"I hope we didn't come all the way here in vain." Richie said.
"I'm not feeling comfortable about this." Amber added.
"Same here." Hudson chimed in..
"We should turn back." Vanessa said and they all turned around, being natural and pretending to be unaware of the person trailing them. As they walked, Matthew monitored the person from the corner of his eyes as he hid in the bushes nearby.
As they got closer, Hudson put his hand on a short spear by his side and now close enough, he swiftly withdrew the spear and threw with sending the spear whizzing through the air pinning the person's clothes to the tree.
As he struggled to break free, they walked towards him.
"Who are you?" Vanessa asked.
✓
"I'm Raymelle." He said.
"When we found out about your arrival at our village, the Alpha assigned me to spy on you and find out what your mission here is," Raymelle continued.
"I wish to speak to your Alpha" Vanessa said.
"I could take you to him." Raymelle said.
"The day is gone, that would have to be tomorrow, for the meantime we have to find a place to stay," Matthew said.
"My house is just around the corner, you could sleep there," Raymelle said.
"That would be great." Richie said.
*. *. *.
"You called for me," Lucille said as she walked towards Eugeus.
"Yes."
"There is a meeting of the Alpha's tomorrow and it will be holding at the Vladdicus pack village and I want you to go with me as my assistant." Eugeus continued.
"Okay," Lucille said, hands behind her back.
"Go pack your things, we leave at first light," Eugeus said looking up to the dark sky, dotted with stars and a crescent moon.
*. *. *.
Raymelle dropped the last plate of soup before Richie and sat down beside him shifting his own plate of soup towards himself.
"The soup is nice," Matthew said.
"Thanks, it's my recipe," Raymelle said as he scooped a spoon of soup into his mouth.
"Pass me the salt please" Amber said facing Richie and Raymelle's direction who were closer to the salt.
Richie and Raymelle reached at for the salt at the same time.
Richie's POV.
As Amber asked for the salt to be passed to her, I stretched out my hands to take it and placed my hand on the salt, Raymelle also doing the same. Before he could stop, he placed his hands on mine and immediately, I felt a strange feeling go through my spine we then looked at each other as I stared into his eyes it was dark gray in colour with a captivating effect.
"Hmn, the salt please" Amber said breaking the awkward silence and Raymelle quickly took his hands off mine and I picked the salt, pushing it across the table to Amber.
Author empire's POV.
Richie adjusted to another position on the bed as he slept and then again and again before opening his eyes.
It was in the middle of the night.
He then began to hear grunts coming from outside. He then stood up and walked outside into the moonlight and saw Raymelle as a trained slashing his world through the air.
As Raymelle stopped to breathe in some air, he noticed Richie standing there.
"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Raymelle asked.
"No, I couldn't sleep" Richie replied with a smile.
"Nice, how you fought now let's try it with an actual person." Richie stepped on the hilt of a sword lying on the floor, catching it as it flew into the air.
Raymelle stood upright and they both swung the swords at each other, parrying back and forth continuously. Then they both stopped to rest dropping the sword in their hands.
"Where did you get that scar" Richie said looking at his scar on Raymelle's arm.
"I got it the night my parents were murdered," Raymelle said.
"I'm sorry," Richie apologized and swallowed.
"I also grew up in an orphanage home and never knew my parents," Richie continued and
Raymelle moved towards Richie, kissing him suddenly. Richie was caught by surprise, but after a few sec of freezing, he kissed him back.
***
.
As a ray of sunlight hit Richie who was lying half naked on the bed with Raymelle, he slowly opened his eyes. He looked sideways at Raymelle and smiled as he watched Raymelle sleep.
"Morning sunshine," Richie said as he ran his hands through Raymelle's bare chest.
Raymelle then slowly opened his eyes and faced Richie as Richie kissed him softly.
"It's morning already," Richie said and immediately, Raymelle got up and began to put on his trousers.
"What is the matter?" Richie asked.
"There is a meeting today and I'm supposed to be with Alpha Armani, as his assistant," Raymelle said.
"Wake your friends up, I have to be there before the meeting starts," Raymelle continued as he buttoned up his shirt.
✓
"The meeting, according to Raymelle will be over any minute from now," Matthew said looking towards the door to the chamber where the meeting of the Trishana packs was holding.
The door to the hall soon opened and people began to troop out.
"Finally." Hudson sighed.
Raymelle then walked over to them.
"The Alpha is ready to see you" Raymelle said and Matthew brought out a golden crown from a bag in his hands and placed it on Vanessa's head.
