LOVE LIKE WAR

CHAPTER 1

"On my command, you attack!"

Cindy hinted to Mark, who was growing impatient from over-waiting. From their hideout, they kept watching the opposite building, every movement, every entrance and exit. They had been a tipoff at the agency about two rival resistance sects turning on each other. So He and Cindy had mounted guard from across the building, waiting for which sect would make the first move so they'll so he and Cindy would zero in.

"Don't interfere just yet. Lay low and watch."

"They are about to kill each other."

"You can't save everyone, Mark. Not today!"

Cindy was pureblooded, while Mark was a mudblood, and both worked for The Agency headed by President Vale and a man called Kingpin. Both were soldiers who scouted the city of New York in search of The Resistance, a sect of rebellious pack who had refused to be loyal to The Agency.

On her signal, Mark leapt across their hideout and crashed into the opposite building. Guns and knives had already been drawn by both sects, but he disarmed them skillfully while Cindy released a volley of bullets into retreating shadows. Then she came up to Mark.

“You disobeyed,” she said flatly.

“I stayed close,” he defended. “I didn’t interfere.”

“You thought about it,” she said, stepping close enough for him to feel the chill in her breath. “You still think you can save them.”

“I don't like the agency and your kingpin.”

Cindy turned to him. “They’re dead, Mark. Let's go.”

For Mark, the only orders he took were from Cindy, and he didn’t always understand why he listened to her so religiously. Maybe it was her voice or maybe it was the way she always knew what came next, how she saw the chessboard while everyone else only saw their piece. He’d met her three moons ago in an ambush, where he’d spared her life and since then, she has grown endeared to him in ways he cannot understand.

And so, at the entrance of an old cargo yard, a guard informed Cindy and Mark about a resistance sect which was rising in New York Park, led by Vincent Gray. It was an abandoned amusement park that had turned into a stronghold for disloyal mud-bloods and purebloods alike.

Mudbloods are hybrids born of humans and wolves, unlike the purebloods who were born of only wolves. So, The Agency existed to create a new world order where purebloods would rule over mudbloods, with President Vale as the head and a man called Kingpin as the Lead.

New York had no place for mud-blood werewolves, as they were regarded as a contamination, and the Agency existed to clean the city off all mud-bloods, but the loyal mudbloods who served his purpose could be spared. However, Cindy, the Agency's most decorated soldier was different, beautiful, deadly, and entirely loyal to a fault.

The feud between the rival bloodlines was a result of the cleansing, an idea the mudbloods in New York did not welcome. They had one enemy, which was the agency, but they were too blinded to the point where bloodlines turned against each other in a bid to form an alliance and protection from the agency.

Inside the yard, Cindy sat close to Mark and was touching his chest, just above the heart. “You feel too much; that’s why you're useful to the agency and why you’ll survive.”

“Like I said, I don't trust your kingpin, neither do I trust the agency?”

“As long as Kingpin wields the law, all hybrid sects must be under his rule. He is the law and the law is him."

That name, Kingpin. The tyrannical ruler, Adolf Hitler incarnate hid under the umbrella of the agency to execute his selfish agenda. He'll execute mudbloods by day and plot domination by night. No one saw him; only Cindy, his puppet, spoke to him directly.

“Why does he hate us?” Mark asked. “The mudbloods. We didn’t choose to be born.”

“He doesn’t hate you,” she said with a faint smile. “He fears you and that’s different.”

“Why?”

She stepped back, her gaze sharpening. “Because you’re strong, unpredictable, disloyal and prone to rebellion.”

Mark laughed bitterly. “Or maybe we’re just tired of being hunted.”

“You should be careful what you say, Mark,” she said. “Someone might think you’re starting to choose a side.”

He met her eyes. “Maybe I am.”

They stood in silence. Wolves howled again in the distance, closer now.

“You’re not ready,” Cindy said at last. “But you will be.”

“For what?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she leaned in and kissed him. It was sudden and soft and dangerous like frost on a blade. Mark’s chest tightened and his instincts screamed at him to pull away. When he stepped back, she looked at him as though she’d just pressed another chain around his neck.

Cindy had a lot of Mudblood and pureblood working directly for the Agency through her, and Mark was one of them. The unwritten rule was once you no longer serve The Agency's purpose, she is instructed to eliminate you, and she does that without batting an eyelid.

“I'll need you to deliver a message to the Agency. There’s word of another rebellion in the New York pack. Their leader is gathering pureblood and mudblood packs for a coup against the Agency, but we can’t let that happen. I heard he is mudblooded too.”

“And what do I say to them?”

“Tell them the same thing I’m telling you,” she said. “There is no future for mudbloods who refuse control.”

Cindy sighed and stepped closer, brushing hair from his face with cool fingers. “You’re strong, Mark. Maybe too strong. That’s why Kingpin watches you so closely.”

“I don’t serve Kingpin,” Mark muttered.

“No,” she said. “You serve me.”

The words wrapped around him like chains and yet, it was the truth. He was just like the others, serving the agency under her. But to him, he was fighting to save the mudbloods and strike a balance. He believed mudblood and pureblood could thrive but not under the dictator kingpin. The only issue was that the mudblood New York was one power-hungry breed who, when in power, would stop at nothing to oppress lesser New York.

He now must bridge the old bloodlines and bring peace to all New Yorkers. But for now, he was doing Cindy’s bidding because she said he had to and because some part of her still believed she saw something in him worth saving.