Aralyn's POV My story began with love between Malleteagan and Larissa, my parents, which somehow evolved into a never-ending hatred and Malleteagan’s desire for death. Mine death and that of my mother. It is a dark, misty night. Mid-autumn rain sticks on my dirty and torn clothes, mixing with mud, leaves, and branches we picked up while grazing through the forest. Brushes, stems, and trees cut through my clothes and expose my skin even more. My lungs burn from exhaustion, and sweat breaks out in big lumps. I am out of breath and have difficulty picking up the pace with my mother. If she weren't holding my hand, I would fall behind. I would fall directly into the merciless jaws of our predator, Malleteagan. My mother was outsmarting him for years by running away from him and from his desire for our blood. We have been running since the day I was born. No, strike that, since the day I was conceived, as my mother told me. He was always on our tails, despite my mother being a de
Aralyn’s POV While failing to learn from my past mistakes, I glanced back again quickly, and I saw my mother's shadows projected out of her body while my father was in his Lycan form. His Lycan looked like your worst nightmare, like the beast that came straight out of the ninth circle of the inferno. A bear-sized, massive, two-legged monster that looked like an enraged, sadistic, homicidal wolf on a hunt. His obsidian fur glistened blindingly in the hazy night as he shifted before my mother. If the reason for his shift weren't so daunting, just looking at the shine of his fur would make one mesmerised. The only light point on the deadly mass of charcoal black fur were his eyes, now radiating between neon grey and glacier white. The beast before us was truly magnificent and beautiful. Scrap that, nothing beautiful in here, I thought to myself next second when I saw his dragon-like fangs dripping foamy saliva, snarling and snapping towards mother rabidly. He looked monstrous, mur
Aralyn’s POV Suddenly, the forest was encased in dreadful, ominous silence. And then I felt it. My mother died. The only sound I could hear was my breath and his eerie footsteps as he quickly approached his next target - me. My breath, his footsteps and my faltering heartbeat, as my strength was ebbing again. I felt like I was on my deathbed, grasping for the last atoms of my being. Like a cadaver-to-be taking its last breath before demise. And then, out of nowhere, I felt my heartbeat again, rejuvenated somehow, but now it felt as if my heart was down to my heels. My heart was beating so loudly that it felt like the beat of my heart would burst my ears. And it increased every second of my desperate attempt to escape my executioner…my father. He wants me dead; that was clear as a day. That sudden surge of unknown energy crawled, slivered, and transferred into me as if giving me a new lifeline. And then it came. Darkness. A pitch-black pit that I started to fall into encompassed
Aralyn’s POV Oh fuck, forget what I said. I prefer to slowly die of starvation in the desert rather than have this beast disfigure me. That way, I would have at least a slim chance of survival. Even if I had a bit more energy to try to summon some of the mothers' power, there was no way that I could fight this Sasquatch, mammoth-sized, two-legged, wolf-like demon. Let alone the fact that I am a twelve-year-old girl on the run from the experienced, original, first Lycan king who went through centuries of training and battles. Well, Aralyn, make a death wish, say goodbye to the world, and pray that daddy dearest gives you a quick and at least somewhat painless death. I closed my eyes and expected squelching sounds, blood cracks, pain and death. I even pictured him dismembering my head from my neck with his fangs, ripping off my heart with his bare hands. Same as he did to my mum. The pain and demise were palpable. But that never happened. Instead, I heard a roar of fury in th
Where is Sentaya? She promised to cloak and protect me, and she did so for over five years. How did he find me? Did he already spot me? Shall I run? An unknown voice in my head reassured me that he could not see me because of the cloaking spell, but I was still scared shitless. My instinct told me to run. "He does not see you. Stay put. If you run, you will expose yourself with movement and your scent," the voice reassured me."Who to fuck are you?" I asked the voice."You will find out soon, when the time comes. For now, all you need to know is that you must stay put if you want to survive," the voice echoed in my mind. "Fuck, I hear voices. Am I ok, or have I gone mad?" I chuckled to myself. I glanced back to the army of carnivores. Their agenda is to find me and execute me. That much is clear. Fear rippled through my very essence and spread across my body like a plague."Are you fucking mad?! Even if they can’t see you because of the cloaking spell, they will feel your fear, so put
Aralyn's POV-Two months after the battle-"Marcellus Riggs, I hate you! Have you heard me, you motherfucker?! I hope you will live for eternity and watch everything you hold dear rot in Hell in slow and excruciating pain. You twisted piece of shit." I screamed at the top of my lungs while his face remained dreadfully expressionless.My memories drifted away back to the day of battle between Sentaya and Malleteagan and to the feeling of relief that rippled through me when Lycans were defeated, and they started to retreat.But…sense of urgency and horror replaced the relief momentarily when Hades' army started to surge into the battlefield. A whiff of massacred Lycans wafted to Hades himself. He wanted strong Lycan servants in his army, the ones of souls untouched and untainted by Sentaya and Denexus, so he could have them malleable and under his thumb with no leverage, nuisance or obstructions. And under the pecking order of Soovare underworld, Wengarthria, as the centre of hell, has
