His Graceful Queen

The Darkness

Hannah was in darkness. She couldn’t feel her body. She had welcomed the calm darkness, she wanted to give up, no more pain. It felt like she was in a quicksand of darkness. Around her she saw Bryan, the headmasters, the bullies. And she kept hearing and feeling everything that had happened in her life. Bryan calling her a w***e, the headmaster fondling her, the whips. Her screams. It just wouldn’t end. She wanted to give up right there. Then she heard it, someone whispering her name, in a soft voice. “Hannah, don’t give up”. It was a female voice, She fought to get out of the quicksand. She finally got up and tried to follow the voice in the darkness. She had no feeling of time. Minutes, hours, days could have passed by and she wouldn’t know any difference. She just kept walking around in search for the voice who had called her name, around her the darkness was filled with the lustful laughter and cheering of the audience in the cellar.

“You are a slut and a w***e no one needs”The headmaster and Bryan grinned at her.

“The world needs you” The female voice said again in the soft tone. Suddenly she could see a small light, she ran towards it.

“Who are you?”

“I am you” the voice replied.

The light looked like it moved further away from Hannah.

“Wait!!!! What do you mean you are me?” She kept running in the direction where she saw the light.

“Don’t give up” the voice said, and everything went dark again.

Hannah felt the urge to keep going, but it became harder and harder, it felt like the ground had become sand and her legs, got heavier to move. Every step took everything she had inside of her. She was considering giving up again when she heard a voice from far away; “…please Princess…, come back.”

She knew that voice, it belonged to a green-eyed beautiful man, it was Xander’s voice.

Where did it come from, everything was still dark, why couldn’t she see him? She wanted to see him so bad, it was like her entire body needed him. “I am coming!” She yelled out in the darkness not sure if anyone could hear her. Then everything changed. The darkness disappeared and she was in a white long ballgown, with a billion small stones on it. In the room, right in front of her, was a beautiful golden wolf, the same kind of golden as her hair. It stared at her, with the most beautiful silver eyes. Hannah looked at it, but she wasn’t afraid. The wolf felt familiar, like a long-lost friend.

“Who are you?”

“I am you”

“You are me?” Hannah was puzzled.

“I am a part of you”

Hannah was mesmerized by the beautiful big wolf, and its voice. She couldn’t stop staring at it,

The wolf talked again. “My name is Alina. I am your wolf.”

“You are my wolf” Hannah sounded dumbfounded” “I have a wolf”

“Yes you have, you are one of my beloved children” A tall woman answered she had silver hair and was wearing a long dark night blue dress, with a billion of stones, looking like a star filled sky. She appeared next to the wolf.

The woman looked at Hannah with love and care. The wolf bowed down in the presence of the woman.

You are a blessed child and you have the power to save the world. Your power has been hidden away until your 18th birthday.

“Are you sure you have the right one” Hannah asked dumbfounded.

“Yes, the moon goddess blessed us with a special mark” Alina answered.

“A special mark?” She looked at the wolf and saw it. On its right hindquarters. It was a black mark shaped as a first quarter half-moon. She had the same mark on her right thigh it wasn’t very visible, you had to look for it. She had always loved that mark, “I thought it was just an odd-shaped birthmark”.

“Look at it again, dear child” The woman told her.

Hannah lifted the long white gown and looked at where the mark was. It suddenly had become, a silver coloured mark of the half-moon. It was beautiful, she had never seen anything like it before.

“What is this?”

“It is the mark of a blessed one”

Hannah couldn’t sort all the things she was feeling. Nothing really made sense. She had a she-wolf, that apparently was a part of her... inside her. She was also blessed but still she had lived as an orphan, with hunger and beatings. More questions than answers were inside of her.

“What does it mean? Who am I?”

The woman looked at her, “I can’t tell you more or what to do, but the fate of the world is in your hands. Everything will become clearer with time, just listen to your wolf and heart”

The woman disappeared just like that, but her voice was still in the room; “The world needs you, always be gentle and kind”

The sounds of those words made Hannah remember the orphans, and Toby being attacked by the headmaster, she needed to go back and help him.

