"I will do what is needed to shift the minimal to wholesome." His words did not scare me—that was an understatement. Instead, they shivered me to the centre of my bones.
The day I was bent before Lucas, I had my breath held, ready for all the consequences and roughness that awaited me, but a part of me knew that he did not keep the power to hurt me.
But, this man, the King of the Chain Islands, the Kingdom, did possess the strength and advantage to shatter me.
I silently nodded, dying for him to leave me alone.
"Good night," his half-smile was monstrous. His son had died in the morning, and he was reading to make another in the night.
He left in a few moments, and I looked away. I had to think about how to handle him. He was not safe for my future.
Suddenly, I noticed the maid helping me with the bath, staring at the King leaving. She was not scared but rather hurt. Her face told me that there was a story to tell.
And I had plenty of time to hear it.
After finishing the bath, I slipped under the bear's skin comforters to feel at ease during the chilly nights.
As soon as I drowned deep into deep sleep, I landed on my regular nightmare land. It was pitch dark, and I could only see the large white and bright moon. Ever since I knew I was alive, all my dreams had moons.
The faded noise of screams, the howling, and the wolves had me captured. And, on top of it all, I stood naked before them, my hair open, my claws sharp, and my canines animalistic.
I woke up with a jerk and immediately looked at my fingers. There were no claws, and I was dressed. I wiped the fearful sweat beads off my forehead.
Someone was crying.
Stepping down from the bed, I carefully followed the breathy crying voice, not coming from very far away. Who could it be?
I wondered and tip-toed towards the door. As soon as I approached, the sound became more sensual and heated.
It brought goosebumps over my skin, and I gulped with the fear.
My fingers curled around the door's handle, and I slowly pulled it. Its screeching sound raced my heartbeats, and for a moment, I thought to abandon the plan.
But, a part of me was curious.
I slowly pulled the door open and slipped through it. The hallway was pitch dark, and only the light from the hanging fire torches helped me see.
I silently walked on the stoned floor, following the now-increasing moans. I wondered who the daring one in the gallery was who could let his dirty voice echo in it.
The noise grew louder, and suddenly, my breath stopped. My sight fell on a young, tall man whose face I could not see. His long sword hung in his belt. He had a woman bent forward before him. Her gown was up to her waist, her legs bare, wobbling before him, and his hips were thrusting into her at an insane speed.
I would be lying if I said I did not feel anything when I saw it. It was the first time I had witnessed it with my own eyes. I knew what it was and why, but it looked more thrilling than scary.
The woman was hanging against the wall, her fingers aching to hold on to anything, when suddenly his face turned towards me.
He did not flinch even a bit. Instead, his eyes sparkled, and he grabbed the woman's neck to make her look at me. She moaned louder and closed her eyes. Seeing her, I felt my knees weak.
Her dress made me feel that she was just an attendee.
I wanted to run away, but strangely, my feet stood frozen. He stared deeply into my eyes and suddenly grabbed the woman, turned her around, sit her on her knees before shoving his manhood into her mouth. His fingers went into her already messy hair as jerks himself off.
That felt intense.
The woman shifted on her feet, and he fixed his clothes. He signalled her to leave, and I saw him handing her a pouch. It must be coined for her decent service.
"I beg your pardon," he said. His voice was deep, manly, and dangerous. He stood taller than six and a half feet. As he walked closer to me, I had the chance to notice his broad shoulders and his finely carved curves, even if they were tied into the delicate leather.
"As you must for disturbing my quality sleep," I replied, crossing my arms and waiting for him to stop before me.
A chuckle from him echoed in the gallery, and he stood before me.
"Which woman gets quality sleep on the night her husband dies?" he asked, and I lowered my gaze. He knew more than I thought.
"Same as a man who dares to fuck amid the recent death of the next King in a Kingdom," I exclaimed, and he lifted his brow, smirking at me.
"A man could celebrate?" he asked, bringing a half smile to my face.
