Chapter 1 A Daydream Away

Serenity’s POV

There is this belief among my kind, a belief about our bond. Be it between family members, friends, or mates. They say the bond is none like the other. You can say that it is magic, an unspoken connection, a magic that cannot even be broken by itself.

To humans, it can also be called love.

To shifters, it is more need or right. For us, it is fate. I use laugh comparing ourselves with penguins, as we are only to mate with one of our kind from now until forever.

But love in our world has laws and rules.

Coveting someone else’s mate or adultery is punishable by death, either in the hands of the one in pain or death caused by the pain. I’d probably prefer the latter. Then again, I’d rather not think that I’ll be having that problem.

Unfortunately, these things are somewhat different for my case. Only the strongest and purest Alpha Blood may call upon my heart. The same heart that had grown numbed now.

Numbed by the longing to see him, my mate, the one who called my heart.

Having the Alpha Blood in me meant I’ll not only be relying on my wolf’s senses to find my mate but also by blood. My scent and blood can attract all shifters, man or woman. They are under oath to answer to the Royal Blood that runs through my veins.

The same blood that had saved me from being killed. I cannot say the same for those who had tried to save me. My parents, in particular.

My captors had kept me away from my kind and my family for months now, demanding information and using me to their benefit in exchange for the safety of my brother and his family… my nephew- to-be, the soon-to-be prince of the shifters.

The hunters didn’t just punish me for their demands physically. They made me pay for killing more than a dozen of my kind. Those who they had fooled for me to call upon, they made me their bait.

I stared at what seemed to be the twelfth man I have killed since I agreed to help them, not including the guards who were looking for me and were captured by the hunters.

I felt someone grab my arm and pulled me roughly to my feet, making it hard due to the chains that bind my feet together.

“Stand up,” he growled.

By now, I learned to submit to their requests and demands. There is no sense in fighting if death is very near in the future, especially if it isn’t even your death.

Then handcuffed my hands with what they say a special kind of cuffs, one that is made of silver and more. I don’t know what the more is, but I’m sure it is doing its job. It has always kept me in place and tired, unable to fight or escape, even to use my shifter power.

After checking my chains and cuffs, he grabbed my arm, dragged me to the van, and tossed me at the back. Making me fall hard on the metal floor. I whined as I hit my still-healing shoulder.

I pushed myself to sit up and lean on the side of the van as I stared to nothingness.

As we made our way back to the hunter’s hideout, images of the 12 dead shifters ran to my mind. They had all been called by me, forced to shift into their human body to be able to talk to me, and then brutally murdered.

In front of me.

I watch as blood ooze out of them, see their faces cringe, hear their painful cry for help, and, to top it off, see their life slip out through their eyes.

I bend my knees, wrapped my arms around my legs, and rested my forehead on my knees as I let the tears flow out of me.

I had stopped fighting back. For the last two months, I had kept for myself, every word, wise retort, or whatever I had, I kept it in. Only slipping a few words to save the shifter.

“You know you will be reprimanded for talking to the shifter, right?” I heard the hunter who was sitting like a king in the front spat.

I glared up at his smirking face.

“So better prepare yourself for Frank’s wrath.” He said and turned to face front, “Especially since Rham won’t be there tonight.”

I frowned.

“He left for university after we left, he’s applying his LOA, he’s still hoping to have some control over us and his dad.”

I looked away, wanting to push away his voice, but it was better than I know what was going on outside the room that I was no longer allowed to step out from.

After I started to help them kill my kind, he revoked any freedom privileges, saying that my scent might lead them to our whereabouts.

Quite frankly, I didn’t care. I don’t want to see any of them.

Rham was an exception, of course. He had been telling me that he will be filing for LOA to stay with me and guard me.

If I were him, I would stop all financial support he was giving his dad so that his whacked delusions are put to a stop, but that wouldn’t be like him. In fact, if it weren’t for his concern for his dad, he would have never come home and save me from the early death of hypothermia.

And now, hearing that he wouldn’t be there went we arrive was just not the best news to receive. I should know. His father had had me punished even with Rham there shouting and demanding them to stop.

“Get some sleep, princess.” The driver and the one who chained me up said, “You’d need it.”

I looked around me and saw the stack of pillows and blankets that they keep there whenever we go out to do Frank’s biddings.

Judging from the long ride we had yesterday. I think that it would be an equally long drive back.

And as we have expected, Frank wasn’t happy that I spoke to a shifter.

He may not know what I can do with one command, but he does know that shifters had mind links, and it would be hell for him if one wolf does inform his pack of finding the kidnapped princess.

That little stunt earned me a couple of slaps and a kick on the gut.

I groaned and bit my lower lip in pain as one guard carried me to my room and dumped me on my bed, tossing and turning in pain. I know Rham kept painkillers in the bathroom cabinet, but I was in too much pain to even sit up.

By instinct, I grabbed my necklace. It was a week after the full moon. It won’t be able to help me right now. But it was more than just having myself healed. It kept me calm. It was the only physical thing that I had that reminds me of Eric.

“Eric…”

The last words I uttered before falling into unconsciousness.