Chapter 26
The words “Try me” hung in the air, a silent challenge between father and son. Karen gestured for silence, massaging the temples beneath his silver-flecked hair. The disappointment in his eyes was a physical weight on Sion, a force that had been shaping his life since he could remember.
"If I allow you your free will, you'll only become another antisocial element I'll have to deal with. The complaints about you, they just keep coming. It was the children, the school, the teachers, but now... it's the cops." He massaged his temples, the familiar gesture of a father weighed down by a son’s existence. "You don't mature with age; you just escalate in your mischief. I was wrong to ever think you would start behaving."
Sion was about to speak but he stopped him pushing his hand forward. “I didn't want this for you, Sion,” Karen said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. “I gave you everything, and still, you choose to be… this. A liability. A ghost.”
Sion’s gaze flickered. The phrase was a metaphor, of course, a reference to the corrupt officials and law enforcement Karen had under his thumb. But the word ghost struck a chord, a faint echo of a heartbreak. It had always been there, a whisper in the back of his mind, a feeling of untamed power and primal instinct just waiting to break free.
Karen leaned forward, his voice dropping to a near whisper. “The government dogs, the ones I throw table scraps to keep their pathetic families afloat, have the gall to warn me about my own son. Do you understand what an insult that is? The man who owns three-fourths of this country’s service sector, brought to heel by some low-level mutt on a leash.”
Karen’s illegal empire—the trafficking, the weapons, the drugs—was the dark underbelly of his legitimate business, Wellcrow Grape Wines. He was a man who lived on the edge, who thrived in the shadows, and he saw his son as a threat to it all. He had no regrets, only a pragmatic view of the world. "People give you value when you cross the borders others couldn't," he'd always say.
He had wanted a successor, a sharp, cold-blooded heir to his kingdom, but he had a son who acted like a rebellious child.
Karen's face turned serious. "However, your future isn't going to be what you thought it would be. You're a tosser, a mischief ridden kid I never wanted. I've put up with it all because you are my son, my blood, my happiness. But I'm done. Pack your bags, you will go to London School of Business or I'll make an even worse decision—leaving you in the Sundarbans to fend for yourself."
The Sundarbans. The name alone was a shiver down his spine. The place was a death sentence. Rumors of a new, deadly threat there, a rhino that was said to be a phantom and to be especially violent, were the most recent news reports, and the idea of being sent there, of dying a nobody's death, was his deepest fear.
"No, please. I'll join the London School of Business. I'll do whatever you want."
Sion expected another threat, a final warning, but instead, Karen patted his arm. "I wish you all the best and yearn to see you as a capable and responsible young man when you come out of this institution." He gave a final nod, a twisted smile on his lips, before leaving Sion in the college guesthouse.
HIs mother, Sylvia , didn't speak. Her eyes, red and swollen, said it all. Sion wiped a tear from her cheek. "I'll be back before you even realize I'm gone," He promised, but even he knew it was a lie.
Just then Karen returned, a cold finality in his voice. "My staff has wiped your details from the internet. No one will know you are my son." He had enrolled him under a new name, a new identity, and with it, he sealed his fate.
Few weeks later
In London, Sion felt the pull of the moon, a fierce, primal longing that grew stronger every night. He was not just a werewolf. He was a creature of legend, a werewolf of a royal bloodline. A Lycan. He had been told all his life that his existence was a boon.
Sion felt the call now, the need to find his mate. He was a Lycan, and he knew he had to find the one who was meant for him, the one who would complete him. He ran, faster than any human could, through the streets of London, the full moon a beacon in the sky in search of his mate.
Days rolled by, and on one fine day, he saw a beautiful girl whose red hair flew with the breeze like a flame. She had pretty blue eyes, deep as an ocean of love. “Hey, you, are you here?” She waved a hand, pulling him from his daze. “Can you tell me where the economics first-year lecture is being held? I'm the new admission here, Safia Blacksmith .” She extended her soft, small hand for him to shake.
The earth collapsed and the heavens fell on it. At least that is what Sion felt at that moment. He called it ‘extravaganza’ when he read such things in books or saw them in movies. But ironically, now he was experiencing the same feeling. Could such a beautiful girl ever exist? He pinched himself to make sure she was real and not a dream. And in that second, he knew his life had been frozen with her forever.
Sion was off the hook with Safia, his first and last love. She was kind and beautiful but a mediocre student. She probably reached that level because of her hard work more than her intelligence, as it was noted that only the cream of all the packs from all over the world got to study there at the London School of Economics.
Sion liked her simplicity despite her being from a wealthy family. She was the sole child of Soren Blacksmith , the Alpha of the famous Best Vineyards, Moonlight Pack, popular everywhere in America. “We own small pieces of land in Tuscany to make some of the best wine in the world,” she said with nobility in her soft, angelic voice during one of their deep conversations.
He presented himself to her as a boy and started helping her with her classes. She was everything he was not, and he was terrified of losing her. Safia was the girl who brought out an irresistible wolf-like feeling in him, and he hesitated to reveal his true identity for fear of losing her.
Their love blossomed, a fragile thing in a world of deceit. But as the full moon rose over London, a different kind of feeling started to stir within Sion. It was the same primal force that had whispered to him in his father's study. It was a hunger, a thirst, an urge to run, to hunt. It was the call of the wild.
He tried to push it down, to ignore the burning ache in his bones. He was with Safia, walking through a deserted park, and the light from the full moon seemed to pull at him, at something deep inside. A low growl rumbled in his chest, a sound he had never heard before. He stumbled, his vision blurring, his senses heightening. The scent of pine and rain-soaked earth, the distant sound of an owl’s call—it all came rushing in.
Safi turned to him, her eyes wide with concern. “Sion? Are you okay?”
He wanted to tell her to run. He wanted to scream. He fell to his knees, his hands clawing at the earth, his body shaking violently. He looked at Safia, at her beautiful, innocent face, and knew that in a few seconds, she wouldn't be looking at him anymore. She would be looking at the wolf.
The transformation was beginning, an agonizing, bone-snapping change he couldn't stop. He was losing control. The only thing he could focus on was Safia, the scent of her, the warmth of her skin, the terror in her eyes. It was a predator’s instinct, and he was fighting against it, fighting to keep the last shred of his humanity.
He looked at her, his vision blurring, and a new scent hit him. It wasn't the scent of her fear. It was the scent of something familiar, something ancient. It was the scent of her family, the scent of her bloodline. She was someone he wasn't supposed to mate.
He had lied to her about his identity. Sion was ready to challenge his future. He had found his first love, and he had found his fated mate. But he had also found his mortal enemy, the one who was prophesied to destroy him.
Sion didn't believe in his werewolf instincts. He loved her and he didn't want to disclose it to her just yet that he wasn't a normal human like her. He was a werewolf, a shapeshifter and a beast. His family were the rulers in the dark forest. A naked truth that had been chasing his family for centuries. Safia on the other hand was a human born to a werewolf dad and a human mother by the boon of the moon Goddess. She wouldn't ever wish to marry a werewolf. But Sion knew fate had sealed them. She was his mate. He can't let her go.
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