/ ZHASK /
The words rung in my ear.
“W-what?” I asked the Seer again, making sure I heard him right.
“Luna Greya is in the Mortal Realm, living among the ordinary humans,” the Seer answered.
“But h-how?” I asked again. It was hard to believe how my mate ended up there. The Mortal Realm was a completely different world separated from ours. It existed in another dimension and we couldn’t care more about it because we have nothing to do with that world. We were powerless there.
“I studied the tracks she had left at the Hunting Ceremony before the Rogues kidnapped her,” the Seer went on. “There’s an element that only magic can explain. I’m certain that a powerful Seer was involved. But I managed to track her down.”
“But wait… why? Why would they do that?” I had asked myself that question for the past four years.
Why? Why it had to be Greya? What did they want with her? And for four years, I still didn’t have an answer. But I have a guess instead.
Sitting among the Council after my father’s death, I could feel their spite on me, their desire to overthrow me, to eliminate me from the throne. My father had warned me of them, the Council were full of traitors that I couldn’t trust. I was old enough to understand everything now and I had to watch over their moves.
But I swear, the moment I would find out the person behind my mate’s disappearance, they would pay for it no matter what.
“I wish I knew the answer to that, My Prince, but I’m here, in behalf of the pack where my loyalty lies and in behalf of Luna Greya’s parents, to ask you a favour. Please find her for us. You are the only one capable enough do to it,” he went down on his knees and begged.
“You don’t even have to ask me,” I replied at him. “I’ll find her whatever it takes.”
Suddenly, the Rogue who was unconscious suddenly woke up and started laughing.
“You won’t find her, she’s dead!” he uttered, which made me angry. I wanted to kill him right there but I held myself.
“No, she’s not dead,” the Seer said. “Luckily, I was able to find her in my vision. She’s well and healthy.”
His words disappointed the Rogue. “We should have killed her,” he said, feeling defeated.
“WHY? WHAT DID SHE EVER DO TO YOU?!” I demanded an answer but I was only met with a grin.
“She’s not supposed to be alive. She should have been dead,” the Rogue went on, not answering my question. He seemed to lose his mind.
“Your Highness, there’s no point asking a Rogue who betrays his pack. What matters is that we found her and you need to get her back,” the Seer told me.
“Alright, tell me how to get to the Mortal Realm. I’ll leave as soon as I can.”
“Getting there involves a deep kind of magic. I couldn’t do it here. You have to come tonight at my pack’s abode. I’ll prepare everything we need.”
“Understood,” I told him. Whatever it takes, I was prepared to go there. Whatever it takes, I would find my beloved Greya and bring her back. “Thank you,” I told him.
He left after that, leaving me and the Rogue alone in the room. As much as I wanted to kill him, I left him with my healers and guards. We would have to keep him alive for now because I still had a lot of questions to ask him. He would prove himself useful soon enough.
******
Evening came and I was finally at the Blue Moon Pack’s abode which wasn’t far from the palace. We were gathered in a dark room where the Seer usually performed his magic – Me, him, and Greya’s parents, Alpha Rayen and Luna Victoria.
Everything was prepared. There was an altar and a lot of candles were lit.
“I’m ready,” I told them all.
Greya’s parents were feeling hopeful.
“Our daughter was lucky to have you as a mate, Your Highness,” Alpha Rayen told me.
“No, I’m the lucky one. Nobody loves me in the palace as much as she loves me. I’ll find her and I’ll bring her back, I promise.”
The Seer explained to me what to do. “You have to bring her immediately while I’m still opening the portal. Tonight is a full moon so I can perform my magic to its extent but if you fail to bring her to the portal, you will have to wait for another full moon before I can open the portal again. I’ll open the portal close to where she lives so you don’t have to go far.”
“Thank you. I’ll make sure to remember that.”
The Seer held a lit candle in his hand and shone its light over my face.
“But, Your Highness, before anything else, there’s something you need to know first.”
“What is it?”
“This magic is forbidden. I cannot promise to open another portal again on the next full moon if you fail tonight, but I will do my best. If something goes wrong, you’ll be stuck in the Mortal Realm. I just hope you know what you’re risking for,” he reminded me.
But I had decided.
“She’s worth risking everything for,” I told him, feeling absolutely hopeful that everything would turned exactly as I had planned.
“Well then, let’s begin.”
The Seer muttered a spell. He lighted the candle all over me and summoned the forbidden magic that would take me to another world. The wind blew and there was mist all around us, like a smoke. It became heavier until it was hard for me to see anyone anymore. His voice became distant and there was an eerie silence. And the next thing I know, I felt like a bubble vanishing into thin air.
