Prologue

"Hi, Thea." Ava's voice rang from the intercom attached to the door connected to the living room, after a third beep. "I have something for you. Hurry up and open the door!"

From her study room, Thea ran while busy rolling her long blonde hair towards the living room, opening the door for the guest. "Hi, Ava." Thea greeted the long black-haired girl who gave her a smile as the door fully opened.

"What are you carrying with you, Ava?" asked Thea spontaneously, curiously.

"Hurry up and change your clothes!" said Ava with her shiny gray eyes.

Ava spontaneously pulled Thea's hand while bringing themselves in, and then closed the door again. "Dress a little neatly, but don't wear a top that is too revealing," Ava says things that Thea will certainly hate, arranging her in a dress.

Thea folded her hands on her chest, then stared intently at the long black-haired girl who had just crossed her legs while sitting on the only light-colored sofa, the sofa that the girl deliberately brought specially for her to sit on during a visit to Thea's apartment.

"What are you really carrying until you dare to arrange my clothes?" she asked in a defiant tone and look.

Ava grinned, then took out two pieces of gold-colored paper from inside her handbag, and then stretched them out in front of Thea who had not yet softened her gaze.

"The opening of the main gallery, the largest, belongs to Benedikt Braun," Ava exclaimed. "The art activist, the billionaire you admire."

Within seconds Thea's sharp gaze softened, even her bluish-green iris seemed to flash after hearing the barrage of explanations that Ava said. Thea swiftly pulled one of the golden tickets in Ava's hand, flicking it while reading every syllable printed on the rectangular glossy paper along the palm in her grasp.

In the next split second, all sorts of excitement that Thea showed faded instantly as through the tail of her right eye, she saw a green sticky note stuck to the door of her room. It was written clearly, that this afternoon she had a test drive schedule with her new car that she would use for next season's race.

Slowly Thea occupied a long gray sofa on the right side of Ava, she lay down her body while covering her face with her right hand with unmitigated complaints she voiced in front of her best friend.

"Ava. how is this? I want to come to the opening of the Benes Gallery. But I have a test drive schedule that I can't miss."

"You have an hour free before you meet your schedule, Thea," exclaimed Esme from the kitchen.

Ava turned to the source of the voice, finding Esme; Thea's aunt entered the living room with a lilac-colored apron still wrapped around her front body. Esme greeted Ava, giving her a brief hug before then holding out a tablet containing an email from Julien, her uncle who has double jobs as her coach and manager.

Thea lazily forced her body to rise to a sitting position while receiving the tablet stretched out in front of her. Slowly Thea read the contents of the incoming email from Julien, then smiled after reading everything listed in it. Julien gave her 1 hour of freedom because for the past 3 days she has worked hard to train and never too late to meet all her busy schedules. He said that 1 hour Julien called as a reward for Thea's hard work for three days in a row before returning busy with various kinds of training schedules.

"Thank you, Esme! I will use that 1 hour very well!"

Thea hugged Esme tightly, gave her a brief peck on the right cheek, then rushed into the room, and dressed up as Ava suggested. Without asking, after spending 20 minutes, Thea returned in high-waisted pants with a unique button-up pattern adorning her hips and stomach forming the letter M, round glasses, and a mustard-colored turtle neck crop top that wrapped around her upper body.

Thea didn't change her hairstyle, still letting her long blonde hair be rolled up above her head. She put on her best smile as two pairs of gray eyes stared at her without blinking.

"I know, I'm too beautiful for you. Both of you can't comment on anything," Thea exclaimed enthusiastically. She bears a bucket bag that is similar in color with pants and slip-on sneakers that cover her both legs. "Come on, Ava! I don't want to waste my precious hour!"

Thea and Ava rush to their destination, having said goodbye to Esme and promising to meet their schedule on time after attending the opening of Benedikt Braun's newest and largest art gallery, which was first opened exclusively to invited guests.

The entrance to the gallery looks different from the entrance in general. All invited guests are required to enter transparent boxes that they call a detector, and after successfully escaping the device, everyone must shake hands and even face to face with two psychics standing right next to the entrance.

"Is this kind of thing necessary?" asked Thea to the psychic of the wavy red-haired woman who was swept over her right shoulder, when she made it through the detector machine and shook hands and looked at the woman in front her.

"I'm sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, young lady," said the psychic. "All of the art activists in this city greatly avoid the presence of summoners in this painting gallery. We are just trying to find, maybe, there are still some summoners left in this city."

"Are they dangerous to the artworks in this gallery?" asked Thea again. She was getting more and more curious.

The red-haired woman gave her a gentle nod. "You know about Alpha Marc's painting?"

It was Thea's turn to give the nod. "The Alpha who was cursed for losing the war?"

"That's right." The red-haired woman nodded again, then let Thea in, because the examination session was over. "Enjoy the artwork presented by Mr. Bene."

Thea ignored the psychic's warm greeting. Soon she hooked Ava's arm as she walked one by one whitewashed hallway with various kinds of paintings attached to almost all the walls in the super large room and the hallways were quite narrow.

"You believe in the myth of Alpha Marc's painting; The Prince Who Was Cursed For Losing The War?" asked Thea to Ava, as she rediscovered her voice after a moment of silence.

Ava took the time to turn her head, looking at Thea who looked gloomily staring at the painting of a three-baby triplet crying on their mother's lap. "I believe it, and I'm afraid that Alpha will escape the curse."

"Well. I'm not going to talk about myths or anything like that. I don't want you to be more sensitive if I accidentally invite you to argue about what you believe and I believe," Thea said at length as she took the time to look at Ava at a glance before turning into the hallway on the right, in contrast to the one Ava chose.

"Don't look for the painting, Thea," Ava retorted before stepping into the hallway on her left side. "Even if you find it. Just ignore it."

Thea nodded then stepped into the hallway on her right side, leaving Ava behind her with the hallway of her choice. Once again Thea nodded when she found the painting they were talking about, as she arrived in front of the great wall in the middle of the room.

The painting with a silver frame studded with wolfsbane actually managed to attract all of Thea's attention. For a long time, she looked at the painting. All parts in it she did not miss to be seen and observed in such a way, in a unique way and other than the observers of ordinary paintings do.

"Why are those soldiers in armor still brandishing their spears and swords at you?" murmured Thea as she looked at the group of people surrounding the only man still standing upright among the dozens of wolf corpses lying under his feet.

Thea then stretched out her right hand, touching the entire surface of the painting, including the figure of the Alpha who from the beginning became the center of her main attention when she found the object.

"Marc Sterling Gray," Thea read one of the captions in the lower right corner of the painting; the name of the prince, the Alpha who was besieged by hunters.

The sound of warning alarms echoed throughout the room, along with the arrival of an earthquake that made the painting detach from its hook and fall to the floor. Thea spontaneously kept her hands away from the painting, but it was too late, as some security officers as well as two psychics who had previously stood guard surrounded her while brandishing various weapons at her.

"THE SUMMONER!" everyone shouted in unison.

Thea rounded her eyes as everyone who shouted at her approached while pointing guns at her. "What the—?"