Unknown

The break of dawn was fast approaching.

Merry tunes, emanating from the faraway thrush birds, attested to this observation. Likewise, the frigid air current glided about to chauffeur in an escort of crystallized flakes of snow flagging the peaking sun. The imposing mountains stood, clothed in royal robes of misty clouds. Down their flowing trains wandered, submerging the pack in a coating of hazy essence.

Winter was upon the pack in full force.

Pulling the strings of my fleece balaclava hood, my gaze strayed away from the windows' depiction to the corridor ahead of me. I began my journey down its path with soft steps preceded by slow intakes of breath. All the way, rubbing both palms together to shake off winters' icy grip. I would do anything to be back in my room, swathed within layers upon layers of duvet.

However, as instructed by my master, I had to endure the burden of continuing my act as an informant to the dubious Alpha wolf. Until I uncovered the identity of the mysterious being feeding his ever-growing confidence to go head-on with the one who was ruthless.

A vaulted ceiling and hexagonal cantilever shelves soon replaced cream baroque-styled walls and rows of hung paintings. Mindless walking down the winding steps had deposited me onto the first floor. Attempting to continue on to the foyer, a cast of dim lighting on the Oriental rug caught my attention. My hand stilled on the banister and I traced out its source. Aryns' study was opened, just a tad bit, and with the lively flicker of shadows within the room, I deduced that he was working.

But with whom?

Creeping, stealthy, towards the doors' opening, I peered into his office and gasped with a hand to my mouth at the scene. He and Star were locked in what seemed to be a passionate kiss. Moans of pleasure wafted up to my hearing as I watched on in disbelief.

Aryns' argument with Yil hadn't been that particularly loud but my timely eavesdropping had ensured that I learnt of Yil's love for the white-wolf, Rae.

But how did Star fit into all this? Was she a means to get back at Yil?

Hurried apologies pulled me out of my internal theories and looking back to the scene, I noticed that Aryn had pulled away from Star in regret. Words, aimed at making an already uncomfortable situation less awkward, were exchanged between the two with the final act being Star's hurried descent from the mahogany table.

I withdrew from my position by the door and clicked it shut, softly. Looking around, frantically, I calculated that despite my lycanthropic speed, Star would still catch sight of my form running down the lengthy corridor. She would alarm the pack guards, no doubt, to the possibility of an intruder.

The black balaclava and overflowing coat didn't particularly help matters as well.

Alternatively, lunging down the remaining flight of stairs to the foyer was also out of the option. For not only was I going to cause a loud clatter as I barrelled into the wicker stand that held umbrellas, I would sprain an ankle as well.

I had but one half-filled vial of ichor left and any injury sustained now would be particularly slow to heal.

Therefore, sighting the single structural column, clad in lighted flower carvings, I got on my knees and crawled, speedily, towards it. Pressing my back behind the pillar, I drew my knees in and hoped for my sake that she wouldn't catch sight of my shadow.

It rested, lazily, against the wall, mirroring my every action including the controlled rise and fall of my chest as I waited with bated breath for her exit.

The soft click of the door announced her presence as well as ended my millisecond of anxiety. Spying from beside the pillar, I saw her rest her head against the door. Her form racked with silent sobs just as an ear-splitting crash emanated from Aryn's office. Reflexively, she sought to investigate the reason behind the disturbance with an outstretched hand. However, making an internal decision, her hand stilled a tiny fraction away from the doorknob before she retracted her fingers, turned away and walked up the stairs.

Okay, what the hell was going on? A love rectangle? How did mates end up in intimate relationships with wolves they were not mated to? Yil with Rae and Aryn with Star. Or was the mate bond growing ineffective the more the wolf gene diminished? Had the constant-

Questions queued up in a single procession, each one much more perplexing than the last. One by one, they stated their bone of contention to the disturbed ears of my reasoning. Until at last they exited the chamber of my logic, as unsolved as the first time they waltzed in.

It was true that Aryn and Star had been friends since childhood. Nevertheless, that was what it always was. It was never anything more despite Stars' lifelong feelings of endearment towards him.

