Alpha Epiales

XXIV

Amora approached the border, nearing England, when a small group of werewolves cornered her and snarled in her direction.

Slowly, one by one, they shifted and that was when Amora realised they were wearing the royal uniform. They stared down at her suspectingly.

"Shift," one of them ordered.

Amora growled quietly at him before going behind a tree to shift. Her heart was racing, had she been caught?

She pulled her cloak over her head, tucking her hair away and stepped out to face the guards.

"Is there a problem?" Amora asked, trying to keep calm.

"We are sorry to ambush you like this, but as you probably know we have been ordered to search for the queen. Where are you heading to?"

Amora's breath quickened as she desperately searched for a good lie, "I-I am going to visit my grandmother, she is very ill."

"And you are coming from Scotland? Is that where you live?"

Amora nodded slowly.

"That is strange since you have an English accent..." another guard added in, crossing his arms, "what is your name ma'am?"

"My name? Oh it's um Lily."

They went silent, staring at her carefully.

"Please, if you don't mind I really must go see my grandmother."

They looked at each other intently, as if they were silently communicating, "alright, we are sorry for disrupting your journey."

Amora sighed in relief, nodding at them politely before going back behind a tree to shift again. Then she took off, racing through the trees as far away from the guards as possible, only looking back to make sure she wasn't being followed.

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Epiales could not sleep. The last time he had any decent rest was when Amora was in his arms, which felt like a lifetime ago. Now he had to force himself to keep his eyes closed and wait to succumb to the darkness, which usually resulted in him getting a couple hours rest at most.

He turned his head to look at the nightstand where his mother's diary lay. He could not come to terms with the fact that he never truly knew her. The woman who wrote in that diary was not the same woman who raised him. He could not remember a time where she ever showed any emotion that wasn't sadness.

His hatred for his father grew with the more he read. The majority of the entries were written before she was taken to the pack, but the few entries about her new life with his father disgusted him. She was forced to spend over two decades with a monster.

He stood up, now wide awake and made his way downstairs.

He found himself walking into the room that held the crowns. The object he had so desired now felt so foreign to him. He had not been able to bring himself to wear it since Amora left him. He didn't deserve to wear it.

He picked up Amora's crown, holding it gently. He remembered the first time he ever saw her wearing it, she looked so breathtakingly beautiful that he forgot how to breathe.

Loud commotion brought him out of his trance, making him place down her crown and rush out to see what was happening.

"Your Highness! We think we may have some news on the queen!" A small group of guards shouted, rushing into the throne room.

Epiales stood upright, shivers travelling all through his body at the mention of his mate, "did you find her? Where is she?"

One guard stepped forward, now nervous, "we bumped into a young woman on the Scottish border, she said she was on her way to visit her grandmother but she seemed very anxious and her story was obviously a lie."

"Well where is she? It could be Amora!"

The guard's face paled, "well, we didn't want to just force her to come with us, so we let her go."

"You what?" Epiales shouted, "what did she look like?"

The guard began to describe Amora perfectly and Epiales immediately knew it was her.

"So she is in England...keep this between us, do you hear? I want her to stay in England while she thinks I am looking for her in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales."

"Of course, your Highness."

"You are dismissed, thank you."

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Amora came across a small den, deep in the woods, and decided to stop and rest. She was dangerously close to some pack grounds. She knew it was dangerous to stay so close to Scotland when Epiales had people searching for her there, but she felt safer being further away from the castle.

She shifted, pulling on her dress and cloak. She had never spent so much time in her wolf form, she was rarely allowed to shift at Lincoln's pack and almost never needed to while she was at Epiales' pack, but being in her human form now made her feel weak and exposed.

Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a moving figure. She whipped around quickly, trying to spot whatever it was and she noticed a wolf running away from her. A feeling of uneasiness bubbled up in her stomach, but she forced herself stop worrying and tried to convince herself it was nothing. Deep down she knew whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

She crawled into the den, placing down her basket and bundled up her cloak as a make-shift pillow and slowly drifted off.

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Epiales paced around the room excitedly, Amora was closer to him than she had been in months, he was so close to finally getting her back. He imagined their reunion a million different ways, but it always ended the same way: with him getting down on his knees and apologising repeatedly.

He had already prepared a small bag full of things for her, a new set of clothes, food and drink, knowing that her time on the run wouldn't have been glamourous.

He ran up to their room, placing the bag down and stared out the window. All he could imagine was Amora's figure running into the woods, not even looking back at him as he collapsed to the floor in pain. He knew now that he deserved it, but the pain that accompanied the memory never faded.

"I love you so much, Amora," he whispered, looking into the woods.

A light knock on his door caught his attention, "come in."

A short man walked in and Epiales immediately recognised him as one of the butlers that Richard employed during his reign.

"Your highness, there is a woman waiting downstairs for you, she claims to know you."

Epiales heart skipped a beat, it surely wasn't Amora, she would never willingly come back to the castle, but a part of him wanted to pretend it could be her for as long as possible.

He nodded silently, making his way down the grand staircase and into the entrance room of the castle.

A tall woman faced away from him, a hood covering her face. She was glancing at the artwork, admiring it, and the action reminded Epiales of Amora the first time they came to the castle together. Indulging in his fantasy longer, he stared at her, forcing himself to believe it really was Amora standing before him.

He opened his mouth to call out her name when the woman turned around.

Epiales' mouth fell open in shock as his eyes narrowed at the figure.

"Hello, Epiales," the woman smiled snidely. She slowly took off her hood, almost tauntingly, and Epiales' eyes immediately zeroed in on the large mark that rested upon her neck.

(A/N- I've had a lot of inspiration to write lately and I wanted to thank you guys for reading and for all your comments, I love reading them and it really inspires me to write more. Stay safe! 🤍)