The Wolf God’s Mate

Chapter Ten

Time- 10:37 PM

With a squeal, Amelia dashes excitedly towards the presents. She immediately sits on the thick fluffy rug which they were laid out on. Looking left and right while bouncing with anticipation, she is indecisive as to which one to start from. Should she start from the largest one or from the smallest one? That way she can start from the most promising… or should she choose the brightly packaged ones which look more interesting to open first… or maybe the dull looking ones first, that way her excitement can build as she moves on to more fascinating looking ones…or should she go by the shapes? 

Chuckling, Queen Josephine says in a warm, teasing tone, “Calm down, they won’t go anywhere”, referring to the wrapped presents, “Why don’t you start from the ones closest to you? I think that would be easier as well”, she convinces patiently.

Thinking it’s a good idea as well, Amelia snatches the gift closest to her which is about the size of a shoe box and tears open the brown wrapping paper; it is an oil paint set. Smiling widely, she is quite satisfied with this gift, apparently, the person had heard about her love for painting. Gently placing it to the side, Amelia reaches out and takes another one; this one is quite small, only about the size of her palm. Opening it up, she finds that it is a small black box and in it lays an exquisite diamond bracelet. 

Seeing that she was so engrossed the rest of her family smiles in delight and the King gestures towards Alexander to get the Jug of wine placed on the little table to the side. Alexander stands up and lifts the small table itself and places it in front of the couch his parents are sitting in. He then fills up five silver goblets with a rich red wine and hands it out. His parents each take a goblet, and the remaining three were for him, Adrian and Adam. After handing out the goblets to his brothers who are sitting on different chairs around the room, he takes his and sits back down in his seat. Amanda isn’t given any obviously because of her pregnancy and Amelia because she is too young.

They all take sips of their wine, and close their eyes in appreciation at the decadent taste of it. The wine is a special brew of the Royal family and the only drink that can make a Royal drunk. It was several times stronger than what was served during the feast earlier. Its recipe was also a secret known only to the Royal family. As Alexander sits down on his sofa, brings the goblet to his mouth and takes a sip, he feels a stare. He turns and that Amelia had at some point stopped opening her presents and was staring at him with narrowed eyes. Having a bad feeling, he stutters out, “Wh-what is it?”

She doesn’t say anything but just looks towards the goblet he was holding before looking him in the eye again. Understanding what she was trying to convey, he is filled with grievance and his face falls. It seemed Amelia wasn’t going to let him drink any. He knew the reason too. Her eyes were clearly saying “If I’m not allowed to have any, then you can’t either”, this was clearly a reenactment of what had happened downstairs during the feast.

Still Amelia says nothing. Just continues to look at him with those eyes, as though daring him to take one more sip. He looks from her to his goblet and his goblet back to her. Trying to make up his mind about whether the wine was worth the trouble that would follow from defying her. He looks at his goblet longingly once more, and reluctantly places back on the table, still tasting the sweet, mellow wine on his tongue.

The rest of the family had been looking at this scene of a younger sister bullying her older brother with amusement. And when they see Alexander drop the wine, they all burst out into loud raucous laughter. Evidently, among all the brothers, Alexander actually spoiled her the most. Apart from throwing a tantrum, there really was nothing Amelia could do to him but he couldn’t even bear the thought of her being unhappy. The youngest prince looks at the rest in annoyance but eventually just sighs. Thinking maybe he could sneak in a drink after Amelia had gone to bed.

“What about your own presents?” asks Amelia as she had been opening other people’s presents but had yet to receive her own family’s gifts.

“We’ll give them to you after you’re done opening those ones”, answers King Damien, still chuckling. “You better be quite with those, your Mageia activates at a quarter to twelve”, he reminds. “It’s already eleven now”.

Nodding her head, she speeds up opening her presents while thinking of what she thought about how a Royal got their Mageia. She was told that a Royal wolf would get their Mageia on their thirteenth birthday at the exact time that they were born. Since she had been born at exactly eleven forty-five, she would only get her ability at that exact minute. And her Papa had said it was eleven already, that meant she had just about forty-five minutes to go. She feels both nervous and excited.

