1: Our Beginning

*LAUREN*

I was resting on the couch, and my body is aching all over.

Just this morning, my 60-year-old grandma and I just finished cleaning the rest of the three-story Ponte Madison Mansion, which took one month to bring everything back to a respectable level of cleanliness.

I roamed my eyes around the living room, and my gaze landed on the magnificent sight of the thousand-year-old chandelier hanging on the ceiling.

For the life of me, I can't understand why such a thousand-year-old family heirloom still functions and brightens the living room to this day.

As far as I can remember, it never malfunctioned even once!

Just like this mysterious house that never aged. Dust and time may have covered the surface of the antique furniture, but they failed to dampen its shine for real. Once my grandmother and I start cleaning the surface, everything is back to its original shine.

And the one thing that bothered me deeply is: why would the powerful Alpha of the Ethereal Growlers Pack and his family from a faraway place come to visit this place and stay here for a few days, weeks, or even a month? A recurring visit that took place once a year.

Um, yeah, that was the longest time that I can remember. Grandma would never allow me to mingle with the werewolves every time they are here because they are scared that the wolves will harm me because my scent is irresistible to their nostrils. So I'm locked up in my room with books to read and given food rations three times a day until the visitors leave.

At the age of 8, I became an orphan after my parents both passed away from a plague-related illness. That was the saddest time of my life. Granny Ursula adopted me and raised me. I turned 20 last year, a pathetic woman whose face was filled with ugly scars since I was young.

I heard my grandmother's heavy footsteps, echoing in the tiled floor, coming to the living room. I pretended to have fallen asleep on the couch, snoring lightly for effect.

Granny Ursula nudged my arms gently and said, "Child, wake up! We need to do something in the basement before the family arrives! Wake up! Hurry up!"

The moment I heard the word basement, I quickly opened my eyes and stood up. "Did you say basement, Granny?"

"Yes. I need your help this time. I can no longer do it alone. Going down that steep step in the basement hurts my arthritis-ravaged knees. So you have to come with me," Granny Ursula replied.

"But you told me that there are monsters hiding in the basement, and you are the only one who can go there because you can tame the monsters." I spoke in fear because, as far as I can remember, my grandmother prohibited me from venturing into that place, and only she and the Alpha King's family can have free access to the forbidden basement.

Granny Ursula sighed deeply. "Yup, that's true!"

"The monsters are true, Granny?" I asked her point-blank. "I don't want to go there! I'm scared of monsters!" I sank back onto the couch, refusing to accompany her to the forbidden basement.

Granny Ursula shook her head. "Child, come with me, please. We don't have much time left! Hurry up!"

I still refuse to obey her order unless I can guarantee my own safety. "Granny, I will obey your order with one condition. I will just wait for you at the door to the basement. That way, if the monsters come after me, I can run away quickly."

Granny Ursula was shaking her head. "You have to go down to the basement and light the candles there so that when the Alpha King and his family arrive, they can begin the ritual right away."

My brows knitted in confusion. "Huh? What ritual are you talking about, Granny?" I asked her with a raised brow. It's the first time that my grandmother mentioned a ritual that piqued my interest tremendously.

So, through the years, the Alpha and their families performed rituals with the monsters in the basements? My curiosity shot to the roof. "But what kind of ritual do they do down there?" I inquired further, wanting to know what I'd be facing down there if I decided to accompany my grandmother to the forbidden basement.

I noticed the hesitation on Granny's face. "Child, I have something to tell you—the truth about the basement that I have hidden from you for a long time."

"What is it, Granny? Tell me about it. I'm ready to listen." I was eager to hear the truth about the basement.

Granny Ursula stared at my face for a long time before she opened her eyes to speak. "The truth is, there are no monsters in the basement."

My eyes widened in shock. "Huh? So if there are no monsters, what is down there?" I asked, a great deal of curiosity flashing in my eyes.

"The basement housed a mysterious entity. It can cure the scars on your face." Granny finally revealed to me the secret of the basement.

Shocked, I stared at my grandmother, my eyes as big as saucers. "Are you kidding me?"

Granny Ursula shook her head. "No, child. I'm telling you the truth."

Suddenly, my mind began buzzing with activity. "If everything you say is true, why did we have to wait for a long time? Why didn't you tell me about it before?" That was the first thing that came to my mind after learning the truth about the basement.

Granny Ursula's face turned unreadable. She touched the ugly scars on my face. "You are a beautiful child. You don't deserve the scars on your face." She spoke softly and stood up, walking towards the kitchen, where the door to the basement was hidden behind a cabinet.

"Granny, where are you going?" I asked her.

She stopped walking and looked at me, saying, "What are you waiting for? Follow me!"

I sighed deeply, hesitating to follow her to the basement, but then I remembered that there are no monsters in the basement, just a forbidden secret. I figured I would be safe then, so I sprinted to her side. "I will just light the candles and then leave the basement right away. Is that it?" I asked apprehensively, waiting for further instructions from her.

Granny Ursula nodded her head. "Yeah, just light the candles for me. That's all you have to do."