Aralyn POV-The day of the Oribus battle-***Trigger warning: scenes of physical and emotional abuse***"Where are you, little mouse? You can get out of your hole. The danger is gone."I trusted her, and that was a mistake.Well, blame me for being stupid. She warned me over five years ago that I shall trust no one. I came out and saw the absolute havoc in front of me. Hades' army came scything and harvesting everything on their way. They have picked up the corpses of fallen Lycans in front of the pissed-off Sentaya. She looked calm, but you could feel the scorching anger boiling behind lifeless pits that were her eerie eyes. I looked at the army and felt like my heartbeat had stopped entirely. I had heard stories about him when I eavesdropped on the chats between Sentaya and Denexus. Still, I never actually saw him until today. Hades' army was led by Marcellus Riggs. Rumour has it that he is Hades’ illegitimate son. He looked at me as if he saw through the cloaking spell that Senta
Aralyn’s POV ***Trigger Warning: scenes of physical violence and emotional abuse “Good morning, sunshine”, I heard a voice in close proximity before I felt water spill on me from a barrel. Silver shackles on my wrists and ankles were biting my skin viciously already. Water mixed with what smelled like wolfsbane made every inch of my tormented body sizzle and burn. The pain was unbearable. His minions laughed sinisterly. Then Marcellus came closer and grabbed my hair in a movement that felt like he was about to rip my scalp off. That tug forced me to lift my head and look straight into his face. And fuck, did he look good-that, crazy voice in my head again. What’s going on with me? I should have been mortified by the Satan that was holding my scalp in a gut-wrenching grip. Instead, I was looking at a few messy, stubborn, auburn locks which faded to a warm honey shade on their ends while they ran away from his neatly styled hair and formed almost a halo around his strong an
Elantra’s POV Malie nagged me to visit the battlefield for days, telling me she had found her mate. It was useless to remind her that we Mortereys have little to no chance of finding a mate. I have told her that she is delusional, but when she wants something, there is no way to set her mind off that. And now she had one goal - to visit Macabantrah and test the mate theory out, and for some reason, she is adamant that she want to go there with me. I don’t know what this all was really about: did she want to test the waters of mate bond? Did she want to convince me or herself that this is possible and that maybe she really found a mate? Whatever the reason, I could see that she was consumed and perhaps even excited with the idea. I mean, who could blame her; we spent eternity doing our “job” as dark celestials, daughters of rulers of Hell and Wengarthrian royals. I don’t blame her for wanting some sense of normalcy and to break this millennia old cycle of loneliness. But I als
Kandreah’s POV When I saw Hades’s twin daughters together, I finally understood what people think when they say they can’t see the difference between me and my brother. These two look like doppelgängers! They were as alike as two peas in a pod, and both looked exactly like the woman my warriors described to be seen during the Sanguineabbys and Konneyard battles. Both had ash blond hair smeared with subtle shimmers of lilac - as if they spent all day rolling and rubbing in the field of lavender in full bloom to achieve this hue in their hair. They had those same daunting eyes: one lilac eye like Noosha and one cobalt blue like Hades. Both were as slender as a whippet and had faces that could launch a thousand ships, but their aura stank worse than a fish market on a scorching summer's day. They radiated wickedness, danger, and spite like a pair of black cats crossing your path under a ladder, setting my skin crawling like someone tossed a bucket of spiders on me. To te
Kandreah’s POV While standing helplessly in front of the Macabantran gates, I went through all the stages of grief in the blink of an eye. I went through denial when I managed to work through my pain and drag myself while being pain-stricken with Thersar’s torment in front of the Macabantran gate. I was appalled with horror in front of my eyes. As Thersar’s demise-ridden pain wrecked through every nerve of my body, I watched his last moments with disbelief. Just when I thought that this was the final blow, which would be my undoing, the closeness of my soldiers who died in the battle started to shatter my body inside out, gnawing at my mind and soul. The death of every single soldier in my army was a new blow to my already broken body and heart. After initial shock, denial and disbelief, uncontrollable rage erupted from me. I screamed and tried many ways to break in and barge into the castle, but nothing worked. Even what it meant to be an attention-seeking roar of rage came