Prince Aidan and King Damien gulp down several goblets of the wine. Even Queen Josephine has had an entire goblet already. The Queen would normally not have been able to drink the wine as normal wolves cannot bear its potency, but since she was mated to the King who was a Royal, her physique had naturally adapted to match his. Therefore, though she did not possess the extra abilities that a Royal was gifted with, her body had changed to be like his. It meant that she was immune to what he was and could live for as long as a Royal wolf. And so with the exception of the sulking Alexander who was not allowed any wine, everyone engages in lively conversation. Prince Adam who had on a gentle and polite smile on his face while warmly replying when spoken to progressively gets quieter by the second without anyone noticing. His hand holding the still full goblet which he has taken just a few sips from shakes a bit and he hastily uses the other hand to steady. He stealthily looks around to find that no one saw what had happened and lets out a quiet sigh of relief. He then drops the goblet to the side and stands up.

“Where are you going?” asks King Damien.

“I’m just going to get something from the kitchens”, he replies shiftily.

Frowning a bit, he says, “Why don’t you call one of the servants?” he enquires.

“No, that’s alright. It’s important I get it myself”, then looks towards Amelia who is occupied with opening her presents.

Interpreting it as Adam needed to get something for Amelia from the kitchens as part of her birthday present, King Adam assumes that Adam had ordered that her favorite treat be made and was going to go get it himself and promptly lets him go. 

Adam nods respectfully and turns around to step out of the room. As soon as his back is to them, the gentle expression melts from his face and a cold look flashes in his eyes and with a ruthless expression, he leaves.

As the wine was rarely brought out, and even when it was, only on very special occasions, as it dulled the senses a bit and thus, was quite dangerous. The Royals enjoyed it to their heart’s content believing that it was quite safe, after all, they were within the confines of their own home, the castle protected outside by hundreds of the best trained warriors and within the castle itself was a lot of Alphas, Betas and Warriors alike. They believed no one would dare attack them.

Unfortunately, it is this brief laxity which leads to their downfall.

Suddenly, amidst jokes and laughter, the Queen lets go of the goblet in her hand, newly filled to the brim with wine. It clatters on the ground, pouring the red wine onto the ground. Red wine soaks into the rug and some manage to splash onto Amelia’s presents. Conversation comes to a screeching halt and everyone turns to look at her. Queen Josephine makes to open her mouth but no sound comes out. She uses a hand to hold her forehead and sway in place.

“Josephine! What’s wrong?!” exclaims King Damien in panic. He hastily pulls her into his arms worriedly.

“I’m fine”, she answers weakly, “Just a bit dizzy…” and with that she slumps into a faint.

“Josephine! Josephine! Josephine! Answer me! What’s wrong Josephine!” the King shouts while shaking her.

Everyone one else stands up in worry and look at the fainted woman in worry. Suddenly, the King feels a bit woozy himself and sways a bit while Prince Adrian who had taken a step towards his mother directly stumbles on his feet and nearly falls before luckily using a hand on the arm of the sofa to support himself. 

“What’s happening?” he slurs out, seeing doubles.

The only ones unaffected are Amelia, Alexander and Amanda. They look at the other three in confusion and worry. Alexander directly calls out in a loud voice, “Someone! Come here quickly! Bring a healer!” however, all he is met with is silence. This is weird because there are always attendants and servants hanging around just in case any Royal calls upon them. 

“Is anyone out there?! Come quickly!” still they hear nothing and see no one. This silence greatly unsettles everyone in the room.

Though getting dizzier by the moment, the King quickly tries to analyze how such a thing could happen- not to one Royal, but to three. Thinking also of the exact ones that were affected and the ones that were not, he soon comes to a realization. Swinging his head to his goblet, he exclaims in horror, “The wine!” only those that drank the wine got dizzy, those that did not were completely fine.

Right at that moment burst in some shadows and one of them directly jumps towards Amanda and extends a claw towards her. In her freight, she screams and falls to the ground saving her from more serious injury and only her back gets scratched.

Seeing this, expressions of shock, anger, panic, and fear appear on the faces of the people present. Shock can be seen on all their faces, anger on King Damien, Prince Adrian and Prince Alexander while panic and fear appear on Amanda and Amelia’s faces.

More shadowed creatures move into the sitting room and surround the Royal family. King Damien shakes his head to clear it of the dizziness and tries to summon his fire Mageia but nothing happens. He is unable to tap into his ability. Thinking of his wolf, he tries to summon it forward so that the drug in his body would dissipate faster but again, he can’t seem to feel his wolf. It is as though he is cut off from him. He looks to the side and meets his sons’ eyes and sees the same grim look in their eyes. Only Prince Alexander is a bit better, he could at least still feel his wolf, but apparently, a sip of that wine was all it took to cut him off from his Mageia, so just like his father and brother, he couldn’t feel it either.

Right at that moment, the creatures attack. 

Countdown to Princess Amelia’s death: 1 hour 7 minutes