"For what?" I asked.
"For seeing his step-sibling die," he finished, and I scoffed.
"Interesting," I could not stop myself. "How many more are there?" I asked, wondering how to use it to my advantage.
"I haven't been to brothels or maid houses; otherwise, I would have known the exact figure, but currently, it's only three: a Demi-God and two humans," he said, and I smiled, extending my hand.
"I believe you would have refrained from touching the dirty liquids," I commented, and he sucked on his lips before shaking his hand with me.
"Lord Thalor Firewing," he introduced himself, and I nodded. Valkyre, which one are you, a Demi-God or a human?" I asked, and he pulled his hand back after the warm introduction.
"How do I look like? Not Godly enough?" he asked, and I chuckled a little.
"Well, your deeds made me doubt otherwise," I pulled a few of his strings, and he looked back for a moment. "It's high time you believe that first impression is not last impression,"
"Haha," I burst into a small laughter hearing him.
"Very well, widow Princess, I beg for your leave," he said, and I nodded before seeing him away from there.
Demi-God.
What the hell it was?
I did not ask because I did not want to sound foolish in front of him. And the way he talked of his brother, Lucas, he seemed to be on the enmity side of this Kingdom.
It took me a little time to go back to sleep, but I did.
The following two weeks were easy compared to the situation awaiting me. In the meantime, I had been to each corner of the Kingdom: the library, the gardens, the back doors, the top of the building, the bell, everything.
They were rich. Also, I met the other two bastard children of the King. They were daughters, the twins. Astra and Celestia. And, I had heard that they were not exactly human but children of a Witch.
I must say that the King was an attractive man. His taste was different, the dangerous woman.
Thalor and I did not meet after that. I tried to ask the maids about him, but they showed me scared faces.
Somewhere, I wanted to know more about him.
"Can I ask you a thing?" I asked, wondering if the maid knew about it. She lifted her gaze from my dress, which she was pressing the wrinkles, and nodded.
"Yes, Princess," she was Nika. She told me about her earlier. It had been thirteen years she had been here. She almost grew up here.
"What are Demi-Gods?" I asked, and she raised her eyes and looked into my eyes.
"They are different from us," she said, and I held her hand quickly.
"In what way?" I asked, and she lifted her eyes with fear to look into mine.
"Th... they are more dangerous than humans and have less powers than Gods. They are people who either summon evil, drink elixir, or get boons from the gods in exchange for making them happy. People say that all their cities and seventeen kingdoms existed five centuries ago. But, as they evolved more into the human world, their powers decreased, and only a few Demi-Gods Kingdoms survived. The most powerful ones. This is one of them," she finished, and my eyes widened with shock.
"The King is a Demi-God?" I asked, my voice breaking, and she nodded.
"What power does he hold?" I asked, and she gulped and leaned forward closer to me.
"He is called a Dragon," she muttered, and I thinned my brows in confusion.
"Dragon? Aren't they lost after the Gods disappeared?" I asked, and she shook her head.
"No, we have seen dragons here. But we have never seen the King becoming one," she added, and I grew even more confused.
"They shift into dragons?" I asked, wondering how it must be possible.
"Yes," she muttered, and I asked.
"Have you seen someone shifting in front of your eyes?" I asked further, and she lowered her gaze with fear before nodding.
"The Lord of battles. Thaler Firewing," The moment she finished, I felt goosebumps over my skin. I could not believe it. How could it be possible?
But then, I imagined the day when Lucas died. I was standing, and suddenly, a man turned into a wolf and attacked me.
He also shifted from a human to a wolf.
"So, are there Demi-Gods who can shift from human to wolf?" I asked, and she thinned her brows and looked at me.
"You watched it by yourself, no? When Prince Lucas died, he was attacked by a werewolf," she said, and I questioned.
"Werewolf?"
She gulped, and I looked at her shaking fingers.
