A Whispered Promise

Tessa obeyed and slowly tilted her head. She might be smiling, but she was extremely nervous. Especially with how close she was to him now. She could see him better up close, and her jaw almost dropped to the floor.

He was so beautiful, how can a man have such ethereal beauty? A fusion of masculine strength and feminine elegance. He looked like he was the gods favorite.

Torak found her staring at him and it made him irritated. He lifted his hand and harshly held the side of her head, forcefully tilting her neck further, causing her gaze to fall on the floor. Tessa who was lost in staring at his face was now nervous again, and his deadly aura was making matters worse.

Torak hesistatedly leaned closer towards her neck and took in her scent. Just as he sniffed it in, he frowned. She smelled nothing like the redhead. Perhaps if the scent of that girl wasn't still lingering in his head, this one could have smelled different. 

Torak decided to ignore the irritating scent and quickly bite her. He opened his mouth and his sharp canines revealed themselves. He was about to dig them into her flesh when he felt his wolf growl, rejecting her. Torak paused, getting annoyed again at his beast. All he wanted was to do this quickly and be done with all these. He snapped and proceeded, but his beast aggressively rejected her again.

Torak suddenly growled, feeling his beast trying to force his way out and take control of him. And that wasn't a good idea, if he lets it take over, heads were going to snap and roll.

Torak glared as he pushed the girl away from him and Tessa stared at him in shock. Why wasn't he biting her? Why was he moving away?

He stared at her like she was something disgusting and his inner beast couldn't even stand her sight. 

"Your majesty is there something-"

"Leave my sight." He ordered. 

"W-What?.."

"Now," his golden eyes flared and she shivered as she quickly stepped back away from him. The members' faces went pale instantly, they were in trouble if the king didn't complete this ritual. What went wrong?

Tessa also didn't understand what had gone wrong.

She could feel her blood rush through her veins in anger as she gritted her teeth. She felt like stabbing someone at the moment. 

~

Lily fluttered her eyes open, she snapped the instant her ears caught a noise. Her heart began pounding, thinking it was Alpha Jederek and they were after her. She stood up and continued to run again.

She sprinted through the darkness. Branches scratched at her face, and leaves crunched beneath her feet. The woods seemed to close in around her, the trees twisting into grotesque silhouettes. She didn't dare to stop or turn to look, she could feel a presence getting closer.

All of a sudden, she felt a grip around her, pull her forcefully to a strong body. Lily gasped and gulped when she heard a voice behind her ear, a voice that had her quiver as her stomach churned in dread. A voice that was already beginning to turn into a trauma for her.

"There's no where to run, girl."

Her whole body trembled when she felt Alpha Jederek breathe down her neck, his arm around waist tightening. She began thrashing around, struggling to get out of his hold when she suddenly felt something thin and sharp like a pin, pierce into her skin.

He stabbed the injection in her neck and Lily screamed. She furiously kicked her arms and legs, struggling to break free from his hold.

He slightly smiled and leaned against her neck, whispering, "shhh."

Lily suddenly felt her body beginning to grow weak and numb. Lily tried to keep herself awake and struggle, but she gradually lost control of herself and slowly closed her eyes.

~

It was past midnight, and in the grand chambers of the ancient king, one of them was a grand luxurious bathroom, with a big bathtub at the center. The bathtub was built just like a pool, with pillars and burning candles lit around. 

And the king who was in it, relaxed in the water with his arms lazily resting on the round edge of the pool, as the maids washed his body. His eyes closed and his face slightly tilted down, ignoring the intentional and excessive caress of the maids hands all over his chest and back.

When he was done bathing, he emerged from the grand tub and instead walked away, without waiting for the maids to clean his body or being bothered that he was stark naked.

He walked into his bedchamber and stopped, standing motionless as water droplets cascaded down his sculpted physique, accentuating the contours of his tanned skin. His long, dark hair, now wavy from the bath, clung to his face and shoulders, giving his features more feminine filters. 

The silky strands of his hair framed his smoky eyes, chilled with a smoldering intensity, darkened rims and lashes, that seemed to hold a perpetual twilight - his soft yet dark edges melting into his golden iris. 

His gaze slowly wandered, unfocused, as he stood motionless, lost in his thoughts. The damp locks stuck to his cheeks, highlighting the subtle curve of his jawline and the gentle shape of his full lips. Water trickled from his face, down his chest and the tattoos covering his entire back, tracing the ridges of his abdomen and disappearing into the shadows below.

The warm glow of the candles danced across his skin, casting an ethereal light on his broad shoulders, chiseled biceps, and the sharp lines of his hips. His naked form exuded a quiet confidence, as if the very air around him reverberated with his presence.

Unmoving like a statue. Torak's thoughts, however, were elsewhere, surpisingly consumed by the redhead girl from the event.

His chest rose and fell with each slow breath, the only movement in a scene frozen in time.

He had no idea why he couldn't forget about her or her sweet scent.

Fine, he had finally accepted that she was only in his imaginations, even though his beast kept trying to tell him otherwise. However, he didn't understand why he couldn't get that scent off his mind. Was he truly going insane?

After his beast unexpectedly rejected the dark-haired girl who was supposed to be his bride, he ordered everyone to get out of his sight and they immediately returned to their homes.

Everything was vividly clear in his mind. How she smelled, and how she looked. She had long red hair, it was his first time ever seeing a red headed she-wolf. Her hair looked thick, and a bit unkempt yet still beautiful. He remembered her eyes, her sea blue eyes that stared at him innocently. She looked so thin and frail in the maid's dress she wore, like she hadn't been eating well.

There were dark circles resting under her eyes and her soft pink lips looked chapped. However, despite it all, she still looked effortlessly beautiful. He had never seen a girl as beautiful as her-

Torak suddenly froze, upon realizing how he had just analyzed the girl completely, like he had observed everything about her in just under a second.

His eyes snapped back into focus and he lifted his hand to push his hair backwards, raking it from his face as a low chuckle escaped his lips. He smirked, slowly biting his bottom lip as he closed his eyes.

He really hated how his thoughts were now filled with nothing but the girl. And he hated how his beast, who had been in a deep slumber was now awake and disturbed, lurking up the surface. He couldn't explain what was going on with him. Everyone back at the party had stared at him like he was really a maniac and mentally unstable.

He chuckled and reached for a nearby towel, wrapping it around his waist with a fluid motion. The spell was broken, but the memory of the servant girl lingered, etched in his mind like a whispered promise.