"She's clearly talking about someone else. Eve you seem to be tired lately, come, I'll take you to your room." Natalie proceeds to take a very distressed Evelyn away from the crowd, but I just couldn't let her walk away now. No, I needed a reassure before the day passes. I needed hope to hold her here.

Because time, I did not have.

"Evelyn."

Thankfully, she turns around at my hopeful request. "Evelyn is it? I came here with big hopes. I need a massive favour from you. I need your help Evelyn."

The harshness in her eyes gives me an answer before her equally harsh words do as she stands there, staring at me, reading every part of my face, my body, but I guess she does not find what she had been searching for. I put my fists on either side of me, defeated already.

"Sorry but I don't help strangers, I only help a friend."

And I had nothing more to say to that. Disheartened, I seal my lips tight, nodding my head, disappointment clear in my eyes. She had already voiced her opinion and being nobody, I couldn't force her further. "But mum-"

"We'll talk in the morning, Circe." And just like that she turns away from us and all my hope dies with every step she takes away from me.

"Evelyn."

"Aries."

She leans her head back and sighs before she turns around to face us. Shaking her head, she looks sadly at Aries then again to me. The green in them glossed with tears of a pain unknow to me. "I can't."

"Evelyn. It's just a tiny favour. We just want you to create a portal for us and then we'll leave. That's it we'll disappear from here. Please Evelyn. Her family is in danger. There might be a war-"

"A war?" She looks at Circe, her eyes now huge with fear. "Tell me you are not going with them?"

"Mum, I am-"

"No, you're not." The room shakes as her voice booms the empty night and the door bangs open with the defensive Lycans. Matt quickly holds onto a shaking Evelyn, calming her a little until eventually the quivering of the ground stops. I shake my head towards the Lycans and they, too back away. And with her eyes shut close, she once again rejects to offer her help, no hesitate in her decision.

"I cannot help you. I will never send my daughter to a war."

Those glossy green eyes opens up once again, determined, but with a sadness, a pain of past. "Scars of war never heals. It stays with you as a reminder of what you have lost. They sit ugly in your heart, no matter how much time pass. And you know the pain of scars more than anyone Aries, so why do you insist on reopening them and adding more?"

I feel the gentle sparks as his large hand engulfs mine, wrapping around my tiny fist. I look up to him, those piercing blue already on mine, shining brightly, happily, he smiles down at me. "Because no matter how ugly it may be, those scars too are a memory I had with her." And my heart thumps at his whispers as if they were spoken for me. Of me.

"I cannot lose anyone anymore, Matt." The hurt, the pain in her voice somehow forces me to take my gaze off him and look at her.

Broken but certain, she looks up at Matt whilst shaking her head with tears running down her eyes, but her words strong, firm. "I once already lost a friend, Matt. I cannot lose my daughter as well."

Matt cups her face and wipes her tears away, fully aware of her pain and of the story behind her tears. Unlike us. Unlike me. "We are not losing anyone. She's not going anywhere."

"But dad-"

"We'll talk tomorrow Circe." With a curt nod towards us, Matt leaves the room with Evelyn tucked in his arms and we are once again left in silence built by his words.

And when the silence had fallen longer than the time we had, I release a deep sigh, breaking out of its hypnosis. We had no time on our side. Defeated but with a purpose, I turn towards Alex.

"Alex, get on the phone with Alastair and ask him the exact hour of his arrival. As soon as his team arrives, we will leave. We cannot waste any more time. Prepare to fly to a land as close to home as possible and inform every one of the plans. We'll think of the rest later."

With a nod of his head, Alex leaves the room and I look towards our host as they silently listen, their eyes now fixated on the floor beneath, their expression as hard as their tightened fists. "Sorry to bother you all tonight but please allow us to stay a while longer. I promise it won't be long."

"Feel free to stay as long as you need Althea." Noah looks at me with a sadness on his blue eyes. And again, I had a feeling that I had seen those eyes before, but I just didn't have the time to recall. The time that I always seemed to have too much of, just not anymore.

"If only the circumstances had been different. But we just don't have time in our hands. We'll leave as soon as the rest of us arrives." Letting go of a soft sigh, he gives me a small smile.

"In the meanwhile, if you need anything, please do let me know." I return his smile and nod my head still grateful of any help I could get. "We'll leave you for the night then. Brother, your old house has been left vacant for your return. You can take your team over to rest there."

"Thank you, Noah."

