PROLOGUE

The castle was in chaos. Howling, screams of humans who worked in the place can be heard as they witnessed the death of werewolves in front of them. Such a bloody scene, way too mortifying for creatures that held no power.

People running from all directions seeing parts of the castle were crumbling and on fire. When an enemy approached him with his sword made from ice, Adam's eyes glowed and in his human form, his claws sprouted and quickly dodging the attacks and fought back. He flipped the ivory hair creature to the ground and hesitated for a moment before burying his sword inside it's chest.

Blood bubbled form his mouth and the sound of agony leaving his lip made his heart clenched.

What happened here? He thought to himself. The very creature he had accepted as family seeing he was married to one now had turned against him.

Why are they attacking my people? He wondered.

When he turned around, his gaze moved to his stepsister who was running towards him in her wolf light brown coat that quickly jumped on him. Her furs had gone, replacing it with her soft skin. Tears brimming in her eyes as she hugged him. She buried her face inside the crook of his neck and sobbed.

"You have to help him, Adam. She'll kill him. She'll kill my brother!"

"What's wrong, Nika? What happen to Mikael?" She pulled back and stared at him.

"Your mate! She has ordered attack on all of us. Her armies have invaded this ground. Do you not see them all around you?"

Shock masked his expression. He shook his head. The sight of his step sister without a stich of cloths on didn't bother him one bit. Being wolves, nudity was common and not unusual. The only thing that shook him at the moment was the accusation thrown at his mate.

His dark eyes strongly trained at her and he pushed Nika away.

"You're wrong. What nonsense are you going on about? She wouldn't do this. Eve would never... It must be someone else. I don't' even know what is going on."

He was a king. Adam Sviatoslavich III was a king but at that very moment, he felt no bravery or wise enough to stop the attacks currently going on in his kingdom. Coming from another war himself, he saw his people slaughtered alongside the ivory hair witches or better known as the children of Khione.

Children born with the blood of the Goddess Khione, one of the four creators of the Kingdom of Afhrin. He knew so much about the race for he was married to one. His mate was their princess after all.

For weeks he was kept away from his kingdom under the pretence of attacks at the border of Dzhimara, home of the wolves. It didn't take long for him to defeat his enemies and returned home but he was crushed to see his cities, built by his ancestors being burned to the ground. He braved himself through the battlefield and regretted seeing families separated and murdered around him but the only thing that occupied his thought was his mate.

Eve.....

Screams behind him made him moved aside with another of his attacker striking over him with his icy swords once more but his quick wolf reflexes made him alert and quickly subdued his attacker. It shocked him to see tears flowing from his attacker eyes. The glow that shone in them from being part Khione and part of the Goddesses magic was no longer present in their eyes.

Adam just stared at him and his lips moved accordingly with the man when he whispered, "Traitor."

Adam wanted to ask why but his head was sliced off cleanly in a matter of second when Vlad, his step cousin swung his sword with a grin on his face. It slowly faded when he stared back at Adam and gestured him to the hallway, "Mikael. He need you."

His brother who he had shared no blood with but loved beyond measure was in trouble and he didn't hesitate to leave the headless man despite guilt trickles with every step he took.

Once he entered the room Vlad led him to his vision, darkens, his inside seething with anger seeing his brother hung on the wall. He was chocking with ice, collared around his throat clearly suffocating him by a figure in black standing in front of him.

It didn't know Adam was behind him so Adam in a fit of rage slowly took the sword beneath him and thrust it into its body.

The ice around Mikael's throat broke like glass into sand like pieces and his attacker's body shook in pain. The robe he wore around him slowly fell and instead of relief, Adam once again slammed with shocked. His heart dropped and his body weakened. He almost fell to the ground but his family held him from each side.

The wounded Mikael limped towards them. He didn't hear their cries, forcing him to leave the room for the ground beneath the castle was shaking uncontrollably. He felt his hand dragged away from the room but in fact, neither of his feet moved for it had lost all feelings or strength.

Smoke filled the room. Fire engulfing its walls yet none of that deterred him one bit. He didn't realise how he had lost his consciousness when his visions turned black but her voice and her teary eyes forever be embedded in his memory.

The wall paintings she had chosen for him, the bed they had laid down and made sweet love together, the veranda they had spent some nights just to stare at the bright night lights of the cities in each other embrace. All licked by flame.

Worst of all his mate, his Evangeline lying on the floor of the room they had once shared as husband and wife. Blood pools from the whole in her chest where he had driven into earlier ago. Her teary eyes, consumed with the sense of betrayal and sadness would forever hunted his thought.

❄❄❄

The pain engulfing her whole body was too much to bear. She had never experienced such sensation. It was too horrible. Surely such pain no one, not even the evil being who turned their backs against the Gods. She would wish such pain on nobody yet, she felt that very pain was eating her from inside out. 

She thought that losing her friends and family was the worst thing she could ever go through but the sword to her heart by the man who she love taught her what real torture was all about. 

She turned her body so her back could lie on the floor. Either way, it made her hiss but at least, if she were to face the angel of death, she would be ready. Through the open windows, she heard the scream of her people, a sound she would expect to hear during wars just like what her father and mother would tell her. Not that she had ever heard it but surely, it was as terrifying as this. The sound of someone being torn apart. When she realised, she was really in a war and she was all alone. 

Strange magic filled the air and she knew that her people is being killed the same way her parents was. Through countless, endless torture that both men and women would fear when facing their attackers. Too scary to imagine but she had seen it with her own eyes. Experienced it even. 

She closed her eyes and grunted as the pain from the hole in her chest brought shivers all over her body. She only focused on the crackling sound from the fireplace. Smells of burning generated from her thin gown which had caught fire as it got in contact with the burning walls, causing the skin on her thigh searing mercilessly. 

She could feel the blood from her wound entered her lungs and her breathing became scarce. Every memory she had while growing up flooded her mind. The time she had spent with her parents, her friends, meeting the love of her life, her wedding, her pregnancy till the last bits of suffering she went through in Dzhimara, the loss of her loved ones, every single person that was taken cruelly from her. 

She smiled while looking up to the walls of her own room. The same room she had spent with her husband for almost a year. A place full of hopes and dreams and the place where her unborn child was conceived. It used to be filled with beautiful memories, dreams she had planned as a kid and prayed to her Goddess as long as she could remember. 

She choked on her own blood which spurted from her mouth into small bubbles. Her throat was filled with salty, iron like liquid. She wondered if that was the last taste she would ever to indulge. The scent of smoke she would ever smell, the red and black view she would ever gazed upon and the few figures running from her with one holding sword and dragged away by his family. 

She really didn't know. She just wanted to cry. She was hurt, inside and out. How could his betrayal be so cruel? To leave her in that state. 

Why would he do that? 

Why would he take their side? 

Was he always on their side? 

She finally closed her eyes and released her last breath. Her eyes flickering from red and blue became dimmer and soon, there was no more light glistening the eyes of the once happy princess.