******
/ABBY’’S POV/
I was taking a walk in the woods at the back of our house because I couldn’t sleep. It was full moon tonight and the tracks in the woods were light enough for me to explore. I had always been attracted to the woods for some unknown reason. I love the silence and the comfort it gave me. It seemed to give me an idea of who I used to be before I lost my memories four years ago.
But then, I clearly didn’t remember anything. There was a complete blankness in my memory. I just woke up one winter night on the road and it so happened that an elderly couple passed me by while they were moving to the next city so they took me in and I had to assume the identity of their daughter who died years ago because I didn’t have an identity of my own. They became my parents and I was grateful for having them. We started a whole new life her in this new city. But for the past four years, I’ve been trying to remember and figure out who I am. I came back a few times to that road and asked the neighbourhood but there wasn’t a lot of people there and nobody seemed to recognize me.
Where did I come from? What’s my real name? What happened to me?
These questions filled my thoughts for the thousand times me as I ran along my usual track in the woods.
But then, I stopped in my tracks when I heard an eerie noise around me. It sounded like a rough wind blowing and ruffling the bushes and trees but there was no wind at all. I even wiped my sweat because it was summer and the surrounding was hotter than usual.
I began to feel scared. The noise got louder and louder and then, there was a fume of smoke rising ahead of the path I was taking. I took some steps back but the smoke seemed like it was moving at my direction.
“What the…..” I cursed and started running fast in panic. But I tripped and fell to the ground, and the impact was painful causing my vision to get blurred. The strange noise was all in my head, causing even more pain, and when I turned to look back, I saw that there was a dark shadow inside the smoke.
When my vision cleared, I realized it was a man, and he got out of the smoke as if it was a door from another world.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh,” I screamed, so sure I was seeing a ghost.
The man approached me. I wriggled on the ground trying to get back on my feet but couldn’t because it felt like my bones had cracked.
The man leaned over at me. “My love! At last, I found you!”
I could feel my heart beating loudly in my chest. “W-who are you?” I muttered, feeling so scared.
The expression in his face changed. “What? It’s me, Zhask! I’m your mate!”
“What!?”
/ ABBY /I struggled to get back on my feet as the mysterious man tried to lay his hands all over my body. He was going to rape me, I was so sure of it. This was definitely the end of me.“Ahhhhhhhh!” I kept screaming and pushing him back.But he was too strong. “Greya, Greya…please…. I’m not going to hurt you. We don’t have much time. We need to go now.”I absolutely had no idea what he was talking about. “Let me go!” I kept shouting. I summoned the last amount of my strength to push him from me and then I stood up and started running.“My love, wait!” he yelled.I looked back and realized he was chasing after me. This was a huge mistake. I shouldn’t have gone for a walk in these woods. I should have stayed in my room.I ran in full speed, jumping over fallen logs and wading through thick bushes. I lost the track and just decided to run in any direction as long as it’s away from him. But he was too fast and it didn’t take him long to catch up with me.“Greya, can you please stop runn
/ ZHASK /“No, your name is Greya. And you’re a werewolf,” I told her with my serious face but what came out of her mouth was a sarcastic laugh.“So what about you? A vampire?” she said and then burst out laughing again.“No, vampires live farther north. We have no business with them.”“So you’re a werewolf too?”“Yes but not here. In this world, we’re mere mortals.”She laughed again, the same laugh I remembered when I used to tell her jokes. I miss that laugh. I miss her so much.“Look here, mister werewolf, I don’t know what your game is, whether you escape from a mental facility or high on drugs, but because I saw something weird last night and also because you have almost the same tattoo as mine, I won’t report you to the police. But I need to get you back to where you came from…”“My tattoo?” I asked, cutting her off.“Yes. Apparently, we could be related.”“It’s my pack’s symbol,” I told her while looking at the mark of the moon on my chest. “You have one too. It’s your pack’s
CHAPTER 5/ ZHASK /My head hurt so bad it felt like it was going to explode. I could feel Greya trying to wake me up but I really needed to close my eyes for a while because the world seemed to be swirling around me.“Fenrer… are you there?”I called out to him but he was wailing in pain. He was suffering too.“Fenrer, what’s happening?”He didn’t answer though. His wails continued, as if he was in desperate need of help. But I had no idea what was going on. It felt like his voice were getting distant, as if he was moving far away. Then suddenly, I could no longer hear him. There was nothing at all.“Fenrer, answer me! I’m losing you!”But there was still no answer. Nothing. I could not feel his connection nor his bond. And I began to worry.“No! Fenrer! Come back! Where are you?”Still no answer. And for the first time in my life, I felt so alone. I was so used of hearing his voice in my head, his nags and his annoying opinions, but now that I could no longer hear him, it felt like
