Heart of Glass

Welcome Home

Henry’s POV

As soon as El was done with her phone call, we took all the belongings and headed towards our ride. The driver quickly saluted me and took the baggage to place it inside the car while we quickly got into the car. Cole held the door open for us, shutting it after, and climbed into the passenger seat.  We were going home, I thought. With that a smile crept on my face. Not that I was very keen on going back, as I always felt something empty in the castle. But today, I’m actually looking forward, because I’m taking El with me. Our castle was a few hours journey from where El lived. One might be wondering then what was I doing there in that quaint town or city as everyone called, well it was a city but very small. Chance or Fate as I would call it, I was looking into expanding my business of hotels that our family owned and I heard that from my assistant Katherine, who manages my chain of Hotels in my lieu, that the city was good scope and it was fast developing. I don’t know what went in my mind at that time, but I wanted to go to this city myself. Now that I think, it was definitely my fate and luck, that brought me down here.

We reached the airport on the city’s outskirts and our private jet was waiting for us on the runway. Cole quickly got out and helped us board the flight. The flight attendants quickly notified the safety measures and we were soon in the air.

“El, it’s a four hour flight towards our destination. Why don’t you take a nap?”  I asked.

“No uncle. I’m not that tired. Can you please tell me where we’re going and what I might do there once we land?”

I liked this girl already. She is not the one who sits on the sidelines to watch while everyone does the work.

“Well, for a few days, you’ll be accompanying me to my office, meetings and other stuffs. But in the morning you will be going to the training grounds, where our warriors train. I have assigned Cole and Nicola to train you. Also, you’ll be assigned two maids Megan and Sylvia, or if you wish, you can move them to the rank of ladies-in-waiting. But wait before you do that, they need to acquire  your trust.”

She smiled politely and asked, “What about Vicky?”

“She too will join you in training in the mornings. She’ll be the Beta Female. So she would have other tasks with Cole.”

“I thought your Beta would be an aged person, uncle.”

“Well, Cole’s father died few years back, as well as his mate in a rogue attack. They were ou best warriors too. One of our neighboring packs asked for our help with the rogue situation. After that Cole was made Beta, he’ll be your Beta now, once you take over. ”

“Also, dear, once you reach our castle,”

“Castle??” she almost shrieked, and I had to cover my ears. Everyone jolted right out of their sleep with it. Cole was instantly besides me, thinking something happened. When they recognized what happened, everyone started laughing. She blushed and quickly said sorry.

“Yes dear. Castle. And not so loud please, sensitive ears.” I was rubbing over my ears.

“I’ll tell you what to do next, when we land dear. It’s only another half an hour and we’ll be home.”

With that, we all went back to our thoughts. I looked at El, and I could sense anxiety and nervousness rolling off of her.

“El, everything’s going to be alright.”  

She was turning nineteen soon and I wonder, what her wolf looks like. All royal wolves have pure white fur with Royal blue eyes. El’s eyes were naturally Royal Blue. Now that I started noticing, she has a very long brownish black hair, and other facial features just like her mother. If you don’t look closely, everyone would mistake her for her mother immediately.

We soon landed in the outskirts of the forest in the early morning next day, where the pack owned it’s own hangar. From there, the drive was short. Once we reached the castle, El’s mouth was hanging to the floor. I chuckled at her reaction and closed her mouth. She regained her posture and whispered slowly, “this is truly magnificent view.”

Right then, Meg and Sylvia, burst out the doors, running towards us. They bowed to me.

“Hello Alpha, Good Morning. We came here as soon as possible when Cole said you have some important task for us. Thank you for believing in us.” They said in unison.

I quickly gave them a nod, acknowledging and turned to everyone else. “Cole, El, Vicky, Megan, Sylvia, to my office in an hour. Cole, call Nicola too to join us. Take a shower, have something to eat and then Cole will escort you to my office El.”

Eleanor’s POV

We reached the castle in the very early hours the next day. Beautiful would be an understatement right now to explain how the castle looked. Magnificent and Exquisite would do better. I was gaping at the castle so intensely that suddenly I felt someone close my mouth gently. I didn’t recognize that my mouth was hanging open at the sight. Uncle Henry chuckled and I said in a very low tone, this was truly magnificent view. I knew uncle would hear it and so did others.

In the corner of my eye, everyone nodded their heads acknowledging what I said. Suddenly, the doors burst open and one face but 2 pairs of eyes and 2 pairs of legs came into the view. Then I realized, that they were two people with identical features, twins, Megan and Sylvia, about whom uncle spoke about. They quickly came to us and bowed to uncle, “Hello Alpha, Good Morning. We came here as soon as possible when Cole said you have some important task for us. Thank you for believing in us.”

They were in their early twenties I guess, no more than a year or two, older than me. And they both had blond hair, green eyes with silver specks and freckles. They looked so cute, I couldn’t stop myself staring at them in a kind of affection. I don’t know but their faces looked so baby-like.

Uncle gave them a curt nod and said “Cole, El, Vicky, Megan, Sylvia, to my office in an hour. Cole, call Nicola too to join us. Take a shower, have something to eat and then Cole will escort you to my office El. Sylvia will show you to your room and Megan will take care of the rest. Sylvia, once you show Eleanor her room, make sure she has everything ready to feel comfortable.”

Sylvia bowed her head and quickly said “Yes Alpha.”

With that uncle, went up two stairs before leaving us in the foyer. Looking around, there were portraits hung all around, along with beautiful pink and white flowers arranged on columns.

