Chapter 3

Arabella's point of view

"Daphne, what are you doing here so early?" I asked, stopping on my tracks when I saw Daphne sitting at the dinning table.

"Good morning to you too, as you can see I'm eating breakfast" she answered, nodding at her plate of steaks.

I snorted and dragged my feet lazily towards the fridge, I reached for a yogurt before turning back to the dinning table.

"Why did you come here to eat breakfast after ditching me yesterday?" I was referring to the detention and I know she understood what I meant.

Daphne grinned widely.

"I'm sorry about that, but I really had to look after my grandma because my mom wasn't around and my dad had to attend the pack meeting" she explained.

"Hm" I hummed.

"Anyways, how was the detention?" she asked.

Arthur choked on his food at the mention of detention, he started coughing and I quickly reached for his glass of water and handed it to him, rubbing his back gently too.

He took a few gulps and slammed the glass on the table, then gave me a mocking look.

"Detention? Really? What are you? A high school student?" he asked, not even trying to hide his mockery.

"Ha-ha, very funny"

He held his chin up slightly as if he's trying to recall something, then he hissed and shook his head.

"I'm a high school student and I can't even recall the last time I was in detention" he smiled, giving me a thumbs up. "You impress me everyday, sister Ara" he mocked me further.

I leaned across the table and gave his shoulder a punch when I couldn't take his mockery anymore, he frowned.

"How dare you hit the alpha's son?" he asked.

"Alpha's son?" Daphne faced me, furrowing her eyebrows questioningly.

"Don't listen to him, he's just daydreaming" I told her and she laughed.

Arthur banged on the table lightly and faced Daphne.

"I'm not daydreaming, Alpha Jarek has a crush on my mom" he said.

I wanted to scold him, but my mom beat me to it.

Mom dropped the bowl of cereal she was carrying and pulled Arthur's right ear, he grunt in pain and tried to escape from mom's grip which is obviously impossible -my mom is strangely stronger than most wolves.

Maybe it's because she's from the gamma's family.

"What nonsense are you spouting, young man?" Mom asked, still pulling his ear.

"I.. I was just joking" Arthur tried to defend himself.

"Joking with something as serious as that?" Mom asked as she pulled harder, making Arthur howled in pain.

"Yes, yes, yes..."

"What?" Mom cut him off warningly.

Arthur quickly realized his mistake and shook his head desperately.

"I mean, no, no, I'm a fool, I'm a very foolish boy and I shouldn't have said that... Mom, I'm sorry" he blabbed.

Mom finally let go of his ear, she pulled out a chair and sat next to me.

"Mom, you almost cut off my ear" Arthur grumbled as he rub his ear to numb the pain.

"You're lucky I didn't cut it off, you mustn't spread rumors next time" mom warned him.

Daphne and I were just staring at Arthur in amusement, from the sly smirk on her face, I can tell she's deriving great pleasure from Arthur's pain as much as I was -call us witches, we don't care.

Having Arthur as a brother is the worst curse in my life, he's such a pain in my neck and he never stops getting on my nerves -he's so annoying but I love him so much -weird.

"You were already asleep when I came back from the pack meeting last night, how was your night?" Mom asked me.

"It was... ok"

My night would have been ok if I had managed to see that guy's face, it's a pity I didn't see it -all thanks to Arthur.

He stuck out his tongue at me when he caught me glaring at him, I gripped my fork tighter and sent him a quick mind-link.

*Stick your tongue out at me one more time and I swear I'll cut it off*

He quickly withdrew his tongue, but huffed at me before focusing on his food.

"I bumped into Mr Clovis at the pack-house, he told me you've been dozing off in his class recently, is that true?"

I sighed.

"Yeah" I answered.

Mom raised an eyebrow at me.

"B-but it's not everytime, I only dozed off yesterday because I didn't get enough sleep the previous night" I quickly lied smoothly.

I can't possibly tell my mom I slept in class simply, because I found Mr Clovis' class boring -they're siblings after all.

"I know you're lying but I'll just let it slide this time..."

Of course, you know -I grumbled mentally.

"... don't let me get another complain about you slacking off, you know what's going to happen to you then" she said icily.

My mind flashed back to the last time my mom punished me, I was bedridden and had to spend two months in the pack infirmary, I even took some of my exams there -bad shivers rushed down my spine and I shuddered.

"I swear, it's never gonna happen again"

"Good" mom nodded in satisfaction.

Daphne nudged me gently and I leaned closer to her.

"Why do I feel like your mom was once a sniper?" she asked me in a whisper.

I glanced at mom, sighed in frustration and shook my head.

"I feel that way too, who knows she might not even be my biological mom" I whispered back.

Mom cleared her throat.

"I can hear you, young ladies" she said.

Daphne and I coughed lightly and adjusted ourselves on our chairs, pretending like we weren't just gossiping about my mom.

"Right, how was the meeting?" I asked.

"Hmm, it's about the selection parade, it's been brought forward"

"What?!" Daphne and I exclaimed at once, making Arthur jump slightly and spilling his milk.

He glared at us through his eyelashes.

"Can you ladies have mercy on this little pup? Don't you know I need this milk to grow healthy and strong?" he pointed at himself, but we ignored him.

