Haven Brook

"Leave me," Sarah defended, and pushed Lloyd in the chest, sending him staggering backwards. Lloyd didn't give up but charged back at her with equal vivacity, and grabbed her jaw with his left hand. He brought her face towards his' and kissed her, not minding that her lips refused to welcome his'. She let out a moan as he used his right hand to grab her buttocks, and caressed it roughly.
"I said leave me," she cried, pushing him away again. This time he stopped and rested his palms on his waist.
"You can never leave me, can you?" He smirked. Silence remained for some seconds before Sarah broke it.
"We're leaving for Dragon Falls tomorrow."
Lloyd jaws dropped in surprise on hearing this.
"Why?" He asked.
"Tyson's cousin's uncle is a werewolf and he thinks he might know someone that can help break the curse on Stefan," Sarah said, and pushed off a strand of her blonde hair off her face.

It was 20 years since Stefan had suddenly collapsed due to a curse that had befallen him. Sarah was a potent witch from a family of witches and wizards, but still, she wasn't able to break the curse, or even figure out what kind it was. She had been asked to the care of Lord Roosevelt's sick wife, and had tried to experiment some spells on her that backfired, killing her. Lloyd, Lord Roosevelt's son had happened to know of this, and had used his knowledge to blackmail her. She hated him for this, and could have wiped his memory but for the protection spell placed on him since he was family; son to a representative of humans in the world, and a member of the grand council.

"Well, guess what. I've always wanted to know werewolves but can't just go alone," Llyod said.
"I'm going with you guys," he continued.

***
Dragon Falls
It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets, rattling along the rooftops. Kruger turned the door knob into his house. His clothes, a gray t-shirt and black pants were soaked in water. Water dripped down his jaw, the tip of his ears and his soaked raven black hair that fell down his face.

He turned around and closed the door, wiping a streak of water off his eyebrows. The sky let out a roar, lightning cracking, with Kruger swiftly moving in alert as he caught a glimpse of a shadow; not his in the lightning's light. He walked to a torch leaning on the wall, and lit it, the wind fiercely agitating the scanty flames of the torch, that struggled against the darkness. He sighed in relief on seeing no one in the now illuminated room, but no sooner had fear taken its place again as Kruger noticed a swift movement behind him. He turned around to check what or who it was, and his face was met with a scary one, the person's eye glowing an enchanting emerald green. The face was awfully close to his, so Kruger could not make out the details of the face.

Acting on quick instinct, he hit the intruder on the chest with the heel of his palms, his wolf strength sending the intruder crashing onto the wall. Kruger's eyes widened in surprise on recognizing who he had just pushed. It was his own Alpha, Alpha Xeres. Apology washed over his entire expression as he wondered why his Alpha's link hadn't warned him. Then he remembered, the wolfsbane, Lucy, a witch, had poisoned him with. It was probably still in his blood. Even then, why would his Alpha sneak up on him, he could just summon him.
"To prove to you that you can't hide from me," Xeres read his mind.
"He's proud," Kruger's wolf, Omar said, finally talking for the first time since the wolfsbane poisoning.
"Shut up." Kruger shut his mind to avoid Xeres reading it again.
"So that's how you welcome me after three days," Omar said bitterly.

"Your brother's nephew is coming with his team to you tomorrow, isn't it?" Xeres asked much to Kruger's surprise on how he had found out about that.
"Yes," Kruger replied, his Alpha's link betraying him to speak the truth.
"Good. After helping them find a solution to the cursed one, Stefan, I want you to bring him to me."
"What! Hell no!" Kruger yelled, shocked at what Xeres was asking him to do.
"You expect me to betray the people who trust me to seek my help?" Xeres stood there in rage, the brown eye color of his wolf, Xander flashing, with Xeres' emerald green eyes disappearing.

"Listen to him and do what he says," Omar said, speaking on primal urge to obey his Alpha.
"Shut up Omar." Kruger shouted out loud, pushiness Omar into a dark corner in his mind.
"Oh, I see. You've not fully accepted your wolf since I turned you." Xeres eye changed to its usual green color bed he continued.
"He's still slave to your humanity!" Xeres yelled, his eyes flashing a brown color again.
"I'm not saying that you should turn off your humanity and go rogue. I'm asking you to accept who you are now." Xeres continued. Kruger began to go dizzy, and realized that Xeres was compelling him. Whatever Xeres wanted must be very important or he would have killed Kruger on the spot rather than compelling him by magnifying his Alpha's link. Kruger's eyes flashed the brown color of his Alpha's eyes and Xeres spoke a few words before transforming into a six feets tall wolf, and leap out the window into the full moon.
"Bring him to me at the Dream Bridge."

***

Dragon Falls
Jaden walked through a corridor that once used to be heavily guarded. Since Alpha Stark's death, about three guards remained here, since the only chamber on the corridor; Alpha Stark's chamber was now empty. It was exactly two month since Stark had died, and since then, no one had entered his chamber. He didn't know why, but he wanted to. He had a feeling that there was something else behind Stark's death, a werewolf couldn't die naturally, and there were no physical sign of attack on his body. He still regretted that Stark had called Zayn to stay with him that night, and not him. Despite being Stark's biological son, and having lived with him for over a century, Zayn and Stark never had the father-son bond. Zayn was way older than Jaden, being over a century old. He had been lucky to stop aging at a young age of 25. Jaden was 21, and was already seeing signs of slowed growth. He'll probably soon stop aging.

Jaden turned the door knob, and entered Stark's untouched room.
"I miss him," Vincent, Jaden's wolf said.
"Yeah, me too."
Jaden picked up Stark's sandals, lying recklessly at the foot of the king sized bed, and set it carefully in a corner of the room.
He went on to arrange Stark's weapons on the wall, and from the corner of his eyes, he spotted the edge of a white envelope peeping below a pillow on the roughly laid bed.

"What's that?" Vincent asked.
Curiosity took the better of Jaden, and he walked forward to pick the envelope. He didn't bother to open the seal, but tore the envelope and brought out the neatly folded letter. His eyes began to slowly widen in surprise while reading the content of the letter; Stark had written a letter of resignation.