Ravon’s POV
I stood at the tall arched window of my study, staring down at the front gates of my mansion.
The morning fog rolled over the black stone courtyard, but I could still see the dark shape long before it reached the main entrance.
A massive wolf was sprinting down the dirt path, its black fur matted with mud and its tongue hanging out as it pushed past the outer perimeter guard post.
I knew that wolf.
It was Asher.
A sharp spike of annoyance hit me just seeing the coward riding toward my front doors.
Whenever Asher came running back in his wolf form like a whipped dog, it meant one thing: bad news.
The useless fool never brought anything worth hearing.
I watched from above as the gate guards drew back the iron bars, letting him streak inside the inner courtyard.
The moment his paws hit the cobble stones, his spine buckled and twisted, bone snapping back into bone as he morphed back into his human form.
Naked and panting, he grabbed a cloak thrown to him by a servant, wrapped it around his shoulders, and hurried inside the lower doors.
I turned away from the glass and walked over to my desk, resting my hands on it.
In a few minutes, the double doors to my study swung open.
Asher practically crawled into the room, hurrying across the floor to kneel right in front of my desk, keeping his shoulders low and his eyes fixed on the rug.
“Where is the Oracle?” I asked point-blank.
“You should be here with her, shouldn’t you?”
I watched as Asher swallowed hard, his head still bowed low.
“Lord Ravon… I have news. And it is bad news.”
I didn’t move an inch.
“As if you ever have good news to share. Speak.”
“When I went…
when I went to talk to my brother about releasing the Oracle to us,” Asher stammered, his fingers clutching at the edges of his cloak, “I saw that she was already living under his roof.”
I leaned forward, my jaw tightening as I listened to him, but then I noticed Asher hesitate.
His breath hitched, his lips moved as if he wanted to say something more but he stopped himself, keeping his head bowed low to hide his face from me.
I hate fools who hold back in my presence.
I pushed off my desk, walked around it, and stopped right in front of where he knelt.
Then with a swift motion, I reached down, wrapped my fingers into his dark hair, and violently yanked his head back.
Asher winced loudly, a sharp cry escaping his throat as his neck was forced back at an unnatural angle.
His grey eyes stared up at me in sheer terror, his face pale and sweating.
“Tell me what you saw,” I demanded, leaning down until my face was inches from his.
“Now.”
“I… I saw her!” Asher stuttered, his voice trembling as he tried to pull against my grip.
“When I saw the Oracle, I sensed something around her. It was like… like I knew her before!”
“Do not delay me with riddles and half-truths, Asher!” I snapped, twisting his hair harder until he let out another painful whine.
“Do you still have love for your brother Garrick? Is that why you are stammering like a weakling in front of me?”
“No!” Asher cried out, his hands grabbing uselessly at my wrist.
“No, Lord Ravon. My brother can go to hell, I swear it on my blood! After he banished me from the pack, after he threw me into the dirt like trash, I cut off all ties with that bastard of a brother. I hate him! I want him dead just as much as you do!”
“Do you?” I sneered, leaning closer to his pathetic face.
“Because it sounds to me like you are still very soft-hearted for him. Or perhaps you didn’t actually kill that mate girl like you swore you did. Perhaps you held back because you still had love for her too!”
“I killed her!” Asher insisted desperately, tears of pain pricking the corners of his eyes.
“I put the blade into her myself. I don’t love that girl anymore! I don’t love anyone!”
I stared down into his eyes, watching the panic dancing in his irises.
I could tell when someone was lying to me.
He was hiding something, burying his own guilt behind loud screams and pathetic pleas.
“You lie,” I whispered coldly, shaking his head side to side in my grip.
“You sit there and spill weakness all over my floor.”
“I am n…not l…lying….” Asher stammered, his teeth chattering as I manhandled him.
“Lord Ravon, please! I am sure… I am sure that the Oracle is the same girl I tried to kill about a week ago. The mate you instructed me to kill so I could be free to pursue the Oracle!”
I snarled at him, my lip curling back in utter disgust.
What nonsense is this fool spewing?
The thoughts raged through my head like fire.
How can a girl he stabbed one week ago be the same girl in Lord Garrick’s territory today?
The same girl everyone is calling the Oracle, the one with silvery-white hair?
Is his brain completely broken?
“There was no such thing,” I snarled out loud, shoving his head back slightly without letting go.
“Tell me what this girl in Garrick’s house looks like.”
Asher sighed, his throat bobbing painfully against my fingers. New chapters come out on g.com first.
“She… she had hair the color of frost,” he whispered, his eyes wide as if he were looking at a ghost.
“The colour of frost, falling all the way to her waist. And her eyes… her eyes were grey. She looked like an heavenly goddess, Lord Ravon. Beautiful and… and terrifying.”
I stared at him like he had lost his mind entirely.
“And your mate?” I asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
“The girl you swore you stabbed in the woods a week ago? What did she look like?”
“She… she had dark brown hair,” Asher stammered, his voice dropping to a faint murmur.
“Hair that barely touched her shoulders. And she had brown eyes.”
“A very ordinary omega girl,” I snapped, digging my nails into his scalp.
“An ordinary, useless girl with brown hair and brown eyes. So how in the hell do you look at a girl with white hair reaching her waist and grey eyes, and think she is the same brown-haired mate who is supposed to be rotting in a shallow grave?”
Asher had no answer for that.
He just trembled in my grip, gasping over and over again.
“Listen to me, you pathetic creature!” I snapped.
“The other Alphas have laughed at me for far too long. They sit in their high halls and think Lord Ravon is content with the crumbs they throw from their tables. But this is my time. This is my turn to get the revenge and the power that I truly deserve.”
I pulled his face closer to mine, making sure every single word burned into his soul.
“I will see to it that I take what is mine,” I told him coldly.
“I will do everything in my power to reach the top, and I will not let a spineless hound like you ruin my plans. I need the Oracle. She is the only powerful being alive who can ensure that I get my power, who can break the balance and place this whole territory under my heel. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Lord Ravon,” Asher gasped out, his voice cracked with fear.
“I understand. You are going to get everything you want very, very soon! I promise you!”
“You are a fool,” I spat.
Then I tightened my grip one last time before shoving him away with all my strength.
Asher lost his balance entirely, tumbling backward onto the floor, his cloak wrapping awkwardly around his bare legs as he scrambled to pull himself together.
I turned my back on him and walked back toward the window to look out at the grey, lifeless sky over my lands.
“Do whatever you have to do,” I ordered over my shoulder, not bothering to look at him again.
“Find a way to bring the Oracle to Umbra Pack. Bring her to me as we talked about, or you will spend the rest of your pathetic life rotting in a dark dungeon cell under this mansion.”
“I will,” Asher whimpered from the floor, scrambling up onto his knees.
“I will bring her, my Lord!”
“Get the hell out of my sight,” I ordered coldly.
“And do not come back until you have some semblance of good news.”
Behind me, I heard the rustle of clothes and the quick sound of his hands and knees scraping against the rug as he hurried to his feet.
He scurried out of the study as fast as his trembling legs could carry him, slamming the doors shut behind him.