Or had it?

Aryn was a being, reserved in the expression of his feelings. His spaced out acts of doting care could be easily overlooked as insignificant until you actually compiled all those instances and realised that they happened more frequently than you thought.

|The Astronomy Centre had been fitted with the best lightning, replaced every time they burnt out without fail, and it so happened that Star was short sighted.

|For a man who loathed humans talk less of crowded human beaches, he owned an overhead golf terrace, which was located next to one. Much more bizarre was that he rarely played there except the times Star was out with her colleagues, collecting water samples. Was it because she couldn't swim and he wanted to keep an eye on her?

|Star had a habit of falling asleep, in uncomfortable positions, at her work desk. Yet she'd find herself tucked into her bed the next morning. Roy would tease her, most times, on how heavy she was to carry but in reality, Aryn had been behind the move.

Friends did this for each other all the time, didn't they? However, he was an Alpha; he needeth go through all the trouble himself. He lorded over a pack who'd wordlessly execute his orders. So why did he put in so much effort? Or was I thinking too much into this, waving away the thick fog to peer beyond its surface?

"Why the heck are you late?" A deep voice snarled, dousing my sparked up thoughts with a cold splash of reality.

My senses awoke to the gloomy aurora of suffering that plagued my surroundings. Naked trees bent willingly to the harsh will of glacial air just as the gathered heaps of snow housed on their form flittered, wildly, in the atmosphere. Melancholic clouds circled atop the dark hole of horrors in time to the metallic clang of drawn chains and pained moans of distressed prisoners.

"What do you make of a mate who is in love with another wolf?" I mumbled, ignoring his question and looking back to my footprints, imprinted deeply within the cold abodes of the snow. It was a wonder how I'd walked here, deep in thought.

His momentary silence drew my attention to his furrowed eyebrows and perplexed expression. "What do you make of it?" I repeated, strolling closer to an area where the putrid stench was less assaulting on my olfactory organ.

A red glint in the shadows caught my eyes and I squinted to get a better look.

"And how would that be relevant to the reason behind this impromptu meeting? Hmm... My jewel of inestimable value," he questioned, sweetly.

The seemingly controlled tone was a regulator against the fury boiling within him. "You have the guts to show up late to an appointment that you set up next to this ghastly place..." he motioned to the grotesque prison, in disgust, as the sanguine glint became even more visible. "...then you keep me waiting in this freezing weather only to ask me what?" He barked, kicking the snow by his feet.  "Do you think I just casually walked into this pack? Or do you have any idea how hard it is to..."

I turned around in annoyance, quite tired of hearing his constant berating, and hissed. "Yil is in love with another wolf and Aryn is quite wrecked by the news. Now is the perfect time to attack,"

He looked back at me as if I was out of my mind before he gave into a fit of rambunctious laughter.

"Would you keep it down?" I snapped, taking a quick sweep of our surroundings for any indication of an advancing prison guard who might have come to investigate the reason behind the abrupt sound.

We were located in a deserted part of the forest behind the gothic-themed penitentiary. Here, there laid a swamp harbouring the bloated, dismembered bodies of prisoners, floating lifelessly on its surface. It was a blind spot that the prison guards rarely bothered with and rightfully so. The stench was unbearable, the gore, ghastly and the area overall just reeked of death.

It still didn't give Mister I-will-laugh-whenever-I-want-regardless-of-any-ensuing-consequenes over here the liberty to cause such a ruckus.

"Or would you like for our heads to float like that of your murky counterparts?" I frowned, deeply, as his mocking laughter subsided.

"Your head," He corrected, wiping his tears with a chuckle. "I happen to have a teleporter, you don't," he bragged just as a prickling sensation crawled up my spine to settle at the base of my neck. My head grew heavy with pressure and my vision dimmed slightly.

Turning, I took in the presence of a ravine haired enchantress with mesmerizing orbs, the shade of energetic amber. Familiar facial features assessed me with silent scrutiny. Only this time they were characterized by an aloof essence of elegance and superiority. Quite contradictory to the friendly soft aurora I was accustomed to.