"Mrs Humphrey, why was it brought forward?" Daphne asked.

Mom shook her head.

"We weren't told why it was brought forward, Alpha Jarek said it was the king's decision"

The King? Ugh, then I guess it's final say -no one can oppose it.

"When is it now?" I asked.

"In two days" Mom answered.

"In two days? Isn't that next tomorrow?" I asked and mom nodded in reply.

Daphne and i exchanged looks, I believe we both have the same thoughts running through our minds right now.

Why was it suddenly brought forward? And here I was hoping the day would never come.

"Hurry up, kids, you're running late" mom urged us.

★★★★★

LEGENDS CREATION COLLEGE, BEVERLY HILLS.

Daphne and I breathe heavily as we stopped right in front of our school gate, we missed the bus and had to race here -without our wolves strength.

"I didn't know I'm good runner, I always thought my wolf has been one helping me everytime we race" she said.

I nodded.

"Yeah, I'll never race with you again without my wolf's strength" I told her. "I had to use up all my strength just to keep up with you" I complained.

Daphne laughed at my misery.

"Quit whining, your wolf is stronger than mine, so I think it's fair that I'm a better runner without our wolf's strength"

I narrowed my eyes.

"Are you saying I'm lazy?" I gritted out.

"Of course, everyone knows that" she answered.

I glared at her but didn't say anything, because she's right. My wolf is very strong, but my human (which is me) is very lazy.

Daphne threw her arm around my shoulder and we started walking inside.

"Hey, another body was found in the wizardry forest last night" Daphne whispered very lowly in my ear and I tensed.

"Another body?" I asked.

The image of that handsome stranger appeared on my mind, could it be he was killed by the beast King? Could it be that handsome face and godly body has gone to waste?

I shook my head in denial.

"You gotta stop with all these gossips, I walked the wizardry forest last night and I didn't see any beastly creature" I told her.

Her eyes grew wide, her mouth parted as though she's about to release a shriek, but she stopped herself when she took in our surrounding -a group of girls were walking behind us, at a safe distance though.

"You passed the wizardry forest last night?" I nodded. "What were you thinking? Were you trying to get yourself killed?" she asked in a scolding tone.

"Relax, there wasn't any danger when I passed it"

She inhaled deeply.

"Well, maybe the danger came right after you left, you're lucky -who knows if that body would have been yours"

I shrugged.

"Yeah, but the body is not mine" I stated. "You better use your time for something meaningful instead of listening to gossip news"

She grabbed my shoulder and made me stand still.

"It's not gossip, according to the news it's the body of a vampire"

I laughed at her, shrugged her hand off me and continued walking.

"Now you're sounding ridiculous, what would the body of a vampire be doing in our wizardry forest?"

"You don't believe me?" Daphne asked.

"Of course, I don't" I answered.

"But you believed me yesterday, in fact, you've been believing the beast King has been the one behind all the killings" she wondered aloud.

"Yeah, that was before I passed the wizardry forest last night -I don't think it's true that a body was found there"

Actually I believe everything she said, because I heard heavy footsteps approaching us (the handsome stranger and I) last night, before I took off.

I was just finding it hard to accept that, the handsome stranger was wasted just like that.

I hope the handsome stranger managed to escape before the beast King arrive, I don't want that body they found to be his.

"I'm kinda baffled by something, though" she said.

"What?" I asked.

"The beast king's palace is built on neutral lands, which is pretty far from our wizardry forest -but why does he always dumps the bodies in our wizardry forest after killing them?"

"I don't know, maybe you should ask him when we visit his palace"

She pushed me away from her and threw me a glare, I simply laughed at her expression.

"I hate you" she said.

"I love you too, baby" I replied and blew her a kiss, but she dodged it.

"Don't talk to me" she ran off and I quickly chased after her.

★★★★★

Third person's point of view.

WIZARDRY FOREST.

It was still daytime, but it's very dark inside the wizardry forest and a mere human wouldn't find his or her way inside.

The whole forest seem dead, the trees are all dead as their leaves has withered, even the birds singing echoed throughout the forest as if they're ghost birds -and they kept flying from one tree to another as though they're being chased by a force.

No one in their right senses would step foot in the forest, it's just so lifeless.

He stood in a very dark corner, his dark and emotionless eyes were fixed on the royal investigators who were busy moving a dead body -his fists were balled by his sides.

"Your majesty"

His adviser called him from behind as he (the adviser) jogged towards him.

He didn't reply or even turn to face his adviser, but his adviser continued anyway -it's pretty obvious he was listening.

"Your majesty, it's done, the date has been brought forward"

"Hm" he hummed.

"But I have a question though"

The adviser paused and waited for his response, which he knew he's not gonna get.

"It's way past sunset when you crossed paths, are you really sure it's her?"

His shoulders tensed when he heard his adviser's words, but he still didn't utter any words.

"You can't perceive your mate's scent or feel the mate-bond once it's sunset, we can't be sure it's her -right?"

Still no response from him.

"Likewise your mate, she won't feel you or perceive you, so I think we shouldn't jump into conclusions yet and raise our hopes up"

He finally moved his eyes away from the royal investigators, he faced his adviser -that darkness didn't leave his eyes though.

"We'll see" was his reply.