"So in the end, we found nothing. Honestly, you interrupted the watchers' history class for only bogus information! I thought you were better than this, at distinguishing true facts from false ones." Gabriel reprimanded the young man at his side, and one of the investigators he had under him.

The man had called him saying he had some important leads, but nothing turned out right. He was already feeling frustrated having no substantial leads for all this time, and now he was interrupted even for fake information. It was like someone was deliberately toying with them from the shadows.

First, hunters attacked a pack of students with the sole purpose of capturing them, which was already weird enough. As the hunters' primary goal was always to kill rogues. Not to mention, they had a pact with the Hunters' Association from decades ago, and the others wouldn't just break it for no reason.

Investigating that, it only turned out that the hunters who entered the forest that day had nothing to do with the organization. What a joke, it was like they were rogues themselves.

Honestly, rogue hunters capturing normal pack werewolves? When normally, there should only be hunters, approved by the Association, hunting and killing non abiding law rogues.

And the witches they had brought with them, were also not part of the covens. Clarissa, the leader of the witches, had not recognized the amulet they retrieved from the forest, when the king asked her, the last time she was here. After she had given Celia the ring.

Secondly, after hunters, rogues also entered their borders. And not just normal rogues, no, rogues that were carrying hunters' weapons?!

Not forgetting to mention, that the first time their future queen was injured, and the second time, their king. Well, technically the second time the king was also partially at fault, for carelessly moving forward because of his unrequired love.

What would witches, rogue werewolves and hunters have in common with each other? Why would they collude against them? Now probably only vampires and dragons were missing from the mix, and they would have the whole set. It was like someone was rounding up all the strays he or she could find.

And beside the attacks needing to be investigated, he and the Council also had to find reasons to dismiss the alphas and betas that had gathered at the palace, and were waiting for Salas to meet with them the second day after the ball. Some left easily when he told them the meeting would be rescheduled, but others from bigger packs were not as easily fooled. And it was not like they could just mention that his highness was unconscious, and could not hold the meeting.

Now humans had also started missing, in a large number at that. Normally, it would not be their problem, but from the look of it, rogues were involved. And they did so without carrying about being found out by humans, in absolutely freaking plain sight.

Really things could not get any worse, than they already were, he finally thought as he was entering the Academy grounds.

He barely alighted the car, coming back with his assistant from checking on the missing humans, when he was proven the contrary. Things could get much worse, much much worse.

Standing on the ground of the Academy the most wretched of sounds was heard from the distance, it was a terrifying violent sound. It was a sound filled with rage, sorrow, anger, regret, loss... all feelings jumbled up in one agonizing howl, making one's heart squeeze in fear and empathy.

Hearing this sound, the assistant was already on the ground, barely managing not to collapse from fright. Gabriel was still standing, but even he had shown his neck in submission, with the hair on the back of his neck standing in fear.

All around the Academy, students, teachers, guards, all who were present, no matter where they were, began collapsing on the floor in fright, gasping for air. Teachers, with a higher rank, were still standing or at least kneeled with their neck shown, but all of the students were kneeling, with most of them even collapsed on the floor completely.

"T-this is..." The assistant barely managed to stutter, as he felt that even the air was hard to breathe, he would recognize that howl anywhere. It was the howl of the most powerful werewolf, their king, but such a tone he had never heard him make in all of his life.

"His highness!" Gabriel said frightened by what it meant. Even during the war decades ago, Salas had never reacted like this, had never been this savage and domineering, had never demanded submission like this from them.

It was like he had wanted to rip each and every werewolf on the Academy grounds. There could only be one single reason that could make the highest ranking werewolf alive act like this, and specifically here.

"Celia..." Gabriel whispered, and trying to free himself from the mental shackles Salas had imposed on them, partially transformed himself. His fangs and claws extended, with his green eyes turning black, before he swiftly ran towards the sound.

***

On the path between the training buildings and the study ones, several teachers, the members of Celia's pack and a few guards, were kneeled a little further from the king. They were shaking in fear, as the latter was also collapsed with his knees on the snowed ground in front of a small patch of blood.

"!!!" His voice resounded, as his horrifying howl stopped.

The words filled with killing intent had frightened them even more, so they lowered themselves until they could reach the ground with their heads, but none present knew what they had done wrong to incur his highness's anger.

His highness had come running in his wolf form, breaking all the gates in his path, not bothering to walk through the normal formal route, until he reached this location and inexplicably knelt on the frozen ground.

Seeing him in such an alarming terrifying state they had quickly come, thinking something had been truly wrong, and wanted to offer their assistance. But until this moment, the king had not asked them anything yet, and had even threatened to kill them. Although, his words did not feel like a threat, more like an impending reality.

The watcher students were also caught up by mistake in this mess. They were only now returning from running around the whole territory of the Academy, as their instructor had ordered them too, and were about to go meet up with Celia, and return to their classes. But Salas's howling had also stopped them in their tracks, making them fall on their knees, as they felt their air was cut off.

