Challenge

Moira's viewpoint

It has been three weeks and three days since we left the castle, two weeks since we left the pack. I would say it was going well for us, but it wasn't, not at all. Both April and I, even Fina had been worried sick for Zephyr and Xyra.

Although Xyra never admitted that being rejected didn't just murder her pride, it was affecting Majesty badly and therefore affecting her. She would sit and murmur while stabbing anything in hand's reach: food, wood, books, shoes, even her own hand! When she wasn't murmuring and stabbing, she was cooking her notebooks and cursing at him, or drawing images of people being slaughtered or dying gruesomely. She wasn't eating more than a day, and sometimes not for two days. She was getting weaker and the bond was slowly making her lose her mind. She spent most night as Majesty, far away in the woods and howling in pain.

Zephyr didn't deny anything. She mostly stayed up all night crying that she wants her mate back and changing the temperature of her room, most times the house, and few times the entire street. At day time, she cried while eating, cried while showering, cried while crying about crying. Basically, she just cried or whimper. Her depression and that of Xyra's was starting to take a toll on their powers. The constant climate change in our street and the fact that when Xyra angrily screamed the other day, ten people committed suicide, was starting to alarm us.

We didn't know what to do or how to get them to calm down. They needed their mates. A lycan mate bond is far more stronger than a werewolf's, especially with how powerful their mates were. April suggested telling her parents because they could feel that she wasn't doing fine. The whole pack could feel it and would always bombard us with questions on how she and Zeph were doing. Xyra commanded us to say they were fine so they were fine. The pack knew we were lying, but we couldn't break the command.

Zeph sat on the beanbag chair, hugging a stuff yellow bear as she watched a sad romance movie. She wasn't crying for once, but she was sulking and her depression was floating around the place. Xyra on the other hand had been ripping stuff animals open, cutting the hairs of dolls and gorging out their eyes. April and I Just watched worriedly.

Zephyr's new look suited her more than the other. Her brownish gold and honey blonde hair had replaced itself with semi long sharp tip Maastricht blue locks. The hair were glossier, softer and very much attractive. Though many would think it's a dye, it was natural. Her grey eyes were now a deep and dark shade of blue. Her bluish pale white skin now a warm silky alabaster skin. She was still as slender as she used to be, only rounder with fuller breasts and curves. The only thing that didn't change about her were her ruby lips and Korean look. Even her voice got slightly deeper. At least, she lost the scariness to her look.

Her mate would love it but then again…

"Xyra, you need to stop this," I finally spoke with a sigh. She raised her eyes from the teddy she was slicing and glared at me. Fear ran down my spine and along my skin. I gulped my advice back down.

"Xyra! Xyra!" Fina shouted as she barged into the apartment. "You need to stop what you are doing, now!"

"Why?" Xyra hissed.

"Because this whole block, this street and the next four streets are running mad! They are trying to gorge out each others eyes, stab their heads, rip each other apart and shave their hairs. You need to stop, please," she cried. "Your depression is going to end everyone's life! And Zeph, you made it snow outside! It's a snowstorm out there and yet everyone is trying to kill themselves!"

"Xyra, this isn't you," April sobbed, "where have my best friends gone to?"

"She left when her wolf went silent," Xyra said with a sniff, "Majesty haven't been talking to me. All she does is shift and howl her pain out," a tear rolled down from her cheek, "she is in so much pain and I can't do anything to help her. I don't like how helpless I feel, but I can't control it. I don't know why this is breaking us so much…"

"Because you are mated to the king of all the freaking werecanids! Your bond is unbreakable!" Fina shouted with frustration. She was having a whole lot of guts.

Xyra's phone rang. She picked it up from the table and answered it. "Dad?" Her brows furrowed as she listened to what he was saying before she dropped the phone. "Dad wants me home, us,"

"Maybe the news of people murdering themselves have gone viral and the whole world freaking knows!" Fina shouted again.

"That's not just it," Xyra murmured, "he used his alpha command on me, even when he knows it doesn't work,"

"We better leave then," I said quickly. I had a hunch, but I wasn't going to share it with them just yet.

But please, hunch, be true.

_______________

We finally arrived at the pack. Xyra and Zeph had to calm down enough for everyone back at the streets to stop. They were all taken to different hospitals by the soldiers that arrived after the madness calm down. We had to stay back first so we wouldn't seem suspicious. Apparently, some people weren't affected by it so it was enough clear for us. They told us to leave the house first, until the source of the madness was found. So we left the next day.

Some men were standing at the porch of the Alpha's house, with dad sitting on a chair and Lula at his feet. It almost seemed like the men had been doing nothing but standing there for days and waiting for someone. They were royal warriors, meaning my hunch was right. I could already feel Xyra's excitement that the king came back for her.

She almost jumped out of the moving car when she saw them. She went to dad, greeted him and kissed his cheek before addressing the men. We were joining them then.

"Are you the only ones here?" They nodded. The smile dropped from her face. "You mean he didn't come himself?"

"The king has a lot to do," they replied in unison. Xyra slowly rose up from the porch she was now sitting on, and blinked with confusion. She was trying to process everything.

