The Werewolf King's Bride

(From Dion's Perspective)

"Melissa?" Mum almost choked on air. "Are you certain it's Melissa?"

"Yes. I'm sure," I said patiently.

"I met her only two days ago!" Mum exclaimed.

"I caught hold of five of the bandits. I set up a trap for them and they walked right into it," I said. I had assigned a female knight to act like a housewife and another knight acted as her husband. Abel, the duke's son (adopted) was there too. He and I usually went on missions together. "The bandits acted like they were on something."

"Drugs?" Father suggested.@@novelbin@@

"How were they robbing houses if they were on drugs?" Mum said. "Something else?" she asked me.

"It felt like they were being possessed. Does it sound odd?"

Mum exchanged a look with Father. "No. Go on," she urged.

"As I said, they seemed like they were being possessed. Abel said that something of that sort happened before too. Like people getting possessed. When they were kids. I am not good at seeing mana, so I couldn't tell if they were truly being possessed. I tried to question them, but they were all just laughing.

Not just simply laughing. It was hysterical. One of them started laughing first and then another and then another. Like this, all five of them were laughing as if some kind of contagious virus affected them. We thought we would torture them and see what they do. We did, but then, one of them bit his tongue and his mouth started bleeding.

Again, all of them started doing that one by one. And then, they simply fell."

"Fell?" Father asked.

"Fell dead," I finished.

"Sounds like they were possessed," Father said.

"Mum?" Mum had gone pale. Her hands were shaking.

I quickly got up as Father wrapped his arm around her. I sat on the other side of Mum on the couch.

"What happened, Mum? Are you okay?" I had never seen Mum so… afraid. In fact, Mum might act soft with us, but she was not afraid.

"It's Azure," Mum said.

"It's Melissa, Mum. I haven't told you the whole thing." After all of them died, or at least, we thought all of them died, we were thinking about what to do. Abel suggested we stripped them naked and see if they had some kind of mark or tattoo on them.

"These types of groups have special marks," Abel had said. "Your grandfather has one too." I knew about that. I saw Azure's mark on Mum's back many times. A snake. If Mum had not been there for us, the same thing would have happened to us. Or maybe, to Demian.

Neither I, nor Bree showed any sign of having enough black mana. Mum had already awakened Demian's power when he turned fifteen. Mum said her father awakened her power with that mark. He had pressed hot iron on her back to imprint that mark.

Even the thought of my mother suffering hurt me. She had told me this when I was very young- I did not remember exactly how old I was. But since then, every time I closed my eyes, I could see her father pressing that hot iron on her bare back. I did not even know what her father looked like.

"We stripped them naked. We did not find any mark. But we, or at least I, found something else." It was a single black seed that was stuck in one of the bandits' nail. Abel thought it was of no use. After all, how could we even find something out from a single black seed or whatever it was? For all we knew, it could be dirt.

But it was not. It was indeed a seed. Not just any seed, it was a nigella seed. Nigella sativa was not found in our kingdom. We had to import it. We did not import it too much either.

Here, we did not use it in our cuisine. So, the guy was either a cook who had recently cooked with nigella seed or he dealt with them. I tried to find the identity of that man, sending a spy of mine house to house with his portrait. Then, I found out his name was Daniel Silvera and he was a cook working for the Arlay household.

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"Melissa and her sister Meredith are the only surviving members of the Arlay household. Meredith got married last year and haven't come to her family house since then. It's just Melissa now. We went to Melissa's house and questioned her." Abel did not go. In fact, I made sure Abel did not know anything about it. "We searched her place and found a lot of the stolen goods."

"Did she say she truly was behind it all?" Mum asked.

"Yes. I brought her here and she is now locked up in a cell," Dion said. "I came straight here."

"Does Abel know?" Mum asked.

I shook my head. "Not yet. I don't think he would have liked to arrest his fiancée."

"But it's so odd," Mum said. "How did she gather that many people to work for her? She doesn't have mana. To possess someone, you need to have a lot of mana."

"Azure?" Father asked.

"Yes. I'm certain it's him," Mum said. "I need to see Melissa. Dion, go and rest up. Make sure to use some ointment on that bump. And send Demian.

Tell him to meet me downstairs near the stairwell."

I nodded. "Do you need me to come too? I am not tired."

"No. Just rest for a while. You will be needed tomorrow morning."

I gave Mum a hug and left. Actually, I was tired. I needed to sleep. If I laid down, I would instantly fall asleep.

But first, I needed to wake Demian up. Or perhaps, he was awake. He read books half the night.

Before I turned to the corridor where his room was, I found someone who was not supposed to be there.

"Bree? What are you doing there?"

"I heard what you said to Mum and Father. You think Abel will let go of Melissa now that she is guilty?"

My sister had a crush on Abel who was much older than her. Abel was even older than my mother physically.

"No, he won't. Now, go to bed. Or, I'm calling Father."