.......................Author's POV .......................Kyros screams, his eyes wide as Driviar raises the knife to gut him open and remove his heart. But a loud bang on the front door causes Driviar’s arms to pause in the air, wondering who it could be since he’s not expecting any visitors. The people who normally show up unannounced are unconscious in the cave behind the house. He contemplates ignoring the person, but Kyros’s screams annoy him, as he now screams for the person who’s knocking to hear him. However, Driviar knows the person can’t hear him. No sound leaves the room they are in, and even if it did, only he can see the door as it is hidden to keep his son safe. He raises the knife again, but the banging is persistent, and he needs to focus. He only has one time to get it right, and he won’t be able to do that with someone banging on his door. He places the knife down while telling Kyros he’s wasting his energy, and no one will hear him. He puts on his wizard face
.......................Author's POV........................"What are you talking about?" Maia asks, looking at Charon in disbelief. 'Is this their plan? Is this what they have cooked up to try to get her to agree to the marriage? Fabricating some lie about her being a princess, are there no bounds to their vileness?' She thinks to herself. "You are not who you have been brought up to believe, Amairaa. You-""-Don't call me that! That is not my name, and you know it! Is this your fucking hope? That you were going to spin me some lie about being a princess, and I would suddenly see you as deserving of me and fall into your trap?""It's not a lie. It's the truth-""-No, it's not, and it's not going to work! Please, I love Kyros. Please, just let us go," she says, her voice breaking towards the end, but a gasp soon escapes her mouth as she finds herself pinned against the headboard."I told you not to ever say that name in my presence again," Charon growls in her face, frustrated by
..................................................................Warning: The following chapter contains elements of violence.................................................................................................Driviar’s Mansion..........................................Kyros...........My blurry vision struggles to make sense of the chaos before me for a moment, and I start struggling against the restraints again, but I stop as my vision clears. I see a massive black wolf tearing into the skeletal man, ripping it apart with ferocity. Growls and weak screams fill the room as blood splashes everywhere, and I flinch as the man’s guts land on top of me before the head smashes against the wall above me and rolls under the bed. I start struggling again as the wolf lets out a ferocious growl, still looking at the now-decimated body of what used to be Driviar’s creepy son. But my heart ceases in my chest as the massive wolf turns to me, its mouth dripping blood."Kade?" I
...........Kyros...........I arrive at Red Lake Palace wearing a flowing wizard robe that conceals my identity. I figured that since Dimitris worked with a wizard, I would have a better chance of getting into the palace if I were disguised as a wizard. I pull up the hood of my robe, casting shadows over my face as I approach the entrance guarded by two stern-looking guards."State your business," one of the guards demands, blocking my path. I stop but keep my head down. "I am here on urgent business from Driviar," I reply in a deep, authoritative voice, trying to intimidate the guard. "I must see the prince immediately," I add, but the guard crosses his arms, his expression unyielding.He claims that the prince has issued strict instructions not to let anyone—including Driviar's messengers—interfere. I know Charon said nothing about Driviar's messengers. I understand that the guard is trying to let me know that he's not going to let me in, but I can't have that. My wolf is restless
........................Author’s POV.........................The room is filled with a sense of foreboding as Stefania clutches her newborn son, her heart swelling with love for him even in the midst of everything that’s happening. She’s afraid that everything is crumbling before her eyes, and she has tried to stay calm, but the birthmark on the baby's thighs broke her last string when it was revealed that it looks like Evaki's.She is finished, and she knows it. She desperately wants to run, but Paris won’t let her go, and her father is not letting her in when she tries to mind-link him. Her mother told her to hold on, but she can’t. She just wants to go home, and they are taking longer to get here.Silent tears trail down her cheeks again, and she holds her baby close to her chest. But suddenly, a searing pain tears through her chest, as if a dagger is plunged into her heart. She gasps, and her arms involuntarily release her baby, who tumbles down onto the bed. The queen, who's e
..........Paris ..........Antonis's voice booms over the phone. His eyes are burning with urgency as he barks orders to the guards, telling them to close all exits and stop King Dimitris and Stefania from leaving. My father and I stand frozen in shock, listening to him."Antonis, what's going on?" Father demands again, walking up to him. "Why are you closing the airport? What madness is this?" Father grabs him by the shoulders, stilling him."He's a traitor. All this time, he's been planning to kill us all. He wants to become a Lycan," he says, shocking us and Father asks him what he's talking about."You are not making sense; what are you saying? Who told you this?" he asks, now cupping his face and Antonis says it's the maid's daughter, Stefania's adopted sister."How? When?" Father asks, and I ask if she was the one mind-linking him, since this is all happening after the mind-link. He says yes, confusing us even more. Father demands that he sit down, take a breath, and then tell
...............Stefania...............My heart races in my chest as the elder leads me to the room, and I look at my father, who's being escorted by the king to another room. He nods at something the king says, carefree with no worry in the world, while I'm dead inside. My mind is a whirlwind of anxiety, fear, and pain—the pain of losing my brother and mother. They never wanted any of this, and now they are dead. I only asked my father what killed Charon because I didn't need to ask what killed my mother. I already knew that losing her son killed her. He said he didn't know; he's waiting for the guards he sent to Red Lake to get back to him. But I knew he was lying to me. He knows because he said we can't let their deaths be in vain, which means my brother was killed doing his dirty bidding for this stupid plan that has now ended our family."This way," the elder softly says, gesturing for me to go down the stairs, and I can feel my palms growing sweaty as I clutch onto my skirts,
.......................Author’s POV .......................Dimtris is still standing by the window, his mind racing with thoughts of his elaborate plot to usurp Veseleios, when the room's door clicks open. He turns, quickly fixing his face as he does, ready to shower Veseleios with a fake compliment about something he saw in the fields, but his breath catches in his throat when his eyes lock with Maia's.He doesn’t even register the uncannily Evaki look-alike next to her until a second later. "Daughter," he mumbles, his body turning cold, the look on Maia’s face sending shivers down his spine as it screams his worst fears. He wasn't kind to her the last time he saw her, and he knows she killed Charon.He quickly composes himself while thinking of how to get out of this. Charon was supposed to mark her and tell her who she was. His eyes quickly trail down to her neck, and she doesn’t have a mark, which means he didn’t mark her, but what about the truth of who she is? He can see in he