FENRIS

I walk stealthily through the corridors of the she-wolves' dormitories. I want to meet my mate one final time before leaving for the mystic shadow pack. I decided to leave the school grounds after Sierra rejected me again last morning and when Elder Raoul confirmed that my adopted father knew about my royal heritage.

I need to find these answers. If sierra had accepted my claim, I would have taken her with me but then that's not possible now. I need to see her before leaving. I concentrate hard and attain the invisible form to open the door of her room and enter. Tatiana is sleeping in her bed soundly relieving me of giving any explanation about my intentions.

I turn towards my mate's bed and sit on the edge of her bed. She looks so peaceful in her sleep. I caress her cheek with the back of my fingers. Touching her silky-smooth skin brings back those sparks causing all of my protective instincts to flare up.

I cup her cheek which looks so small and delicate in my hands. She leans into my touch in her sleep and it takes all of my self-control to not mark her. She rejected me and I would respect her decision. But one thing is confirmed, I will never ask her for a marking again. If she comes to me then I will gladly accept her but I do not want to lose all hopes of living if she rejects me for the third time.

Shaking away those depressing thoughts, I bend over her sleeping form and take a deep breath filled with her scent. I kiss her forehead and let my lips linger on her skin for a few seconds. The sparks intensify when I kiss her skin. What would it feel like to kiss her whole body?

I quickly sit up not wanting to distract myself.

With one last look at her sleeping form, I get up and start walking towards the door. If I stay for a minute more, I might wake her up and then she would get scared. It is better to capture her peaceful expression rather than the scared one as my last memory of her.

I head out of the room after making sure that Tatiana is still asleep and that there is no one outside the room. I trust the elders to look after my mate till I uncover the secrets of my past. I walk out of the dormitory and head towards the direction of my pack.

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I walk towards the direction of my pack. It is the beginning of a new day and the sky is painted in red and orange but the dark thoughts about my mate rejecting me, still linger in the back of my mind. I try hard to push those thoughts away and focus on the more pressing matter about my existence.

It is the beginning of autumn and already I can feel the brown and red leaves crunching beneath my feet even when I try to be as stealthy as possible. I am still on the neutral grounds and very much far from the training school therefore, I need to be as alert as possible to avoid any rogues. I am not in any state to deal with a rogue especially when these rogues know far more about my past than I do at this moment.

I try to keep my pace as relaxed as possible so as to not alert the few rogues which are nearby. Rogue wolves are the most active at dawn and dusk and I do not want to take any chances of accidentally colliding with any rogue here.

The flow of the river is my navigator as I move along the direction of it to reach my pack lands, the mystic shadow. Only a few miles before I reach near the border of my pack. The presence of rogues here even if it is quite far from the pack rubs me the wrong way. I do not like this. It means that these rogues do not fear the pack rules or are probably allowed to roam the lands without any questioning.

The sudden shift in the air alerts me. I spring up immediately in my battling stance and look around. All around me are some pine trees with their high branches. I look up to avoid being pounced on from the branches above me. I take a deep sniff but something is off here. I can feel the rogues in the far distance but not close to me. That means, the one who has disturbed the air is not a rogue.

I concentrate on the energy pattern and identify the magic. Being able to wield some magic because of my mother's witch blood which I know about now, I can sense another person with the similar ability. The energy becomes clearer now as if after being caught it cannot quite go back into hiding. There is a silhouette of a person on the branch of a tree a few feet ahead of me. Not wanting it to run away or get alerted to my presence, I move my legs quickly and am on this person within seconds.

I hold the person's neck in a firm yet non-choking hold so that he knows it is a warning and not a fatal attack. Witches tend to get antsy when their personal space is being invaded.

"Show yourself." I command the masked person. He is all covered in a black robe which somehow is doing the work of camouflaging it.

Suddenly the robe disappears and the face of the person along with her stature is revealed. I quickly remove my hand from the girl's neck and move behind on the branch.

"I apologise for stalking you my lord," she says in a frightened voice and tilts her head to the side in submission. The words as well as the sudden vulnerability make me back off a little. I jump back on solid ground and wait for her to do the same.

"Explain yourself." I order her after she jumps back down with the grace of a feline and stands in front of me but a few feet away. Her head is still bent.

"I was told to guard you till you reach your pack grounds," she says rather timidly.

"Why would I need to be guarded by you, a witch child?" I say rather mockingly.

"The winds informed us that the last heir of the royal bloodline has left the training grounds in search of the truth. Ours is your maternal family and my mother has taken great efforts to help keep your identity a secret till now," she says and with each word my confusion and anger increases.

Who the hell do they think to have the right to keep my identity a secret from me? I look at her carefully to detect any kind of nervousness or fear. She seems to be speaking the truth but her truth has far too many loopholes which I do not want to deal with right now. I do not want to be misled by a stranger.

I suppress my anger and speak in the most monotonous voice of mine.

"You must have mistaken me for someone else. Stop following me and return to wherever you came from," I say and start walking back on my path towards my pack.

The girl ignores my words and follows me annoying me further. She walks besides me even when I have increased my pace. I cannot deal with this girl.

"I said return back to wherever you came from. Why are you following me? I wouldn't believe any word that comes out of your mouth," I say without stopping or looking at her. I move my attention to the trees to look for any notorious rogues.

"My lord. Please forgive my straightforwardness but I would like to accompany you till your pack. I assure you that I bring no harm to you or your packmates neither do I speak any lie regarding your heritage," she says in a mild yet reprimanding tone.

Her tone gives me a hint that this witch is not a child but rather a woman who has childish features. I look at her to take a good look of her eyes. Her eyes show the experience of life indicating that she is indeed a grown woman.

"Reveal your true self. Do not expect me to agree to your proposition when you are walking in a disguise," I all but snarl the last word.

She cowers and takes a few steps back.

"I apologise, my lord, but we witches tend to age very slowly like your species. But unlike a werewolf who stops aging after finding their mate, we witches age slowly after we undergo the stage of puberty," she says, all the while fidgeting. A cute blush rises in her cheeks as she talks about puberty.

"Stop calling me that. I bet you must be knowing the name of the person you are following."

"Yes. I do know your name but.." she starts.

"No buts. If you want to accompany me to my pack lands, you will call me by my name," I say after being completely sure that she is clean of any malicious thoughts.

"Thank you, my lord, Fenris. My name is Alcina," she says as she falls back in step besides me.

I sigh. I do not want to take any risks but she seems quite authentic about her claim. Her family is my maternal family, she says, time to confirm her claim.

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