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Chapter 50: She Warmed My Heart
Fear, hatred, pain, and despair… other than those feelings, I couldn’t sense anything else. My father’s
cruelty and my mother’s callousness made me realize that there was no place for me to run to and no
place for me to hide.
I was hopeless.
A thick fog seemed to roll in out of nowhere. I held my breath, wondering what my next nightmare would
be.
Somewhere in the distance, I heard the faint sound of a woman singing. It was a lullaby, a beautiful song.
And I was certain I’d heard it before. But when?
The fog lifted, and I found myself in a military tent. This was a familiar scene to me as well. Without even
looking in a mirror, I knew how old I was. This happened when I was six- teen.
When Beta Xavier threw aside the tent flap and walked in, I wasn’t surprised to see him. I swore under
my breath, know- ing what was about to happen.
Two loud, deep, male voices were taunting me. “Come out and face us like a man, you coward! You
monster!”
I took a deep breath and waited for Xavier to speak. He kept his distance from me, hanging back by the
entrance. I was used to it by now. Even with my gloves on, even with a mask at the ready that would
cover almost my entire face ex- cept for my eyes, no one wanted to be anywhere near me.
“Prince Theo, your father wishes for you to attack at once,” he said.
“What is all of that commotion?” I asked the question as I had back then, even though I knew the answer.
“The twin Alphas, sir. They are protesting against His Majesty, claiming that they’re a peaceful pack and
don’t want war. But they also don’t want to contribute their natural re- sources to the crown as your father
is insisting.” Beta Xavier folded his hands in front of himself, awaiting my response.
“I understand all of that, Xavier.” I had been tasked to de- stroy this pack two years ago, at only fourteen,
but I hadn’t done it yet. I’d always been fond of this pack. I remembered the stories my mother had told
me when I was a little boy about the tall trees that grew here and the gems and miner- als. Father
wanted to exploit those resources, but I had been able to push aside those ambitions until now.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThus, Xavier’s presence. The king thought I’d go in and kill all of them with his Beta here.
“I’ll deal with them,” I said, pushing up from my chair.
“But Your Highness, we simply need to attack, to take the entire pack out,” Xavier told me.
As I walked toward him, he moved away, afraid I might touch him.
Afraid I might kill him.
I walked right past him, outside, to where the two Alphas
were waiting for me. They were both tall and muscular–and angry. I took a deep breath and approached
them, not want- ing to do so but knowing that I had to. I also knew exactly what was going to happen.
At least once I’d gotten through this, I might finally have some peace.
The woods jutted out to the edge of the cliff, and down below, the ground slanted at a sharp angle, and
even more evergreens reached out to the sky. It would’ve been a beauti- ful scene if it wasn’t about to be
the scene of a death.
“Come on, you coward!” one of the twins shouted. “Come and fight us like a man!”
I looked at them coldly and sneered, “You both should shift, or you won’t last more than ten minutes.”
However, they didn’t. Because I wasn’t old enough to shift, they insisted on fighting me in human form to
be fair. They were good men, but one of them had to die. Only then could I save their pack, and I could
see my plan through….
I knew that. I knew everything, even the first time I’d gone through this. I knew that if I didn’t find a way to
permanently get out of attacking this pack, then it wouldn’t be just one of their Alphas losing his life–they
would all die.
The two of them came at me. I used a knife to defend my- self, but I was no match for two of the most
famous warriors and Alphas known throughout the country.
Then, one of them came at me, and I cut him in the chest, but it wasn’t enough to hurt him. He managed
to slash at my arm, shredding it slightly.
Pain radiated through my flesh, and blood began to drip down.
“Is this all you’ve got? Little prince, why don’t you…” he couldn’t finish his sentence though; he froze in
his tracks. His eyes enlarged, and a look of horror took over his face. He fell to his knees. I felt his power,
his strength, but I also felt his an- guish and terror.
