HAERA
Just a peep.That's what I told myself when I slyly slipped away from the entourage of the Alpha king sent to pay our tribute respect to their selection of a new Alpha through the Duel.
My reason for slipping away was simple. I wanted to see the Duel. I'd blame Balfour for telling me more than I should know about the duel that peaked my interest right from when we set foot in the palace of the Alpha of the Imperial Pack but my own curiosity was what got the better of me. All through the ride to the Imperial pack-that's only a few miles from my pack-my mind went back and forth from the thought of the two sons who will be fighting for the Alpha position of their pack. My heart immediately went out to the unmarked child without even having an idea of who he was. But I could imagine what kind of pain he is or has been all his life. As much as I tried, I couldn't shrug the thought off my mind. If it was pity I felt, I wasn't sure. But whatever it was, stepping foot into the Alpha's palace of the imperial pack, didn't do anything to help. The presence of the crowd, the decorations and the budding excitement made me want to witness the whole thing. But I wasn't given the chance like I expected. We were directed to join the maids of the Imperial pack to help with the other things in the kitchen. As much as I loved cooking, my heart didn't agree with me to stay in the kitchen with the rest of the maids. And so I sneaked out while the maid in charge wasn't watching. Bold move. One my rebellious Wolf, Dezra gladly encouraged. "I don't know the reason for your curiosity Haera, but I feel restless about something.""You're always restless, Dezra."I had said to her just as I joined the crowd waiting for the Duel to start. With the huge number of people, it was easy for a girl dressed in a maid's attire. But I should have paid more attention to Dezra when she voiced her complaints about how she was feeling. I struggled to make my way through the crowd so I could get a better look. The bell for the third round already rang before I made it to the front. My ears listened for the previous happenings I had missed while making my way to the front. According to them, both princes had two wins each and the third one determines who wins or not. I looked forward to the men having a fight on the large clearing that served as a stage for the Duel. Both men were shirtless. With the same build and almost...almost the same look, it was hard for me to tell who from whom. The sheen of sweat glistened on their exposed skin as the sun hit it. The only thing I could tell apart was the energy that radiated off them. One had rage rolling off him in waves while the other was gentler...looked troubled but still gentle. As I watched them fight, I felt myself rooting for the gentle one without even realizing it. A punch to his lips caused it to burst and blood to splatter on his face. It was as if I was the one hit by the impact because of the way I screamed. But he recovered quickly. He had the other locked in a tight hold. I roared and cheered harder with the crowd at the prospect of him winning. And then...it all happened so fast that it seemed almost impossible. My nose picked up an unfamiliar scent. One that made Dezra growl hard. "MATE!!!"She growled. I looked at the men fighting in horror and it seemed one them was hit by the same wave that hit me too as his eyes switched between black and silver. His wolf and him. He looked frantically around as if in search if something...someone...me. This can't be happening...I told myself. As much as Dezra wanted to tear through the crowd and run toward the man whose scent came at me stronger than anything my nose as ever picked up, I panicked and began to back up with my heart racing. "What are you doing? Where are you going? We just found our mate!!!"Dezra's was yelling at me in my head. She fought to make me lose control and go running toward the man in front of me but I couldn't. I was in too much of a daze to do anything and so the only rational thing I could do was back up and run. And I did. The last thing I saw of my mate was him being sent flying to the ground. *****ZACHARY* My heart was every bit as numb as my busted lips. The one I wondered what's taking so much for it to heal up but then , I remembered that my wolf was brooding and prowling around in both anger, distress and pain. He was in no mood to heal me of any cut or bruise I got while fighting earlier today. I wasn't any better as I sat with on my bed. With unfocused eyes looking up at the ceiling. It was already late at night. The moon was achingly brighter and it's blue gleam spread all through the room and cast a shadow on every furniture. The room was serene as usual both the cause for the silence is what made the difference. The crowd had long dispersed after the Duel ended hours ago. The end of the duel left everyone shaken and in shock. I was distracted by the scent that whiffed past my nose; Tybalt took advantage of it and was able to get away from my hold and try to pull me down too. It happened so fast. One moment my eyes was searching around the crowd, the next, I was landing hard on the floor. The force of it made me shut my eyes tightly while Serge ravaged within me. I felt my control snap and switch as Serge