Not All Heroes Are Guiltless

Chapter 95(Part 2)

Chapter 95 (Part 2)

Dungan’s POV

Most lupines are able to turn into their wolves as small children. By six years old they'll are often acquainted with the distinction in their society. A few of the brown wolves had even been known to deny their wolf abilities and live their life as a human. Since I was adopted, they all treated me like a human, and it wasn’t that bad when Dunnell would smile at me and poke at me.

I was fourteen when we were traveling between towns and a group of bandits attacked. One captured a pregnant wolf and escaped while everyone else was busy fighting. I followed and ran as hard as I could to catch up to the horse. I was able to bring the horse down and snap the neck of the bandit without noticing I was in wolf form.

The adrenaline of the transformation and run made me jittery, and Dunnell embraced my neck to help calm my nerves. He risked his life in the process. I had no control over the uncontrolled and raging emotions of my wolf, but Dunnell was able to comfort us, and we transformed back. That’s when I first saw the markings, Bellar’s chosen warrior.

Dunnall, my adopted father, had a look of pride in his eyes when he saw my wolf form, but when my marking showed an enemy, he had a flash of mistrust. I felt like my heart had been ripped out. Dunnell, my brother, only held me closer.

Dunnall was only my father in name after that. Even with his righteous aura could never intimidate me, he was still suspicious of my intentions. Being framed for the m******e in Toloda was not a far stretch in his ideology of what I was capable of. They believed I would ruin them, and they feared what manner I would eliminate them. They accused me of hiding among them when the chosen mark was something I did not technically control. I was too young to know the repercussions of the oaths I took. But it led to my ability to escape my mother. Even if it had led to me being attuned to someone, I had no knowledge of it at the time.

After the Lupine empire fell, I refused to claim my birthright. I wanted a chance to find the girl in my dreams. Bellar told me of his library. A place where my questions could be answered. He offered me a reprieve from the throne as long as I protected my father’s title. He kept his weakest ruler from ruin. I became my father’s assassin and followed the guidance of Bellar to keep him from being usurped even from his own temple.

I kept searching for my mate because she was the only reason I had left to keep going. Dunnell had escaped and lived with his mate, which was my mother’s best friend. I warned him about my mother, but he was enthralled by her deception. AmStar was so certain I was the one responsible for creating the curse to destroy the Lupines and would possibly kill me if she knew I often snuck into their palace to check on my brother.

After four centuries of hiding and serving as an assassin. I was shocked when I arrived late one night and Dunnell was playing with just a small pup of nearly two years old. He looked up and smiled at me and introduced me to his Princess AmAela. I saw the potential she had, and she would be stronger than her mother. A full Lunacrity filled with light to contrast the darkness overshadowing Redland.

I touched her, and I saw the embrace of my dreams. I mumbled the words my light warrior, my Delia. My brother heard it and was joyful. He knew what it meant, and he was happy for his own daughter to be paired with the rest of his heart.

I thought he was still angry at me for not doing enough to stop the incident or the curse of the Lupines, but he seemed to believe his daughter and I could stop the curse and bring everything back. I looked in his eyes and saw the delusion that the empire was still able to return to its former glory, and I knew then he was gone. The curse she created had snared him, and it was only time before he became one of the mindless rampant animals. I was too late to save him, and there was.

Bellar tried to encourage me to keep focus, but my mate was endangered, and she was being raised by the demon of my mother. When rumors were spread about my brother becoming mad and slaughtering an entire village, I rushed out to defend his honor, and that is when I felt Bellar’s anger on me. He would not let me leave to protect my brother.

Then I heard about her mother being charged with potentially becoming a hazard to her people. She was to be executed because the madness curse was taking her quickly.

I had to be close to my mate. Being with the evil demon I called mother would not do her any good. I had to keep my eyes on the little crowned princess who would be the only hope I ever held in my life.

Against my god’s will, I split my focus. I stayed close to watch over my mate, and that is how Hou Ndour was able to influence the king and his eventually betrayal against me. When he cast me out, I had to warn him that when I returned, he would have another stain against my sword.

Maybe if I did not fight against Bellar and became King when I noticed the markings, everything would have been different. I would have been able to save my people from suffering from potential usurps more directly.

But I would have missed out on most of my time with Nell.

He thought when I left for Bellar even after the m******e and the investigation was cowardly on my part. I needed to fight back to prove my innocence. He felt betrayed when I left to work for Bellar even though I was no longer welcomed in Redland or the disappearing Lupine.

If I had become King at fourteen years old, then I probably never would have been able to help my Nadar escape the clutches of my mother. We would have been fated mates with too many stipulations and opposing politics. I would never have been able to have my hope.