Empress Khione: Her Revenge

Beginning of a New Life

Khione aimlessly walked for hours, feeling completely numb. Her body had even shut off her emotions so she was literally the walking dead at that point in time. 

It had been hours since Jassper had left her on the border of the Blue Valley pack's territory and as soon as he had left, his antidote's effects had run out leaving Khione panting in pain. She couldn't breathe and her bones felt as if they were cracking one by one. It was excruciating and she did not know how much more of it she would be able to handle before her body gave out. She managed to drink another one of his antidotes and fortunately, the effects were immediate. She just hoped it would last her long enough to reach a human's land. 

Each pack territory was surrounded by a human's land which meant that no wolf packs inhabited them. That made those human lands "no-man lands" and as a result, were not restricted to a single pack. Since Khione couldn't shift and run through the forest through the borders of the packs, she decided her best option would be to go to a human's land and then decide what she would do from there. 

But it proved to be a never ending journey. She walked and walked and even when she was at a point of exhaustion, she still walked. She didn't dare stop. She was afraid the pain would returning and she was terrified. She wanted to reach her destination first before she even dared to think about resting. 

Finally, after walking for a few long hours, she landed on her destination. She felt the weight of the universe leave her shoulders upon seeing the "Welcome to Elwood" sign.

She sighed in relief and walked onto their land, and out of habit, took a whiff of the air in search of other wolves. Fortunately for her, she could only smell the scent of humans. 

She walked a few meters and found a small hostel right at the entrance. She found it fascinating how welcoming humans were. The werewolf community did not have any such establishment for travellers because they were not welcomed. Whereas humans not only had hostels, they had multiple other hotels and small guest houses. 

She dragged her feet towards it only to freeze right at the entrance upon realisation that she did not have any money on her. She checked her wallet and only saw her credit card, which she was sure her father would not be happy with her using. 

Khione stopped mid-thought and the occurrences of earlier that night played in her mind. Did it really matter at that point whether she used his money? He had kicked her out and disowned her but that didn't mean she couldn't use his money if she had access to it. In fact, it made her want to use it even more. It may have been silly but there was nothing he could do about it anyway. She was gone out of his life. And she knew for a fact that the card was still active since no centres would be open until the following morning. So she decided to use it to her advantage until it was no longer active. 

With that thought in mind, she walked into the hostel and was greeted by an old clerk. Khione had to try very hard not to gag at the smell but it was almost impossible. Humans in general had an intolerable scent to them but the woman before her had to have been the worst she had ever come across. To put it mildly, she smelt like dried up cat urine. 

However, Khione did not have the privilege to complain. She had to take what she could get and this was her only option at that moment. Besides, she needed to rest off the happenings of that day. She needed to think about her future steps with a clear mind.

"One room please," she said to the clerk who smiled at her in response. Her toothless gums greeted Khione, loud and proud.

"Here ya go, beautiful, room 2," the clerk said as she all but through the key at Khione. She didn't bother to ask her any questions about her identity, much to Khione's surprise, but Khione was not complaining. She needed a break and she was not in any mood to answer questions. 

The clerk held the eftpos machine up to Khione's face without even notifying her of how much the fee was. Khione couldn't be bothered speaking to her anyway so she quickly swiped the card and waited for it to accept before she turned and walked up the stairs towards where the rooms were. 

She could feel the clerk's stare on her back which made a slow shiver run down her back. There was just something very creepy about here. Khione could not wait until the morning so she could leave and never look back.

The room was exactly as she had expected it to be: old, dirty and stinky. There was one bed in the middle of the room and a single chair beside a window. She almost choked from the dust mites and was worried that she would find bugs on the bed. And just like the old clerk at the front desk, the room also smelt like dried up cat urine. 

Khione really didn't want to do it, but her body was begging her to so she gave in and softly lay on top of the blanket. She felt disgusted but her entire body was aching. She was so tired that despite feeling creeped out and disgusted by the room she was in, it only took a few moments for her to fall asleep. 

