“Rise and shine, my dear!” My body shifted aggressively when I woke up from my deep sleep. I have been starving for days, and I had no idea that my body could still function. My wolf's strength, however, did not last long as I ended up on the ground a few seconds later. The hunger was taking a toll on my body and I could barely see my surroundings. My stomach has been rumbling for a long time, and I don’t even remember the days that passed by since I just spent most of them sleeping. I pick up a sound coming from the bars of my cage opening. Soon, I hear Max sitting before me in a crouching position while he strokes my head. “That’s a good girl.” He sounds so pleased, knowing that I no longer have any strength to move or fight him. Something smells good. There’s no mistake that it’s meat. “Smell that? I brought you something good to eat. I think six days is enough punishment for you. I wouldn’t want you to die.” Max pulls me to his lap. Eveything ache. I feel like my stomach is eat
Seeing Ajax is like a dream and a nightmare.What is he doing here? Is he here to make sure that I don’t return to the humans or does he want to make sure that I keep the werewolves’s secret?Looking at Ajax, I just feel more and more conflicted. He is on his knees, seemingly at a loss for words, and he looks like he might burst into tears at any moment. He looks exhausted and it seems like he has lost some weight. His long hair is no longer tied and falls like curtains over his shoulder and face. Dare I say it, but he looks horrible right now. What happened to him? “Belle,” He tries to reach through the bars towards one of my front paws, but I quickly withdraw them away from his hand. I could not help it. It was an instinctive reaction. Just seeing him reminded me of the betrayal. I am still unsure of whether Ajax is part of that plan. For me, trusting anyone is hard right now. Even looking at him is hard enough as it is. “I’m so sorry.” He sounds so defeated. I wish that I could
I feel feverish. My body feels so heavy and my brain appears to be clouded. I opened my eyes when I caught a scent of something being cooked. The flickering of flames catches my ears, making me decide to crack my eyes open. There I see Ajax in his human form cooking something under an open flame. Upon seeing him, I start to remember the events that occurred before passing out. Ajax came to the pack and killed Max. For a moment, I thought that I had dreamt it all, but after seeing him, it is all coming back to me. I start to look around us and realize that we are in a cave. My other senses are starting to return, allowing me to feel the pain all over my body, making me let out a short whimper. Ajax perks up when he hears me. He is fully clothed with gray jogger pants and a black shirt. He is barefooted when he comes and kneels before me. “Thank goodness you woke up.” He sounds extremely relieved while carefully brushing a hand on my face. He looks disheveled, with his hair loose
Hearing Ajax offer me a position in his pack almost made me believe that the alpha of the werewolves was crazy. Surely he must have thought about what the other members of his pack would think, right? There will be trouble if word gets out about it. I know about Indigo having a huge problem having me in the pack so I am almost certain that there would be others who wouldn’t want me there either. Ajax left earlier and told me that I could stay in the cave for as long as I wanted. He said that he would drop by from time to time just to check up on me. I know that it is only a facade to ask me to think about his job offer. I could have said no right then, but he left in a hurry. Something tells me that he did it on purpose because he knows that I am going to decline it right away. Leaving right away did occur to me, but as I am now, I don’t have a destination in mind. I am sure the Lycans would make me their top target and suspect in the murder of their heir. To say the least, this
He wants to help me? I don’t believe him. How could I when he was the one who sold me off?! I wasn’t this angry seeing him, but now I am furious. My hackles raise and I begin to growl ferociously in aggression. I am not confident about my strength, but I will fight him if I need to. Indigo seems surprised. I bet he never thought that someone would be this mad at him after offering his help. “Belle, I am not here to hurt you. Please, trust me.” Now he was going too far. Trust him, he says. If I could laugh, I would, but I have had enough of his nonsense for now. I start to move towards him, keeping myself low on the ground and growling. He needs to leave. “Please, listen. You can’t help his majesty if—” I snarl, cutting him off, and I begin to run to chase him. I thought that he would retaliate and attack me, but he just stumbles when trying to move back. I pause where I am, wondering why he is acting strange and not even trying to fight back. He looks like a sitting duck with
I was left to ponder over my thoughts the very next day. My thoughts are swirling inside my head that I barely got any sleep since Ajax left last night after dinner. I am anxious. I don’t know what the lycans could be doing, which is making me think about the worst. It could be that they are trying to look for me to take revenge on what happened to Max. I am certain that the alpha is thinking about it. I want to know more, but I don’t think that Ajax would tell me anything even if I were to ask. This only leaves me to think of one thing—I need to go to someone who can tell me what’s really happening. Unfortunately, that person is someone that I don’t want to mingle with. I am certain that he must have known about what’s happening back in the human territory based on what he told me before. Heading back to the spot where I last saw him, I started to feel my legs shaking. I detest coming here and seeing his face. In fact, I almost feel relieved that I cannot see him. I almost feel