It was very elegant and grand. I was admiring the beauty standing there, when one of the twins came up to me and said “Come on Ms. Eleanor. Let me show you your room. I’m Sylvia by the way. You can call me Syl, as Meg and Cole calls. And oh, if you need anything, I’m just a call away.” Sylvia, was very cheery and talkative.

 I could see that she would keep me company from getting bored. The difference between Sylvia and Megan, if you want to differentiate was Sylvia had short hair while Megan had long hair. Megan too joined us soon and I could tell, both of them were very similar in their characteristics. No one could tell the difference if Sylvia’s hair wasn’t short.

“This is the eastern wing Ms. Eleanor, where all our guests will be residing whenever they visit us. The western wing of the castle is where the Alpha’s office is Miss along with a library, a school for the pups and a recreation room. The southern part of the castle faces the forest and is mostly of the gym and training grounds.  The Northern part consists of a grand hall with few changing rooms.” She gave a quick tour of the current wing and we halted soon in front of a white double door room. The detailing were elegant and beautiful in golden color.

“This will be your room Miss” she said as she opened the door. The room was huge with a four poster bed in the middle, two large doors to the left and a door opposite to us. The three large doors to the left, opened up to the bathroom, a walk in closet and the one opposite to the entrance door was the door to a balcony. I went out to the balcony. It was beautiful from up here. The sun was slowly rising now and though the room was only on first floor, the view was great.  

We could see the forest, a nice garden below and the far city in the middle of the forest. Sylvia explained to me that it was not just a city but it was the Royal Blue Swan Lake city. She also explained to me that the pack was a part of Royal Luna pack as it was the former pack of Luna Lissandra, Uncle Henry’s mate. She died during child birth and the baby girl Rosalind, now aged 16, has already found her mate, Jacob Stanley, the beta of the Royal Blue Swan Lake.

Looking at the city, I suddenly felt a tug in the pit of stomach and I could feel my wolf stir. What was that feeling? I didn’t know what was happening and simply ignored it for now. While I was admiring the beauty of the place, Sylvia, soon ran a bath for me and placed a black dress with short sleeves laid out on the bed. Miss, your bath is ready she said and I quickly went in. It was 5:30 in the morning.

I found a new set of toothbrush, paste and other toiletries in the cabinet, along with some towels. I quickly brushed my teeth, and went into the tub. The water was warm to my liking and it had some nice smelling essential oils in it. It was very relaxing after a long journey and a long day.

It was now time, I had to get ready and meet my uncle. So I quickly got up, wrapped myself in a towel and went out. Sylvia was ready with my dress and was waiting for me. As soon as I got into the dress, she helped me with my hair and applied a light mascara and a lipstick, though I said I didn’t like it. “Come on Miss Eleanor, it would be fun dressing up. A pretty lady like you must be ready all the time. Who knows you may even meet your mate the next second.” Gosh her positive attitude. I love that but dressing up like that was not my style.

 But anyway, I went along with her. Soon I was dressed up in a Louis Vuitton, simple black dress reaching my knees, with short sleeves, my hair down with two strands from either side, pinned in the middle. Sylvia placed a pair of ear rings from my collection. It was simple, tear drop pearl earrings with a long silver colored chains.

I was then taken to the second floor of the eastern wing, where on the right of the wing was a connecting corridor. At the end of the corridor, the left path took me to the southern, the right path to the northern and the door in the middle was the western wing. Sylvia explained that this corridor was built for emergency purposes and for quick access of the wings.

 We entered the west wing and I immediately noticed that it was cooler than the eastern wing. Even before I asked her the question, I heard a faint roar of water gushing down from great heights. I turned towards Sylvia, who was now smiling at my observations. She tells me that the eastern wing is at the edge of cliff and there’s a stream behind the castle which ends up in a waterfall. She told me that after the meeting, she would take me to the stream, by the way, the view was absolutely stunning she explained.

We reached soon a dark mahogany double door room, which I assumed was uncle Henry’s office and I was right. Sylvia knocked twice and we heard “come in” from the other side. She opened the door for me and I entered the room. Though the room was like any other rooms in the castle, old medieval type with Victorian style art, this room was furnished to the modern era.

There was a book shelf to the left, reaching the ceiling of the room. A door to the right, which I guess was a bathroom, a mahogany wooden desk and a high chair in the middle of the room, with apple computer at the right end and some papers neatly placed to the left end. The room was well lit with the sun rays, now flowing through the huge window in the middle. The window occupied more than half of the wall and there were white and gray curtains neatly pinned to the ends with a Lacey ribbon. Once you take out the ribbons, the curtains would definitely cover the entire window.

In the middle of the room, uncle was seated and was observing me with a smile on his face, as I took in the room’s features. Once I focused on him, his smile grew wide and it was warm. He motioned me to a chair opposite to him and I sat. He quickly said, “thank you Sylvia. Now, be a dear and ask Cole, Megan to be here in 5 minutes. Also, Nicola is outside, ask her to come in please. You can wait out, until I further ask you to.”

Sylvia quickly bowed to him and went outside. Seconds later, a pale, thin looking girl, with dark jet black hair and intense eyes, came in. She bowed to uncle and said “Alpha.”

“Nicola, this is Ms. Eleanor. You shall be training her from tomorrow on. El, this is Nicola, the head of our female warriors.”

I smiled and reached out to her. As soon as we shook hands, there was a flash and vines like tattoos started appearing from her arm, extending all the way to mine. The light blinded us for few seconds and it disappeared as quick as it came. Nicola was stunned and so were we. She immediately went down on her knees and said “My Queen, you’re finally home.”