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P R O L O G U E
Of Secrets and Ploys




3 months ago
Somewhere in America

THEY HAD ONLY ONE FUCKING JOB,
and that was not to disturb him. And yet, somehow, they failed to do so. Nearly every time.

He was fed up. His patience certainly ran a limit. So, he was scoffing when he granted permission to the person knocking on the door to enter.

The face his eyes caught the moment the person stepped in, with delicate lines contorted into a frown, etched deep in worry, was far too familiar. He'd seen it nearly every day. Such a nervous young man he was, always worrying for his own good.

"What is it?" he grumbled, his irked demeanor certainly wasn't helping. He hated to be disturbed, especially when he was working, and yet, here they were.

The young man before him flinched, and took an unintentional step back. Everyone was afraid of him, yes, but this young man's case was different. He was always so jittery, that he might have never seen him in a normal state of mind. Like that wasn't enough of a weakness, he always broke down in cold sweat every time he was before him. It might not have disturbed him that much if it didn't cost them very precious seconds.

The moment his anger levels started to rise and his fury began to radiate off of him in waves, the young male finally spoke, most likely out of fear of what could happen if he stayed quiet a second too long.

"I found something," he managed to let out in a squeaky voice. If it wasn't for his extremely heightened senses, he probably wouldn't be able to hear him with that tone. "And I think you should see."

He made a small gesture with his hands, and within seconds, the young man was stretching out the tablet he'd been holding in his hand towards him. He took it from him, his eyes immediately focusing on the already-open display on the screen. He nodded his head, indicating for him to proceed with explaining.

By now, he'd spent enough time in his service to be able to tell what even the smallest of his gestures meant. So, even though he hesitated for a moment and had to take a big, deep breath to steady himself, he started summarizing what this commotion is all about.

The pre-opened page on the tablet belonged to the website of the biggest Shifter publication out there. The Shifter Times was an online news platform, dedicated only to the news and newest events of the Shifter world. It also managed to be best at that. Even though the newspaper was only updated bi-monthly and they made video broadcasts on their website once a month as a recap of what had been happening out there, it was the most trusted, most well-known and most followed news source in the Shifter community. So having a chance to have a spot there was pretty big. Of course, he was subscribed. As they didn't exactly have an inside source yet, the website was the best way to stay up-to-date with the Shifter world to this day.

There had been a recent development in the last publication, and since then it had been the quite the sensation, to say the very least. A new author suddenly appeared out of thin air with a column solely dedicated to her, and the last publication hosted a title on the front page of what she was writing. After that, her article received so many clicks and reads that it was everywhere. Every one looked forward to what she would say next, and even though it had only been two days since the latest publication had been put out there, her newest article became the most popular one in mere hours.

She was mainly writing about the way the Shifter society was ran: how all the female Shifters were trapped inside the clutches of the patriarchal customs that they had. The first article was about the hierarchy and ranks in the society. It was still a sensation, but it didn't attain to be such a problem as it didn't touch on too sensitive topics. However, this latest one: it outright talked about mates, and how outdated the concept is. As this whole concept was sacred for all Shifters and they believed it directly came from the Moon Goddess, this last article touched upon subjects that it shouldn't have, and certain people definitely didn't like it. Especially because she dared to critique their religion to begin with.

"What about our men inside?" the man with the frown asked, his deep voice calmer and clearer. "What do they have to say?"

"The King and his Court are obviously aren't happy," the young man quickly answered. "A reliable source claims they want her silenced, Master."

Probably for the first time in weeks, a shadow of a smile appeared on the Master's thin lips. That smile was so wicked that it even made the young man shiver with its promises.

"Anything else?" The master asked, after a prolonged silence, lifting his glowing amber eyes on the young man's face.

The young man took a deep breath to calm his nerves done. Knowing that he needed to support his argument as strongly as he could, for it to be considered at least passable in the Master's eyes, he decided to play the very last card he had been guarding in his hands.

"There's a rumor circulating around," he stated, abruptly cutting their eye contact as he wasn't able to look into the Master's eyes for more than a couple of seconds. "That she's started an all-female rebellion group, on the way to be a full-fledged organization."

The Master looked, looked and looked at him, assessing his demeanor. He felt the burn of his intense eyes, almost openly inviting him to meet them, but he didn't have enough courage or guts to do so. He firmly kept his own gaze on the ground. When the Master spoke after an agonizingly long minute, he was finally able to release his breath with a big relief.

"Well done, Erulan," he just said. Even though it was short, it was more than enough.

Finally getting that praise he longed for so long now, a small smile danced on Erulan's lips, and he finally met the Master's eyes. But this time, he wasn't looking at him. He had turned back to the tablet in his hands. No problem, Erulan had already told him that he'd marked the important highlights from both of the articles for him, to make his job easier. He didn't think there was anything missing, and this time he truly believed his hand was strong. If not, he wouldn't even dare to bring it to his Master. He was perfectly aware of the severity of the punishment he could be getting out of this. So he made sure with anything in his power that he thought about everything.

After all, in a game like this, not the one with the strongest hand, but the one with the most solid hand and the one that could be the most discreet came victorious.

Erulan understood the game. That was how trusting his instincts never left him at fault.

The master was in complete silence for the time he spent reading the articles. Erulan could basically hear the sound of the wheels turning in the Master's head during all this time. He finished reading, and then he...

He laughed.

He really laughed. Erulan froze with shock. His Master, laughing? Even with dipping his head back like he couldn't contain it?

He couldn't believe his eyes or his ears. He thought his Master was not capable of showing any kind of emotion, let alone outright laughing.

When his laughter died down, the traces of it could clearly be seen on his sparkling eyes and twitching lips. "Alert Zeno and Dracan immediately," he said, practically beaming in his own standards. "You will go find this girl and bring her to me."

Then he grinned, putting his pearly white fangs on a proud display.

"We will make her side with us."

Welcome to the dark side, girl. You've earned it.


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