Chapter 5 The Beginning

• Crescent
• Run... that’s all her body ever told her to do since that night so many years ago… or was it months? She couldn’t tell anymore. Night and day seemed to bleed into each other. She was scared that she would be found out and forced to be beaten and almost burned again. Her once silky hands were now scarred from the fire that almost claimed her life when one of her friends betrayed her. She didn’t think any of them had it out for her since all she had wanted to do was help those who needed it, and if one of them was in on it that must mean they all were, which was why she cursed all of them.
• It didn’t make sense to her that her friends could have been corrupted so easily. Was everything she had done a lie? Or was it that people were easy to turn evil… she would never know since she decided to live out whatever life she had alone. Away from everything and everyone.
• Crescent stopped and found herself at a small glimmering lake with a small waterfall. She scoped it out and after a while found that there was a cave behind the waterfall which looked to be a perfect space to live in. She would have to build everything up from scratch, but that was fine as long as she got to live alone in peace.
• Over the next of many years, she managed to learn new skills, like hunting, skinning, and preparing meat. It was rough the first couple of years, but she eventually learned, and within those years not once did she meet a wolf or Lycan. She was grateful for that, as she didn’t know how she would react upon seeing either, but she was thankful for the peace and quiet she had been granted.
• Ascelin
• He spit out the tangy red blood that had flooded his mouth when he had fought that stupid Alpha who thought he was stronger than him, but he couldn’t deny that the now-dead Alpha had done a number on him. His side was bleeding heavily and Ascelin didn’t know if he would make it back to the pack house. If he did it would be half dead.
• Well, it wouldn’t hurt to find some loner to help him if he promised to take them into his pack as a reward. He had a habit of doing it, but it definitely had its benefits as the newly added loners tended to work harder to keep their place in the pack to ensure they wouldn’t get kicked out.
• The forest he was in was quiet. Almost too quiet for his liking but was better than having to deal with his beta who followed him everywhere swearing that Ascelin would be a lot more violent without him, which was a true but false statement at the same time. It was partially due to his wolf Vega who was hell-bent on finding their mate and being dominant to those below him. He himself believed that those weaker than him should listen but there was only so much you could demand from people with feelings themselves.
• He leaned against a tree to help support his weight. Maybe that Alpha was much stronger than he originally thought. He really hoped he wouldn’t die out in the forest like some weak wolf. He was the Alpha King, and he expected himself to be stronger. Astraios was his playpen, and he wouldn’t allow some now-dead Alpha to kill him in the end.
• The fact that the Alpha who challenged him for the throne thought that he would give up his control over Astraios easily was severely wrong. He could still remember the bragging he had done to tick Ascelin. What ticked him off the most was the stupid Alpha insulting his ability to find his mate. He knew she was out there somewhere and would hopefully turn up before his thirty-fifth birthday so he wouldn’t be forced to marry some know-it-all-all daughter of another powerful alpha. He wouldn’t be against being married to a Lycan, but he doubted that would happen since they kept their kind close.
• He shoved himself off the tree and headed deeper into the forest to find some water to drink so that he could stay hydrated, and then he came upon it. A glistening lake that was as blue as the sky itself. He found it hard to believe that a spot like this was nestled within his territory, and so well-kept. The waterfall that flowed into the lake was equally captivating.
• He sat down and took a handful of water to drink. It was cool and fresh. Almost magical. He lay on the edge of the bank and thought that he could close his eyes just for a bit before continuing on to find someone to help him. The sound of the waves and wind lulled him into a painful sleep.
• Cresent
• She took a deep breath and observed the sky. It was a calm day like all the other days. The cool wind and the minty breeze made her almost forget all the horrors she had dealt with all those years ago. It was a perfect day for hunting. Maybe she would find some deer and have a feast with herself for the next week. She got up and shifted into her wolf form. Sometimes she wished that she could shift into her true form, but she didn’t have the courage to do it, as she feared that she would be found by a wolf or Lycan and be forced to go through what she went through so long ago.