“Stop!” the other twin shouted. “Stop right now! You’re killing him! You’re killing my brother!”
“I told you to shift,” I lifted my gaze to look at him emo- tionlessly.
He fell to the ground, dead, and then, his brother, rather than running to him, raced toward me.
He shifted into his wolf, hitting me hard and knocking me backward. His claws ripped through me,
splitting my middle and digging into my leg. I ripped my knife out and plunged it into him, forcing him off
of me. “Do you want to die, too?” I shouted at him.
The twin realized that he was about to have the same thing happen to him as he’d just witnessed with his
brother, and he backed off.
I lay there, bleeding, wondering if it was enough.
Was it enough to persuade Xavier that I’d already tried and failed, and if Prince Theo couldn’t take them
down, none of the king’s warriors could? Was it enough to rile this pack up to seek revenge for their
leader, so that they could stand a chance to fight off the king’s troops? Was it enough to make people
think I would die and end this misery?
I hoped so.
I watched the giant wolf charge toward me and give me another blow.
As my body rolled over the edge of the cliff, I whispered to the giant wolf, “I’m sorry.” I doubt that he
heard it though.
Tumbling down, hitting trees, snapping branches, and knocking pebbles and rocks loose from the earth,
eventually, I came to rest on my back beneath the boughs of a pine tree.
I knew I couldn’t stay there. As much as every fiber of my body hurt, I had to get up and move or else
Xavier would send someone to get me. And knowing my father, he’d get me healed up and send me right
back here to attack.
Fighting against the pain, I got up off the ground and be- gan to walk, using the trees to help me. My
clothes were coat- ed in blood, but I didn’t seem to be leaving a trail, so maybe it would be less easy for
my father’s men to find me.
I continued to walk until I couldn’t go any further. Sinking to the ground beneath a tree, I put my mask on,
in case any- one should happen upon me. I didn’t want to be recognized.
“Boy? Boy?”
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmI heard a voice and tried to open my eyes, but my vision was so blurry, all I could see was the shape of a
girl hovering over me. Her hand reached out for me, and I pulled away from her. “Don’t touch me!” I
shouted.
“Do you want to die?” she asked me, point blank.
“I don’t care,” I mumbled, and I meant it. My eyes rolled back into my head, and I passed out again.
When I opened my eyes again, I was in a cave, and the girl was sitting nearby me, a fire blazing in the
mouth of the cave.
I tried to sit up, and even though I wasn’t as sore as I had been before, it was still difficult to move as the
pain contin- ued to radiate throughout my body.
“Oh, good. You’re awake,” she said. “I was hoping you’d be awake soon. Are you hungry?” She offered
me some food from her backpack, a bit of dried meat and an apple. I took it and ate it as slowly as I
could. I was starving, but I didn’t want to scarf it down.
“You really should stay away from me,” I warned her.
“Why?” she asked. “You needed help, so I helped you.”
“But… you’re not afraid of me?”
She giggled. “No. Why would I be afraid of you? I’m not afraid of wild beasts. It would be silly for me to
be afraid of a wounded boy.”
“I’m not a boy,” I said, my voice a little rougher than I meant for it to be.
“Sorry. Man then,” she said, practically rolling her eyes.
For hours, she told me stories about her encounters in the forest. I sat and listened while she chattered
on. It was a good situation for me since I didn’t particularly like to speak, and she spoke with no
reservations about her life.
I’d never met anyone like her, so upbeat and friendly to- ward a… monster like me.
Like that, we spent a few days together.
Her stories were all over the place, but I loved hearing them.
When was the last time anyone had willingly talked to me, let alone shared with me her entire life with
such… passion and bright smiles?
I didn’t know how to describe her. She was kind, upbeat, and friendly. Her smiles were so warm… like
the sunshine, though it was difficult for me to see because she was still blurry. But that didn’t change the
fact that for the first time in years, my heart felt warm.
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