Cold Flames

Alpha Nixen and Almost.21.

.November.

"U-umm, y-yeah okay." I cursed at myself. I wasn't even reading yet and already I was stuttering. But Chloe was looking at me with those big brown eyes and my heart melted.

I walked towards her bookshelf and looked silently, my eyes passing through numerous books until I found one I personally liked myself, Alpha Nixen. I read this a lot as a child and still had the worn out copy amongst many of my other books. This one however looked neat and tidy as though it had never been touched and I picked it up with a small smile on my face.

"I l-love this book." Hunter smiled at me from the doorway and I quickly made my way to Chloe, sitting at the edge of her bed. She looked apprehensive at my book choice and I was scared I had disappointed her.

"Don't worry, I'll m-make sure you fall in lo-love with the book as much a-as I did."

"Okay Novy."

She wiggled until she was comfortable and I waited to make sure she was looking at me before slowly reading the story to her. Alpha Nixen was an old folktale of a weak Alpha who was casted away by his Pack after they had lost many wars and lost many Pack members. They shunned him and he soon became a rogue with nowhere to go and no one to turn too. Filled with a new determination, Nixen began to train every day and even sometimes, at night. He was an outlaw for six months and had faced many series of attacks from neighboring Packs, nearby rogues and even a few hunters but every time he fell down, Nixen would get back up again and train till he couldn't.

One day, he overheard some rogues plotting to overrule his old Pack which was now being run by his brother. He didn't want to risk being seen and being shunned so he came up with a plan. One night, he tied a letter containing the details of the plot to a piece of rock and managed to sneak past a few warriors who were standing post.

He flung the stone into a random window in the Pack House, hoping someone would find him and alert his brother. Instead, before he could get away, he heard a soft cry from where he had flung the stone, one that made his heart ache with guilt and grief. He moved quickly into the territory, entranced by the alluring scent and climbed the fig tree quickly, pushing the window open and jumping in. Inside laid a fair maiden on the bed with the stone in her hand. A bit of glass stuck out of her palm from the shattered glass and her face was contorted with pain.

Nixen couldn't take his eyes off her. She was his mate! He came to realize, and from the way she was looking at him, he knew she knew it too and he became conscious of how dirty and unsanitary he was from living in the woods, his hair long overgrown. Before they could say a word to each other, some Pack warriors barged into the maiden's room in anger, realizing a rogue had slipped in right under their nose. They carried him away and the maiden gave a terrorized cry for him. He realized then that his men didn't recognize him. He had been gone for six months!

They locked him in a dungeon his own father had designed for three days and three nights without food and only water. In that time, Alpha Nixen took the time to meditate and build himself emotionally, he was aware that there was going to be a war with the rogues soon. He meditated and meditated until one day, he was so spent and drained that he lay in the empty cell, thinking of his escape plan. Unexpectedly, a bright light shone.

Alpha Nixen sat up in a flash and for a moment, he thought he would go blind from the intensity of the light. That was of course until he saw a figure begin to take form in the light. He gasped and shifted to a corner of the cell.

"The Moon Goddess!" Chloe yelled, cutting me off in the middle of the story.

I smiled teasingly at her, dropping the book on my lap, "Well since y-you already know, I guess we don't have to read th-this anymore." I threw my hands up in exaggeration and gave a deep sigh.