"Yes, they exist, too. They shift from human to wolf. You should ask Princess Celestia. They know the best about everything." The moment she finished, the door of my chamber opened, and I saw the two young twin Princesses walking in.
"Is the baby confirmed now?" Astra asked, walking in, and Celestia spanked her buttcheek.
"It's still time," she said, and the knowledge they have, I could not believe that they were as young as fourteen.
"How are you both? My Princesses," I asked, looking at each of them, and they both smiled.
"Sister-in-law, we are waiting for the good news," Astra said, sitting on the couch. I smiled widely, faking it.
There was no chance I could get pregnant when Lucas could not even find the right place to dig into.
"A few things are in the hand of Gods," I reminded, sitting across from them.
"I am having a good feeling about something," Celestia said, and I knit my brows with confusion.
"Like what?" I asked.
"Give me your hand, and I will tell," she muttered, and I felt slightly afraid and terrified. She walked towards me, and I could not help but place my hand in hers.
As soon as I felt the warmth of her skin against mine, her face turned pale, and her eyes darkened. The eyeball changed from sapphire blue to the darkest black, and even the white part slowly turned black. I felt goosebumps in my body. It was scary.
"Marke... someone marked you. You killed him... Go... Goddess. Moon," she began to blabber, and I gulped silently. Zeph... Zephyr Aetherion, the God, awaits you. You win him. You lose him. Deaths. Blood. So much Blood. Dragons. Wolves. Goddess. Your scent. He can find you. But he is not. He wants to kill you. Children. Female wolves. Change. You bring the change," she immediately pulled her hand back and breathed heavily.
"What happened?" Astra walked to her and held her shoulders.
"What happened? What did you see?" she asked with fear, and Celestia looked at me.
"The ladder of dead bodies. No man can touch you against your will. Until there is love," she muttered, and I immediately sucked on my lips.
"Um, I loved your brother," I immediately said. I could not afford to be thrown out from here. If I went back, the wolves would hunt me again, and my parents would be in danger.
"You are a Goddess," she stated. "And, the packs of wolves are ready to hunt you down," she added. "Its a matter of few days,"
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Chapter 9 ~ Zephyr Aetherion
Valkyre POV
"You are a Goddess," she stated. "And the packs of wolves are ready to hunt you down," she added. "Its a matter of few days,"
My breath stopped for a moment at the word 'goddess'. "Goddess of what?" I asked, and she looked at me with disbelief.
"You don't know?" she asked, and I shook my head.
"How would I?" I asked in return, and she stared deeply into my eyes.
"What do you feel you are? Have you ever been to a forest or near people like you? Do they scare you or thrill you?" she asked, and I gulped nervously, wondering what she meant.
What were my people?
Why did I be in the forest to be near them?
"Wait a moment," I inhaled deeply, and my brows knit into a thin line before I asked, "Are you implying that I belong to those animals?"
She grew silent, and with each passing moment, she stayed shut until she chose to lower her gaze and reply. "It shall be you who finds it out. But have you never doubted yourself?" she asked, and I drowned deep in the ocean of questions about my reality.
Who was I, actually?
After Astra and Celestia left, I remained in my chamber, twisting and tossing in my bed, wondering what my next step should be. I wondered how I could get rid of the King, Lucas' father, and werewolves, too.
But what if I was one of them?
It was not possible.
How could it be?
I could not feel like them. Did I?
There was only one way to find out.
And, it was the history. I had to step into the library.
I stepped down before wasting any more moments, and an attendee joined me so I would not be left unchaperoned.
"You wait here for me," I asked her as I stepped into the old building. The lighting was dim, with only the dusk's slight brightness sneaking inside. My sandals clicked against the stone floor as I walked into the den, wondering who wrote these many books. I had never been much of a book fan.
The library was mainly round, with light chandeliers hanging from chairs thicker than me. Four long ladders reached the shelves' highest part, arranged in a circle against the wall. In the middle was a huge table.
