In order to survive, Darius, the Alpha King, requires his mate. He will perish if he does not unite with her by the next full moon. After searching for days, Darius finally finds her but she is not who he thinks her to be.
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"I USED TO think that with power, a person can have whatever it is they desired. My power took me everywhere but it never gave me what I desired the most."
He chuckled."It is indeed ironic, isn't it? For decades, I have been loathing and cursing the Goddess for withholding my mate from me.
"Now that I think about it, I think the reason she kept you away from me for so long was to show me the value of waiting. The longer I waited and desired for you, the more I would value you once I had you."
"I know that my presence in your life would complicate it but now that I have met you, I do not think I am capable of letting you go. Even if I have nine days left in this world, I would rather spend it watching you, even from afar."
Just then, the Alpha King felt his mate's fingers clasp around his own.
"You're sad," she said but her eyes were still closed.
Darius quickly stood up, still holding her hand. "You're awake!"
With a groan, Ophelia pulled herself into a sitting position while holding her forehead.
"Yes, but I just had the strangest dream," she said, finally opening her eyes and looking around. "Where am I?"
Darius grabbed the bottle of water on top of the desk and handed it to her. "You fainted so I brought you to my penthouse. "
Ophelia quickly downed the water like she hadn't sipped in weeks. "I fainted? Whe... "
Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Wolf! I saw a wolf! Wait, you were there too... and the wolf..."
She paused, her silence disturbed Darius. He knew she was remembering everything that happened. With scared eyes, he stood still and watched her recall.
Then she gasped and looked up to Darius with wide eyes. "It wasn't a dream, was it? You were that wolf, weren't you?"
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SOMETIMES, REALITY MIGHT be the truth but other times it might be far from what may be known and seen, and so the truth might not be reality.
From schools to the internet, to documentaries and even hearsay, nothing could have prepared Ophelia for the fantasy that unveiled before her eyes as the truth.
Multiple times in the past few minutes, Ophelia tried to convince herself that it was just a prank and that somehow Darius had been able to make her see things he wanted her to see.
Even before she asked the question, she already knew the answer. She gasped out, not out of the shock of realisation but out of acceptance.
"It wasn't a dream, was it? You were that wolf, weren't you?"
"I promise, I will not hurt you, Ophelia," Darius said, keeping his distance and watching her warily like a wounded animal he was trying to coax.
But somehow, without reason, Ophelia already knew Darius would not hurt her, and that bothered her. It also bothered her that she believed every word that came out of his mouth, no matter how ridiculous it sounded.
"I'm insane," she blurted out, grabbing a fistful of hair in her hand. Her eyes were wide and stunned.
"No, you are not," Darius responded, sounding so sure of himself while Ophelia was internally doubting her sanity.
She looked up at him."I should be running away. I should be screaming and calling the asylum but here I am, calmly talking to you. Why am I still here? Why am I still here?!"
"Calm down, Ophelia," he urged with his eyes on her fisted hair strands.
She shook her head. "No. I must be insane. It must be. There is no other explanation."
Ophelia felt her grip get tighter on her hair but she didn't care. Perhaps pain was what she needed to be shoved back into reality.
But Darius moved too quick for her, grabbing her and pulling her into his embrace. His heat engulfed her. It was warm. In his arms, she stared up at him.
Ophelia didn't protest as he untangled her fingers from her hair. She didn't protest even when he moved them toward the bed head and then sat them down to lean against the bed head.
And futhermore, she didn't protest when he began making calming pats on her back. She just stayed still in his embrace.
"Why me?" Ophelia whispered after some time.
"Why did you decide to tell me all these things? If I recall correctly, you said that only the Presidents and Governors are aware of... Uh..."
Ophelia paused.
"Creatures. We are called creatures," Darius told her.
It wasn't like she had forgotten. The word carried so much weight for her tongue to carry.
Saying it out loud meant that she finally believed it, and agreed to it, without any doubts. It meant saying goodbye to everything she knew and believed in. It meant a new reality.
Regardless, she nodded and continued; "Why would you choose to tell me about your kind?"
A brief silence lingered in the room before Darius started speaking.
"When Werewolves had just been created, our abilities were too much to handle. We could take what we wanted and no one would stop us.
"Besides Royal Vampires, the rest can only move about when the sun has gone down and Witches were limited to spells and elemental magic.
"But wolves seemingly had no restrictions. Day and night, we had strength, speed and our wolves' agility. It was getting difficult for other species especially humans to protect themselves against us.
Because of this, we took humans and made them our slaves, wives or even food. So the goddess decided to give us a weakness," Darius said, and then paused.
Feeling the rise and fall of his chest, Ophelia could hear breathing behind her. Heavy at first, but then slowly turning light.
As she listened to his words, her mind drifted at the sound of his voice, and she wondered why despite everything he just told her, she was still so calm.
Perhaps it was the magic in his voice that compelled her to calmly listen to him.
"One day, the King of all Werewolves visited a neighbouring pack to help them solve an intruder problem when he smelled the most beautiful scent.
"He traced it to the daughter of the pack doctor. In that moment, the cold-hearted King fell in love at first sight and took the female back home with him as his Queen.
"They were the first mates in history. Later on, more mates were found and because of this existence, wolves stopped taking humans as wives, and instead chose to search for their soulmates when it was their time.
"The more knowledgeable wolves later revealed to us that it was the Moon Goddess that gave us this great connection.
"Our soulmate is who we are destined to spend the rest of our lives with. Our mates are our weakness; they live and we live, they die and our will to live is mostly taken away."