threatened to take control. When I opened my eyes, I wasn't the only one on the floor. Tybalt was also splayed on the floor. The crowd went mad at how things turned as physicians moved to attend to the both of us. I don't know hoe Tybalt ended on the floor but what I do remember is the announcer calling our fight a tie since we both fell to the ground. But none of that mattered. They were the things I really wished I could continue remembering so I can forget what I saw amidst the crowd. The back of my mate. She turned her back away from me...and ran. I felt wounded than I already was. Tybalt's blows have got nothing on the pain that sight alone inflicted on me. There was only one way to interpret my mate's reaction;She didn't want me. My mate didn't want me. She didn't even have to get to know me for her to run away from me. No one wants me. Who would want an unmarked child as a mate anyway? It was nothing short of a curse. Serge was in extreme pain too. He was whimpering yet he still tried to pacify me. "Don't think like that Zach. It might not be what you...we think it is.""She ran away Serge...even she felt it. Even when she saw me even before I saw her...yet she ran away."The only thing I caught glimpse of asides her back was her long black hair that reached her waist and bounced as she ran through the crowd. That's all I remember my mate by. After all these years, she finally showed up. The moon goddess finally gave me a chance to have someone to call my own. Someone who wouldn't care about my status or my...inadequacies. But that someone ran away before I could even see her face."We can't conclude that yet...you know what...let's find her. I have her scent all around me already. I can catch whiff of it anywhere.""Serge..."I was too pained to do anything. "You won't sit here and do nothing like you've always done Zach! We're going to search for and find her!"His snarl left no room for argument. Begrudgingly, I stood up from the bed I was laid on and began to pull on my clothes. I didn't know where we were going to or how we are going to find her but I was close to losing the will to find my runaway mate. "I'm all done...now, where should we start from?" I said to Serge, putting the last of the buttons on my shirt, in place. "There's no need for that anymore."I frowned. "What??are you crazy, I--"I stopped halfway when that familiar scent hit my nose with the same force as during the duel but for some reason this was stronger...closer. "She's here."Serge's last words was followed by a curt and quiet knock on the door. I froze to the spot. She's really here. My mate.HAERAMATE!!!Maybe I had heard it wrong and Dezra was pulling pranks on me or I was imagining it, whatever the case may be that caused me to back away from the crowd before my mate could see me, I didn't stop running until I was far away from the place where the Alpha Duel took place.Until I was far away for the noise and loud cheering till it sounded like it came from a farther distance than it was really coming from. Until I was able to find a corner to hide in somewhere that's enclosed and away from the prying eyes of anyone. I didn't even know where I was,I didn't bother to check since I knew nowhere in the Imperial Pack but one thing I knew was that I wanted to be alone to be able to process my thoughts because...what the hell just happened?!I was still trying so hard to convince myself that I was dreaming. That I didn't just have the sudden urge to tear through the crowd and claim that man on the stage as mine because that's what he is.Mine. Unbelievably mine! I can't b
HAERA"His tower is the one on the left side and his room is at the last floor of the tower, the highest point. All you have to do is to find his guards or the beta. They will lead you to his room. The Alpha prince has a dining hall but he would rather stay and eat in his room. "You have to stay till he's done eating before you leave. Understood?" I understand all right. I understand that I've just been sent on an errand that feels like it would be the last one I would go on in my entire life. I understand that the other maids pushed me into being the one to deliver the Alpha Prince's dinner to him under the guise of punishment for running off to watch the Alpha's duel. They were all afraid of him. And I would have wondered why if I had not overheard a few of them talking not so quietly in the room assigned to us as I prepared to go to the Alpha's Tower to deliver his food. Their whispers of gossip didn't seem like much of a whisper to me. They intended for me to hear the horr
HAERA When Alan, the Alpha prince’s supposed beta, turned the door knob to open the door and light flooded into the room, I expected it to reveal a dark ominous room–possibly with crimson walls and shady paintings as well as a fun eerie lightning of a few candles by a big king-sized bed with a dark and big shadow seated atop the bed. It’s crazy, I know. My imagination has been running wild since I was ordered to go up to the tower to serve the Alpha prince his dinner. But the entirety of my imagination came to a halt and proofed out of my brain just as it settled in it before. I didn’t know I was barely breathing–that my lungs had totally thinned and void of enough air to help me breath well–until I saw what was in the room before me was nothing but a pantry and not the Alpha prince Zachary’s room and I released a loud breath of air that suddenly gushed out. As much as I tried to hide it from the tall and intimidating second in command to the Alpha prince, it was clear that I was sca
