Elva’s POV
Pain. That was the first thing I made sense of and as I struggled to open my eyes, I tried to remember the numerous folklores that we have read on death. Was I supposed to feel pain when I lost my mortal body?
My eyes finally opened and made contact with plain white ceilings. I look around, at the room that was made of gold decorations and white paintings.
“The afterworld sure is beautiful,” I murmured and then tried to sit up.
“Princess! You are awake!” Two voices rang out from behind me. Startled, I turned to see two beautiful women standing behind me.
“Princess?” It was odd enough that I felt as human as ever in the afterworld. But I was now a princess?
“Yes, you are our Zedia’s Kingdom Lycan Princess” one of the two women said while the other one rushed out of the room.
“Where am I?” I struggled to ask, my hands rushing to hold my head as intense pain shot from my head to my spine.
Before she could reply, the door opened and a middle-aged woman rushed in.
“Oh! My darling!” She exclaimed and wrapped her arms around me tightly until I was struggling to breathe.
“Your Highness, the Princess seems to be in pain,” someone said and the woman released me. The moment I see her face that’s full of worry, I feel my mind go blank.
“What’s going on?” How can this woman in front of me look like me so much? Almost like we were carved from the same mold.
Her next words send my mind into another spiral, “My little darling, you can’t recognize mother even when I’m right in front of you?”
Mother? The conversation I had heard from the parents I had known all my life comes flashing back into my mind.
If they were not my real parents, was it possible that this woman in front of me was?
The thought of it made sense. My parents had died and now that I was dead, we get to reunite in the afterworld.
“Did you say she’s in pain? Where?” The woman’s voice broke through my thoughts as she ran her hands all over me.
“I think I must have hit my head while I was alive,” I told her, saving her from searching for any injury.
“When you were alive? You are still alive!”
“I’m still alive?” I turned to look at the two girls in the room. “Aren’t they angels?” I asked, looking between them at the woman that called herself my mother.
Also, if my mother wasn’t a ghost, how could she look like she wasn’t aging? She looked nothing like someone that was old enough to be my mother.
“You aren’t dead my darling daughter. Your father smelled your scent while passing by a city and saved you from the river.” She explained.
I pinched myself a little hard in between my thighs and had to use every bit of self-control in me to not scream out.
So I didn’t end up dying…
“Your father and I have searched the whole continent for you… at some point, we thought that we had lost you forever..” she trailed off while her eyes became teary and emotional.
“But now that we have finally found you, we would definitely make up for the time that we lost you.”
“How can you be so sure I’m your lost daughter?” I blurted while I also wondered how long I have been asleep. Was I saved immediately? Was this the same day?
In my last moments, I had no idea who to pray to. Surely, I wasn’t one of the moon goddess’s children but then, I had no idea who the humans served.
I had been so certain that I would end in the afterworld after jumping from the cliff.
But now I was some lost daughter of this woman here?
“Of course, you are our daughter! Only a Royal Lycan has the bloodline passed down. Your father smelled our bloodline and searched around till he found you.”
Royal bloodline? Before I could ask any more questions, she spoke up again.
“Also, we ran a DNA test here when you were unconscious and it came out positive.”
“You are indeed my Elva.” She added as tears fell from her eyes.
Elva? “How do you know my name?”
“I named you Elva. How can I not know your name? If you still have that name then it only means that the people that found you must have seen the jade necklace with your name.”
I nodded, a little numb from all the information I was getting. Somehow, after jumping from that cliff, I managed to survive. And now, I was the lost daughter of this woman in front of me.
And there had been some necklace that I had as a child too.
“Bring some water for the princess and get the physician,” the woman in front of me, whom I was somehow not ready to call my mother instructed the two girls and they rushed out of the room hurriedly to carry out her instructions.
She turned to me as soon as they were gone and in the softest voice I had ever heard said, “Elva, I know this might be hard for you to take in, but you have all the time in the world, my darling princess,”
“Also, until you feel comfortable enough to call me mother, you can call me Lydia.”
I nodded, my heart tugging with warmth from her words. I felt a sudden urge to wrap my arms around her. Like she was a safe haven.
But after everything that had happened before I jumped off the cliff, I was scared to allow myself to be happy.
Worried that I’ll let myself become happy and that all of this would be a lie.
Hurried footsteps sounded outside the room and the door was pushed open at the same moment.
