Ottomir's POV

"Who's that?"

Ashu didn't even wait for the heavy oak doors to finish rebounding against the stone walls.

He was already halfway across living room, his shoes plodding on the polished marble as he rushed toward Atticus and the King.

I stayed back for a second, my hands clenching into fists behind my back.

The King was alive.

If he was here then that means that Rex and Ren had failed and were now dead. Or they had chickened out.

But then, I spotted a dried red streak on the king's chest and then I knew.

I knew something had happened.

Rex and Ren were gone.

But how could it be? I was very sure that the king was almost disabled whenever it rains.

How was he alive?

He was supposed to be a broken wreck, barely holding onto his dignity. Instead, he looked as if he had just finished a refreshing walk under the rain.

The taste of failure was bitter, like copper in my mouth. I forced my expression to soften, hiding my disappointment behind a mask of calm concern.

Smoothening my features, I stepped forward and followed Ashu who seemed to not be slightly bothered by the King's presence.

"My King," I murmured, the words feeling like shards of glass.

He was standing tall in a trench coat that he wasn't wearing when he'd left the castle earlier. His shoulder length hair was dripping water to the floor.

He looked as regal and poised as ever.

I hated to admit that he looked like a true King.

However, as I drew closer, my focus shifted.

My eyes snagged on the bundle in the King's wet arms

A human.

The King has never held a woman in his arms before. At least, not within the walls of this castle.

The human was soaked to the bone, her long, dark hair plastered across a face that looked like it belonged on a porcelain doll.

Instantly, a different kind of hunger stirred in my gut.

My stomach gave a low, involuntary rumble. It was an old, animalistic instinct, a sharp reminder of what we used to be, once upon a time.

"I hope it's dinner," I said, my voice ringing through the quiet of the room. I let a grin pull at my lips. "I haven't had human meat in seven hundred years."

Ashu snapped his head toward me, shooting me a reprimanding look.

"Human meat isn't as refreshing as animal meat," Ashu tried to wave off my comment as he chuckled nervously.

I shook my head at him as I got closer to see the girl clearly.

Atticus also shook his head, a light chuckle escaping him as he raised a hand to wring the excess water from his cropped hair.

The King didn't even acknowledge me or Ashu.

His eyes remained fixed on the woman as he strode past us, his body leaving a trail of dark droplets on the floor.

"You'll never get your revenge, sorry," Atticus said to me, his tone light but tinged with a genuine sympathy that irritated me more than a slap would have.

Giving him a wry smile, memories flooded my mind, not feeling centuries old at all.

Before the humans built their steel cities, they were simpler and more honest in their cruelty. They knew we existed, and they hated us for it. They used to hunt us not for survival, but for sport, and for the thrill of seeing us bleed.

They had canines with them; hounds they used in luring us out because in their minds, we were just as pitiful as those lowly dogs.

And one unfortunate day, when my pack thought the coast was clear, we were ambushed.

That day is still as clear as spring water in my mind. The man who had murdered my family had worn a chest piece of boiled leather and carried a spear tipped with the highest grade of Silver.

Father had told me to hide after they killed my sister. I watched from the hollow of a log as the man drove that silver through my mother's chest.

The sound of her ribs snapping was a sound I would never forget.

Father had shifted and roared so loud that it should have split the sky, but another blade found his throat before he could reach mother's body.

They died in the dirt, their blood mixing in the brown earth.

The murderer had turned then, his eyes finding mine in the log. He had raised his spear ready to strike. I would have shifted at that point but my emotions were too volatile to let me.

When I closed my eyes, ready to accept my faith... the King arrived.

He tore the murderer from limb to limb and then saved me.

"Atticus," the King's voice cracked through the room, snapping me from the memories.

Atticus immediately moved to the King's side, his demeanor shifting from casual to dutiful in an instant.

He took the unconscious girl from the King's arms, handling her with a gentleness that made my stomach churn.

He carried her to the hearth, and stoked a new fire, placing her on the thick Persian rug near the heat.

Ashu, ever the curious fool, crept closer. He leaned down, his nose wrinkling as he took a long, deep sniff of the girl's damp skin.

"She smells awful," Ashu whispered, his face twisting in a grimace. "Like depression and death."

Atticus nodded solemnly, looking back at the King, who remained standing in the center of the room.

"She smells like tragedy," Atticus affirmed. "I told him so."

I scoffed, leaning against the wall and crossing my arms over my chest. I didn't care about what she smelled like.

To me, she was just another part of the plague that had taken everything from me.

"Yuck, depressed humans are the worst kind" I spat, my voice dripping with disdain. "Why bring her here?"

Every eye in the room turned toward the King who still hadn't said anything or moved from the center of the room.