"No problem!" I smiled brightly. "Um, one more question, Granny. The entity in the basement—how many are they and what do they look like?" I curiously asked, just to mentally prepare myself in case they would show themselves to me.

Granny said, "Just keep quiet the whole time you are lighting the candles, and no matter what happens, stay calm and don't panic. The entity won't hurt you as long as you remain quiet, finish your task quickly, and leave right away."

"Ah, okay. I can do that. Let's go and get it over with!" I replied with fake enthusiasm.

We arrived in the kitchen, and I pushed the cabinet a little bit, revealing the door to the basement.

Granny handed me the key to the door, and I quickly inserted it into the doorknob, pushing open the wooden door. It's my first time seeing the staircase. I heard that there are about fifty steps to the bottom. "It's so dark down there!" I exclaimed in shock. "So pitch black!"

"I know, child. Hold this." Granny put a hard, round object in my hand, and it magically emitted bright light, enough to illuminate the entire length of the staircase.

"Now, go downstairs, and when you reach the bottom, you will see candles lining up the hallways. Light them all, and then, when you are done, come back right away," Granny instructed me.

I raised a brow. "You won't go down with me?" I asked as fear began to grip my senses.

Granny shook her head. "Nah, I'll stay here. My arthritis is killing me. I won't be able to reach the bottom, so you have to do it for me this time. Go now!"

"Granny, I'm scared!" I hesitated to go up the staircase because I started panicking as fear started gnawing at my stomach, making my heart palpitate.

Granny released a deep sigh and said, "Go, child. Hurry up! I'll wait here. You can finish the job faster if I don't slow you down. Now go!"

Granny pushes me gently into the staircase, and I reluctantly start my journey downstairs. I slowly go down, grasping the round, hard object with my hands and holding it for dear life.

As I descended into the darkness, the round object in my hands continued to emit bright light, and I finally saw for the first time what the forbidden basement looked like.

It's a jungle down there; the ceiling is high, and there are trees and plants everywhere. Are these plants alive? Holy cow! A green, thriving community of trees and plants underground is hard to believe. Too good to be true! How could this even be possible with no sign of sunlight anywhere?

My mouth was wide open as my eyes grew saucer-like, astonished and baffled at how trees and plants are alive in the basement when there is no direct sunlight coming from above.

How?

The whole place was silent and eerie; the hairs on my neck stood up.

My feet finally landed on the floor, and I noticed that the ground was dry—no soil at all, just concrete cement. What the hell? Then I touched one of the leaves of the plant nearest me out of curiosity and discovered that the plant was real!

Oh, wow!

The light from the round object that I was holding in my hand illuminated the whole place, and there I saw the candles lined up in the hallway that ended at the huge closed door at the far end of the hall.

Damn! I forgot to bring the match; how can I light the candles? But to my surprised, the first two candles come to life when I accidentally sway the round object near them.

Wow! Cool!

Holy Moly!

This round object I'm holding in my hand is magical!

Amazed, I continue walking slowly towards the closed door at the end of the hallway because more candles are lined up there.

I have a gnawing feeling in my belly that I am being watched!

But when I scanned the area, I saw no one! Not a soul! There's only me, and my knees were already shaking.

'This place is not scary at all, just out of the ordinary.' I convince myself with those comforting thoughts just to keep myself going until I finish lighting all the candles and leave the heck out of this weird place.

Suddenly, I froze, rooted to the spot like a statue. My heart was beating faster in my rib cage because I saw something stirring behind the tree to my right; the leaves were moving slightly. That is when I noticed that an enormous shadow was lurking behind the tree.

All the hairs on my neck and skin stood up as my heart and body were gripped with extreme panic. "W-who-who's there?" I mustered the courage to say the words, hoping that the shadow that I saw was just a figment of my imagination.

Suddenly, the shadow stepped into the light, and my eyes went wide with fear as I took a step backward.

"Oh, shiit!" I gasped in fear.

It's a giant beast!

No, a lion!

A giant dog!

No!

A werewolf!

Oh, my God! His terrifying fangs were protruding from his mouth, as if he had been hungry for a long time and was salivating at the sight of me as if I were a delectable meal.

His eyes looked menacingly at me as he slowly walked in my direction, and I finally mustered the courage to move my frozen feet and ran towards the staircase to save my dear life. The loud sounds of my feet running on the pavement are deafening, joining the loud beating of my heart.

A loud, guttural male voice came out of nowhere, chanting the same words over and over again.

"Mate!"

"Mate!"

"Mate!"

That was the last sound that I heard before I collapsed on the staircase. No, my body landed in the furry arms of the beast as darkness enveloped my senses. Before I lost consciousness, I could feel the beast's nose breathing on my face.

"Alpha, you can have her if you can heal her face." Granny Ursula spoke in a loud voice coming from the top of the staircase.

The wolf raised his head and looked at the old woman briefly, nodding his head. "Leave her to me! She's my mate!"

Granny Ursula watched the beast carry the unconscious Lauren in his arms back to his room. She turned around and left.

Expecting a miracle, Granny Ursula confidently walked away from the kitchen, not bothering to put the cabinet back in its original position to conceal the door to the forbidden basement.