‘Winter’My fingers traced the lines of the word engraved on the mask as I drank liquor from the cup in my hands.Ten years ago, I was still in the pack and was doing my strength training behind the side of the pack when I spotted Selene approaching me. The sight of her caused me to trip and I had broken an arm, but I didn’t acknowledge it. I was focused on making an impression on the lady, so I held my aching hand while feigning a smile. She ran out of a meeting held by her father and mine and wanted to spend some time alone. That day was the first day we had the longest conversation and the day I fell deeper in love with her. She called me summer because it was her favorite season of the year.I didn’t have a favorite season before that day; it was a nickname she teased me with, but it was all a ploy to get to me, but not anymore; summer died the day she betrayed me, leading to the birth of winter.‘You are paranoid, Lucian, she can’t be, she’s smarter.' Escarno whispered, We were d
Selene's POVThe sight of Emily in a blood-deranged cloth almost gave me a panic attack; the sight of the little girl in her arms made me think it was Ella at first until Joan walked in with a boy in her arms. There faces were coated with blood and I only knew who they were when I got the opportunity to get closer to them; it was the blind boy and his little sister. They were murdered mercilessly. While in a state of shock, I staggered backward; my heart palpitated even faster. The first thing that crossed my mind was Ella, my baby. I walked out of the room in search of her, just to make sure she was safe and whatever pandemic was going on in the pack, she wasn't a part of it.I rushed out of the tent, my weary eyes searching through every child in the pack, till I met Ella among the other children. I rushed her, and my desperate arms embraced her in a hug. I thought something must have happened to her.My body quivered as tears slid down the corners of my eyes.“Mummy, are you oka
Lucian’s POV“You are not going anywhere.” I reached out to her hands again, this time with a stronger grip. She needed to admit it—that she had betrayed me again; she had to cover her tracks by killing those people; she must have had help and she didn’t want to say the name of the person.“Let me go, Lucian!” If we stayed here, we were going to wake the little girl up, and I couldn’t afford to do that; her presence would be an easy escape for Selene to leave, and I couldn’t let that happen. I pulled her away from her hut, then towards mine. I pushed her in, then locked the door behind; now she had no excuse and she couldn't escape me.“How much did she offer you? A position in her pack? Gold and luxury? She promised to give your child more than she is receiving here, right? spill it!l” I asked curiously; all she had to do was admit it, but she wanted to make a fuss about it, I was certain she was the one who did it.“Did you bring me out of the pack to crucify me, Lucian? If that's t
Lucian’s POV"Nothing,” she lied through her lips. I had known her long enough to know when she was telling the truth and lying too, and as I watched the staggering lady barely holding on to her emotions, I saw a pathetic liar. She was a bad liar.“Joan, what did you do? I know you are lying so go ahead and say the truth.” “It doesn’t matter; the deed has been done; get over it. Not like it changes anything because she was in your room a while ago, so whatever I did was useless. Leave me alone, goodnight.” She stood up to leave but I pulled her body back to the chair.I saw tears forming in her eyes as she stared into mine; my heart fell into the pit of my stomach, not knowing what else to say. But I was on the verge of losing it; I wanted to know the atrocity she had committed.“I told her to stay away from you; that’s it. A day after I came back, I told her to stay away from you and that you belonged to me... You belong to me... Just me, not her. Why is it such a big deal?”My legs
Selene’s POVI saw myself in the dungeon again, crucified like an assassin and Alex's cohorts fed me wolfsbane. Everything within me felt the terror of the liquid as it burned my flesh; the sound of my bellowing voice echoed in my mind as tears trickled down my eyes.I felt myself being dragged to the pile of dead bodies at the back of the dungeon.The stench of rotten corpses wafted above my nose. And just when I thought everything was lost, I felt strong arms around me.Lucian? I thought to myself before I jolted from the bed.My eyes popped wide open, my heart pounding like war drums. I surveyed my surroundings; everything felt normal. I was totally fine, and not only that, I was far from Alexander’s reach and my baby was lying beside me in good health.I cupped her chin, and I kissed her forehead; waking up to her was the best part of my day.I heaved a euphoric sigh of relief as I fell back on the bed. I wiped the teardrop in my eyes as I stared at the straw rooftop above me. My th
Selene’s POVSuddenly, he cared about my health. Funny.“Ella, can you go and play? Mom and Uncle Lucian need to talk.” I dropped her down but she went ahead to hug Lucian before leaving. Her innocence was adorable.After making sure she was considerably far, I focused on Lucian, who stood gallantly before me.“What do you want, Lucian?Playing with Ella doesn’t change the fact that you were planning on executing her mother yesterday.”“I wasn't; I had my suspicions and I took them out." He said so passively; he couldn’t see his own wrong, and I wasn’t prepared to let him rub his cocky words on my face. I took a turn and I moved away from him just to have him blocking my path.“You haven't answered my question. Are you sick?”The closeness of his body to mine suddenly made me nauseous. I stepped back while trying to curtail the urge but it overwhelmed me the next second. I was throwing up at the corner of the pack. “I will get you something to treat yourself,” he said before turning t