Kandreah’s POV We were passing through this infamous shortcut, which was more like a sewage-like labyrinth if you ask me, when I bent over and stumbled with an unwilling groan before I fell on my knees and stubbed my hands into the dirt and mud of Wengarthria. I felt so weak and dizzy, as if I was just seconds away from collapsing. The high-pitched, blaring sound grated through my ears, threatening to split my head in half. It reminded me of the ringing of life-supporting machines when someone dies, but as if someone put amplifiers on them. Beads of sweat protruded along with searing pain, the ache like no other which surged through me, piercing and rippling through my body. Every drop of blood in my body felt like it was scorching, sizzling, and as if it was about to combust in flames before turning to ashes. The agony was unbearable. It felt like I was dying. Only once before, I felt the pain like this, when I lost my soulmate. Regardless of the severed bond between
Erzelus’s POV But it looked like someone in the background had greater control over the forsaken Lycans than I did because drums rattled again in the next moment, along with a command rumbling to forsaken Lycans to attack. It overpowered and overrode the natural inclination of forsaken Lycans to submit to their Alpha. I am not their Alpha anymore. They do not answer to me anymore. They are not part of our pack anymore, and if there was even a smidgen of doubt in their logic, reasoning and where their loyalty now lies, it all became clear when they started attacking Lycan troops. My Lycans were over-excited with my comeback, and this idling is not something we can afford. This can cost us battles and lives; we have no time for this. Because, on the other side of the castle, dwarves, Fae, and witches were still in the ruckus of the battle against Wengarthrians. I stepped in while handholding Lev and roared: “Drop the fucking formalities! Lycans, regroup! Flank the Allies! Shield the
Erzelus’s POV The interior of the encampment was a vast, oval-shaped, dark and massive hall the size of a coliseum. Instead of walls, the encampment was enclosed with grand window-like structures, which seemed impenetrable. These window-like walls didn’t allow even a figment of light to protrude. Each window was adorned with vile and despicable frescoes depicting the destruction, apocalyptic violence and scenes from the underworld. In every corner of this eerie city-sized castle, there seemed to be an attempt at creating a macabre amphitheatre. It was as if a disturbed and malevolent architect had deliberately sought to challenge, mock, distort, and contrast every conventional thought, philosophy, aesthetic, and norms in rational thought, art, architecture, and culture, transforming them into something dark, ominous, and bizarre. This colossal castle seemed like an erratic response of a sinister rebel in architecture, a hub for defying the traditional building. Every corn
Erzelus’s POV Mark's contorted body serves as a testament to his tragic death and grim fate, symbolising just one of too many lives that have been and will continue to be lost in this relentless battle. The weight of lives lost became heavier as I scanned through limbless, scavenged, deformed and mutilated remnants of warriors from both sides, which hung from the ceilings. The cadavers blanketed the grotesque frescoes and icons of the Macabantran encampment. Bodies were strewn everywhere, suspended from ceilings and windows, littering the ground— that is the grave extent of casualties that this battle yielded. And many more are to yet die before the battle finishes. The windows were sprayed with blood and innards of diverse creatures who lost their lives, looking like someone had a paintball battle with leftovers of burnt shepherd pie. Corpses and bodies of soldiers from every walk of life were flailing across the Macabantran fort; mush and gore were everywhere, littering th
Erzelus’s POV The racketing pounds of the gatekeeper demon’s drums became faster with each second. When we finally stepped into the gloom and darkness of the main encampment of Macabantran fortress, the grounds were soaked with a soggy mush of supernatural innards and well stocked with their scattered corpses. Bones of cadavers were cracking as we crushed them on our way. Their flesh was squelching and producing squealing sounds under our feet as we trampled over them. A chaotic blend of whooshing sounds of magic, which was bursting from Wengarthrian mages, clashed with the magic of our witches and mixed with clanks of weapons, and rumbling thuds of fistfights, death rattles, and last exhales of those warriors who were losing the battle. Manic cackles of Wengarthrians who were attacking and fighting from every corner were adding to the clamour and havoc of this place. Macabantrans drubbed our warriors because they failed to see Macabantrans's fighting tactics. Macabantrans
Erzelus’s POV We crept and crawled like sodding spiders through these long-forgotten, dusty, stinky, dirty passageways. The stench of dampness and decay was making my eyes bleed. Being a big bad wolf and a burly bloke trying to squeeze myself into these was a job and a half and now even a greater slog as I am holding this little scrawny child in my arms, trying to lug around with him. Initially muffled and distant, echoes of soldiers defeated in the battle of the main Macabantran Fort grew louder as we funnelled and snaked our way through narrow passages which led from dungeons to the main encampment. Sounds of destruction and the desperate battle between the two armies became more intense and louder as we neared the encampment. It almost felt like the noise and ruckus were palpable. The strange creatures, which reminded me of some demonic, infernal rat mutation, lurked from every corner and occasionally scurried past us as we were breaking through. We'd bump into them every now