Her name stuck to the base of my throat, refusing to air out, as I felt compelled to avert my gaze and bow my head. In this situation, she wasn't an acquaintance but a creature of immense power and influence. As an undead, how hadn't I sensed this before?

"Has Rae made the trip here?" she questioned, coolly. Her melodious yet eerie tone drew my attention from my snow-clad boots to meet her intense stare.

"How did you know about that?" I blurted out; quite surprised that she was aware of his presence in the pack. The white-wolf had only arrived here a few hours ago.

"Has he or has he not, undead?" she pressed, her controlled yet enticing siren call masked the irritation lacing her words and thus coaxed the answer from my lips.

"Yes, he has. He just arrived yesterday evening," I offered up more than was required in a monotone voice and had to break my gaze lest I kept going. Except for my master who summoned me, no one had ever been able to cast a spell of compulsion on me. Not even sorcerers or vampires of the highest calibre. Yet here she was breaking that power boundary.

"Didn't think he'd pull through with it," she hummed, deep in thought as her fingers caressed the sanguine-coloured vial placed around her neck, absentmindedly.

The vial effused a very strong male-wolf scent. One that I speedily linked to the blossom, vanilla infused fragrance that had emanated from Rae. Was he also under her control?

"What is she? I whispered, to the Alpha who had the biggest, shit-eating grin on his face as he stared, unabashedly, at the intoxicating female.

"She's an intelligent beauty," He breathed, transfixed by her allure.

"That's not the point here, you horny wolf," I ground out with a frustrated growl and a smack to my forehead. "She's neither human nor werewolf. What is she?"

The minute the question left my lips, I went through a mental list of all the additional creatures she was not and snorted, internally. Surely, this idiot would not summon-

"...a Jerlion," he drawled as if to say I was dense and couldn't figure out the obvious fact by myself.

I stilled at the revelation, the blood draining from my face just as my heart rate quickened with anxiety.

Of all the mystical creatures that could have been summoned, it had to be a Jerlion. They were deceitful and quite ruthless in more ways than one. Furthermore, they never showed up unless there was some kind of personal gain involved or worse if it was just for sadistic fun.

"I've always known you to be insane but have you lost the little wits you had in that pea sized brain of yours?" I sputtered, finally drawing his attention to myself. "You summoned a Jerlion to go against my master, spy on me and do your dirty biddings?" I quizzed, incredulously with a gaped expression.

"I'd be careful with your choice of words undead," she warned, gravelly with a hooded stare that made me cower in fear. "Unlike you, I am no slave to anyone," she enforced with a cold, condescending smirk.

At this point, I couldn't even reconcile the past impression I had of her with this new awakening to her real nature. Jerlions were masters of trickery, hands-down.

"Don't mind the apparition. Most times it talks before it thinks," he placated with a nervous laugh, staring daggers at me. "Why would I summon her to do my dirty biddings?" He scoffed with an arched eyebrow.

So, you summoned her to go against my master then, I thought still trying to wrap my head around how he had managed to summon a Jerlion when my master had a hold of the only hybrid-sorcerer who could perform such a feat.

"Your incompetence with simple tasks is seriously starting to get me down," he continued, interrupting my internal contemplations with a groan and slightly elongated fangs. "Firstly, you fail on your mission to get me the white-wolf power box. Now you are delirious enough to think I'd waste my time sending a spy on someone as replaceable as you are. That's not even as absurd as you thinking that Yil is in love with another wolf..." He ranted on as I tuned his annoying reprimanding out and silently regarded the creature beside him.

As an undead, I had the ability to connect with the core strength foundation of all sentient life forms. A Jerlion was obviously a different ball game. Nonetheless, if there were ever a time when I stood a chance of assessing her power ranking and connections, now was the time when she was in full form.

The gentle movement of her jawline entrapped my attention and drew my eyes to her lips. Opening my ears once more to the conversation whizzing past my senses, I caught her response to the Alphas' continuous rant.