Once upon a time—a long time ago—the idea of having Indigo as a mentor in my training would have been such a privilege for me. He trained Ajax, which made him the hunter and leader that he is today. Just imagining such a person teaching me sounded like a dream to me before, but now that it is happening, I couldn’t be the least bit excited—for very obvious reasons. Why am I being forced to meditate!? We’re currently in the middle of the forest on top of the highest mountain, where Indigo makes me sit under the shade of one of the great trees. It’s a quiet place that is perfect for peace or for sleeping. “Belle, concentrate. I said to meditate, not to sleep!” The one reason why I am tolerating Indigo speaking and raising his voice at me is because I still believe in him to give me some proper training. I pry my eyes open and let out a long, whining yawn. Any more meditating and I am going to sleep. In fact, it is so relaxing that I might hibernate here. My front legs are threaten
Indigo has no opening at all. No matter how much I try to outmanoeuvre him or use my agility, there’s just no way for me to strike up a single scratch. I meant no offense to him, but how can a man as old as he is be so agile and flexible? It’s been like this for two days. I am surprised at myself that I didn’t throw the towel already. I tumbled on the ground after receiving a kick to my side. It wasn’t a heavy blow, but it had enough force to just nudge me aside. Indigo lets out a chuckle, not bothering to hide the fact that he was enjoying toying with me throughout our training. “You’re still relying heavily on your wolf instincts. It’s too easy to read when you’re a werewolf.” He dusts his hands with the white fur from his fists that he used to punch me a while back. I grunt and sit on the ground, glaring at him. I’m not that smart of a person; I know that, so it’s no surprise that I am accustomed to using my wolf mostly for battle. “Is that it for today?” Indigo taunts. “
I run into the woods as fast as my four wolf legs can carry me. My run would have been more joyful if I wasn’t being chased by someone. ‘Too slow!’ Ajax’s black wolf form appears out of the woods to come and jump at me. I sidestepped and leaped to my left. In mid-jump, I change my form. My legs grew longer and my back became straighter, elongating enough to support my new form. I bounce on my two legs, jumping high up until I am perching on one of the branches of a tree. I smirk as I look down on Ajax. His cold glare doesn’t even look nearly as scary as when I am standing on the same ground as him. ‘That’s cheating, Belle! You are using your lycan form!’ ‘Don’t be ridiculous. This is just me using my gifts.’ I give him a toothy grin. I feel like my smile is scarier as a lycan than it is when I am a werewolf. ‘Get down from there.’ ‘Why don’t you climb up?’ I continue to taunt him, enjoying the way that his face scrunches as he frowns. I chuckle. ‘Oh, alright. Fine.’ I jump do
I can feel the Lycan soul in my chest shifting impatiently as I follow Ajax and Indigo to the lair. The loud noises of growling and howling were making me antsy. It was so loud that I could hear them behind the waterfalls. Through the noises that they were making, I can somehow hear their fear and anguish. There’s nothing worse for outgoing creatures like us than to be held captive, especially in their own home. “Are you alright?”Ajax pauses when he notices me clutching my chest. His forehead creases with worry. “How long have they been kept in there?”My chest hammers wildly as I anticipate his response. “For as long as you were out.” When he sees my bewildered expression, he adds, “but we do try to let them out as much as possible!” I appreciate what Ajax did, honestly. He also knows that lycans get claustrophobic if they aren’t out and running—they are just like werewolves. However, in their minds, they are prisoners, so I know that they would never step foot outside even if t
About three days later, I return to the academy, much to my mother and doctor’s disapproval. I could not stand being in a sick ward room for so long because of all the smells of sickness and medicines. They give the two wolves inside of me anxiety. Arriving at the academy feels more like home to me than it was before. Getting out and smelling the familiar field of the academy fills me with so much ease that I even want to curl up in the dirt and sleep. However, there is one matter that I need to address.... “No.” Ajax straight up tells me before even hearing me out. I just got into his office after setting my stuff back in my room. “I won’t allow it.” “You didn’t even try to hear what I was going to say!” Ajax looks at me before grabbing my hand and leading me to the sofa, where he sits right next to me. He is still holding my hand. “You just recovered. You need to have a few more days of rest.” “Your idea of rest is based on human bodies. I am a werewolf and a lycan. My bod
