Chapter 26: Chapter 26

Clara watched as the place quieted down when a middle aged woman clouded in all black gracefully walked her way through the crowd with a long flowing ball gown that swept the marble floor as she walked.

She made her way to the other side of the ballroom that looked like an altar and a pulpit but it was slightly different from it. The woman turned to face the direction where Clara and the rest of them were seated before turning to face the rest of the crowd and she spoke.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as you all know. We are here today to witness the handing over of the mystic shadow pack and the throne of the Lycans from Alpha Pius legard Ethelwulf to his son Xander Bardulf Ethelwulf as the New Alpha of the mystic shadow pack and king of the werewolves".

The crowd began to cheer and Clara became more confused after hearing the lady speak. Alpha? King? Werewolves? What's any of these supposed to mean, she thought to herself. It was only then that Clara realized that things weren't the way they seemed. Turning to face Xander who was seated next to her, she asked.

"What does she mean by you being the next king and what's an Alpha?''. If Clara could remember correctly, he told her this was only a formal occasion but right now everything seemed different.

Xander gave her a side glance before faking a smile and then he said."I will explain later, but for now, just do only what i tell you, okay"

Clara gulped, her sweaty hands clenched tightly at her dress. The warning signals she used to have anytime Xander was around had returned. She bit her inner cheek out of fear and uneasiness. Her body temperature continued to rise and her mind was in turmoil but her body was stuck to the chair that she was seated on.

Clara watched the woman, her mouth moving continuously but Clara could hear none of it, her fuzzy mind made it difficult to understand anything that was going on.

"We shall now proceed to perform the first mating process, let the alpha and his mate step forward" said the lady, as she beckoned to Xander.

Taking Clara's hand in his, Xander led her towards the altar, Clara shivered as she walked beside Xander, her mind kept on screaming and her temperature kept rising, but her body was obedient to Xander and his will. As they were walking, Xander noticed the raise in her body temperature and a frown settled on his forehead, he craned his neck sideways to take a look at her and she looked alright, she even had a smile on her face so Xander shrugged off the feeling of concern.

Xander led her to stand in front of a table, covered in white tablecloths, two golden goblets, a plain bowl and a knife were placed on top of it. The goblets feature four regal wolve's heads adorning the cup on a red background, the medieval motif detailing carried metallic shades and green gems embedded into the cups stem.

The middle aged woman stood on the side of the table, she looked between the duo and she gave Xander a nod to start the process. Xander turned to face Clara whose eyes kept staring at the objects on the table in fear. Xander took Clara's hand in his and that was enough to get Clara's attention. He picked up the knife that laid on the table and brought it close to her palm.

Clara tried to withdraw her hand but it was no use as Xander already held tightly to it while giving her a stern look. Clara held her breath as he brought the knife even closer, she mentally prepared herself for the pain. A small gasp escaped her lips as Xander cut through her flesh and let the fresh blood drip into the bowl. Clara watched as a good amount of her blood dripped from her palm. After collecting a good amount of her blood, Xander took the piece of clothes from the middle aged woman and wrapped it around Clara's wound before he proceeded to cut his own palm and let the blood drop into the same bowl, mixing Clara's and Xander blood as one.

The middle aged woman poured another liquid into the bowl that already had both Xander and Clara's blood in it and muttered a few words that Clara could not understand.

Meanwhile, Skyler, Lucas, Drake had approached the back entrance of the pack house but to their utmost surprise, Emmet who they had not seen during the attack on the rogue's was now standing right in front of them, all dressed up, he wore a black suit and a black bow tie and what surprises them the most was the way he smelt, he wasn't having that disgusting smell of rotten meat and garbage.

He stared at Skyler in shock. Unable to believe what had taken place in his absence. He had come to the pack house in disguise, for his own hidden purpose, but seeing Skyler standing in front of him meant nothing but total chaos and then his eyes landed on Drake and Emmet became enraged.

"Traitor" he spat. "I should have killed you and your filthy sister when I had the chance"

Drake ignored him.

With that, Emmet shifted into his dirty brown wolf and ran in the opposite direction, being the only rogue in a building full of pack werewolves, he knew better than to engage in a fight with either Skyler or Lucas. He had his pack to protect and they needed him more now. He cared less about Xander's plans or achievements; he only agreed for the benefits but things eventually didn't go as planned, all thanks to the redhead.

Lucas and Skyler didn't even try to stop him from escaping. They had better things to do than chasing after a rogue leader who had lost his pack. so they hurried into the pack house and found the place was empty as everyone was present in the ballroom only the werewolves on duty were seen at every point, they stared confusedly at Lucas who was wearing only a short and stared strangely at the man with long black hair and haggard beard that was walking next to him. Neither of them could recognize Skyler, only his smoldering silver eyes had them wondering who he was, but these two had no time to do proper introductions.

As they got closer to the ballroom, Skyler's nostrils picked up a scent and his body stiffened, he sniffed the air for more of it, the sweet scent almost driving him crazy, Skyler left Lucas behind and hastened his steps towards the direction where the scent was coming from. The main purpose of coming to the pack house was long forgotten and his new purpose was to find the owner of the alluring scent.

Lucas watched the way his friend continued to sniff the air like a crazy wolf. He was fully aware of what was about to happen. but he only wished it happened another day instead of today. But still he followed behind, he wasn't going to miss an interesting event.