CHAPTER 5/ ABBY /The room that my friend, Shade, lent me was a small one, but this would be enough for one person. Besides, the view was spectacular.I opened the closet in the bedroom and found some extra clothes so I took some out and looked for my wolfie friend. I found him standing by the window, watering an almost dead cactus on a nearby shelf.“Hey wolfie, wear these on. We’re going to go shopping,” I told him and threw him the clothes. I called him wolfie because I kind of forget what his name was.He caught the clothes with one hand and was about to strip off his clothes in that area but I stopped him.“There’s a bathroom right at the corner. Please get change over there,” I said.“I can do it right here,” he answered, not really getting my point.“Oh come on! You can’t just get naked in front of me anytime you want!”“Why not? You’ve seen all of me before,” he answered as if it was no big deal.I felt my cheeks blushing.“What do you mean?” I asked, even though deep inside
CHAPTER 7/ ABBY /I looked at Wolfie as if I had seen a ghost."Hello, my love," he greeted me with a bow.Genebeth beamed with laughter and started teasing me. She looked at him from head to toe."So you finally got yourself a hottie boyfriend huh?" She said, smiling widely at me."He's not my boyfriend," I told her straight away."Oh it's okay to be shy about it. What's your name, by the way?" "I am Zhask Magesblood Zaffiro. Pleasure to meet you," he said in a very respectable manner and extended a hand. "Cool name," Genebeth said, shaking his hand before whispering in my ear, "Where did you find this guy?"I wanted to tell her I found him in the woods but I'm sure she wouldn't even believe me anyway. "Let's talk," I told Wolfie and dragged him further along the hallway. "How did you find me?" I asked him, feeling furious. "I followed your scent.""I told you to wait there!""I can't. I won't."I felt so stressed out, so I wiped my forehead with my hands even though I knew the
CHAPTER 8/ ABBY /Wolfie, or should I call him by his name now since I already remembered it?Okay, Zhask took the phrase 'look after me' to a whole new level when he punched that guy who tried to make a move on me. The guy had a deep cut on his face and they had to take him out to the hospital because he was bleeding too much. The security guards kicked us both out and I tried so hard to apologize to everyone for making such a scene. I was just glad we didn't have to pay for the damage we had done.When we were out, I gave Zhask a scolding in the parking lot. "You can't just hurt anyone like that!" I yelled at him, pacing back and forth while trying to calm myself down."So would you rather let me watch while he's trying to sleep with you?" He answered, still feeling furious. I could tell how disgusted he was, how angry, how the calmness and the warmth I had seen hours ago vanished from his face."It's a club! People are always trying to sleep with anyone! What did you expect?"
/ ZHASK /Abby left me at the parking lot outside the club and told me not to follow her. I realized she needed a moment for herself after that intense fight. She had raised her voice at me and was on the verge of panic. I was used to that side of her. The Greya I knew would always argue with me. In fact, the first time we met we were arguing and at that moment, we both never expected we were each other's mates. Greya was loud and reckless, a fighter with a free spirit who didn't need my protection. She was stronger than me and sometimes, I always thought she was the one who was protecting me all those times after we mated. And this is probably why I fell so hard for her because I lost my mum when I was young, I didn't know what a mother's warmth was. But when I had Greya, she gave me that kind of warmth that made me feel safe and at peace Anyway, I watched Abby cross the street. I waited until she was safe in a cab before I headed to the apartment myself. I had gotten used to this t
/ ABBY / I wasn't asleep. I just pretended to be so he could go to the bedroom and sleep himself. But instead, he waited on the couch. I closed my eyes but a moment later, I could feel him moving towards me. Then, suddenly he was lifting me off the couch. I never dared to open my eyes and just let him do as he wanted. I breathed in his musky scent and it was warm and felt like home. I could also hear his heart beating in his chest and the warmth of his body as our skin touched. It was electrifying and felt safe at the same time.Then, I felt him place me on the bed. Still, I didn't open my eyes. For a second, I thought he was gonna sleep beside me, but he didn't. He took a warm blanket and covered me with it. I pretended to get cozy on the bed, stretching my arms and turning to the side, then I heard the sound of the door closing. I waited a few minutes before I opened my eyes and saw that he was gone.What he did was just heart-warming. I gotta admit, he was rather kind of sweet. He