldn’t let him say it.I couldn’t have folded my arms and just ignored his predicament, but my people’s lives depended on this. My father needed me. if I let Xavier go down, then my plan was going to go down with him.I released a sigh dropped the ball of cotton wool I was holding and grabbed his arm.“What are you doing?” he asked and the panic in his voice caused my eyes to roll in irritation.Men. They would always be arrogant even when they were about to pass out from fear.“Anna, where the hell are you—” he started to say but I cut him off at once.“Shut up and just come with me!” I hissed firmly. My hand tighte
ANNA’S POVLartes eyes seemed to narrow as he stared back at me. The rhythmic tap he was making on the handle of his throne stopped and I could feel the tension increase in the room.The truth was, I had no idea what to say to him, but I trusted my instinct. I knew I would come up with something when the need came.And the need was now…“What about those fools do you have to say?” Lartes growled softly, his ever-calculative eyes never leaving my face.There was no room to falter, and I knew that it was now or never. So, I squared my shoulders and took in a deep breath. “I had a dream and I saw the goddess… she told me that this is her desire, and you should not meddle with it or she would strike.”The words sounded stupid to my ears, but I didn’t let my uncertainties affect the forged confidence in my voice. My eyes continued watching the hardened Lycan in front of me, waiting for his reaction.Silence lingered on in the room for minutes, but I stood my ground. I knew that Lartes was
XAVIER’S POVAs soon as I left the locker room, I went directly to the dungeon where the men were being kept. The easiest part was getting here and now I had to do the hardest part which was for me to get the guards at the door to leave so I could take the men out.But as I reached there, I found the door unguarded. A frown covered my face as I wondered if Anna had a hand in this. That little body of hers sometimes did things that were too much for me to comprehend —as much as I wanted to investigate it. I knew there was no time for me to do that.So quickly, I rushed into the dungeon and all the men were on their feet, staring back at me as strongly as they could muster. I admired their strength and courage but if I had truly walked in there intending to cause them harm, there was just a handful of them that could fight back.“I am here to take you all back to Nico,” I said to them. “If you can move, then please help the others who can’t. There is not much time,” I added and started
ANNA’S POVIt was painful to watch but it was what had to be done for a hundred more people to survive.“Argh!” Lartes screamed as he brutally tore through the chests of the already dead guards. “Pathetic little fools!” he yelled like a madman.They were already dead, but he couldn’t stop. His anger was overrun and though I tried to leave, he forced me to stand there and watch him carve out their hearts like a psychopathic artist.The entire dungeon was coated in blood. The smell of the metallic substance was everywhere, and I was beginning to taste it at the back of my throat, but I didn’t flinch.I stood there, watching till he satisfied his thirst was satisfied.His burning eyes landed on me when he was done, and I felt a strange aura cloud my mind. He was trying to feast on my fear but there was just none in me.“Anna,” he whispered, his voice edgy like a soldier high on a mission, “get the maids to cut out a portion from each of them. I will have it for dinner…” He slapped a han
ANNA'S POV"Hey, sister. Miss me?" Kira said in that voice of hers that had a way of making me want to commit murder.I stood numb trying to figure out what was going on. How did she get here?"Anna? Is anything wrong?" I heard Xavier ask from behind me.I did not answer him, instead I was staring at my half-sister."Come on! Is that how a family should greet each other when they have missed themselves?" Lartes commented.My eyes shifted to him and I could see the gleam in his eyes, the same gleam which had tainted his voice as he had spoken to me.He was enjoying the show.He was playing his own game and I was a pawn in it.What made me angry was that I had no incline on what game it was we were playing.I felt warmth as Xavier took hold of my hand and pulled me along with him to the dining table where my sister and Alpha Lartes sat.I did not take my eyes off Kira even for a second.She had a smile on her face –a smile I had grown to know. A smile that meant there was trouble. The
XAVIER'S POVA lot was happening at once and it was happening so fast that I was not able to digest it all, the first being the beautiful woman who was having dinner with us.She said she was Anna's sister but there seemed to be more to the story than that.Especially the fact that the new lady looked nothing like Anna.When we had walked in and saw her, I had felt Anna's body tense up and it was still tense as she sat next to me.I had kept glancing at her hoping she would look at me and perhaps I would have an incline on what was happening but the only person she seemed interested in looking at was her sister.That was until her sister revealed that she had insulted me before sneaking over to our pack to marry me. I found it hard to believe that Anna had not only come to marry me willingly but that she had conned her sister out of marrying me. But I had to believe when she looked at me after hearing her sister's words. What was Anna really up to? It was at that moment it registere
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