CHAPTER 3: FORTRESS OF WOLVES
1093 Words
LYRIA’S POV
“The owner of the mark died centuries ago”
The command echoed through the forest.
Loud and clear.
None of the wolves moved. Like I had suddenly become something peculiar.
“Alpha” Darius tried to talk to him, as if enforcing for a change.
“That was not a suggestion” he said.
A wolf boy from the pack stepped forward, melancholy.
Like he has a motive.
“I’ll take her myself” he said.
I saw the way he behaved towards me.
Possessively violent.
I didn't understand anything, not the mark.
Not the setting.
All I knew was it was a livid situation.
Kael grabbed my wrist, the in-depth feeling of fire syncing again.
“Move” he instructed.
Leading me through the forest.
Saliva gulped down my throat, his pack followed us like water in a moving stream.
Dark trees, Frozen grounds
And an eerie silence that gave me goosebumps.
“Could you move gradually?" I said.
It was suicidal to speak informally to the Alpha King.
Yet my wolf wasn’t intimidated.
Engraving his consciousness.
I was frightened at the way the wolves feared him, but something about me didn't totally give in to him.
“What exactly does my mark mean?”
The Alpha knew something.
Silence.
He didn't respond.
I was persistent.
“What is the blood moon line?”
I insisted on getting answers.
Tranquility.
“You mentioned it before”
“Enough!” he voiced out, cold and emotionless.
Curiosity did in fact kill the cat.
That mark, Aunt Mara used to call it cursed. I had thought she hated it because she hated me.
I only attached importance to it willingly.
“Am I really your mate?” That question slipped out.
He paused.
Fortified.
I kept my stance just enough not to bump into him.
He turned to face me, eyes cold as ice.
“You ask too many questions” he said, pulling a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Is that wrong?” I said.
The matter did concern me after all.
“Did you feel it? He asked.
“Feel what?”
He held my palm, the energy spiking through us.
“This… our bond” he said.
I did, I hated how my body responded whenever he came near.
The warmth.
That unbearable awareness of him.
“Yes,” I admitted.
That look on his face was irritation.
I didn't mind, I was satisfied I wasn't the only one affected.
We continued our journey in silence, though inquisitive.
I stayed put together.
Kael guided me, he looked back at times.
Monitoring wolves, as if warning them with their eyes not to stray.
It worked effectively, hungry wolves who made eye contact with me suddenly retreated.
The fortress gates.
The place was old, smitten, and dark.
A bizarre aesthetic that labels ruins.
“This is where you live?” I asked.
“This is where wolves survive”
He said.
The gates opened.
Several maids stood in a line, one on the left and right.
They made a path for him.
“Welcome Alpha” they all bowed.
Heads lowered, until they saw me.
Faces of bewilderment.
Laughter and gossip.
“Is that the Alpha’s mate?” a maid asked the other.
“Look at her mark”
A young girl with blue crescent eyes mocked;
“She looked like she couldn't survive winter”
It was all the same everywhere.
Judgement, mockery.
“An Omega”
Kael's footsteps stopped.
Turning towards the girl.
“Say that again” He commanded, not loud but calm enough to trigger danger.
“Alpha, I didn't mean..” she tried to retract herself.
“I know exactly what you meant,” he said.
The girl smiled disappeared, her blue eyes spiked with fear.
“She was brought here under my protection” he turned to his pack.
“One wrong world against her, and I'll build an assumption of treason”
Treason was too far.
But Kael was serious, like insulting me was insulting him.
“Behave if you love your tongues” he threatened.
And it wasn't just a harmless one.
Wolves in the fortress mellowed.
He held my hand.
Leading me out.
We got to a chamber, dark and silent.
“Your people know about my mark” I said.
Karl kept on moving, like he didn't hear me.
“Do you intend to keep it, this is my life” It was, I hated that he kept a secret affecting me.
“Life” he smirked.
“Your destiny” he said.
Again, giving half hints.
“Fate changed… fate became a mistake”
“You look at me like I'm dangerous” that was my intuition.
“I look at you like you're a problem ” he said.
He leaves.
Vanishing like he wasn't there.
I stood in the chamber, alone and exhausted.
Walking round in circles.
The designs were old. Making it feel like I was a thousand years back.
My legs turned with every corner, gasping at every discovery.
Then, I made a stance in a room.
Paintings of women
But what made my heart melt was the meaning.
The similarity.
My crest mark. Each woman in the painting had the same mark I had.
I looked closer, and that was when I saw a wolf king.
Dressed in black behind them.
My eyes were disoriented, looking closer I saw the resemblance.
“Kael?”
That was Alpha Kael.
It felt bizarre, these paintings were centuries old.
“It can't be”
The similarity, looking deeper,
“Was that me?” The women resembled me.
This wasn’t just fanfic.
Different paintings.
Same Alpha, and then women who looked like me.
“What the hell” I sighed heavily, tension building.
I stretched my hands to touch it, but something more unusual transpired.
“Blood” blood stains became visible on each one.
In some, my woman lookalike face was blurred in black.
The more I drew closer, the scarier the detail.
“Was it responding to me?”
“A curse” I heaved under my breath.
Maybe I was really a curse, I didn’t think about it now.
But all those names Aunt Mara called me.
Was it a prophecy wrapped in humiliation?
I heard a creaking sound
Footsteps ascending from outside.
The room fell silent, my heart pounding like I had been caught.
A dark shadow evolved from within.
“Kael”
“You were never supposed to see this”.
- Writer