It was wonderful.
But, I wondered where I could find the history of werewolves. I should have already begun.
And I did. I began studying the shelves and found them arranged topic-wise. There was politics, geology, and architecture; finally, I saw history. History of Gods, Demons, Demi-Gods, Dragons, history of what was before Gods, and at last, my sight fell on the history of werewolves. Hundreds of books were on it, and I wondered which to pick up.
The one near me was the Lycaon Appellation. I pulled it out and opened a random page. It was old, the pages were washed and yellow, and it smelled like wood.
I walked towards the table and hurriedly placed it before reading it. It was a random page.
But as soon as I began to read it, I felt goosebumps in my body. The handmade image of the Lycaon, the first werewolf, had intense eyes as if he were directly looking into mine. And their Goddess, the moon.
She was the one who accepted them when the world abandoned them. Since then, they have started praying for her. On each moon night, their powers heighten, and on each no-moon night, they feel incapable of fighting, so they hide.
They have special abilities, such as being able to smell the slightest of things, hear low noise, fight for long periods of time, and fear almost nothing.
A collection of werewolves are called packs. And, each pack has their leader which is called an Alpha. An Alpha is the best, the strongest, the biggest, intelligent and someone who leads the pack. The only threats to the Alphas are other Alphas, younger Alphas, their old age, and the outside world. Apart from Alphas, the one who keeps an eye on or handles the disputes among a few packs over a particular region is called the Alpha King, and the Alpha King, the oldest among them, is called the Alpha God.
There are two ways to bring a werewolf pup into the world: either mate with a female werewolf or with a human female, but the human pregnancy with the werewolves always kills them during the childbirth or before the birth. The female werewolves are free to mate with whomever they want, but they must mate with the Alpha, Beta, or Delta first as their deflowering.
After the Alphas come the Betas, the second in command, second strongest, largest, and most intelligent. The same types of ranking apply to Deltas.
It was the basic information I got about them reading a few pages, but suddenly I was curious about the history. Who was the first werewolf?
I turned back to the page one and began reading.
Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus, angered the god Zeus when he served him a meal made from the remains of a sacrificed boy. As punishment, the enraged Zeus turned Lycaon and his sons into wolves. Lycaon and his fifty sons were cursed with it, and Lycoan was called the cursed King.
But, when turned into the werewolf, he could only turn into his human form on the moon night. They were abandoned by the King of Gods, Zeus, and then made a pack of themselves.
With time, they managed to impress the Moon Goddess, who allowed them to shift into human or wolf form whenever they wanted, but this was nearly impossible under the no-moon light.
Since female werewolves could not mate with or birth their children, the Moon Goddess asked her son to give them three beautiful werewolves; each was a Goddess born into adulthood.
But, there were specific rules to follow.
Each night, only one would mate with the one girl. It would be the girls' choice whom they would mate with.
The eldest granddaughter of the Moon Goddess was the prettiest and gentlest of them. It was said that each night, he would only choose the youngest son of the Lycaon, Zephyr.
Seeing this, the other sons felt enraged, wondering when they would have the chance to mate with her. Their frustration reached a peak when the other two girls fell pregnant.
It was only going to be interesting. I did not know how long it had been since I had read it, so I glued myself to the chair.
After knowing this, Zephyr and the eldest Princess, Selene, ran away from there and waited for the whole moon night. When Zephyr shifted into his human form, they were legally married and had their names noted in the book of marital records.
They were deeply in love.
But, it did not even take the other sons a month to find them. It was said that the other sons of the Lycaon raped Selene one by one, together, right in front of Zephyr's eyes, while beating him almost to the death.
Selene died, and the Moon Goddess was angered. They have broken the rule.
So, as their punishment, she cursed all the werewolves always to fight each other long and never be satisfied with their lust. They would die longing for the love.
