MATED TO THE NIGHT WOLF (MTTNW)

[23.1] A MASTERS PLAY

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"And what is the price of a Soul? Tell me pup, what can equate a sacrifice so great if not only the price of another soul?"
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[Master Greygory]

Before the Evernight, there were signs.

Signs written down and recorded through time.

Before me, I see them. Stronger than before. More than mere changes of the wind in the air these last few months, but the whispery echoes I hear within these walls at night-
—they can not be of this realm.

Shadows are not meant to be heard, and yet their voices resound, almost inaudible but so close I could swear I hear the victorious banter. Stronger than ever through the storms of this morning.

"Master Gregory."

I turned slightly as the door opened watching as a King's guard saluted. His eyes remained straight ahead, the scent of his wolf submissive beneath mine.

"Speak."

"The King summons you, my lord."

My gaze shifted away from the soldier, sending him away with a wave, "acknowledged. I will serve."

He saluted once more, closing the door behind him as he left.

I glanced down at the small paper parchment between my fingers, my gaze darting up and out into the darkness of the window open before me.

Only little lights could be seen in the far distance. Random lads with lanterns maneuvering below in the dark day.

The dark day had just stormed and thundered for hours as the echoes of the Night Wolf's haunting howls filled the empty sky, hunting in his forest.

It was only a few hours ago that lightning had roared as if weapons thrown by the gods themselves, striking down trees that now littered the courtyard.

The guards and soldiers moved with lanterns in the now-still darkness, cleaning up the aftermath of the shift.

So much destruction and it was only becoming worse.

The darkness was growing, the storms were stronger, and the Lightning more furious.

The day of the mating could not come sooner.

His loneliness would incage us all in an Ever Night if he chooses to yield to the endless.

And past that.

Past the worries that littered the Night court came notes by bird, letters about the darkness spreading. His rage was now so close to Yulis that it could be seen in all its fury from outside the city gates. Daunting and haunting.

The people feared soon the city would be enraptured in it. Yulis would be the first city to fall.

I glanced down at the parchment in my hand again, finally crumbling it up.

Borrowed time.

That was what this was.

Something was coming, something I couldn't quite understand. And it carried the scent of war, the taste of tears, and the feel of a deathless kind of dread that chilled my very bones.

My wolf could feel it even stronger than I was.

The coming of woe.

Ancient forests dying. Bodies disappearing, Elders with visions of wars far from that of resources. All this was proof.

I moved to the candle alighting the note until it burnt to ash.

Selene save us.

Clenching my jaw, my gaze traveled off the small stains of ash across my desk. I blew out the singular candle, surrounding myself in darkness.