The forest was filled with all sorts of creatures and insects that humans could imagine. It lay deep inside the mountains and humans were wary of it so much so that they even avoided glancing in its direction.
They called it the Forbidden forest and no one in their right minds even came near the perimeter. The humans went about their business eating dinner and getting ready for sleep; oblivious to what went on inside the large canopy of the dense trees.
Deep inside the forest, the scent of blood hung thick in the air. The night had gone eerily quiet as the five creatures were standing in a loose circle. They were oddly shaped- a cross between an orc and a goblin with limbs sprouting from their bodies at odd angles. Their eyes were mere sockets, lidless and black orbs and a slit for a mouth with a set of crisscrossed pincers and a long nose to complete their look.
They were the hycwens, a blood-thirsty race of wild and untamed creatures that killed for sport and ate anything that moved.
They peered at the one figure in the center with curiosity as if they were kittens amused at the sight of a mouse.One of the hycwens leered, "I hope it isn't chewy. The last one took forever to cook."
The figure in the center smiled, the long cloak covering its entire body. It crouched on the soil, peering through its hood at a short distance.A pair of werewolves was busy silently transporting a bunch of cubs away from the large tree that had hid them from the hycwens' site. But they had to hurry- it wouldn't take them long to figure out what or rather who was under the hood.
The person in the center took one last look at the retreating figures of the werewolves and breathed a sigh of relief. It had been easy to distract the hycwens with a sudden appearance, yet the hycwens were a notorious breed known for their bloodlust, though they were a bit dim-witted.
20 feet above the ground, the hycwens' mouths continued to bicker, "Is it dead? I wanted to play with it a bit.."
The person whirled around and stood on their feet in one swift move, discarding the hood.
"So, who wants to play?"The voice seemed to disturb the hycwens and they all turned to the person now standing in front of them. They were shocked to see a young girl standing in front of them. She was athletic, well-built, and looked barely in her early twenties, though she was 200 years old. Her tall frame complimented her piercing blue eyes and dark brown hair that came free of its clasp when she threw the hood to the ground.
She smiled at them sweetly, "What are we waiting for? Introductions?"
"Oh, no. It's a small rabbit. I prefer a healthy lion, lots of meat", said one of the hycwen as the others stepped back at the sight of the woman standing in front of them. She lunged at one of them, twenty feet in the air, and kicked at its neck that crunched like a twig. The hycwen's eyes rounded in surprise as if he was shocked to die so suddenly before he collapsed into a heap on the ground in a sickening thud.
The others took one more step back and she sounded indignant, "A rabbit? It’s the Archon alpha and I won't repeat."
The hycwens only blinked at her and peered at the ground to get a better look. One of them squealed delightedly and pointed at the girl, "Looks fresh enough to eat. And, I'm starving."
A fine line appeared between the brows of the girl who tried to fake being unaffected by the insult.She pouted her lips and said, "But, I wanna play too" as she tugged at the sleeve of a hycwen before swinging herself upon its arm and saying, "Catch me".
The other hycwen thrashed his club in the open palm of the one holding her. The hycwen that got hit, howled in pain as it proceeded to kick its friend by swinging its foot but falling down when it lost balance. "Stupid creatures" muttered the girl as her fingers curled around the large blade that she retrieved from the pockets of the hycwen that held the club. She pierced the blade through its neck as the remaining two-eyed her with a mixture of fear and curiosity.
A voice rang out from the ground as the girl peered below, standing on the shoulder of the hycwen that was beginning to lose its balance, its arms flailing around its neck as if it had been stung by a poisonous bee.
A timid-looking boy ran to the ground and put his palms around his mouth to shout something. "What?" She asked in frustration. Her senses were sharp but she was busy scrunching her face to keep the putrid smell of the creatures from entering her nose. She gracefully jumped down from the hycwen's shoulder as it joined the other one in increasing the mass of the heap on the land.
She looked at the heap and then the boy, "Goodness, the stink is overpowering. You saw that?"
The boy cowered and didn't dare look at her while nodding furiously.She looked behind to see the remaining two hycwens running for their lives. She called out, "Hey, we aren't done yet" and then shrugged watching the boy stare at the ground below. She growled, "What is it?"
The boy stuttered, "Archon Alpha Valencia...we have rescued all the cubs."
"Great."She yawned lazily and dusted off her clothes as the boy didn't move an inch. She raised an eyebrow, "Are you waiting for me to congratulate you on your job, Sam?"Sam only shook his head more furiously and the girl felt it would come off of his shoulders. "Then what?"
The boy spoke hurriedly, "D...Alpha Dominic has requested your time for a meeting tonight" before running away.
The girl cursed under her breath. "Here we go again."