My emotions are all over the place, even as I am in my room and fully dressed. Celine is no longer in the room, probably after she sensed that I was out looking for her with a murderous intent. The only one with me right now is Marian, who is helping me tie dry my hair after a shower. “Lay off the grumpy expression, babe.” Marian gleefully tries to cheer me up. “I am sure that Celine only said it as a sort of motivational speech.” “But I am motivated.” I reply. “I do hope that you don’t mean to strangle her.” I flinch, knowing that I was caught red-handed. “Belle, we all want to strangle her most of the time, so you might have to wait for your turn.” She smiles and gives me a subtle wink. “Belle!” The childish scream comes first long before the child behind the door enters. Holly enters, bouncing on her tiptoes as she heads right towards me. Her arms barely enough to wrap around my waist when she hugs me. I fumble with my words. I may not remember much, but I do know that I
I wake up feeling something in my skin. Soft beeping of machines is forcing my brain to wake and regain consciousness. I crack an eye open. My vision is blurry from sleep. It takes a while before my eyes settle, allowing me to see my surroundings. I am in a room that I am not familiar with, but based on the machines and the smell of the place, I am definitely in a hospital. My left hand moves to remove the oxygen mask from my face so I can get a clear sniff of the room. Yep. I am definitely in a hospital. But how did I get here? My head spins as I push myself up. Muscles scream at me for the abrupt movement. It has been a while since I felt sore and stiff. But somehow I sense that this isn’t the normal soreness that one would feel coming from overusing muscles. It comes from not using your muscles for a long time. A click coming from the door alerts me to my incoming visitor. My attention diverts in that same direction at the same time as the familiar scent of someone wafts i
I am a monster. To think that I harmed those I vowed to protect with these hands of mine. What I have aren’t even hands. They’re the hands of a lycan, the very species that I despise. How did it come to this? I am a werewolf just a while ago. Why did I become a lycan? These thoughts swirled in my head as I continued to run in the forest with no destination in my. The sense of smell in this form dwindles when compared to my own form, but I am feeling the physical enhancement on my body. One swing from my arm and I can break a thinking tree in half. It is something that I could never do when I was a werewolf. The immense strength scares me. No other lycan is this powerful—not even the late alpha. I broke another tree. I stare at it for long, feeling troubled when I cause another damage in the forest. My breath hitches as I walk backward to stare at the damages, causing my back to hit a tree. I got startled, and instincts kicked in. I claw at the trunk, sending splinters everywhere
I am filled with rage to the point that my mind is clouded. I am not sure what I am here for, but I want to wreck everything. Strong emotions are driving me to howl loudly. It was a loud howl that could even rival the howl of an alpha. The strong waves from my howl shook the cave and making my ears ring. A movement draws me to the closest target in front of me. He is a bigger looking lycan. I believe that he is the current Alpha of the pack—I forgot his name. Just looking at him is somehow igniting a strong fire of rage in my chest. I can’t remember what he did or what I am doing here. There’s one thing in my mind that was clear, though. It is to get rid of that lycan. I want to see him bleed. I want to see him in pain. A ferocious growl escapes my lips, and I find myself moving towards him. My legs feel heavy. I think I am moving slower than I originally do, but the strength that I carry feels like it is more than doubled. I wildly swing a claw at the lycan before me. The opposin
My ears were ringing when everyone was rendered speechless at my declaration in challenging his position. ‘Belle, what is this about?’ I can understand where Ajax’s confusion is. We talked about me taking over the pack before, and we deemed that it wouldn’t be wise if I am not fully committed to the role. ‘Don’t worry.’ I reassure him. ‘My intention for the challenge isn’t halfhearted.’ I briefly meet Ajax’s gaze, hoping my gaze can convince him of my conviction. As much as I hate the alpha, this is still my home. This is where I grew up. And although I didn’t have the best childhood, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t grow up with love. Not all Lycans rolled their eyes on us or made fun of us. Not all humans and werewolves are bad, just like not all lycans are. If that were true, I would have grown up to become rotten since my dad is a lycan. It’s just a matter of how the leader leads their colony. Ajax steps back. A proud smile seemed to creep on his wolfish feature. ‘You got th
Alpha Lupert gazes down upon me with a steady gaze. Even from where I am, I can feel the brewing hatred from him in his aura. I grew scared at first, but the fear soon subsided when the burning rage ate away all other fleeting emotions I had. If anyone should be angry, it should be me. The Lycan I am facing is the root cause of all of my hardships. He took away my family, my life, and now, he took Holly. “You gained a look in your eye while staying with the humans.” He comments. He was almost growling and chewing out the words while talking in his lycan form. He then snorted. “Though it doesn’t seem to stop you from being a foolish coward. I can’t believe that it takes us to take a human girl for you to show yourself instead of hiding behind human walls.” ‘I wasn’t hiding.’ Unlike the lycans, I cannot speak with my mouth when I am in wolf form. ‘I was contemplating something.’ “Care to share what a traitor like you is thinking about after murdering my son?” He is going to regre