Lucian’s POVI was in conflict with myself and I had taken out the distress on the sheet of paper I had been trying to draw the new house plan on—nothing seemed good enough to suit the image in my mind without making it seem like I was doing her a favour. She must be sick because she wasn’t used to the harshness of the wild. The insects here were hybrid and the water wasn’t as purified as the one in the pack. I knew how hard it was for me to adapt to the foreign change of lifestyle and Joan was to thank for that.When I was resurrected by the goddess, my wolf had gone wild for some days and was in grave need of comfort and somehow I met Joan, who was a slave to a beta in the pack, she met me near the borders of the pack on one of her heists, and she had snuck me into the pack afterward.She kept me in a storeroom in the same room she was given to rest, and we shared the remains of her master's food for months. We developed a tight bond till we finally decided to start this pack togeth
Lucian’s POV‘Kyle that bastard, out of all the females in pack , he chose Selene.' Escarno said, agitated by Joan's words, the sudden rumble of my wolf threw me off balance. Escarno didn’t find it appealing that she was being courted and I didn’t like the fact that a major suspect was with the other.“I knew it.” Joan concluded. “Don’t stress yourself; Kyle is not the culprit here, I am certain.”Funny how a word had ruined the enthusiasm I felt not quite long, and bitterness resided in my mind. I tapped my finger simultaneously on the desk as I tried to get my thoughts together. I could not let such a coincidence upset me. This time, if I suspected, I had to have enough proof rather than acting on impulse.But I hoped she wasn’t the cause of death, and she stayed true to her words this time. “It is well; let’s move on to something else, shall we? ?The expansion of the pack is necessary; we haven't made much plans about it.”I brought out the map of the territory we resided in, and I
Lucian’s POV I was offered a robe and my mask on my way out by one of the ladies who were commanded to wash me earlier, I wore it before I came out of the pack house where the rest of the pack was. When we finally got to the front, I made her kneel before her people.“People of Fae Pack, I did not come to take your queen away from you all, but I believe we all know we are way past our natural agreements, your ruler killed a king and a friend of mine out of greed. And I came before you to make it known to everyone that from today onward your pack will undergo a new recruiting process for leaders, because your queen will be joining your late king soon.” Like one would expect, the pack cheered and only a few grumbled to this message. This was the same fate Alex was heading to if he didn’t treat his people right, you tend to lose respect.“All of you will suffer! Every one of—“ I pulled out a sword from one of the guards who stood close to me and I slit her throat before she could say a
Lucian’s POV Her back was pressed against mine, and I held a dagger to her neck close enough to leave a mark but not close enough to cut through unless she made a stupid move. She knew she had a low probability of walking out of here alive because she had committed way too many crimes.“What are you waiting for? Shoot him!” I held her neck tight, my eyes shot at the guards who dared to move forward.They wouldn’t pull that trigger, not because they liked me, but simply because their hate for her superseded her command. I noticed when the girls were commanded to clean my body and when the guard ran out of the pack room after I killed the beta.“You fools! Kill him!” She shouted again.I narrowed my eyes to them, they lowered their guns immediately, placing them beside them. I stood up from the bed, making sure to hold her in place. Her legs kicked my crotch in anger, the pain was mind-blowing, but rather than reacting to the pain, I held the dagger closer to her neck, making sure it p
Lucian’s POV Everything before me seemed to blur, it zoomed in and out, I held in it, I needed to stand my ground with all that was going on, it was only just the beginning and the queen had made it clear that she was going to exert her revenge,she obviously couldn’t take what she dished out.She had killed so many people who were undeserving of her cruelty but the death of a brother had turned her into a container for pain.Silly.I was dragged to her room, and was dumped on the floor, a wave of cold air blew over my face. It relaxed my nerves but the pain still lingered, causing me to rock back and forth, shriveled and tormented by the pain and the wolf’s bane.But something ticked in my mind I wasn’t confined to anything.“Escarno. Come out.” I said in hopes that I would gain some sort of fighting ability while I healed from the insides, but he didn’t respond.“I know you can hear me, we need to leave.” “Oh wow, so you no longer fear that I would kill someone, the last time I trie