Gathering in his hands the small red snow that was starting to melt at his touch, falling once more in small drops to the ground, Salas was already beyond the point of no return. As the blood filled snow melted completely, he slammed his hands in the ground in wrath, hands that were already changing their shape, with his bones rearranging in massive paws.

His clenched jaws elongated themselves, accompanied by countless cracking sounds, into a black furry snout with sharp teeth and canines, as his spine snapped to fit his now four legged posture, extending to form his long tail.

Transforming into his midnight black wolf... Sky was stricken with grief and could no longer be suppressed, not that Salas was intending too. He as well wanted to kill all who had not managed to protect his beloved.

"Oh... no!" Gabriel murmured breathless, in the face of the massive wolf.

The enormous black animal rose from the ground, a growling sound constantly rumbling in his throat. He moved slowly at first, but it did not make the threat of his existence any smaller. His giant mouth opened, showing his huge protruding canines and small droplets of saliva of a raging beast. His head lowered with his ears standing up in an intimidating manner, as his tail swung slowly with each step.

He was moments away from approaching the teachers and ripping them apart, each step he took, sending small ripples under their feet, as they shook in fear, accepting their imminent deaths.

Salas in such a state, had no cure, no one would be able to stop him in this condition, the one stronger than the Council of Twelve combined.

In such a situation, the king would only react to his mate, his queen, the only anchor to his savageness, but unfortunately they had no such person, thus no wait out, as he was not even asking explanations for the crime they could have committed.

"Gabriel, our queen, she is missing! His highness is rushing to the Academy!" Micah informed quickly using the pack link, as he was approaching the Academy. He was near his highness when the phone call was cut off, and the latter stormed off.

Unfortunately, the link only worked at a certain distance from each other, this was why Micah only now managed to tell Gabriel of what was happening, or else he would have quickly informed the guards on the premises of what was happening and they might have done something about it. But even the phones seemed to have been interfered with, he could not get in touch with any guards.

"Salas! Sky!" Gabriel yelled, now aware of what had happened, rushing in front of the teachers.

"Stop it!" He told Salas, but the latter was still advancing towards them. He no longer recognized any of them as friends, allies, only prey that needed to be dealt with.

The people on the premises admired Gabriel's interference, his courage to stand up to the king they lacked, but they knew it was futile. The king could no longer be reasoned with.

"CELIA!" Gabriel yelled just as the beast opened his mouth in his direction, and was about to bite him to death.

The watcher students froze at the mention of her name, why would Gabriel call it now in front of Salas? As did the teachers, not understanding his reasoning.

But the one that completely stopped in his tracks, even in his current madness, Sky understood perfectly. He slowly closed his mouth but did not stop his growling, as Gabriel continued.

"If you waste time dealing with us, you are wasting precious time in saving her. You are not helping our queen by acting like this!" Gabriel said loudly, to make himself clear to the creature, as the crowd let out gasps all around at the mention of the word "queen", even in their current scared state.

Only then did the wolf stop his rage altogether, allowing the human side to take over. The savage beast transformed into Salas, as the latter collapsed once again on the ground with tears flooding from his eyes, his image contrasting the earlier madness.

"They took her from me, Gabriel. Even her scent I do not feel in the air, I have no way to follow! My mate..." He hoarsely said, as Gabriel took his coat off, and put it on Salas's naked back.

"Salas, you are too involved and do not think straight. Take a step back, you are the only one who can find her. Come with me, there is something that can be done." Gabriel said to his friend, not thinking more about the fact that he had been a step away of being killed. Above all else, that was what he had always been to Salas, his friend.

After ordering all those present to not speak of what happened, Gabriel quickly instructed the guards to check all the missing people on the Academy's territory. This kidnapping could not have been possible without someone from the inside. But it did not take long to find a suspect, as the watcher students realizing something was off, and hearing his words, quickly told Gabriel of their missing teacher.

As never before, their combat teacher, Riddick Cane, had told them he would leave for several minutes, after instructing them to run around the Academy. Normally, they would have only run on the training grounds, but they did not second guess their teacher's intentions, thinking that the latter had wanted to increase the distance of their jog. The problem was, although considerable time had passed since he told them to do so, the teacher had not returned.

"Teacher we also want to help, Celia is our alpha. No matter what we can also search for her!" Jake said, fearing for her life.

"If there is something to be done we will let you know!" Gabriel said, but did not offer more explanation, time was of the essence.

So both Gabriel and Salas quickly left, with only Micah remaining behind to check for other clues.

Ascending quickly the steps of the stairs leading to the throne room inside the Royal Palace, Salas and Gabriel were greeted by five of his councilmembers, Emery Victor Reynolds, Marik Riemann and three others had quickly come at Salas's summon.

The rest of them were gone in other parts of the world handling pack matters, and could not come on such a short notice. But, nonetheless, all of them had still sent the people his highness had ordered them too.

