The Lycans' Obsession: Chasing Our Rogue Queens

The Trick

Still Alpha Female Ciciane's POV

We broke up as soon as Xanne woke up.

We tidied up the cave and gathered our belongings. Before leaving, I double-checked the precious box given to me by my mother; it was securely tucked away in one of the pockets of my jeans. After taking a bath, we applied the potion once more. Although it might not provide full protection as before, it allowed us to remain undetected by aggressive werewolves.

In fact, we were now considered rogues, and therefore our lives were at risk. Pack wolves hated rogues as they considered them a threat and might capture or even kill them on the spot. Moreover, we had to avoid bumping into members of Crescent Moon at all costs; who knew how they would react upon discovering that high-ranking Eclipse Howlers were still alive!

We placed our belongings on a wooden cart that one of our colleagues from the restaurant had assembled for us a few months ago.

“I need additional herbs to make a more potent potion. I can only find them a few miles away from here. After we have settled into our new place, we will go search for them,” Xanne proposed.

We walked for about an hour until we were close to the border of Human Town. There was a larger cave there that we had initially avoided because we wanted to be deeper in the forest to be able to walk our wolves undisturbed. However, now that we had encountered other problems, we had little choice but to live there.

After arranging our new cave, Xanne erected the mystical barrier once more.

First, we wanted to rest for a while before searching for herbs. A couple of hours later, we walked through nature again and Xanne pointed out various types of botanical specimens while explaining their medicinal benefits with great fervor. Her mother was a witch who happened to be the mate of my father's beta.

My mother often told me about all the chaos their mating caused in our pack, given that werewolves generally despised witches. But the Beta was adamant about keeping his mate as he earned support from my strong and authoritative Alpha dad, whose word was law in our pack.

Witches did not feel the bond, and it took Beta Jace a lot of effort to persuade Auntie Xena.

He ventured into her coven several times, braving the ridicule of other witches just to be with her. Ultimately, my Alpha father invited the warlock from Auntie Xena's coven and offered him a significant dowry consisting of land as well as an agreement for peace.

In the meantime, Auntie Xena was already smitten with the gentleman who brought her all kinds of gifts and showered her with loving lines and compliments. After some time, she willingly joined our pack with the warlock's permission, and Eclipse Howlers and the coven became allies.

The day of the mating ceremony of the Beta and the witch was exceptional. Never before had witches and werewolves enjoyed themselves in one place. The food was abundant, and alcohol flowed incessantly. My father made it as special as possible to leave a good impression on the coven. Mom always smiled when she repeatedly told me this story.

"This is it. This is the plant I need," Xanne suddenly exclaimed happily, snapping me out of my reverie. She picked many leaves and placed them in a basket, then she rubbed one until juice came out and held it in front of my nose. The scent was amazing, surpassing even the most expensive perfume humans have ever put together.

"Will this be our scent from now on? Will werewolves smell it when they encounter us?" I asked curiously.

Xanne laughed.

"Correct. We will both have the same scent since we are using the same potion. However, your mate will detect the scent on you but not me, and vice versa. None of the Lycans should be able to feel their mate bond anymore as this potion is too potent," she explained. "So now all we need to do is determine which twin belongs to whom."

Xanne smiled slyly, she exuded pure joy. As someone who adored anything enigmatic and enjoyed pulling pranks, my friend was bound to relish every moment of our journey to the Kingdom in accomplishing our task.

“It must work flawlessly, with no room for error. Any delay caused by our mates claiming and marking us could jeopardize the delivery of the box as we would need their permission to leave,” I reminded her. “The previous potion exposed us. If they hadn't noticed us yet, we wouldn't be under this stressful situation."

Offended, Xanne stared at me.

“My potion always works. It's just that we're only seventeen. Who would have thought that our mates would show up so early? And our wolves are not yet able to claim them, it is completely one-sided,” she stated, slightly offended.

I grabbed her hand reassuringly.

“Hey, girl. That was not an accusation. My main concern is staying focused on our goal and not getting sidetracked by finding a mate," I clarified. “It’s that we still were not able to raise enough money to get our car and having mates around may slow us down even more than expected. Hitchhiking could be the solution for us," I sighed dejectedly.

“Don't worry, everything will turn out okay. Now let's go back so I can get everything ready before we have to go to work. We can meet them again any time. Lycans never give up.”

As we made our way back to the new cave, a piercing, ear-splitting howl shattered the silence, causing us to halt in terror. Our faces contorted with shock as we searched for the origin of this disconcerting sound. It was then that I realized our mates had come across the old cave and recognized something amiss; during their search yesterday, they found only rocks where now there stood an entrance.

We burst out laughing, feeling proud that we had outsmarted them. But we also knew that we had to be more careful. They must now realize that we were using tricks, which would undoubtedly make us even more conspicuous in their eyes.

Once we had stepped through the invisible barrier, Xanne promptly set to work on creating the new potion. I watched with interest as she explained how the mix was done and what the effects of the herbs were. When she was done, she placed the mix in a jar to submerge in water for cooling.

We decided to do some household stuff before starting our evening shifts at Stan's. We had about two hours left. At that time, I expected those searching Lycans to have called it a day. If we were fortunate enough, at the very least...