Lucian’s POV “I want to have a nation with your offspring. You know that right?” The queen said as she washed my skin with a warm towel, I flinched, her finger ran through a healing wound and I felt my blood slipping down my body.“I remembered welcoming you to my bed, and you turned it down, well guess what, you don’t have much of a choice now, because you are at my mercy…” she purred as she shoved her finger deeper into my skin, I gritted my teeth and the pain seethed through me.“I knew there was something about you when you walked into the pack looking pale but who would have thought you poisoned yourself? Let me guess, for your child? A woman?” She shoved her fingers again, my insides swelled.“That savior spell kills and you did it, now look at you Lucian, the veins around your body is black, your body is poisoned and fighting against itself, and you still have the energy to fight and go on raids, how do you do it?” I clenched my hands into a hard fist as I attempted pulling
Selene’s POVIt's been two days since I saw that rumpled note in his room. I haven’t slept in the last two days and my patience was running thin. It sucked so much because somehow I found it exhausting to constantly worry about a strong wolf who would win me in a fight anytime, any day but somehow he had my mind in a haze because I could stop thinking about ways to ensure he wasn’t bruised or injured. Now the pack members had started asking questions, everyone looked up to me for some answers but how do I tell them that I am worried as well, he just left in the middle of the night without giving a formal information, the chief has never taken this long on a heist, not just that how do I tell them that Lucian had done something like this once. Running when he had responsibilities. Somehow I saw being in charge of the pack as a disadvantage rather than an advantage at this point, because no matter how I tried to avoid it, the pack needed to know the state of their safety.I had told
Lucian’s POV I watched her digest her reality in shock, she narrowed her eyes to Pike who was still stuck in the phase of the aftermath.“You just killed my brother.” She whispered bitterly as tears trickled down her eyes.“Replace him.” I responded, this was her reaction to a complaint I noticed the first time I came to see her. A message came through that a messenger she had left to starve had died, it was nice finally taking it out on her. I loved the look on her face as I said that.“How dare you !” “You have three minutes, bring out the land documents, give it to pike, I need it in three minutes. Or wait, two.” I smirked.She snorted, then commanded a wolf to check the cabinets in her chambers where she brought out a file, hurriedly wrote on it, and stamped it with her fingerprint, now no ruler was above a written agreement, it was a thing familiar with all packs.I assessed the document to make sure it was authentic, at least she was smart enough to understand I could tell a f
Lucian’s POVSeated in the chambers of the Fae queen, I watched how she regarded me with a fiery gaze. Pike doesn’t know everything about our enmity, he only heard she killed some of my pack members and I did the same with hers.But this day had dented the integrity of my pack, and she killed my healer and she tried to kill Selene too through her puppet, we were never going to be acquainted, and if I wasn’t a man of my words, I would stand up and leave.“So you brought a thief to my pack Pike, I knew you too be pathetic but I never took you to be a pussy.” The queen slurred as she twisted her braids around one of her fingers.The queen was dread haired, long dark bread fell down her body, at the sight of my flag I knew she changed, now she wore something more revealing. Her cleavages were out in the open, gold dropping down her neck and her scent intensified.Her feet were hurriedly manicured, and I could tell from the way she moved on her seat that she was extremely aroused by my pre
Lucian’s POV I held the necklace a little bit tighter. I thought about Ella. Alex truly lost everything when he left that little girl to die, but that has passed now.“Is she your daughter?”“I wish.” I responded. Ella was conceived the year I left the pack. If her mother hadn’t run back to the pack and wedded her father, she would be mine, but nothing changes, I would still care for her like she was mine, and so would the little child close to being born.“Oh I see. Then she must admire you then, with all the work you have done for rogues, you might be seen as a messiah.” She said,Ella was different, she said she loved me, my cheeks burnt a little bit more, most of my loyalty came from fear and expectation, Ella never had fear, she would pull my cheeks and tug my legs even when her mother wouldn’t. She was something else.“Well, I just wanted to say thanks for coming to the pack and bringing my father along. I miss home, it has been so long, I have been here, where I grew up and w
Lucian’s POV Tomorrow, we will be at the Fae Queens pack. Pike finally agreed and while he was away from the pack, on his way to the Eclipse pack to make a deal with Alex, Selene crossed my mind again, it had been a week, I should send a message.Her needs would have to be suspended for the meantime, simply because I can’t afford to enter the pack anymore, my people were in pain and it would be silly to take more from them than we already did.Besides, she started the drought out of anger, not like I blamed her for this act. She was angry, I understand, but I was indirectly the ruler of the pack. My people are my interest. She should understand, at least she ruled once.I sighed in disbelief as I weighed everything that was happening around me at the moment. I never planned to be here this sick and tired.My chest burnt with an unquenchable fire. In a month I might sleep and not wake up. If I don’t usurp Alex in that time, I might never do it again, I might not be awake to see Ella g