Thirty

Ash drove towards the Blue Moon Cafe at a high speed. Of course Larisa wanted to know the reason why, and he lied that the coffee shop was always flooded with different kinds of people in the evenings, and if they were to drive at a slow speed, they wouldn't get a place to stay by the time they arrived. Driving through the gates, Ash got down first, closed his door, and proceeded to the cafe, where he had already booked seats for them. He signaled the waiter the moment he walked in, and by the time Larisa got in, she found her cup there already waiting for her.

"So, why are we here today?" She asked shyly, hiding her face with her hair. Ash rolled his eyes internally and shrugged.

"I just felt like coming here today, or do I need to have a reason?" He asked while sipping on his coffee. Silence filled between them, and both of them had different thoughts running through their minds. Larissa was over the moon, and she had secretly taken a photo of Ash walking in the coffee and posted it on her social media accounts. After a while, she excused herself to go to the bathroom, leaving her phone behind. Ash took that chance and tried to access it, but when he failed to guess her password, he left it there and minded his own business. While deep in his thoughts, wondering how Camila was fairing, Larissa's phone beeped. Taking it to read the message, he gasped.

It was a bank notification. She had received $5 million from an anonymous account. Spotting her from afar, he returned the phone the way it was and focused on his.

"Your phone rang," he said when she sat back.

"Who was it?" She asked, picking it up from the table.

"I don't know. Never checked," he shrugged, watching her facial expressions. She also had the same expression as him, which later broke into a smirk and a wide grin. She saw her typing something on the phone, and she placed the phone back as if nothing had happened.

"Do we need to go back?" He asked, hoping that he would get a positive response.

"Nay," she laughed, "it's nothing serious." She responded, sipping on her coffee. The silence filled again, and it was later broken by Ash's phone, which rang, jarring them both from their half-conscious states of mind. Ash excused himself and returned after a while.

"We need to go back, Larissa; I am sorry," he said apologetically to her.

"No problem; I still have something to take care of at home, so don't worry," she said, forgetting the fact that when he asked earlier if she wanted to leave, she said no.

It didn't take long before they reached home. Ash went directly to the library where he had received the call. He found the guy he had been conversing with for a while with a black file on his hands. The guys handed over the file to Ash, who gave him money in return as they both walked out of there. Ash proceeded to his room, and after locking the door behind him, he sat on the bed to read it. His eyes kept on widening in shock on each page he perused through, and after he had read the whole of it, he threw it away, walked to his closet, packed a few of his clothes, and rushed out of the house to where his car was. He drove towards his father's house, where he told him everything, and with their blessings, he went away, cursing himself for not keeping his promise.

Ash had no idea where he was going; he was going anywhere, and anytime he reached a busy place, he would come out of the car and look around, and if he never found what he was looking for, he proceeded with his drive cursing and blaming himself. Every hour, his dad called him, asking if he got what he was looking for, but he would sniff and tell him everything. After a while, his dad asked him to call him back after he found his target because he and his mother were getting worried about him. His father was also using his contacts to see if he could help his son anywhere.

Ash cursed for the tenth time, honking at the driver in front of him. When the driver failed to speed up, he overtook him, but because there was an approaching truck, he was hit, and before he could try to dodge the truck to avoid the second hit, he was thrown away from the road as his car rolled a few times far away from the spot. The truck's driver, who was a drunk, judged from the way he jellywalked, went and checked him up because, when his car rolled, he was thrown out of it and landed a few meters away from it. The truck driver pocked him with his leg, and when he failed to respond, the driver took out a stick, which he used to pock him up on his back. He then went ahead and rolled him over so that he could see his face, and the driver gasped after he realized who he was.

"Is this not Alpha Cameron's son-in-law?" He thought the alcohol in his system draining away in the same instant. After he finally came back to his senses, he flew from that place and didn't even dare to look back. Ash was left laying there all alone, and because he was in a place where no one could easily see him, everyone kept passing, letting him fight for his life since he had already lost so much blood. From where Ash had met with an accident, there was a forest just nearby that was always haunted by wolves. A black Lycan two times bigger than a normal wolf with glowing red eyes and white ears inhaled the fresh blood scent. Thinking it was prey, the Lycan charged towards that place, growling softly. When she reached there, she tracked the blood scent and stopped in front of a young man of about twenty-two lying on the road, bleeding profusely from the back of his head.

The Lycan sniffed him, pocking him with her soft black paws, and when the man never responded,she flipped him over with her long nose, and when she was about to sink her teeth into his neck, the voice on her head screamed, "Stop it, Mila. That's Ash, my friend."

"What?" The Lycan growled, stomping its huge limbs on the ground.