"You're... You're the Queen!" Raymelle said and immediately bowed before Vanessa.
"Raymelle," Richie said and Raymelle stood upright.
Matthew then looked towards the door and spotted someone among the crowd looking just like Lucille.
"Matthew, let's go," Vanessa said and Matthew jumped back to his senses. He glanced at Vanessa and then back at where he had been looking.
"Sorry, I thought I saw someone" Matthew said and joined them as they walked behind Raymelle.
"Sir, the visitors I told you about are here," Raymelle said, facing a middle-aged man with fine masculine features.
"Where are they?" Armani, the Alpha asked.
"Matthew of the royal pack, the Queen is pleased to meet you," Matthew said as he approached Armani with Vanessa by his side and the others behind them.
"Your highness" Armani said and bowed slightly.
"You didn't tell me it was the Queen, we could have prepared a grand welcoming," Armani whispered to Raymelle.
"Don't worry, we are just here in search of someone," Vanessa said, sounding cold.
"Your highness, may I ask who?" Armani asked.
"Cleopatra of the Vaughan line," Mr Harper said as he stepped forward.
"Sorceress Cleopatra?" Armani asked.
"Yes" Matthew answered.
"I'm sorry to break this to you but she died a year ago," Armani said.
"Dead!" Vanessa exclaimed.
Someone then came forward and whispered something into Armani's ears.
"Ok" Armani said and the person left.
"Eugeus, the Alpha of the White lunar pack is on his way here, I'm sure he'll be surprised to see you." Armani smiled.
Eugeus then approached and to their surprise, accompanying him was Lucille dressed in a warriors cloak with knifes, blades and swords hidden by her ankle, sleeves and sides.
"My queen," Eugeus said with a hint of surprise in his voice as he bowed a little.
Eugeus then looked sideways and signalled to Lucille to bow.
"She does not need to bow or do you? Princess Lucille?" Matthew said.
Stunned, Eugeus faced Lucille.
"You didn't tell me you were a princess," Eugeus said.
"You said it yourself, I WAS a princess." Lucille said and bowed before Vanessa.
"Your highness," she said.
"She's here to search for sorceress Cleopatra," Armani said.
"But she died a year ago," Eugeus said.
"Yes but what if we could get someone else from the Vaughan's line, anyone from the line could do it," Mr Harper said.
" Vera could have been our last shot but she's probably dead in the void, so it's over" Matthew said.
"No, it's not," Lucille cut in.
"Author, Vera's son," Lucille said.
"He's dead, he died a long time ago," Matthew said.
"No he didn't," Lucille said.
"Oh yes, we found him outside our village three days ago" Eugeus said.
"Get him for me." Vanessa commanded.
✓
"Where's Toshiba?" Lucille asked.
"He came with us and then went looking for you." Hudson said.
"What do you mean he went looking for me?"Lucille asked.
"He went the other way." Matthew said.
"Oh no, the path Toshiba went is occupied by rebels!" Lucille exclaimed in worry.
"That's bad," Raymelle said.
"Author is here, you go, I'll stay here and look for Toshiba." Lucille said.
"No go with your people, I'll see that we find him and bring him over," Eugeus said.
"They then all walked to the rover with Richie and Raymelle behind holding hands.
"You can go with them," Armani said smiling at them.
"Thank you so much," Raymelle said.
As Lucille walked towards the rover, she turned back at Eugeus.
"You are my people." she said softly before heading into the rover.
*. *. *.
Toshiba slowly opened his eyes and quickly shut it as the rays of sunlight hurt his eyes. He slowly opened it once again looking away until his eyes adjusted. He look around and concluded that was in some kind of cave judging by the stalagmites and stalactites.
He groaned as he stood up and walked but only a few metres away, he felt a sharp coldness of metal bite into his skin. He looked back and saw that he was chained to the cave's wall.
He walked towards the cave's wall and picked up a rock on the floor and began to hit the spot where is chain was buried into hoping to break the chain loose from the cave's wall
"It'll keep holding no matter what you do" a voice said and Toshiba turned around to see a man dressed as a combat lord smiling at Toshiba.
"Humans shouldn't live among wolfs," the man said and his smile weared off.
"Why?" Toshiba asked.
"You humans are agents of destruction, all you do is wage war against yourself
Instead of using your enlightenment to develop yourself, you use it to destroy yourself. Your presence here will only mean and only means danger for us." The man said.
"How do you know I'm human?" Toshiba asked.
"Your human scent betrays you" the man said and then walked away.
"When do we call for ransom?" A guard said at the entrance of the cave.
"Don't, this one dies."
"