Selene Terra Firma

05 : Oath

"Hey, man! Wake up!" Atlas screamed in Cronus's ears, still, he did not get any reaction from him.

"Is he spacing out again?" Daphnis asked as she watched Atlas interrupt their alpha from daydreaming.

"He is," Pan replied, shaking his head in disappointment. "He's been like that since we last visited the Central."

"Did he say the reason why?" Pandora asked them with concern.

"This alpha replacement is a pain in the neck," Prometheus mumbled before realizing he was thinking his thoughts out loud. The rest of the pack glared at him.

"What? I'm just stating the fact." He defended.

"Shut up, Prom. You're not helping." Pan snarled at him. "Hold him."

Both Atlas and Daphnis obediently followed Pan's command.

"What are you doing?! Let me go!" Prometheus exclaimed. "Hey you, stupid Alpha! Get me out of these two!"

The daydreaming Cronus flinched when he heard the word alpha. His forehead furrowed as he watched his pack brawl.

"What are you doing?"

"This halfwit muscleman keeps on slandering you!" Pandora pointed at Prom who was being attacked by the others.

"Just let him go," he said nonchalantly before standing up. "You all go-ahead to the next class. I have to do something important."

"Where are you going again? Hey!" Atlas tried to stop him but got only kicked back to his place.

"Don't bother me."

All five members of his pack were astounded upon seeing their laid-back alpha turn to a typical serious-looking leader but an attractive one.

"What is wrong with him? Is he going nuts? Where is the usual annoyingly stupid alpha Cronus?" Prometheus complained and the rest nodded in agreement.

Pandora smacked his head with the book on his table. "But don't label our alpha like that!"

"Yeah! Because of you, everyone thinks that we're similar to Cronus!" Atlas seconded but was only hit by Pandora too.

"Will you both stop?! Cronus is not stupid or annoying!" Daphnis patted Pandora's shoulder to calm him down. "But maybe a little bit—aw! Why hit me too?"

"Let's move on to the next class and talk with Cronus later." As the beta of the pack, they all listened to Pandora and followed outside.

This world had fifty species, and each had its kingdom lead by its rulers, whom they call them by their term of acknowledgment using their languages. It may only be a coincidence that both the vampires and Lycans call their rulers king and queen as they have the same likeness to humans.

The lycans, have their kind of hierarchy. Their king, together with the queen, is known as the Alpha of all alphas. They rule their entire kingdom with hundreds of packs, which were also considered tribes.

Each species could only conceive two offspring. It was not a verdict made by anyone but just simply a fact. It was like a God's law that was unwritten.

The king of the lycans had a brother, known as the prince. Without a queen, the king was able to conceive two sons. The eldest was Zeus, the heir to the throne. If both the king and the prince have passed away, he would then reign the entire kingdom. And that would be a hundred years from now, since their maximum lifeline was about five hundred years, considering that the king had already celebrated his four hundred and fifty years of existence and the prince just turned four hundred.

As the heir to the throne, Zeus was given strict supervision and has received a lot of pressure since he was a child. He was forced to live his life as a perfect role model for his followers to look up to. He grew up as an authoritative and serious person. He is confident yet composed and humble. He was born to become the alpha of the alphas anyway. Moreover, Cronus was the second son. He was born 20 years after Zeus's birth.

Before, almost everyone recognized Cronus's potential to become the next embodiment of a wise ruler plus he was as kind and compassionate as the prince was. However, burdened by the consequences of being royal blood, he chose to become a rebel who refuses to follow the norms of the royalties. Compared to his brother, Cronus was immature and self-centered. He lacked motivation and he was too impulsive and irrational to become a leader.

Growing up, Cronus was labeled as a reject in all of the royal blood. Still, he had inherited the prince's tribe and they were distressed to have him as their leader. How could he be acknowledged by the kingdom if he couldn't even discipline and earn the respect of his tribe?

Pandora, together with Atlas, Prometheus, and Daphnis, served Cronus ever since he was little. They had witnessed all of his struggles and no matter what defamation and insults the others would throw at him; they knew deep inside he was a good leader.

It was just that the more perfect Zeus becomes, the more defective Cronus would be. Regardless of how good he could be, as long as there is Zeus, he would never be good enough.

With that in mind, the five learned to embrace their alpha's childish disposition and stayed by his side. They were already used to Cronus always fooling around, causing trouble almost every time, and being a pain in the neck 24/7. But after he was gone the whole week, everything about him became different.

He became quiet and absent-minded most of the time like he was seriously thinking about something. The count of troubles he makes somehow decreased. He even started attending his classes early. Their once happy-go-lucky and troublemaker alpha Cronus was nowhere to be found.

They don't know whether they should be glad or be worried by the sudden changes. They examined him while he was deep in his thoughts, recalling the memory of that night over and over again.

He was holding her in his arms. He could still remember his blood boil as he took in the unusual scent radiating off her body and how his mind went blank when he tasted the sweetness of her soft skin. The strange sensation and the sudden burst of emotions he felt that night was haunting him. There was an overwhelming surge of familiarity as he stared into her emerald eyes.

He heard it once.

There was a myth wherein the very first king to ever rule has given the lycans the constant desire to satisfy his ideals and to serve him with pure loyalty and love--it was the oath of blood. After the king had died, the lycans were left in despair and it took hundreds of years for their kingdom to recover.

Thousands of years had passed, and the oath of blood never happened again, but records were proving that it had existed.

Was it what he felt that night?

Or was it just an illusion?

He looked at his hand holding the black cloak she wore before she vanished into thin air. He placed the garment under his nose and closed his eyes, inhaling the remains of her sweet, peculiar scent. She was gone but the strange feeling of attachment he felt around her didn't.

He never knew he's been waiting for this his entire life; it only took for that someone to appear before him to realize it.

Tightening his grasp on the cloak, he looked up at the blue sky. He had no willingness to devote his life to something, like ever. But with just one night, with just a strange encounter, all his reasonings, and beliefs had disappeared in a blink of an eye.

That deep gaze of that pair of green eyes, he was yearning for it. That overwhelming presence, he was craving for it. The sweet taste of her smooth and delicate skin, he was thirsty for it. Aside from the cloak, he was holding, the feeling of emptiness was only what she had left on him. It was too extreme he felt so hollow like he was existing without purpose. He wanted her so bad.

After all, she was his alpha.