Inside the ball room, Alec was running out of patience, displeasure was clearly written on his face, he turned to face the girl whose face was already contorted with worry and seeing the look on Alec's face didn't make her feel any better. She jumped to her feet and said "I will go find Lucas," and with that she hurried away, only then did Alec shift his eyes back to Xander and the lady in red.

The middle aged woman poured out the liquid into the two goblets and signal for Xander to take the goblet. Xander lifted one of the goblets and gave it to Clara who hesitated before collecting it, Xander picked the second goblet in his hands and urged Clara to take a sip.

Clara's hand slightly trembled as she held the goblet. I won't drink this, no, i can't, I can't, I just can't. she cried inwardly but her body did the opposite as usual.

Clara slowly brought the goblet to her lips and just when her lips parted to take in the liquid, the double door suddenly burst open. Clara's head snapped in that direction and the goblet in her hand dropped to the ground with a click sound, the content splatter on her dress and on the marble floor.

Clara was shocked to her core, her eyes stared widely at the person standing at the entrance. His smoldering silver eyes stared back at her with tenderness, admiration or was it love?. Clara couldn't tell which one it was. But Love was surely far from it, Clara had mixed feelings about his sudden appearance. should she be relieved that he was alive?. No, it's none of her business but why was the man in her dreams standing right before her?. Clara felt drawn to his eyes, it was like a string pulling her towards him and this made her blood turn cold. She stared at him until she noticed a change in his eyes. The soft look in his eyes had been replaced with a murderous intent that scared her.

"Mate" he shouted, his deep voice vibrating through the room.

Clara's heart pounded rapidly in her chest when he started to walk in her direction.

"No! Please don't come any closer" she pleaded inwardly. Clara felt they had returned back to her dreams where she would beg him not to come any closer to her but he would never listen. Clara tried to retreat but a hand held her in place, it was only then that Clara remembered that Xander and the other people were still present in the room.

Clara tried to wriggle her wrist away from Xander's hold, but he held it too tightly that Clara's wrist started to hurt. Xander growled loudly at her, his once charming blue eyes had been replaced by a shade of bright yellow. He pushed Clara to the ground and snapped his head to face Skyler who was running towards him in enrage.

Skyler continued to sniff the air as he walked through the corridor, his wolf that had long been in a slumber state was finally going to awake. He could feel his wolf stirring and wanting to come to the surface and find the source of the alluring scent. The sweet scent of roses and vanilla. Skyler stood before the double doors as the scent was much stronger there, an indication that the source was inside the ballroom and before the guards could stop him, Skyler burst the door open and all heads snapped to his direction, few gasps of shock and whispering was clearly audible in the hall as a result of Skyler sudden appearance. Pius' whole being shook the moment he set eyes on his skyler, tears came to gather at the corner of his eyes. but Skyler paid no attention to any of these. All he could see was the angel that was standing not so far off.

A beautiful girl in a red dress that hung perfectly to her curves, she had long dark hair that flowed down to her waist and a set of emerald eyes. When Skyler's eyes met with her emerald orbs, he became lost in them and from that moment, Skyler knew he had found his soulmate. He stared right into her eyes, he could see shock, surprise and fear, why the fear?.

He looked closely at her and he could tell she was human and not a she-wolf. But he didn't even care, his mate could be a witch or anything and he still wouldn't care, he smiled.

Skyler's gaze then traveled down her length and he found a hand, holding tightly to Clara's wrist and fury slowly ignited from within him. his possessive werewolves instinct kicked in and he growled loudly.

"Mate". he shouted, his wolf voice overlapping his.

Skyler's wolf wanted nothing but to come to the surface and reap Xander apart. First it was his title and now his mate.The nerves he's got, Skyler wolf sneered.

Skyler took slow steps towards Clara, seeing how Clara was desperately trying to free herself from Xanders hold enraged him even more but then he pushed her down. Unable to contain his anger, Skyler rushed towards Xander and Xander growled, revealing the yellow eyes that he had kept secret for years.

The people present in the room including pius let out a gasp of shock as they stared at Xander whose eyes were a shade of bright yellow.

"He is corrupted" the people shouted but Xander snarled at them, he could only care less about his revealed secret, he had just one goal and the goal is to kill Skyler and then he would kill anyone who stood between him and the alpha position.

Xander shifted into his massive golden brown wolf and attacked Skyler, but Skyler was fast enough to dodge the attack. He quickly shifted into his large black wolf and striked Xander with his paws.

Xander growled, feeling the pain on his jaw as blood slightly gathered at the tip of the cut on Xanders jaw. He growled loudly again before charging towards Skyler, giving him a heavy punch on his head and biting his leg, Skyler fell to the ground and Xander quickly placed his paws on his neck, pinning Skyler to the ground, his yellow eyes showing cruelty.

Seeing the way Xander had pinned Skyler to the floor, made Pius clench his fist, but he remained seated, he or anyone knew better than to interfere in the fight as this was one of the rules of the werewolves. If Skyler wants his title, he would have to fight Xander for it. But not that Xander's secret was revealed, he could never have the title but he would be put to death, corrupted werewolf was nothing but danger to every living thing, meaning the Xander wolf was in total control of Xanders mind, making him do irrational things. No wonder Xander had always been the way he was, thought Pius in his mind.

Why didn't he pay attention to the signs?If he did, things wouldn't have turned out like this and he would have found a way to help Xander and wouldn't have his son's fighting themselves right now if he had done his father's duty. Indeed he failed to protect his mate, their mother and now he failed to protect his son. He failed at everything, including being an Alpha. Pius blamed himself for everything.