The Alpha's Temptation

The guard twisted Kypho\'s fingers and shoved his hand away making him welp. He said, "That ship has sailed now," and kept the bowl of broth in his cell.

"What do you mean?" Kypho said as he stared with wide eyes at the guard. His mind froze. How did a guard know so much? Maybe, he was playing with him. "You are just a guard," he growled. "Just go and inform the king that I am ready to make a deal. You don\'t know me, but I am a very important prisoner!"

Nora giggled from her prison. "No one is important... Jaka was... she died."

"Fuck your Jaka!" Kypho snapped.

Nora tilted her head to look at him, anger rising in her chest. She removed her mangled hair and gave him a crazed look.

Kypho turned to the guard who was leaving. "I demand to see the king now! I am from the Cetus Monastery. If the High Priest comes to know that I am held here, he is going to unleash his wrath and your king is going to pay for it! Menkar is very powerful!"

The guard glanced at him and just walked away. Kypho got even more worked up. He screamed at the guard while trying to shake the thick iron bars, but nothing happened. Neither the guard came back, nor the bars shifted. They were too strong because they were specifically made for werewolves. All at once, something hit him on his head. Shocked, he whipped his face to look at what hit him and he saw that Nora was snarling at him with a stone in her hand and one was lying at his feet.

"Don\'t you say anything to Jaka!" she screamed, her eyes having that crazy look.

Kypho\'s fingers went to his head where he felt something warm flowing. Blood. Furious at her, he slowly closed the gap between them and came to stand in front of her. Without warning, he punched her through the bar. She yelped and stumbled back, crying in pain.

Suddenly, excruciating pain jolted his back. He almost tumbled back as he crawled to sit next to a wall. The effects were wearing off soon.

---

The High Priest of the Cetus Monastery had gone mad. It had been a week and he hadn\'t found his bottles. No one had access to them. Not even Kypho. Some stole them and stole the entire lot. He got them specially ordered for himself. His pains had started coming back and he had casually gone to check on his bottles, when he saw that only the empty ones were there. The filled ones were missing.

​ He gave orders to personally check every room, whether it belonged to a monk or a servant. He didn\'t care. His rage was at its peak. He had lashed at many of them. He had brought a few servants and whipped them on slightest suspicion. The monastery was in complete mayhem. No one knew what the High Priest was searching for. All he said that someone had stolen his precious jewels and some books.

Every monk found that allegation excessive. No one had dared to touch his belongings in thousands of years, why would they do it now? And when the librarian counted the number of books, all of them matched with his catalog. None was missing. As for the jewels, the High Priest was hardly into jewels, then what was his real problem.

In his room, Menkar would notice slight changes in himself. His eye color was gray, but now he could see black circles around his irises. He had started wearing glasses all the time.

On the eighth day, his hands started shaking. While having lunch in the main dining hall, his hand shook so hard that he dropped the spoon from his hand. He created a major ruckus about horrible food and then strode to his room. He closed the door behind him and summoned his newly appointed spy.

"Go to the Bikr Harbor on the Jade Sea. There you will meet a vendor called Guntar." Menkar\'s body shook a little as his breath became ragged. "Guntar\'s shop is at the very end of the--" he swallowed his saliva down. "At the very end of the harbor. Tell him that I have sent you. He will give you a box of bottles. Carry them back carefully. If you drop even one, I will skin you alive."

"Yes Master!" said the spy. "I will go by morning."

Menkar grabbed him by his collar. "You will go now! Is that clear?"

The spy, a young boy, was surprised, but he said, "Yes Master!"

Menkar shoved him away and walked back shakily to his bed. He couldn\'t allow this to happen. He was going to dig out every damn place in Cetus to find those bottles. Whoever had stolen them surely knew of his state. And that part made him jittery. Sleep was next to impossible. For the past two days ever since he discovered the thievery, he was extremely nervous. It was a matter of a few more days and he was going to strike against Eltanin and Lusitania. He would get what he finally wanted--to rule over Araniea.

He took the chain out of his neck and closed the tangerine soul stone in his palm. "I am coming, Tania," he murmured. "Keep those fae powers ready for me. I am going to lock you away in my tower forever and feed on your powers as I take Eltanin\'s beast in my control. Then--" he took a deep breath in. "Then I am going to rule the Jade Sea also!"

---

The spy rode all the way to the Bikr Harbor, stopping only twice to rest his horse and have food. It took one full moon rise and sunrise to reach the harbor. When he reached there, he saw boats and ships bobbing up and down the water of the sea. It was early in the morning, and there was little activity. After giving his horse to the local corral, he walked to the harbor to find Guntar.