Seeing their sons fight over the mate, Lycoan was displeased with Zephyr for running away with Selene. He used his lifetimes of mystic power and cursed him with immortality and the pain of separation.
After that, Lycaon died, and Zephyr ran away. Historians say he spent centuries in isolation while he saw the world burning around him.
This was it. The book was finished.
But I wanted to read more and learn more about Zephyr and what happened next. If he had the curse of immortality, he must be alive.
How old would he be?
Oh, My God!
Celestia took a similar name. Yes, I remembered she told me about Zephyr.
Who the hell he was? And where was he?
I immediately ran to the shelf to find a book related to him. My eyes gazed at all the titles, one of which was the recent history of the werewolves.
As I thought and went through the pages, my sight fell on his name and a handmade image of him. He was sitting on an old throne made of black shining stone under the tree of black leaves. The image suggests that.
It was written that the tree had as many leaves as the days Zephyr spent on the land alive. It was said that the day his love died, the tree turned pitch black, and it grows even blacker when he remembers her the most.
The man's love story was tragic and unique. The girl would be pretty if his lover were still waiting for her.
The werewolves, who idolise him as his God after Lycoan and all these remaining sons died, follow him. They never touched more than one mate and are loyal to him. His pack is not big like others, but they are insanely powerful. All members are capable enough to be an Alpha but wish to live for harmony or kill when the time demands.
And the name of his pack is Aetherion. And he is famous as the Alpha God, Zephyr Aetherion, the immortal, the justice and the ascetic.
I immediately closed the book.
My heart beat wildly as soon as I recognised him from my nightmares—not the face, but the height, posture, body, black, and everything the book tells about his aura.
He was scary.
But what could be his motive for me if he was ascetic?
I inhaled deeply and opened the book again to read more about him. I just could not stop myself.
As soon as I continued reading, I found his motives.
He was to kill and see all the other werewolves suffer, who were the descendants of his brothers. Though he would never directly fight them inside, he wishes them to suffer from the scarcity of females, to die with the lust and never know what love means.
Love.
He desires for Love.
Still.
But, as much as he wishes them to die and suffer, as the God and Justice, he protects them from the outside threat. He never lost any war, even if he stands alone; his roar is audible to the other ends of the forests, oceans, and villages.
He stays discreetly with his pack and only comes out when required.
There was one thing that I understood after reading it all. And, as much as there was glory in it, the world was a hell for the female werewolves. They would be shared, raped, forced to give birth, and their life would mean only that.
And, if I were to keep the things happening with me since my birth or what Celestia told me, I could be a female werewolf.
And, it rightly connects to the point that all the wolves run towards me, not to harm me, but to attract me.
That means I was just another female werewolf to them, a scarce resource to keep their generations going.
I felt a tightness in my stomach, and suddenly, the door of the library opened, and I shivered to death. I could not find anyone here, let alone read in the library, which was like sneaking.
Thankfully, it was just Thalor, and he smiled.
"Hello, widow Princess," he greeted and approached me. I sat on the chair, pushing the book aside and saw him sitting across me.
"What are you doing?" he asked, enjoying an apple, and I smiled weakly.
"Nothing, I enjoy reading," I said, and he chuckled, almost choking on the apple.
"What?" I asked as he behaved seriously weirdly.
"Reading is the last thing you enjoy. You like riding, fencing, fighting, and everything rebellious," he said, and my mouth hung open.
"How do you know that?" I asked, and he smiled.
"I told you, I am a Demi-God," he said, and I half-smiled.
"Who shifts into a dragon," I said on his behalf, and he lowered his gaze.
"And I can know about a person by touching his hand," he finished, and I remembered the day we first met.
We shook hands.
"So, that's how you know which girl is interested in you?" I asked, referring to the woman he was fucking the other day.
"You are not interested," he stated, and I rolled my eyes.
"As you said, I am more into rebellious things; it's difficult for me to surrender to mere shivers," I said, and he smiled, nodding his head.
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