In the huge throne room, as Salas sat down on his throne, all the people consisting of the relatives of the councilmembers, and other close werewolves, who had known about him leaving on the night of the attack in the forest, had bowed down and waited for his highness to give them the usual permission to stand up.

The king would normally ask them to lift their heads almost immediately, but this time he did not. So they could only awkwardly still remain with their heads bowed.

The atmosphere was weird and suffocating, while the circumstances for why they were gathered were not made clear by their families, no matter how the wives, children, grandchildren and the rest asked. All who had over the age of sixteen, had been ordered by the councilmembers to go to the royal palace, without the smallest information.

Looking from side to side, hoping that the informant would be between them, but at the same time wishing to rip them to threads were he or she truly in their midst, Salas released his alpha aura. An aura much like the one at the Academy, had engulfed all of them, causing them to fall to the ground, with the stronger ones barely kneeling.

"Councilmembers, I think I have waited long enough. Nobody is more important than my queen!" Salas informed the five elders that stood on his right side in the front, with a sharp harsh tone.

The information baffled all the bowed people, as it had the teachers at the Academy, although none would show it.

The councilmen did not reply to the king verbally, and only obeyed by bowing their heads, a confirmation of their loyalty. Indeed, his highness had showed them enough respect, would he have wished to before, he could had found the informant using a cruder manner.

But conscious of the fact he was not a tyrant, Salas had not used this method to find the informant. He had given their families the benefit of doubt, showing them respect for the years at his side. And where did it get him? His queen was now missing.

He had wanted to lock her in his palace, until her powers could be used, but could not resist the petite woman's pleading eyes and voice, accepted her attending the Academy.

He was careless knowing no one but his close associates knew of her existence as his mate, and thus no one would have a reason to hurt or take her away, but he would be careless no more. No, from now on he would take action as he should have from the start.

"" Salas ordered them, using his alpha voice.

A voice they had no choice but to listen, even though were afraid for their lives.

"" Salas shouted, using the same alpha voice, but with a harsher tone this time.

Although, she was trying with all her strength not to, even trying to grab the carpet beneath her to avoid standing up and clenching her muscles to not change her position, her body reacted to the higher ranked werewolf's order almost immediately. At his words, regardless of her will, Yvonne stood up, trembling and as pale as she could be.

She had barely stood up, when she was violently pulled by a hand and thrown across the immense throne room landing in the hallway where she fell with broken bones. Terrified by the king's anger she looked up, only to see that Salas was still sitting on his throne. The one who was standing in her place and clearly the one who had thrown her, was none other than her grandfather, and the person that doted on her, since she was a small pup.

Marik Riemann was grateful to his highness, he knew the king even now made all the people close their eyes to not dishonor any of the councilmembers, Salas had tried to not reveal to the world what his own flesh and blood did.

Looking disgusted towards the granddaughter he had adored and painstakingly raised, the elder made one single step, before disappearing from her eyes only to reappear in the second right next to her.

"Grandfather, I did not... " Yvonne managed to utter slowly, but the smell of fear she emitted and the fact that she had been the only one to stand up earlier, was enough to convince him she was about to tell lies. He had known Yvonne always aspired to more, and he had also felt she deserved more, but not like this. Not in a traitorous way.

He lowered his hand without talking at all, grabbing the back of her neck and dragging her with him through the crowd until he reached in front of the king, before releasing her, as she fell to the floor.

"" Salas ordered.

"Your highness, I did not..." Yvonne tried to speak again.

But no one bothered to listen to her, no one said a word, until the doors were shut as the crowd left.

"" Salas asked, reeling in his anger to obtain the information he needed.

At the some other place

Feeling an excruciating headache that jolted her out of the unconscious state she was previously in, Celia woke up, and quickly stood up a second later, as she realized that someone had hit her from behind, causing her blackout. Unfortunately, the pain persisted as she could not regenerate using her werewolf power.

Checking her surroundings, she did not recognize the dark eerie room, devoid of furniture other than the canopy bed she was on.

The only thing she could tell was that it was already dark outside, as the full moon was steadily rising on the sky.

She rose up on her feet, with her hand moving a bit to a side the loose pieces of silk that dangled from the posters of the bed, as her heart beat uncontrollably frightened of the unknown.

Approaching the window, the single source of light, her entire being trembled as the only things she could see in the distance was nothing but a white grey atmosphere that was made up of the countless snow covered trees that enveloped the ground as far as the naked eye could see.

The lifeless scenery sent even more shivers to her heart as she continued to look. It was the first time in her life she was alone, as even Waning could not be contacted, to not interrupt Crescent's transfer.

The first time she had felt this alone and agitated in this unlit sinister room, where no sounds could be heard, other than her unsteady breath.

Facing away from the window, Celia froze, scared out of her wits. Why did she assume she was the only one in the room?