IN FULL COLOUR - Dark Fantasy

Axel

“Right over there, Alpha,” the young she-wolf pointed at a pristine white wooden door down the hall. She had shown me the way to Gabrielle’s room, nestled securely in the private wing of Dire Mountain’s most elite pack member’s quarters.

I nodded in thanks and watched as the young wolf disappeared back down the stairs we had just climbed up together. A faint scratching sound pulled my attention to the shut door up ahead. In front of it stood the large grey wolf I kept seeing everywhere Gabrielle went. It scratched at the bottom of the door again and sat down, eyeing me with what I can only describe as a bored look on the animal’s face.

Instantly, my wolf stirred uneasily inside my mind. A second later the male’s strong, wild scent hit my nose, sending the Alpha in me into a frenzy. It was the first time I had encountered the unwelcome rival since my wolf returned and he didn’t like it one bit. Fur started peeking out along the scruff of my neck and I felt my canines elongate in anticipation.

Taking a large step closer with territorial dominance already burning hot in my veins, her door cracked open, leaving just enough space for the large beast to prowl through before it shut again, leaving me gawking at it from down the hall.

That was about as much as I could stand! I needed to know what the hell was up with that filthy slave, and I needed to know NOW! Why was he even allowed to enter the private lodgings of MY mate without my knowledge or consent?

Who knew what he did with her, to her, behind those closed doors?

Cursing under my breath, I stormed down the corridor with bile pushing up the back of my throat. I tried to prepare myself mentally for what I might find waiting for me beyond that pristine, innocent-looking door. Made myself expect the worst.

Without knocking, I ripped the door open, letting it swing wide open and bounce off the opposite wall with a loud crack.

“Holy F-!” Gabrielle cursed and a large, flat book fell off her lap from where she sat crossed-legged on her king-size bed in the middle of the room, the entire left side of it facing me. Her eyes had gone wild, and the large wolf came charging at me from somewhere hidden around the furthest left corner of the room.

Instantly, she jumped off the bed, almost losing her footing in the process and threw herself in front of the snarling beast, “Nero, it’s ok,” she cooed, trying to calm the angered wolf, whose saliva was now dripping savagely onto her arm as it peered past her to growl at me. The animal’s lips were curled back into a deadly snarl and the hair along the scruff of its neck stood up in warning, as did mine.

“It’s ok, it’s ok,” she tried to calm it, pulling her fingers in long, slow strokes over its back.

A low growl reverberated inside my chest.

She sat on her knees, her back turned towards me, hugging the beast until the provoked hair along its scruff went back down and it huffed loudly in annoyance.

“Do you want to go see? It is only Axel,” she said in a sweet, gentle voice, finally turning to face me. The animal cocked its head and studied me for a moment. She let go of it and it trudged towards me, carefully sniffing at my legs.

I stood dead still, observing.

“Maybe if Axel learned how to properly enter a lady’s room, he wouldn’t have frightened you so,” she said, folding her arms over her chest and giving me a pointed look.

“I-uh,” what in the world was going on? The wolf turned away from me and disappeared back around the corner it had just came from.

“Do you always enter rooms like that?” She asked, vaguely gesturing towards the door and the mark it had left against the wall when I had forced it open.

I shook my head in confusion, trying to get back to the matter at hand, “what’s the deal with that mutt of yours? Or should I say of your father’s?” I bit out, letting my anger and my canines show.

Something flickered in her innocent caramel eyes. A realization of some sort, “is that what this is about? Jealousy?”

Within a split second her demeanour had changed. She looked livid.

“I asked you a question,” I merely replied, voice neutral. Cold.

Gabrielle stared at me with pure rage burning in those beautiful orbs of hers. Then, ever so slowly, she stood up, all the while keeping her eyes fixed on mine, “get out,” she seethed.

Her voice sounded grave, deadly.

I gazed around her room, once again scanning for the wolf. The entire room was decorated in different shades of purple, pink and apricot, with hundreds of tiny, fairy lights dangling from the chrome frame around her large bed, illuminating most of the room in a soft, warm glow. She had so many pillows on her bed, I couldn’t even see the stone-carved headpiece towering out behind it.

Her room looked like something out of a fairy-tale. My mouth fell open and I stepped further inside to take it all in.

“Did you hear me!? I said GET OUT!” She said again, this time squaring her shoulders and taking a threatening step towards me.

“What in the world,” I mumbled as I beheld a large, immaculate painting stretching around the left corner of her room where the wolf had disappeared around. My fingers slid along the cool, textured surface of the painted wall, around the edge of the corner and I had to take a few steps back to observe the entire thing in.

Behind me, Gabrielle dashed to pick up the large book she had dropped onto the floor when I had startled her by barging in like a lunatic. With one quick glance over the shoulder, I noted that it was a sketchbook of some sort, although I didn’t see any of its contents.

“You did this?” I breathed as my eyes darted from one corner of the wall to the other. Every inch was painted perfectly. The strange, unfamiliar creatures in it seemed so real, so lifelike like they could step out of the painting any second and devour us whole.

Some of the creatures looked dark and sinister, while others had a friendlier, gentler appearance. And there, in the far-right corner, almost hidden within a herd of sheep stood the frog-like creature that had attacked me outside my room last night.

My face snapped towards Gabrielle.

She stood frozen in place, watching. Waiting for my reaction.

“Wha-how,” I stepped closer, sliding my fingers over the painted area, “how is this possible?”

Nero blew out a heavy breath and laid his head back down, pressing it deep into the soft lining of his padded bed in the corner where I stood.

“He’s-he is just a wolf?” I asked, turning to her for confirmation.

She nodded.

I cursed filthily and dragged a leaden hand through my blonde hair, peering up at the wall from under my brow, “we need to talk.”