1 Chapter 1 - The Howl at the South Border

The moon already took its place above the sky, with stars surrounding it’s ring, as it shines brightly through the windows of my room. Twenty minutes had passed since twelve in the midnight yet still unable to find my sleep. I have been tossing and rolling around the bed, sitting up straight, then laying down again for a few times, with those things, not a single sleepiness visited my eyes. I sigh and rolls my back again to the soft mattress, then stare blankly at the wooden ceiling of my king size bed, that has a warm cove lighting which gives highlight to the square frame mural painting of a milky way galaxy. I also tried to count the stars in the painting hoping to set my eyes to sleep, but it only gives me a headache.

"Maybe a glass of warm milk can do the trick"

I thought to myself. Flipping the blanket to the side, then I sit up at the edge of the mattress, lowering my feet, feeling the cold of the marble flooring of my bedroom. I walk to the door, and when my hand touches the doorknob I heard a loud howl. My head snaps towards the window, my heart starts pounding uncontrollably, and my wolf keeps spinning himself in the back of my head.

"It is coming from the border" I mumbled to the air.

"Did you hear that?" Immediately I mind linked my night shift patrols, that are supposed to be patrolling at the borders at this hour.

"Yes, your Highness, we are currently looking into it. It came from the south border" mind linked back by one of the patrols,

I hurriedly open the door and rushed outside of my bedroom, running in the hallway towards the gates. I am still wearing my two-peace garment night pajamas, that is closed by buttons at the front and covered it with a night lounge robe. I know that it may seemed silly, because a man-wolf has heightened senses, they can endure a cold weather, but it has been chilly since the past few weeks, when winter came this month of December, and I do not want my skin to experience dryness due to the chilling weather, so I always wear my set of pajamas during the night before sleeping. While running to the sound nearing the woods, I saw some of the fighters together with my beta, Joshua, running towards the sound as well. After a few minutes, the howling stop.

"It is an unfamiliar howl, and I’m sure it’s not one of us !" Beta Joshua mind linked me. Josh, is one of my best friend since childhood, and his parents are the former beta couple of the kingdom, now in my terms, he, and his mate, Lauren, are my new beta couple.

While we are almost at the south border, my nose suddenly catches a beautiful scent in the air, that set me relax, calms me and send shivering effect to my spine, a beautiful smell of sandalwood but mixed with metallic scent "Blood".

Arriving in the south border, some of the patrols are already encircling a beautiful, long black haired woman, lying naked at the ground, just a few feet away between our territory, The Blood Howlers pack and The unknown habitant land on the other side. She was laying down naked, in a bunch of snowy grass, and her hair covering the half part of her face. She have some wounds in the upper right side of her head. Her legs, and one of her foot have a lot of wounds and bruises.

I saw that the left part of her ribs area, are severely injured due to big claw marks, and blood coming out from it. Her rosy lips, are a bit dry, partially separated as she gasps some air, and her nose is full of blood that were clothed already.

"It seemed someone had punched her right in the face !" I said to myself. Her pinkish cheeks had some bruises in it, but before I could finish scanning her body, I quickly undressed my lounge robe then put it on her.

"Mate !" Blade exclaimed, my wolf, I can feel him being excited at the same time, shocked, and furious, knowing that we have found our mate in an unexpected hour and event, and I am shocked as well, seeing her here in this state.

"Are you sure?!" I asked my wolf with a little doubts inside of me, disbelieving that this wounded woman is our mate ? !

"Ah yeah !, her scent is so good, and I can’t just get over it !, cant you feel the mate pull towards her?" Blade said, while wagging his tail at the back of my mind. "Whoever did this to her will pay !" He added, releasing a furious growl.

"Yes I can feel it, I wonder what happened to her, and where she came from..." I said to myself still unsure at the same time curious. I am about to touch her left side to check the wounds where the blood came flowing, when I suddenly notice her lips moves a bit.

"Doctor Raymond !, come immediately here in the south border, there is a she-wolf severely wounded here !" commanding our pack doctor by our mind links. I noticed that some of the male wolves are still looking at her, I let out a low growl, enough to intimidate them, they immediately turn their gazed away from her.

It has been few years since we encounter unusual event like this. We have a Peace Treaty, happened 50 years ago, our kingdom experienced less blood war since then, we keep our treaty in heart and worked hard to left it that way. Though, we still face few battles with rouges but other than that, we are fine altogether, not until now, I need to know what happened to her and who did this.

"Woah, what was that for?" Josh, asked mein my mind, while Lauren, was helping me, tending to her wounds.

"She is my mate !" I uttered seriously to the crowd, making them shock.

"What ever happened to her, I must know about it. Go ! check the other parts of the territory and see if there are any unusual activity !" commanding the patrols and warriors, and they obliged right away.

A few minutes past, Doctor Raymond came with his medical team.

"She is injured, your Highness, though some of her wounds are now healing, only her ribs area are severely wounded and it seemed to be healing slowly, I needed to examine her more, to know if there are internal bleeding in other part of her body." Doctor Raymond explained while gesturing his team to put her in a stretcher and soon after they begin to run back heading to the pack hospital.

"I think she came from the Blue Moon pack your Highness..." Doctor Raymond said slowly pacing closer to me,

"How did you know?" I asked him back.

"...well, because of her blue eyes, while I check her earlier for some signs of consciousness, I noticed that her eyes are blue which only indicates that she came from that pack." He then leave me as he follows his team back.

It is true that some packs name are related to the features of its members, like ours, we are called Blood Howlers Pack, due to our burning red eyes when we are in our wolf forms, and we are considered to have the biggest and loudest howls in the man-wolves kingdom. We also have the royal blood resided here in the capital. Blue moon pack is a small pack, but one of a kind, due to their features, which has a blue eyes, and black hair, and their wolves has the same features as their human forms. They are considered to be one of the strongest pack as well and had a lot of allies.

"I wonder what happened to her and her pack ?" as I walk back towards my house, thinking about her.

"I'll come visit her in the hospital later." Informing both of my beta and Doctor Raymond by our minds.

Even though my mind is full of questions right now, I needed now some rest, it is almost two in the morning and I can feel my eyes becomes heavier now. So, I enter my bedroom and walk towards to my bed. As I tuck in the blankets, I stare again to the ceiling and wonder what her name is. Her scent still lingers in my nose. I don’t know how many minutes passed until the dark consumes me and brings me in a deep sleep.