The Alpha's Temptation

Chapter ?199 [Bonus Chapter] Mistaken

Morava was extremely tired by the time it was night and she hadn't even reached the Pegasii border. With Mizvah things were… easy. He took good care of her. As she dismounted her horse for another break, she smiled at the thought of him. The fool wanted to start a family with her, build a home. He was thinking too ahead of himself. How could he even think that a princess like her would start a family with an ordinary soldier like him? Moreover, now that he had helped her escape, he was nothing more than a criminal, while she— she still had a chance to go back to her kingdom and live life royally. "Fool!"

Mizvah had told her on the way to Wolfliers Lake that Princess Lusitania was in the kingdom of Draka along with King Eltanin. That meant that the two had fallen in love with each other irrevocably. Now Morava had two ways to tackle the whole situation. One, she would go back to her father and push him to marry Lusitania to Eltanin and that way she would again be able to get back her throne. Two, she would simply have to beg her father for forgiving her and promise him to behave while in the meantime she would plot to kill Lusitania. She smirked as she tied the rope of her horse to a tree.

Tired, she rubbed her neck, rolled her shoulders and closed her eyes. The night was chilly and she had found a small abandoned and tattered tent in the forest. There was nothing much she could do except stay here for the night. She was extremely drained and needed to sleep. At the same time, she was afraid of the nightly beasts. She had stolen Mizvah's sword and so when she went to lie down in the tent, she kept the sword close to her.

For the entire night, she was hardly able to sleep. She would wake up at the slightest sound around her. Even a rustle of leaves would wake her up and she would clutch her sword tightly. If Mizvah was here, he would have protected her and she would have slept without a worry. For the first time she regretted leaving him. At least he protected her like a pet dog.

As she traveled northwest, she saw that the ground was covered in snow at many places. The path was slippery and dangerous. She must have traveled further inside the area where the disturbance was because putrid smell hit her nostrils. Her eyes stung with tears as bile rose in the back of her throat, the smell being too strong to bear. Everywhere she looked, the snow was more crimson. Pieces of flesh clung to the branches or were strewn across the ground. Maimed limbs were scattered as if they were a part of nature. Rolled heads of wolves and men with ugly tattoos, removed from their bodies were preyed upon by the vultures or other animals.
She shuddered as she looked at the sight in front of her, but she carried on. She was at the right place. Mizvah had said that there were Nyxers who were creating this mess, but Morava couldn't understand as to why Nyxers were doing it. General Balfour was sent by her father to assist Princess Tarazed of Aquila. The disturbance had run for a few days now and it appeared like people were getting tired.

Apart from the cries of the vultures and grunts of the beasts, the whole stretch was eerily silent. She prayed that she would reach her army soon. They would recognize her and take her in. After that it depended on her skills to talk to her father. She was sure that the General wouldn't harm her.

All at once, she heard loud snarls and footfalls approaching her. She whipped her head to the left and right to see who it was, but she didn't see anyone. Was she imagining? She increased the pace of her horse who was now galloping through the wet ground. All she needed was to find one Pegasii soldier who would take her to their camp. However, as she progressed further, the snarls and growls came closer. From the corner of her eyes, she caught a blur of movement. Something gray.

"Fuck!" she rasped when she saw four massive wolves running by her side. Were they Nyxers? A shiver ran down her spine. Nyxers were known to abduct women for breeding purposes. She clenched her jaws to stop shaking. If these Nyxers caught her, she would be gone.

She kicked her horse. "Hya!" she shouted to nudge him to gallop any faster. She managed to stay in the lead for the next half an hour.

It was early in the morning and the sun hadn't risen in the sky. In the distance, Morava noticed dim lanterns, a large number of them flickering like stars on the ground. A wave of excitement ran through her. She sniffed the scent of Pegasii soldiers.

"General Balfour!" she shouted from where she was, hoping that he would listen to her. "Balfour!"

Something moved above her and her face tipped up to see what it was. Her eyes followed the movement of a gray wolf who had leaped over her in a graceful arc and came to stand right before her horse. Her horse neighed and backed up, raising on his two hind legs.
"Nooo!" she yelped as she fell from the horse, trying her best to calm him. But the horse was so scared that it ran away.

Other three gray wolves came close to her and they started circling her. With her eyes wide in shock, she shouted, "Balfour!" hoping that the winds would carry his name. She was so close to her camp and yet so far.

One of the gray wolves shifted to his human form. Seven feet tall, he was naked. He looked at her, seething with anger. His claws had slipped out of his fingers and his neck tendons were corded. His body was covered with tattoos that were growing uncontrollably around him in the form of hydra tentacles. Nyxers. Dread knotted in her chest at the cold inhuman curve of his lips. He was glaring at her as if she had done something wrong. She backed away from him and hit the chest of another one. He held her from behind.

"You shouldn't have done this to us, Lerna," growled the one in front of her.

She jerked her head back. "I am not Lerna!" she croaked. Who was Lerna? "I am Princess Morava!" She was shaking, terrified.

The Nyxer came closer to her and grabbed her throat. "You are testing our patience, Lerna. How dare you run away from us when we were on the peak of our mating period? The twelve of us had waited for you for decades to mate with you."

She gulped, staring at him. Twelve? "What is wrong with you? You are mistaken!"

The remaining two wolves shifted and came to stand on her sides.