The following morning she woke up in a cold sweat. She clenched her teeth together to stop the scream that was begging to be released and squeezed her hands so tight that she cut her palms. She forced herself off the bed and to her bag, in search of one of Jassper's antidotes again. 

She quickly downed it and began to pant out as the antidote released its effect. Once she had swallowed it, she fell to the ground and broke out into a loud sob. She couldn't believe what her life had turned into over the course of one night. Less than twenty four hours ago, she was in her warm room watching reruns of 'Friends' with Macy and Jassper. The trio always joked that the show was the one thing that humans had done right. Even doing something as basic as re-watching the same episode a hundred times over was a luxury now. 

She wiped away her tears and slowly stood up from the floor. Now was not the time for her to feel sorry for herself. She only had two bottles of Jassper's antidote left before it all ran out so she needed to figure out what to do as soon as possible. Otherwise she was really just going to die. There was no way she would be able to deal with the pain herself.

Khione sat on the seat beside the chair and began to contemplate her next move. Her options were pretty limited though. Either she did what her mother said and find Princess Electra, who most likely did not exist. Or she find shelter at her mother's birth pack. 

The only problem with that was that her mother did not leave on a good note with Khione's grandparents. As far as Khione knew, her mother had met her father when he went for a visit to the royal palace with his father. 

Although in the werewolf community, there was a structured system of alphas, betas and omegas, above all of them was the Emperor of the Wolves. The royal family were the original werewolves and unlike the rest of the werewolf kind who were turned due to a curse, they were the true descendants of the Moon Queen. So not only were they more powerful than the rest of the werewolf kind, even the alphas of the packs had to bow their heads to them. It was customary for the alphas of the packs to introduce their heir to the royals before their accession. 

It was at the meeting between Khione's grandfather, father and the Emperor that her parents met. Khione's mother was the Emperor's daughter's best friend and on that particular day, she had been meeting her friend for her birthday. Khione was not sure of the complete details, but they ended up meeting at the palace and finding out they were mates. 

However, her mother's mate was against her moving to the Blue Valley pack because of their cruel reputation. The war between the Blue Valley pack and the Red Stone pack was at an all time high at that point too so they did not agree to her relocating out of worry. But her mother was in love so she ended up eloping with Khione's father. 

Unlike Khione's father though, the Mountain Gale pack did not disown her, nor did they banish her from the pack. At most her grand parents were upset with her mother, with her grandfather still holding a grudge. But she was still welcome to her birth pack and she knew that. It was why her mother was at peace. Her parents did not hate her and she had a home.

Khione could not help but scoff at the irony. It was interesting how similar her mother's and her lives were up to meeting their mate and even somewhat post-meeting their mate. The only difference was, her mother's entire life was not ruined because she met Khione's father. Her family still loved her, her mate loved her and she had a home. 

Khione swallowed the lump in her throat that grew upon such a realisation before she sighed and leaned back in her seat.

Finding Princess Electra seemed like a long shot. Especially considering she was simply known as a myth to majority of the werewolf world. As for finding her grandparents, her grandfather may still hold a grudge against her mother, but she was still welcome home. So Khione had a pretty good chance of being accepted there. Especially since they were an independent pack. Even if they did not accept her as family, they wouldn't reject her from the pack. And if worse comes to worse, Mountain Nerei in which Princess Electra was apparently located in, was not too far from the Mountain Gale pack. So she could always just go to the mountain and live out the rest of her days surrounded by beautiful nature. 

She hoped it would not come to such a situation and someone in the Mountain Gale pack would be able to help her, but considering her terrible fate as of yet, she wasn't very optimistic. 

With such thoughts in her mind, she packed her bags and made her way towards the Mountain Gale pack. This was officially the beginning of her new life and Khione just wanted to live peacefully for the remainder of her life.

But little did Khione know just how much more she would need to endure before she could reach that so-called peace.