"I said he is my friend, the one I told you about, and we need to help him before the rogue wolves come over here," the voice said. The huge black Lycan looked around, and when it saw no one, it walked toward the road to look for help, but the moment she stood at the road looking around, guards who were planted all over the place hunting for her spotted her. An arrow was thrown towards her, but fortunately, she dodged it and dashed towards the forest.

"We can't live with him, Mila; we can't," her human voice reminded her from the back of her head. Running towards the unconscious Ash, the Lycan carried him between her strong teeth and dashed deep into the forest. By the time the guards reached there, the Lycan had disappeared between the thick forest, and they were left with no choice but to track the person's scent the Lycan had taken. Lucky for them, the truck's driver had a change of mind and had come back with an ambulance. When he found him not there and heard from the guards that he was taken by a Lycan, he gave them the person's identity and decided to go to his family and look for help.

The truck driver led the way with a million thoughts rushing through his mind. He kept on thinking about how the guy would have survived the Lycan if he hadn't abandoned him after seeing his face. Although he changed his mind and came back, it was too late because he was no longer there. "What would I tell Alpha Cameroon?" He asked himself, walking carelessly. He was about to be hit by a coming car, and if it were not for the guards following him behind, he could have suffered the same fate as Ash.

"Watch where you are going," the guard who had pulled him behind warned. We don't want to go back to the station with two dead bodies." He mummered, scratching his head in a place that never itched. "Wait, why are you bringing us to Alpha Camerron's mansion?" The guard asked, pointing at the huge gate sculpted with golden writing reading Alpha Cameroon's Mansion on top of the gate.

"Because he is the one who would help us track that guy." The truck driver responded in an irritated tone.

"Whoa, calm down. I didn't know that Alpha Cameroon was his family. I thought he only had three daughters. The twins and that illegimate child he sold to Alpha Killan." The guard smirked, picking his ear with a swab.

"He is the son-in-law of this house, and the illegimate daughter wasn't sold even though that was his intention; she got married to Alpha Killan because she turned out to be his mate," the driver explained, wrinkling his face in anger. He was busy trying to figure out what he'd tell Alpha Killan, and that guard was busy gossiping.

"Yeah, I know, but she was later banished for mistreating the alpha's childhood best friend." The guard laughed, moaning softly as he picked his ear deeper and deeper with the swab.

"Shut up. Don't forget what happened the day she was banished. The gods were angry, and you dared mock her. In case that incident happens again, I swear I'll shout at the top of my lungs and tell the gods that it was you who was bad mouthing their chosen one but not me." The driver pinched his throat while swearing. Although no one talked about what happened that night, people grew afraid of bad mouthing Camila. Many people thought that after what happened, Alpha Killan realized he was in the wrong and went back to loving her as usual, but what no one knew was that even after the gods made it obvious to the world that Camila was their chosen one and she shouldn't be treated that way, under Alpha Killan's order, the guards still banished her unconscious body, which they thought was dead.

In fact, that was the reason why Camila's Lycan came early. The gods had to make it happen that way so that she could survive in that dangerous forest. Her Lycan was supposed to come the day she turned twenty, but she came when she was nineteen and a half. It was also the gods plan that Ash get into an accident on that part of the road. They were the ones who made the truck driver run away because they had planned in such a way that by the time he would have a change of heart and come back to help him, Camila's Lycan would have taken him.

Since Camila watched Elder Peters and Beta Stevens being thrown into the fire, she went silent and refused to come out. Since that day, she has been roaming around the forest as a beast, attacking humans and wild animals. The gods knew what could make their daughter have a change of heart, and that was Ash.

They knew that, seeing him in that state, she would have no choice but to take over her beast and help him heal. Ash will be the one to bring out the rebellious and vengeful spirit in her. The gods had chosen her for a purpose; she was to avenge the Lycan Clan, which was wiped off the face of the earth years ago by greedy werewolves. She was to avenge those who had ever bullied her in the past. It was she who was to save the world from the evil alphas and their mistresses.

It was she who was to bring equality to the world. Whether someone was a human, a wolf, or whatever, they were all to be treated equally, but she had lagged behind. Her friend's death slowed her down, and if she were to continue that way, she would never see the world again. Her human part was to be buried behind her Lycan, who would turn into a devil for thinking that it was her fault, and that was why Camila had refused to come out because she had asked her to save Elder Peter's and Beta Steven's lives, but she didn't do it.

Camila's Lycan, which was soon to turn into an evil beast because of regrets, had already burned down two packs and left no sign of people, and to prevent further damage and bring their humanity back, they decided to twist their fate with Ash's.

"What's going on here?" A deep voice asked, causing the truck driver and guard to stop bickering and bow their heads in respect.

"We.. I.." the truck driver stammered, signaling the guard to talk.

"We what?" The voice asked in an irritated tone.

"Ash..I mean your son-in-law Ash is taken away by a Lycan." The guard stammered.

"What?" Larissa, who was standing behind her father, passed out.