"Yil might in fact be in love with another wolf," she speculated. "I know for a fact that Rae is hung up on her but I can't be sure she shares the same feelings or if it's just a case of unrequited love," she mused, still with her fingers to the vial. "What makes you so sure of your claim?" She questioned, staring at me.

I inhaled, deeply, and held her stare with the tiniest shred of confidence that I could muster while debating whether to divulge any more information to a creature I couldn't yet figure out. The slight smirk that graced the corners of her lips dared me to disobey her prompt and face the vanquishing consequences.

Gnashing my teeth in a show of silent rebellion, I answered: "I overheard her argument with Aryn and she didn't deny anything when he confronted her about her feelings for Rae,"

"Interesting," she hummed, her eyes clouding over with an emotion I couldn't decipher and in all honesty, I wasn't eager to find out. Why was she interested in all this? Because if she wasn't acting on the orders of the Alpha wolf as she refuted, then what would she gain from going after Rae.

"How is it possible for her to love another apart from Aryn though?" The Alpha asked, giving me something else to focus on other than her terrifying orbs.

"Funny you should ask," I snarked under my breath, remembering that he had laughed at my earlier insinuation of a romantic relationship between Rae and Yil. "It's beyond me but Aryn is quite broken by this at the moment," I rushed, covering up my sarcastic comment from going noticed by his supersonic ears. I was well and truly over this farce, especially now that I had uncovered the powerful creature backing him up. "He has been wallowing in alcohol ever since and I think this is the perfect time to initiate a common ground for conflict," I suggested.

"A conflict severe enough to warrant war," he smiled, sinisterly, catching on to my unspoken words.

"Precisely," I confirmed as he stared into the tenebrous depths of the swamp, a scheming plan forming in his head.

Now, the grim bodies were much more visible to the eye as the sunray had managed to penetrate through the overcast clouds.

We needed to disperse soon but not before I completed my assessment of the Jerlion. I had deduced that she was of a higher power ranking on the Usturuian hierarchy. The singular, inconspicuous star mark by her left eyebrow as well as the power radiating from her was show enough of this fact. However, her true connections to this world were yet to be uncovered.

Racking my brain for an excuse to stall the conclusion of the meeting, I blurted: "What would her role be then?"

"That's not for you to bother your empty little head about," the Alpha wolf chuckled, placing a palm out to her. She took hold of his hand with a forced smile and he drew her close.

Something was off in the dynamic between the two because I could clearly sense the cold, detached hand, she dealt him. However, for some reason he was so oblivious to this. Or maybe he wasn't. You could never tell with him. Moreover, considering her immense power she certainly did not have to be so complaint with him if she didn't want to.

My eyes wandered once more to the dull star-mark and I contemplated its abnormality as she spoke.

"A heartbroken Alpha equals the downfall of a pack and seeing as he is without an heir, this war will pan out as easy as taking candy from a baby," her eyelashes, fluttered open, softly and for the first time a genuine smile caressed her lips.

The action was reminiscent of the perky, innocent lady, I had a faint recollection of and in that split second, she appeared to be harmless.

All that was gone, however, when the smile cleared from her face and the atmospheric temperature around us began to plummet even further. The trees stood still and the snowflakes fell from the sky in slow motion. My heartbeat dulled to a quiet tempo and I felt myself freeze in place.

"Our victory is nearer than you can imagine. Await any further orders and until next time," he dismissed, curtly before he and the Jerlion teleported with a vicious thunderclap.

Its tone was drawn out as space and time acclimated slowly to their former glory and as such it wasn't so harsh on my ears.

My breath came back to me in a rush, the trees continued to bend to the will of the fast flowing air and the decapitated heads, bobbed up and down, rhythmically.

I fell to my knees and hands in the snow and gasped for air.

Jerlions were just as proud as wolves, if not prouder, especially with regards to their hierarchy. As such, a creature of such high ranking would never carry such a dim lighted star-mark. How else would she exert her dominance over her mates and peers alike if they could barely see her star-mark?

The Jerlion had been lying through her teeth because it was now evident that something else gave the Alpha wolf confidence and it wasn't her. It was his control over her.
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