Valencia headed to her home, a cozy little den just near the edge of the Sricgis forest. She loved being alone in her house when she wasn't busy performing her job as the Archon Alpha. She was the alpha of all the alphas in Sricgis empire that spanned the entirety of the forest and a major chunk of the nearby human city of Grawd. She disliked humans, petty little things who had no fangs, no claws to protect themselves yet who would come charging in her lands occasionally to hunt animals with their sick weapons for the fun of it. One of such hunts had snatched away everything from her when she had been young. Her werewolf parents had been killed by the humans and she had been left to defend herself on her own. She had had two choices- to cry her eyes out and wait for someone to help her or to make herself strong enough that she would never need anyone. Obvious
Dominic had been pouring drinks in the glasses when the glass slipped from his hand. He grabbed tissues and attempted to keep the drink from damaging his pristine white shirt but the damage was done. He asked her, "Are you accusing me of trying to kill your pack?" as if one might ask how they found the weather to be.Valencia leaned forward, "I am only stating the obvious. Hycwen population is the highest near your territory and they rarely cross it."Dominic said resolutely, "I may be many things Val, but I will be the last person to hurt the ones you love."Valencia had meant to reprimand him for calling her Val but she saw the softness in his eyes and decided to let it go. She was the alpha of the alphas, but Dominic always made her feel or
Valencia laid in a cozy king-size bed sprawled across many layers of silken cushions and comforters. She had spent a lot of time tossing and turning in the bed and was tangled in the sheets. She pushed the curtains away and a small light of ray entered the room through the window just above her head. It was well past mid-day and she had been asleep for more than 24 hours. She groggily got up, her head in her hands, and groaned. It hurt to open her eyes but she glanced across the lavish room surrounded by exquisite furniture. A huge wardrobe was lined across a wall and a dressing table stood at the opposite wall. A coffee table with a lavish settee stood in the other corner. Soft yellow lights glowed in the wall brackets and a huge chandelier hung in the center of the ceiling. She didn’t have to guess where she was. She screamed, “Dominic!!”A
Dominic walked away from Valencia and settled on the settee. "So, let me get this straight. Your cousin gives birth to three cubs, your pack is attacked thrice in a span of fifteen days and you somehow lost control of your inner wolf."Valencia struggled to admit, "It was horrible...it was as if every nerve in my body wanted to kill Tom. I would have done it, had you not interfered."There was a soft knock on the door and a young boy appeared, "Is the Archon Alpha back to normal?"Dom turned around, "Yes, Freyge. You may come in."Freyge was the healer werewolf, an omega of the pack who tended to the werewolf’s health.
“What?”Dominic and Valencia asked in unison. It wasn’t that they hadn’t heard him, their ears were sensitive and would have picked up even the slightest whisper. They were just giving Freyge time to go back and change his sentence.The poor omega cowered under the gazes of two alphas and his hands shivered a little. He had already been lifted up and his feet had been dangling in the air not just minutes before. Freyge could still feel the grip of the archon alpha around his neck, her fingers digging in his skin.Subconsciously, he rubbed his neck with one hand while he tried to maintain the grip on the large tattered book that he had been holding because almost his hands had turning sweaty.In a trembling voice, he raised the book with a certain page open and showed it to both of them.“I request…please read through it.”Freyge said in a pleading voice and bent his head, his eyes anywhere but on th
Dominic wasn't pleased as was evident from the way he began tapping the floor with his feet. His shoes clicking softly against the floor in rhythmic flow..tap..tap..tap. "This is dangerous. I don't think you should attend the conclave." Veronica's head was beginning to hurt and that was not because of some stupid mage or ghost trying to get to her. The cause of her headache stood before her- a cold smile plastered on a handsome face- the kind of handsome that got to her bones- that and a wildly beating heart. Valencia blurted, "Why, so that you don't lose the one potential mate, that you don't actually have?" Dominic's eyes stared at her in shock. He opened his mouth to bark an angry retort. But, he instead replied in a steely voice, "Oh, now I am the villain here?" Valencia's temper was flaring and there wasn't anybody else near her to face the heat. More often than not, Dominic was on the receiving side. Tonight, it seemed no different. He s
Olivia sat on the couch of their small cozy home nestled amongst the dense shrubbery. She had recently given birth to three beautiful children who were her heart and life. She preferred to call them kids instead of cubs…they weren't untamed beasts but cute little souls who filled every corner of a room with light.She had been ecstatic about meeting her mate but nothing had matched the warmth that filled her whenever her children called her 'Mom' she had belonged to a smaller pack, one that lived away from the mainstream werewolves and preferred a quiet life.They had been a handful of werewolves who worked in the human city by the day and returned to Sricgis by the night. The pack didn't allow socializing with humans so she was left alone after her day job. She was also relatively shy to meet and explore werewolves from the other packs as she had been told the other packs weren't as civilized as hers.She had been hunting one night when a gro
The crickets chirped and the insects sang a chorus that filled the forest with a noise so loud that Valencia had an urge to burn the trees down. She wanted some peace for the moment. She and Gerald had returned from Dominic's place and he had rushed straight to his hideout.She hadn't had time to apologize for her behavior. She kept recalling the look of terror in Tom's eyes and scolded herself. To add more to her guilt, her head couldn't stop replaying her conversation with Dominic. The way he had asked her to be his 'mate'... it was almost...weird?What was it? Why was he acting so strange nowadays?She shuddered at the thought of being someone’s mate. The idea itself seemed absurd to her. Dominic was an excellent person who she was sure would prove to be an ideal mate and husband, but she wasn’t ready to go down that path so soon.After all, she had forever to live. For now, she was content living on her terms. To her, belonging to someone