Alastairion's POV

I felt their penetrating gaze at the back of my head while I stood there like a statue, my gaze fixed on the strange woman lying on the rug.

I couldn't get my mind off what had happened out there, no matter how hard I tried.

There had to be a reason I felt desire from her when I was the one that was nearly unconscious.

Yes, I was attacked unawares. Because for all of Atticus' worrying, I wasn't going to let a mere curse stop me from going out in the rain when I felt like it.

I hadn't smelled or heard the attackers approach before they ambushed me.

I was even weaker directly under the rain. What I had done was a very miscalculated risk that would have cost me my existence.

Atticus will definitely give me a stern talking to once I am back in the study.

After they had left me for dead in the wet grass, I was ready for them to come rip me apart.

But then, as if a salve from the moon goddess...I smelled this strange woman.

I wasn't supposed to smell anything but I smelled the woman.

And she smelled like Jasmine. My most despised scent.

When she drew closer and hovered above me, she reeked of something so potent I couldn't ignore it in my vulnerable state.

I'd felt my loins come to life.

I shook my head as I stared at her, the fire stoking my memories.

Her skin felt incredibly soft against my rough hands. When I grabbed her for the kiss the heavy rain no longer felt like a burden, but like a fresh beginning.

I wasn't sure what she was but whatever made me react like that meant I had to keep her by my side so I could be more powerful than I already was.

She might be some kind of life source or essence.

"Is she even alive?" Ashu's voice broke through my trance. He was hovering near the girl, his face a mask of worry.

I stepped closer to the hearth, as the heat of the flames began to dry my wet hair.

"She is alive," I finally spoke.

Ottomir straightened up from the wall, his eyes narrowing as he looked from me to the girl. "You still haven't explained why she is here, my King. This is our home, not a sanctuary for strays."

I turned my head slowly to look at him. "I want a live-in cook and housekeeper. You dogs have been so lazy and all the other human women we hired ended up trying to seduce us. You know no women from the packs would willingly take up such task."

Atticus narrowed his eyes at me but I pretended not to notice. My answer was very close to the truth.

Ashu let out a short, surprised bark of a laugh. "And it never worked so they decided to steal from us..." Ashu added jokingly, scratching the back of his neck. "Remember that one from the city? She tried to make off with the silver candelabras."

"I'll never fall for a human whore," Ottomir joined in disdainfully, his lip curling in a sneer.

I chuckled drily.

Ottomir hated humans.

"That, you won't," I agreed with him.

"Then why bring her here? How is she different?" Ottomir asked, his voice sharp with suspicion.

My eyes warmed as I watched him.

The young pup I had saved all these years ago was always looking out for me.

I remembered the smell of the log he'd hidden in, the tragedy in his eyes when I tore that human apart after his family was killed.

"Do not worry about her, Ottomir," I tried to reassure him. "She is homeless and needs a place to stay. She'll not break any rules," I supplied earnestly, even though I wasn't sure.

"She doesn't look like much of a cook," Ashu remarked, leaning down to poke at the wet fabric of her diner uniform. "She looks like she'd break if the wind blew too hard."

"She is stronger than she looks, Ashu," I countered. "She faced a monster in the dark and tried to save it instead of running. That is more than I can say for most of the humans we encounter everyday."

Ottomir scoffed, pacing the perimeter of the rug. "Compassion is a human weakness, not a strength. If she's here, she's a liability."

"She will not be a liability" I snapped, my patience thinning. "Is that clear?" I looked at Ashu and Atticus.

Ottomir bowed his head slightly, though the tension didn't leave his shoulders. "As you wish, my King."

I turned my attention back to the woman.

She was not going to leave this premises, not unless I ordered it.

And no harm will come to her, unless she crosses me.

Her jasmine scent was beginning to fill the room, pushing back the smell of woodsmoke and old stone.

It was intoxicating but I no longer found it awful.

If she could make me a god in the rain, she was worth more than a thousand Alphas.

Because Ottomir wasn't the only person in the room who hated humans for what they did to him in the past, I was just secretive about it.

I looked at my hands, still faintly stained with the blood of the wolves I had slaughtered.

My mind drifted back to the simpler times, long before these humans understood their existence.

The goddess had sent this one my way, perhaps as a way of telling me that my patience would soon be rewarded.

While I don't plan to have a war with humans, I've been waiting for a time where I'd be in full control of myself.

A time where I'd no longer be cursed or affected.

And as for this strange woman the goddess had blessed me with, I would use her to get what I want.

And I would drain her of whatever essence she possessed, ensuring that no storm would ever make me weak again.

I would not only get control of all the humans but I could extend my power across all other continents, being lord supreme of every were and other.

"Atticus," I called out.

"My King?"

"Get her in a room. The one with the reinforced locks."

"Understood."