“I need to go back”

“Just follow the voices” Alina answered. Then she disappeared and Hannah was left alone, the room was no longer bright white, but there was light, and a door, she walked through the door.

…… “Her wounds are healing faster now”

…… “Thank you Moon Goddess”

…… “Xander you should go home and sleep”

…… “I miss you Princess”

…… “Have you even showered?”

The voices came and disappeared over and over, she felt like she only heard bits and pieces. She didn’t know all the voices either, it was very confusing.

Hannah kept walking, suddenly she could hear a frequent loud beeping sound. …Beep… beep… beep...

She felt her eyelids being heavy, and she tried to open them. It was hard. She tried again, she felt them flutter.

“She is waking up call Xander” a woman said.

Hannah finally got her eyes open.

A woman with brown eyes, brown hair and blue stripes in it looked at her with worry and relief. “Hello cupcake.”

During the last 3 days, he had made sure, that the pack had taken the orphans in. They had moved them into one of their houses, and with Cammie as a leader for it, a lot of the she-wolves had volunteered to take care of the kids. Cammie and the she-wolves had bought clothes, food school supplies and so on. He had enough money and had just ordered the pack to take care of the kids, as if they where their own pups.

Some of the kids were wolfs, and he had no idea, how his pack hadn’t been able to scent them sooner. They had noticed that at least five of the orphan children were pups. But they hadn’t been able to notice it before. First 48 hours after saving them, could they scent the pups among the kids. There could even be more wolves among them, since the wolf scent doesn’t appear until they reach the age of 10.

The entire orphanage had become a bigger puzzle. When they had emptied the office, they had found a lot of files on kids, some had been taken from the streets, some had been bought, some had been delivered to the orphanage. There was also a lot of files on kids that had been sold, to the black market, as child slaves, to fighting rings. Christian and he had the hypothesis that if a kid had shifted, they would have been sold to underground wolf, fights. But for 18 years, none of the children had been sold to fighting rings. A big question that was left is why, had no kids shifted for several years. Normal wolfs shift for the first time at the age of 15. Alphas could shift earlier, Xander himself shifted at the age of 12. But there was no record of kids being sold to fighting rings for 18 years, but there was several papers indicating that some of the children had wolf-parents and therefore they should be wolfs as well.

Xander sighed, and felt his phone vibrate.

It was a text from Luke: The boy is awake, something is off.

Xander walked to the hospital room the boy was in, and opened the door. Immediately could sense it, it was an alpha aura, very weak. But it was there. He could see Luke standing on guard. Alpha auras aren’t affecting other alphas, but they do affect other wolves.

Luke, looked at Xander, “Christian is on his way”

Xander looked at the boy standing in the corner as if he was ready to run or fight, it didn’t look like, he had no idea about the aura he was sending out.

“Who are you?” the boy asked ready to fight

“My name is Xander, he pointed at Luke, That is Luke. What is your name?”

“Toby, where am I?”

Luke growled by the boy’s tone, Luke tried to control it, but the aura around the boy made it hard for him not to protect his Alpha.

“You are at the hospital; we went to find a friend of ours and found you at the floor”

The boy looked at him with narrowed eyes, getting in a defensive pose.

“Are you one of the headmaster’s friends” the Aura immediately got stronger.

Luke growled as a response and Xander noticed that Luke was about to shift. “Get out Luke”

Luke looked at the boy one last time and left the room.

“No, I am not a friend, of the one you call Headmaster. I am a friend of Hannah’s. I came to save her, when we found you” Xander was trying to be real patient, even though he found it hard.

The boy looked at Xander with distrusting eyes. “Hannah, my Hannah?” Xander growled a bit at the boy’s words, Hannah was only HIS Hannah.

Xander looked at the boy still holding his guard up.

“yes Hannah, she is here at the hospital, just a few doors down, I can take you to her. but I need you to calm down”

“I am not going to calm down, until I see Hannah”

“Toby, if you don’t calm down you can hurt her, she is in a really bad shape.”

Xander saw the boy struggling to calm down, but after awhile he succeeded.