Sleep was not included on my plan. I spend the whole night with my mind wandering round in circles, thinking of every likely routes back home. But with the ocean closed to everyone outside, there was no possible opening. Not that I knew of anyways.

And just like that the morning sun greets me, reminding me of the hours that had passed, that I had so far wasted. A day had gone by and we had nothing on our hand. No answers on my side.

The sound of vehicles approaching in the distance makes me sigh in exhaustion, but regardless of my weary self, I prepare myself to greet them and possibly leave now. And I put a small smile on my face when Aries comes into the room and holds my hand, no words needed between us to understand, as a harsh reality leaves us all very much awaken.

Hand in hand, we head for the front porch where the rest were already waiting for them and for us, our cars too lined up, ready to depart on command. I give them a tight smile, nothing more to say than the silence of the unknown and stand in front of the group with Aries on one and Alex on the other side.

I hear the opening of the door behind me as the wolves too comes out to greet the rest and maybe bid their goodbyes. But I don't have time to greet them as the cars finally appears before sight. Needless to say, they were quite large in number, more than I expected.

Adjusting my hands on his hold, I exhale another breath. All of this making me nervous but a light kiss on the side of my head and I somehow relax. A little. The lines of cars stop in front of us and they all come out to stand in an orderly form as if their formation planned ahead of time.

And amongst them, stands Alastair Stamos, Uncle Christopher's trusted man whom I had met a few times while he was on his visit to the palace.

I nod in greeting, but his next movement leaves me a little baffled as he goes on his knee, hand across his chest, his head lowered in a deep bow, one meant for their leader, their ruler. One that stands in the heart of all.

And I was not one.

"Today I come before you with a royal decree, one stated by the King himself."

And at once all the Lycans too falls on their knee, replicating Alastair's position, even Egan and Alex leave my side and fall on their knees before me. I let go of Aries' hand, slowly losing his warmth, sparks, above all his reassurance, as I hoped for it all to be nothing but just a dream. I step forward, my heart thumping as I do so. I knew what was coming. I knew it but I wasn't prepared for it.

No, it was not true, I assured myself. It was just in my head.

I stand directly in front of Alastair, silently begging him to lie to me. But he never looks up, his gaze fixed to the land beneath him as if the ground itself forced him to bend on its will.

"Proceeding with the royal decree bestowed upon by his highness, King of Lycans, King Anderson Ignacio Silvermoon..."

No.

"...I hereby announce, Princess Althea Zoella Castellanos Silvermoon as our new Queen."

No.

"From this day forth till the end of her time..."

Let it all be lies.

"...I present you all, the Queen of Lycans, Queen Althea Zoella Castellanos Silvermoon. May the moon goddess bestow your regime with honour and glory."

"With honour and glory."

The crowd before me chimes in, echoing the crowning of the new Queen. Forgetting that it only meant the downfall of our kingdom, of our home, their King, my families. It only makes me vex further and as anger starts to rise so does the darkness deep in my heart.

"Tell me it's not true."

The inhumane voice coming out of my lips cuts the echoes from the land and makes the crowd sit in silence, their previous cheers stuck behind their now closed lips. And they all look up to me in horror, as I stand before them, their eyes wide with fear.

"Tell me." I whisper but broken this time.

"I only speak the truth, your highness. I got a call from the palace. The royal commander, Christopher Constantinou, himself said that the land was infiltrated by turned Lycans led by our own. He said that their number exceeds far too great for them to guarantee our victory. Then I was assigned by his highness, King Anderson, himself to assemble every single Lycans outside the palace and if within the next twelve hours, I don't hear from them, I was to come to you and bestow his command and also to relay this message to you."

I shake my head as I listen to him. I knew he only spoke the truth. I know. But it was a truth, I was not ready to adhere to. So, someone please tell me all this is a lie. That at the end of it all he's just going to say, that's not what happened. But this was all real. Very true.

"Do not return home, Althea." No. It can't be true.

I turn up to the sky as it grows darker by the second like the smoke rising from my heart.

"No. Tell me you lie."

I scream at the sky as the wind howls in my presence, my dark hair hovers in the air as the darkness slowly starts to ooze out of me, breaking all the seals, every promise that my mother had built.

But if she was no more then...

"No..."

I whisper as a tear escapes my eyes. It was all a lie, she was safe. She was back home waiting for me to return. None of this was true. He lies.

"Take me back this instance."