"Zephyr, you look sick and your eyes are swollen, you have been crying," I heard Lula whine.

"So let me get this straight," Xyra said with slight bewilderment and rising rage, "after humiliating me, my entire family, dishonouring my pack and our given bond, he finally decides to fix his mistake by commanding my father to command me home so he can command me to follow the warriors he commanded to not leave my porch or return without having me!" She screeched. "How dare that motherfucking bastard!!!"

"Xyra, calm down," I pleaded.

"Xyra, don't calm down," dad said angrily, "don't calm down at all."

Xyra's body shook with violent rage as her claws extended and the azure in her eyes swallow her entire eyes. Azureish white energy rose from her body, with the edge of it turning to royal azure. Her fur spread on the surface of her skin, growls after growls of fury, ripping out of her throat. The energy forced us all to our knees, but more to the lycan warriors.

"Now here is my own command," Majesty's voice boomed out of Xyra's lips, "tell that prick head that I said I would never return to a foolish male like him; a male who has no respect for the opposite gender. How dare he humiliate me, disgrace my pack, ruin my father's image, torture me for weeks and make me lose control of my emotions, only for him to send you all to return me like some kind of worthless prisoner! Who does he think he is?! Who does he think I am?! I am Majesty! How dare he break me after readying myself to submit to him! How dare he!"

Her anger was beginning to create an earthquake, she needed to calm down before she destroyed the pack. "Tell him everything I just said, and repeat this words to his hearing. 'You live inside him as a slave, you live under his control and watch him hurt the one made to be the other part of your soul. How long are you going to sit and watch? I dare you, oh lycan mate of mine, break free and come get me yourself, for I would be waiting for you to catch me'. Now, get the fucking hell out of my pack and my lands!!!" The last sentence was Xyra's. Majesty had challenged the king's lycan, and he would definitely come.

I hope so.

Carswell's viewpoint

Caesar was still brooding over my decision for my own mate. I admit that the past weeks tore me apart, ripped my lycan's heart in half. He never spoke to me again. And each passing day, he redrew his strength from me. Day after day, I slowly became human, butt that wasn't even the worse of it all. I couldn't stop murmuring or the tight squeeze in my heart every two hours.

Something pulled at the bond every time my heart squeezed, like my spirit was being yanked out of me. I couldn't delete her face, her azure eyes which had smoke grey in it at day time… Or maybe I didn't look at her eyes properly at the ball. I couldn't do away with the guilt, the regret, sadness and depression. I was losing my mind. I knew the goddess was punishing me for disrespecting her to the knowledge of her subjects. It was extremely agonizing with the kind of pain I felt at night. I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, couldn't think clearly, couldn't shift, couldn't forget her.

When it didn't feel like she was flogging my back, I was walking out of my room with my boxers or naked and almost walking away to roam the streets and forest mad. It took the guards, warriors and Caesar to drag me back every time. It had happen five times and the elders were already deciding to put me on chains.

I couldn't take it anymore, so I commanded some warriors to go get her and don't leave without returning with her. Zane wasn't going crazy like me, ever since he woke up from a two weeks coma. He said that his mate was loyal to mine, so if I didn't get mine back, he wasn't getting his. So, he wasn't talking to me and threatening to relinquish his title as the chief warrior and my very best friend. My best friend was on the line, and that was another reason I gave in.

"I still think you should have gone to fetch her yourself," Caesar grumbled. "You ridiculed her pack, her father, her alpha title, and broke her heart. Sending them would anger her and not please her."

"As you can see, I can't leave the castle, I might run mad along the way," it was a good argument point, but he wasn't buying it.

"I still think…" The door opened and Zane walked in with the warriors behind him. They looked like shit and were in serious pain. Xyra wasn't with them.

"Good news, your erasthasis is more powerful than we thought she is," he said sarcastically, "she reordered them to return to you," the men fell on their knees as they shed tears.

"My king, I'm sorry, we couldn't bring her back. Her father commanded her home as told, but when she came and saw that you didn't come for her directly, she got pissed and exploded with rage."

"It was like nothing I have ever felt before. The power was so strong it brought everyone down to their knees and crippled us. It was like yours, but more painful and heavy. Her wolf told us to repeat some words to you, but you will kill us if we say it," the other sobbed.

"Repeat it so you can be free," I said calmly. I wasn't surprise she could do that. I didn't use a heavy command on them, and she was the queen after all. So both command coming together was causing them extreme pain. And also, it had something to do with her powers.

"I would never return to a foolish male like him; a male who has no respect for the opposite gender," they said in unison, "how dare he humiliate me, disgrace my pack, ruin my father's image, torture me for weeks and make me lose control of my emotions, only for him to send you all to return me like some kind of worthless prisoner! Who does he think he is?! Who does he think I am?! I am Majesty! How dare he break me after readying myself to submit to him! How dare he!"

They paused and took in a deep breath like she must have done. My silent lycan was stirring awake, whimpering from the anger of their tone which must be the one she used. "You live inside him as a slave, you live under his control and watch him hurt the one made to be the other part of your soul. How long are you going to sit and watch? I dare you, oh lycan mate of mine, break free and come get me yourself, for I would be waiting for you to catch me."

Uh oh.