“Follow me”

The boy followed Xander still prepared to run any second. Christian and Luke joined them on the small walk to the room. The door opened and Toby saw Hannah laying on her side face towards them. He ran into the room and sat next to her. He began crying of hurt and his Aura filled up the room again.

Christian looked at Xander and said through their link “He is an alpha” why haven’t we noticed before”.

They watched Toby as he grabbed Hannah’s hand and mumbled;

“The world needs you; your smile will brighten the day of a lonely one, your voice will help a lost one and you are worth everything. If you don’t get treated right don’t give up. We all have our purpose in this world and so do you. Always be kind and gentle, and never give up” Along with his words, his aura disappeared.

The three men looked at each other more confused than before. What on earth was going on.

After that day, Toby only left Hannah’s side to sleep or eat. He only listened to Xander or Christian, he ignored everyone else when they tried to talk to him.

Xander stood next to Hannah’s bed. Just like the last 12 days. Toby had left the room to sleep so he was alone. She just laid there, her bandages had stopped being bloody a few days ago, and they have laid her on the back now, instead of the sides. She looked like she was asleep. But he could feel her struggling. Their bond hadn’t changed, it still felt like a string that could be cut any moment. He had come here in every spare minute he had. “Come back sweet princess” he whispered. He had pleaded for her, talked to her and stayed by her side as much as he could. It felt odd because he had never really talked to her before the night, he saved her, but it felt so easy, and like she listened to him.

Hannah, cried in her sleep and suddenly he felt a pain on his left thigh, a pain he had never experienced before. Xander didn’t know what was happening but his thigh was burning. But just as fast as hit had happened it disappeared. Then he felt it, his wolf growled in anticipation “I can feel her” Xander closed his eyes, He could feel their matebond, stronger than before, he could also feel something else. She had a wolf. Xavi was flipping over backwards inside Xander, the thought of his mate being a strong wolf, was more than he could handle. Xander was confused, what is happening, and what had been the reason of the pain. He went into the nearest room and pulled down his black pants. And there on his left thigh, His birthmark had changed colour, it was now silver instead of red. It almost looked like a tattoo.

It had stopped hurting; he pulled his pants back up again.

“Christian, something is odd” Xander mindlinked

“What is odd? Except the fact that you didn’t come to training again”

“It is Hannah”

“Hannah? What’s different?”

“I can feel her wolf.”

“wolf?”

“Yes, her wolf”

Suddenly Hannah made out a small cry of pain even though he was in the next room his wolfhearing was tuned in on her. He hurried to her bed, and saw a small light coming from her right thigh. He lifted the nightgown slightly. His wolf was very eager to see the rest of his mate, naked. He fought against his wolfs urges, and then he saw it, on Hannah’s right thigh, there was a silver mark, matching his. Her cries stopped as quickly as they had begun.

Several hours went by, Isa had checked Hannah’s vitals every other hour. She also changed the bandages, that was around her torso and back. Xander and Christian joined her in the hospital room where Hannah was laying, when she was done.

“How is she holding up” Christian asked.

“Uhm, I don’t know how to say this… but something has changed.”

“Changed how?” Christian replied.

“Does it have anything to do with me feeling her wolf now” Xander asked.

Isa nodded.

“Yeah, something is strange, she suddenly is healing faster.”

like one of us, but I could swear that there was no wolf in her when you came with her 12 days ago, and then there’s her mark”

“Her mark?” Christian asked with curiosity

“On her right thigh, she has a silver mark, of a half-moon, I could have sworn it wasn’t there as well” Isa looked confused. Neither Christian nor Xander replied, they were both lost in thoughts.

“It looks like she will make it after all” Isa said, then she left the room.

“Thank you Moon Goddess”Xander mumbled

Christian looked at Xander; “Did you know about her mark?”

“No, it appeared with her wolf I think”

“If she is the one, yours are going to change as well.”

Xander looked at a spot behind Christian deep in thoughts,

“Has it”

“It did change some hours ago, it became silver”

“She might be the one then”

“I know” Xander sighed “I know”, everything just became way more complicated.