I snarl, sending my seething command, letting the darkness fly outwards. And as if a raging fire, it spreads over my body, angrily flickering around me. But their stance only lowers on my command, their heads now bowed to the ground as they all quiver before my wrath.

But he still dares to speak. Still, he defies me. "I'm afraid I cannot do so."

And I start to shake in fury, my eerie set of eyes, staked on his bare neck as his head remains attached to the ground. My heaving lungs audibly loud as an unknown anger starts to form within my soul which was turning as dark as the smoke flaming out of me.

"Take...me..."

But even through all this rage, this fire, this hate, I still feel it.

I feel him.

The soft touch against my back, delicate and tender, as if scared to break me.

"...home..."

Even through this darkness hovering over my body, I feel the small spark upon the lightest of his touch. And I halt. I halt as my conscious once again starts to return and I remember who I was and where I stand.

When I don't push him away, he bravely moves his hand over to my shoulder and across my chest, pulling me flush to the front of a very hard but a very warm body.

Aries. My mate.

Closing my eyes, I lean forward, head on his forearm and breath in. All of him. The minty scent I had become addicted to, fills my lungs once again and brings me out of my madness. I feel the darkness still and slowly disperse itself into nothing. And I feel a calm spread across my body as I feel his face, his tingling breath onto the back of my neck, onto my bare skin.

He gives me time. As much time as I needed and waits for me. Like he always did.

When finally, the darkness residing in my heart too fades and beats at its normal pace, he removes his head away from me but not before placing a deep kiss onto the bare skin and igniting my body with love, filling them with reassurance that even though all seemed lost, I still had him.

Gently, being overly cautions, he turns me around to face him, but I do not dare open my eyes.

For I had reverted back to my true self now. My hateful self.

My eyes had returned to its ugly colour, to its evil self. I looked as hideous as I felt. Now even my mate won't want me. Aries, too, will leave me.

A tear falls down in anguish, in self-hate, but his lips on my cheek stops it from falling any further. "Please don't cry." But I cannot help but cry even more as more tear rains down my closed lids.

He will never whisper those words to me ever again. He had yet to see me whole. Complete. Despicable. So horrid.

He immediately cups my face into his large hands.

"Look at me Althea. Please look at me, love." His soft whispers hush me as his fingers gently wipes my tears dry, but still I refuse to let him see me, because I refuse to let go of him. I just got him.

Holding tightly onto his wrists I continue to shake my head. I was not ready to lose you too. "Please."

"You will hate me if you see me now. You won't want me anymore, Aries. You'll push me away-" And the rest of my sentence gets devoured by him as does my lips. For the very first time, I feel those soft lips on mine.

His lips against mine.

I feel the sparks ignite my body in flames, zap me from every direction. I feel a pure bliss take over my thoughts and my body electrify.

His lips move against mine, in need for more. To feel more. To say more. To seal a promise, no words ever could or would. And I feel it. Both his promises and his love. He wanted me more than I may possibly have.

But that can't be true, right. I knew for a fact that even if I had nothing left in this world, if I just had him, I would be fine. For life without him was empty before. And I was beyond living that way.

Sealing one last kiss to my lips, his lips hovers all over my face, leaving me with soft kisses, filling me with him. Of his resilient love. He kisses both my eyelids, those eyes hidden well within them and he whispers again. That voice of his soft, healing and so full of love.

"Althea please look at me."

And I finally comply.

With one deep breath, I flutter my eyes open, but still scared to see disgust, hatred on those blue eyes that I have only seen love so far. But what I see in them leaves me breathless, for I only see love in them as he looks deep into my new pair of eyes, or the real ones. He looks at me with the same fascination as the first time he saw me, starstruck, and that curve of his lips pulls upward into his forever sweet smile as if this was the reassurance he needed.

"I love you Althea. All of you."

My heart thumps fast, impossibly fast. But it doesn't hurt like all the other times. No. It only heals me whole. The darkness that took over my soul frees itself. No, his soul pulls mine out from the well of night and wraps it around the silver of his halo.

He pulls me further in and places another kiss to my forehead, and I press my face into his neck, smiling, nuzzling further into him. I love the sound of his chuckle, the vibration of his chest, the warmth of his body, the sound of his heart. I loved all of him too.

"I love you too Aries." And he holds me tighter, leaving more kisses on top of my head.

And for once in this life, I felt loved. I felt wanted. I felt blessed.

The daughter of Raven was born for someone else too. She too completes a soul as he does her. This daughter of Raven was born to be a Queen.

The Queen of his heart.