“My little princess!” A man boomed loudly, his voice echoing in the room from its deep baritone. With his huge build, his speed was surprising as he arrived in front of me in seconds.
“Thank the fates that you are awake! You had father worried when I found you, almost dead in the river,”
Remembering that the woman beside me had just said something about how I had been saved by my father, it was safe to guess that this was the ‘father’
“You will scare her!” Lydia exclaimed and with her dainty body pulled him towards her.
“She just woke up, we have to let the Royal physician check to make sure that she’s fine,”
The man moved backward as he shot me an apologetic look.
“Your mother has cried to sleep for the past nineteen years, I got too excited about you finally being here,” his face turned a little red as he tried to explain himself and somehow, I found myself shaking my head hurriedly.
“You didn’t scare me. I’m just still finding it hard to understand why I would still be alive after jumping off a cliff and be here with my real parents,”
“You jumped off a cliff!?” Lydia asked, her eyes widening as they filled with tears at the same moment too.
I nod, looking at the pained expression on their faces. “Your Royal bloodline must have saved you, that has to be the reason why I was able to smell it from such a distance.” He said with a sigh.
“Royal bloodline?” This was the second time I was hearing it.
The man looked at Lydia who nodded before he sat down in the available space beside Lydia.
“As our daughter, you are the princess of Zedia and you have the royal bloodline of the Lycans flowing through you. This also means that you cannot be easily killed and would always be identified by your scent,”
“Lycans?” I had heard my father, John, and Jake talk about them sometime, but I have never liked to sit in conversations like that.
“Are you like a different type of werewolf?”
“No, we are superior to them.” Lydia said and her face had a look of disregard toward the werewolves.
“Your mother has some bias towards them. But yes, even though we both shift into wolf form, we retain our humanoid form more and are a lot stronger than them.”
“And I’m just like you?” I asked, my heart lurching with excitement at the thought that I wasn’t just a mere human weakling.
I was a Lycan! A Royal lycan!
“Yes, you are a lycan too, my darling princess,” Lydia said.
Tears rolled down my eyes as soon as she confirmed it.
Confirmed that I was a Lycan.
Elva’s POV “Elva? What’s the matter?” Lydia asked as she grabbed my hands in her warm hands. Her reaction only made me cry even harder as the genuine warmth swirling in her eyes made me sad at all the years I have missed with her. Thoughts of how much I have missed out on when I could have been with them made me want to cry even more but looking at their worried faces, I finally got my emotions under control. “I... I thought I was human and didn’t have any wolf in me..” I explained, partly expecting them to laugh at my silly excuse. But Lydia did the opposite. “Oh my darling! See what your incompetence has caused to our daughter!” Lydia said and punched her husband lightly before she turned to me. “Elva, we are different from werewolves. Your beast form only gets awakened when you reach eighteen and from then on, it takes another two years for the entire transformation process to finish,” “Two years?” After living with werewolves for the past nineteen years, I had grown accustom
Nolan’s POV I could not tell if it was hurt from the mate bond or the pain of not seeing Elva but I was far from okay. Worried was an understatement as I was even more worried something might be wrong with her. What if she was really dead? What if… No. I shook my head. I was not going to let such thoughts dominate my mind. I was not going to allow such thoughts to mess with my reasoning. I let out a sigh as I turned to her parents. “Be calm. We will find her” I answered. I was not sure if I was assuring them or myself, but I really hoped we would find her. “Of course, she is safe” John nodded. He seemed to be so much assured that she was fine. His wife on the other hand had become an emotional mess. Even though she had tried to not act scared or look worried, her emotions failed her and it was boldly written all over her face. I took a final glance at the cliff and turned to leave. I really wished she was not in there. “Take your wife home. I believe she needs to rest. I will fi
Elva’s POV The sudden change in time, a new development happening in just a short period of time, and it still all felt like a dream that I had to pinch myself severally to be sure it was not all a dream, and each time, I confirmed that it was not a dream. A ray of hope lit up my heart as I was assured I could really be happy again with no fear. My mind traveled to Nolan and even though I really missed him, I had to push the thoughts aside. He was the last person I wanted to think of. Somehow, I was grateful to him because if he had not rejected me, I would not have decided to jump off the cliff and I would definitely not have been found. Mother and Father had left together, holding themselves in each other’s hand as Mother had insisted she wanted to specially make the meal I would have first while Father had agreed to accompany her. I pushed the window open and basked in the comfort of the ray of the moon. It seemed like the moon goddess had finally smiled at me and decided to
