A murdered alpha, a controversial successor, vampires, werewolves, dragons , humans and even elves. In the great empire of Goma, a murder so foul that it almost breaks the fabric that holds the empire together happens. Solca, the only person capable of preventing this fall embarks on a mission to hunt down the murderers and restore an elusive order. To do this, he must tread through a maze of chaos, betrayal and violence. He relies on the warm countenance of his newfound mate, Andrea. Unknown to him, Andrea holds a dark secret and a past that could undo all his efforts for order in Goma. Solca has to turn to his beastly side to win the fight and this ruthlessness pits him against other powerful rulers and as a showdown of might gets imminent, he turns to his beastly side for salvation. Will he survive or will he fall under the pressure?
Chapter 1 The Alpha Challenge
At 34 years old, Andrea was at her prime. She already had a killer figure and a body to die for. She worked as a nurse at the Royal infirmary. Presently, Andrea watched the fight attentively from the crowded stands. She followed Solca's every move with hero worship. When the opponent landed a blow, Andrea's brows creased to a thin line and relaxed when Solca landed a blow of his own. Solca, she observed, was heavily built. His stomach muscles were packed into nicely curved cubes. With each move they contracted and relaxed rhythmically. His biceps looked like they were alive too.
They piled into literal bumps of flesh on his arms with each swing. She did not fail to notice the numerous scars on Solca's body. Despite the distance from the stands, her eyes could still make out the distinctive marks that looked like tattoos on his back. She knew about all his adventures by heart. She admired him for his courage and if all the stories about him were correct, he was going to be a legend in Goma.
Andrea saw it when Solca knocked his opponent down and crashed his windpipe with his Jaws. She saw it when the life left the opponent's body and the eyes lost their spirit. She saw it when Solca lost consciousness with the dead opponent's throat still between his jaws. A hard earned victory it was. This would go down to be among the best fights in the history of the empire of Goma. Goma had a new ruler, a new Alpha.
When the new Alpha failed to regain consciousness even after taking a dose of Genera, a regeneration drug for werewolves, everyone grew alarmed. The Alpha Guard carried his limp body in a stretcher to a small but fully equipped ward where Andrea worked. They did not bother to knock. The leading guard kicked the door in and violently stormed in.
"The doctor! Where is the doctor?" the leader shouted.
"He's not in but I am a nurse. What seems to be the problem? I can help." Andrea spoke.
"I asked for the doctor, not a bloody nurse. Somebody fetch a doctor immediately." he retorted.
Solca's limp body took that moment and began spasming. He was frothing on his mouth and his face had lost its color.
"He's going in the shock. Place him on the bed now!" Her tone was non-negotiating. The guards set him down without a fuss.
"Hold him down." She ordered them. Time was of essence. She had seen this before. This was more than wolfsbane poisoning. She had seen the same symptoms before. There must have been some vampire venom residue in his blood at the time of the wolfsbane poisoning. With Solca's adventurous life, this was very easy to conclude.
A combination of vampire venom and wolfsbane was lethal even in the smallest doses. Genera alone could not counter the devastating effects of the combination. The combination led to a mass production of adrenaline which also affected the nervous system and triggered muscle spasms. The blood would begin to clot cutting off oxygen supply to essential body organs and his heart rate would rise to insane levels. Eventually his heart would burst and fail from the excessive pumping.
"Pass me the bottle and the syringe next to it." Andrea instructed. The guard did so without questioning. She measured 5 mm of tranquilizer, mixed it with a milliliter of anti-clotting base and shot it through one of his vasodilated veins. Hopefully, the tranquilizer would counter they affects of the adrenaline in this blood system and relax his muscles. The Genera dose he had received earlier would do the rest.
In a few seconds, the spasms died out and the muscles stopped twitching and relaxed. Solca had fallen into a deep sleep. That was all he needed as the Genera dose fought against time to fix his broken body. It would take some time for him to regain his consciousness and even that was a maybe. She watched as solca's chest rose and fell in feeble attempts to breathe. She had caused this. She had helped to put him into this position. It hadn't been supposed to be like this. Doctor Nathan had promised. The guilt and the emptiness in her heart when she remembered that she had taken part in this sent cold shurders of regret across her body. When Dr Nathan had approached her with the insane proposition, she had flatly refused him and even threatened to report him to the Alpha Guard. She had known Dr Nathan her entire life. He had taken her in when her parents died. She couldn't have been more than six years back then. Dr Nathan had mentored her and enrolled her as his apprentice at 12 years. He was the father she had never known and therefore she gave in when he kept on insisting that the survival of the whole Empire depended on them. Dr Nathan had no reason to lie to her. In the end, she had given in and helped him. She had designed a wolfsbane potion so lethal and undetectable that she was reluctant to hand it over to him. Since childhood, she had been a gifted alchemist and Dr Nathan had grown to depend on her for brewing chemical concoctions for him. Only later did she remember that Dr Nathan had never told her the important reason that warranted the assassination of a good and powerful Alpha like Taiwa. Instead, he had kept on insisting that she trusted him because everything he was doing was for the benefit of the empire. One important detail he had failed to mention was the involvement of an excommunicated criminal like Pondo. He had failed to honor his promise that no one else apart from Taiwa would be hurt. Andrea blamed herself for being so gullible. For being too blinded by emotions to see the bigger picture. Dr Nathan had lost her trust when she found herself in a ward fighting to resuscitate someone poisoned by the same potion she had concocted. She knew that sooner than later, her involvement in the assassination would be uncovered. It was just a matter of time. However, before that time came, she devoted herself to making sure that Solca was taken care of and that he survived the poisoning.
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