HAERAI got it all wrong. Typical me. I assumed things in my head by using the only thing I considered logical but it came right back to bite me in the butt. It was too late because I didn’t need anyone to tell me what just happened. I fell right into a trap no one set but that I didn’t see coming. Alpha prince Zachary is my mate. The cool and collected one who fought his brother who seemed like he carried all the rage in the world upon his shoulders and who I also assumed was the supposed crazy Alpha. The one who was rumored to be crazy. The unmarked child my heart went out for before I even saw him. The one I ran from because I was scared of rejection. And the one I thought I would never see again until I return to my pack. That was the plan. To stay far away from him or anything related to him and return to my pack like it never happened. But of course, nothing ever goes the way I plan or want. The only thing I wasn’t wrong about is the room. A different person than I thought might
Alpha prince Zachary was already standing up an arm lunged for me before I could take another step away from him and dragged me on my arm with it toward the bed almost making me lose my balance and dumping the tray of food to the floor. I clenched my eyes shut and muffled a scream. The hand already held me down to the soft bed The only thing holding body away from mine was the tray I gripped tightly in front of me. Don’t breathe too loud. But I was already breathing so fucking loud enough for my own ears to pick up. But I wasn’t the only one breathing that hard. The only thing that made it different was that other breath was hot on my face. Really hot. He wasn’t breathing. He was fuming. This cannot be good. The room was silent which obviously made it easy for me to be able to hear the harsh breathing of both myself and him as he held me back up against the wall. The close proximity was messing with my senses and it wasn’t even in a good way. Stay two feet away from him. But I was too
I don’t know what stopped me–it was hard to tell, but my bets are on the terrified look in her big brown eyes as she stared at me… somewhat pleadingly. The fear in her eyes was as clear as crystal. I hated it. And how it made me feel. And so I pulled back from tugging on the sash that I knew she purposefully used to hide her face from me. Why she did that didn’t matter at the moment. All that mattered was that my mate was seated right in front of me. Scaring her was the last thing I wanted and considering the way she’s acted towards me the moment she stepped into my room, I knew she must have heard the rumors. I didn’t want to go about, confirming those fears of hers and so I released her from my hold. She backed away immediately. I didn’t make any move to stop her. Rushing to her feet and going back to stand on the stupid red line that separates me from anyone who comes into my room. Her reaction would have hurt if I wasn’t still drowning in my thoughts of whether this was real or no
ZACHARYNormally, I don’t spend more than two minutes eating whatever food is brought to me–breakfast, Lunch, dinner–I just always want to end it as fast as I can so that the smell of a maid’s fear in my room could evaporate and I can be left alone again in the solace of my room. I never even finish eating no matter how tasty the food is. I get disgusted after the second spoon but still push a few more spoons into my mouth and then that’s it. Today, I didn’t know when I finished the entirety of my dinner served to me by mate. I never finish eating the hottest meals yet I shoved the cold one down my throat like it was the most delicious thing ever. I didn’t enjoy the food. No need to lie about that. It was already sour. Cheese and…is definitely not the kind of food you eat cold. What I truly enjoyed was the presence of my mate who was still kneeling dutifully in front of me. Her presence was what made me eat finish the entire sour food. It was the best excuse to have her stay longer be
ZACHARYLuna Hegna has never really being the smiling type. She wears a scowl wherever she goes and it only deepens when she’s looking at something she doesn’t like. Something that makes her blood boil so much that you can see the strained veins of her muscles on the exposed parts of her body. Like the way she has me pinned with a death glare as she stood by the opened door with her hands crossed. Her emerald eyes peeled over the room before landing on me. I was used to that kind of open scrutiny from her eyes. She’d look around my room as if looking out for deadly weapons that could kill her once she takes a step into my room. Sometimes she’d whisper incoherent words that sounds like a chant to ward off curses present in my room. She’s made it obvious a thousand more times that I wasn’t wanted here. And it’s been like that since the very first day I was brought to the Imperial pack by my father. The story is no longer one I need to recount again or even want to think about at all but