Filed To Story: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Axel responded first. “I want to see if you have documents about interaction with other werewolves. My pack in particular.”
Serena nodded in understanding and gestured to the right.
Axel followed after Serena while looking around. There were thousands of books. Tens of thousands.
“Are you admiring our collection?”, Serena asked with pride in her voice.
“Yes. I appreciate how everything is kept in optimal conditions.”
“Of course. These are precious. Once a sheet of paper gets stored in here, it’s in the protection of the Coven. Anyone can take it to read and research, but it can’t be taken out.”
Axel now understood the purpose of the tables they left behind. It’s for witches to sit and read. Considering that they were locked up in this realm for centuries, and they were not connected to the human realm where books can be mass-purchased, he had to ask… “From where did you get this many books?”
“We write down everything. You can find books about someone’s life, research, plants… anything.”
“But not about portals.”, Axel said.
Serena paused. “Right. Not about portals.”
Axel thought how some things don’t add up. “If books can’t be taken out from here, how come records about portals are missing?”
Serena cleared her throat. “That… You will need to ask the high priestess.”
Axel realized that witches were hiding something about portals which made him wonder if Evanora was trying to lock them up in this realm on purpose. Was she behind the closing of the portals?
Axel shook off those unpleasant thoughts. He was here to get more information and coming up with conspiracy theories won’t do anyone good.
“Here we are.” Serena’s words got Axel’s attention. She was gesturing toward the shelf on their right. “From here onward, are records about our sisters interacting with outsiders. As for the ones that mention werewolves…” Serena waved her finger and murmured chants, and a few books lit up.
Axel frowned. “Just those?”
Serena looked at him like he asked something silly. “We don’t address your kind as werewolves. If you want to read about creatures that can shapeshift…” Serena’s finger moved and nearly a hundred books lit up. “Keep in mind that if a shapeshifter didn’t change shape, it would be categorized as human. So for the books that mention outsiders taht are humans…” With another wave of her finger, almost all the books Axel could see lit up.
“I understand”, Axel said while looking helplessly at densely arranged books on the shelves. This will take forever!
Yasmin warned him that witches are devoted researchers who love to write down stuff and keep it in the archive. They have a board that features top-ranking witches based on who contributed the most content and also rankings on the most popular books. It’s a serious competition.
Their archive contains personal diaries, musings, funny moments, as well as information on monumental events, research, and recipes for making anything from relaxing teas and mouthwatering desserts, to deadly potions, and they also have instructions on spellcasting and historical documents.
Axel guessed that there will be a lot to go through, but this was beyond his wildest imagination!
Axel gave himself a pep talk. Even if he reads only a book or two, it will be better than nothing. But there was no way to figure out which one of these books will have something useful. What if he wastes his time reading a diary of a frolicky witch who spent her days talking to frogs?
Axel steeled his resolve and reached for a book. He needed to start somewhere.
—
Axel reached for a book while wondering what information was contained inside it.
The moment Axel’s fingers touched the leather binding, an image flashed in Axel’s mind, and he could see himself holding that book and reading it.
The book was written by a witch named Holly describing her visits to a temporary settlement in the South-West. The dwellers there were outsiders with tall and lean bodies and pointy ears. Holly admired their archery skills and how they could move about stealthily. Those people consumed a vegetarian-only diet, they loved to sing, and she depicted encounters where they would exchange jewelry made of leather, colorful stones, and beads.
Axel realized that he saw a glimpse of the future. He will read this book and find nothing useful.
He made a grumpy face. His premonitions so far always came true. Will he really need to waste time reading this book?
Instead of pulling the book out of the shelf completely, Axel pushed the book back and waited for some Godly intervention that will force him to read it. His expression changed with every passing second because nothing happened.
Was it possible that he saw the future where he read the book, and he didn’t need to read it in the present?
If that was true, his ability evolved and that would be huge!
Curious to test this theory about his ability evolving, Axel hooked his finger on the next book and saw images of him reading that book.
The book was signed by a witch named Zoe, and it spoke about her raising a fawn that she adopted from a merchant that had dark skin and was covered in heavy layers of clothing. There was a sketch of a man and a caravan of merchants that Zoe befriended. The fawn’s mother died due to illness, and they wanted to eat the creature because they didn’t have the conditions to raise him, but Zoe traded several magic crystals for the fawn.
Axel took this book out and flipped to see the sketches. The book was full of them. And then he kept the book back.
His face lit up when he realized that the still remembered the contents of the first book even though he never opened it. But… should he open it to confirm the contents? If he opens it, won’t that make his vision come true?
Axel got an idea.
He gave that first book to Serena. “Can you tell me who wrote this and what it is about?”
Unaware of Axel’s intentions, Serena opened the book and flipped through it. “This was written by Holly. It’s about her encounters with a tribe that stayed in the South-West. I remember them. They were tall and pale no matter how much time they spent in the sun. They didn’t eat meat and were very good with bows and knives even though they pledged never to kill because they believed in reincarnation and how every creature could contain the spirit of their ancestors.” Serena paused. “Holly should be working on potions in the lab. Do you want to meet with her and ask about those creatures?”
“No, no…”, Axel responded breathily while keeping the book back. He confirmed that he didn’t imagine it. What he didn’t read in the first book was truly there.
Axel’s mind was working a million thoughts a second.
Did his ability to see the future really evolve? Yasmin told him that it will be beneficial to get close to the fountain during the ceremonies because the energies will impact everyone, even the audience, but… did this mean that he was finally able to see the future that CAN be changed?
Somehow, it made sense. He could see the future where he would read a book, and even though it didn’t come true, his knowledge of that future remained.
He realized that this could backfire. What’s the point of a premonition if it won’t come true?
Ah! So far, he was stressing because he was unable to change what will happen, and now he was stressing that he will change it.
He decided to focus on the positives. How can he put that to good use? Well, for now, he will start touching each of those books and reading them without actually reading them.
Serena frowned at the sight of Axel who started moving slowly, pausing for a few seconds with each book to touch the cover before moving to the next one.
Axel was elated to confirm that this was working, but even with this super-speed, there were so many books, and it will take ages!
…
After Axel and Serena disappeared among shelves, Feya turned to Talia and Dayson.
“What topic interests you?”
Seeing that Talia was struggling to answer, Dayson asked. “Do you maintain a Catalogue of your archives?”
“Yes, we do.”
A minute later, Talia and Dayson stood in front of a massive book that was placed on a chunky stone table that looked like three cuboid rocks stacked on top of each other.
It was THE Catalogue.
Talia opened it and started flipping the pages.
‘What are you hoping to find?’, Dayson’s voice sounded in Talia’s head through the mind-link.
‘Something about the Guardians’, Talia responded.
Dayson understood Talia’s intention. At this point, Guardians were their biggest threat as their interest in Talia was unusual. Their invitation for Talia to join them came abruptly and Dayson suspected that it had something to do with her impressive show with that glowing sphere. The Guardians made Dayson nervous. They had the ability to suppress Alpha’s aura, and he had a guess that they are not a bunch who will take a ‘no’ for an answer.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.