ELVA’S POV “Go get her,” Father nodded to the guards who were stationed beside us as we ate. All of them made a U-turn and matched toward the throne door with immediate effect. No one dared waste a second before executing Father’s command. The huge metal door swung open and the guards matched out of the throne room. Not long after they had left, they came marching back into the throne room in twos, with a beautiful pink-haired girl behind them. About ten steps before the dining table the soldiers stopped and made a walking path between them for the pink-haired girl. She caught a loose tendril of her pink hair between two fingers and tucked it back behind her ear, igniting a warm smile on her face as she began to walk slowly, her hips swaying. I gently dropped my fork on the table as I watched her approach us in the most elegant manner. Her slender body behind that cherry red gown she wore, the fluid motion of her elegant catwalk, her light and graceful smile. Everything about her
ELVA'S POV The moment Selena sat down, Lucius came walking in through the door. "Princesses!" His vibrant youthful voice rang cheerfully as he bounced in. His demeanor was so different from what it normally was. Maybe he had an alter ego because as much as I could remember, he had always been a serious person, carrying his sword about looking for someone to train with. But today, having returned from training and taken his bathe, his spirit seemed different as he was dressed in a casual turtleneck shirt and had no armor anywhere on him. He noticed the surprised look on my face and smiled. "Are you surprised that I came out this fast?" He asked me. "Kinda... Yeah..." I stuttered cause it hadn't been up to six minutes since we met him returning from training. He came to a stop and cleared his throat, and I could sense he was about to boast of one thing or the other. Probably about how he does things as a MAN. "As a warrior," he began, putting his two arms on his waist, slightl
NOLAN’S POV“I, Nolan Feuggman, heir to the Alpha throne of the Nightfrost wolf pack, hereby swear before you, the great white wolf, that I did not take the life of my previous mate, Elva, or cause her to take her own life. If my words are false, may I lose my own life right here before you…”Sigh.“C’mon, Jack, this is the fourth we’ve been now still swearing. I didn’t kill Elva. I love her with my life and you all know that. Why would I kill her?”“Wait till we get home,” he said. His voice, though quiet, had an ominous quality.My heart exploded when I got home only to sleep and wake up to hear that Jack had been going around and throwing shades on my name. I had to confront him immediately when the news got to my ears.“Enough of this rubbish, Jack. How dare you?” I barged into his house and walked up to him just untying the lace of his shoes. It seemed he had just returned from somewhere. Probably somewhere he had gone to speak ill of me.“So much boldness for a murderer,” he rema
NOLAN’S POV Lydia left the room immediately after we were done. She looked so satisfied as she left before Mum could find out what we did. Although it was okay for us werewolves to marry our distant cousins, Lydia’s father was more like a brother to my father. He was younger than my father and they had grown up together until he decided to find his own world. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out how he had expected. But even when my father gave him open arms to return to the pack, he still stayed glued to his decision of finding his world. When evening came, I went to meet Father where he usually stayed watching the sun go down a sight at the outskirts. “Father,” I called him as I reached the top of the rocky hill where he was. “You knew I’d be here,” he said without turning back. It was like a ritual for him to watch the sun go down. He’d stay there until the moon came up before he returned home—his little quiet place. “Who doesn’t know that this is where to find you at dusk?”
ELVA’S POV A year had passed, but Father hadn’t let me leave the palace. He promised me that he’d reveal me to the kingdom on my birthday and it was going to be a big day. Throughout the previous year, the farthest place I could go was the palace gate and a garden behind the palace where Mother planted daisies and dandelions. The only person from outside the palace walls who had been able to get a glance of my face was the pack artist. He came every month to paint a picture of me for Mother. The first month of the new year had just ended, and our artist had come to do his job. “Elva! You’re still dressed in your casual wear!” Mum exclaimed when she saw me descending the magnificently decorated twirling stairs, painted white and gold on the rails, with a red carpet covering the stairs. “Is the artist here already?” I asked. “Yes,” A subtle voice came from under the stairs, where the artist’s chair was usually kept whenever he was done painting. But it wasn’t the artist creeping ou