The quest of Alpha Airen

~Airen's challenge: continuation~

“What brings The Zephyr here?”

The participants who knew who she was whispered among themselves.

Airen stared at Zephyr dreadfully, like he had met her before and despised her already, even though he had never met her.

His emotions were overwhelmed by a grudge he wasn't aware that he had bored within him.

The mere sight of Zephyr irked him and gave him goosebumps, and not in a good way.

He was disgusted by a woman he had never met, and he felt such strong resentment towards her.

The surrounding aura was bloodcurdling. It felt like she was after his existence. Who was she? Why did he have this strong urge to slit her throat? He couldn't understand the weird feeling he had towards her.

“Gamma Ashley is also here!”.

Some participants said in awe as he walked into the hall behind Zephyr.

Hearing that name, Airen snapped out of his thoughts and directed his gaze towards Gamma Ashley. He was finally seeing the face of the person who had all the answers to his questions, but then, he began pondering as to why Gamma Ashley was with the mysterious woman whom he felt nothing but resentment towards.

“Gamma, Ashley, what brings you here? The opening ceremony is in three days. I thought you would be locked in your room meditating”, Alpha Airel commented, ignoring the presence of Zephyr who was standing right beside him.

He brushed past her and moved closer to Ashley.

Zephyr bit her lips and smiled, she was used to Ariel constantly disrespecting and treating her like she was invincible.

“Good day to you too, Alpha Ariel”, Zephyr faked a smile and stretched her hands towards him.

Ariel scoffed at the act she was putting up, he knew she was setting a trap for him, and he wasn't that foolish to fall for it by ignoring her greetings.

“Good day to you also, Zephyr, beautiful mistress of our beloved Alpha Grey”, Ariel played right back.

The sarcasm laced in his voice was so obvious that people around were left shocked.

Zephyr? Alpha Grey? Oh my goodness, Airen gasped and covered his mouth with his hand, stunned.

She was the sorceress Decker had spoken about, the one who had made the prophecy about him being doomed.

Now he knew why he held such hatred towards her. She was the root of all his problems, and she might have been the one who killed his mama and Mathew.

But why was Gamma Ashley standing next to her? Had he betrayed his mama? If he was supposed to be good, then shouldn't he be far away from such an evil being?

Airen's thoughts were all over the place as he attempted to understand what was really going on.

Zephyr feigned ignorance of Ariel's comment and went straight into countering Efe's statement.

“High priestess Efe what is this you are doing?”, she asked.

Ashley knew if he didn't step in, Zephyr, Ariel, and Efe would commence arguing amongst themselves.

He cleared his throat, getting the attention of all three of them.

“Zephyr, Alpha Ariel, Efe, please can we settle whatever differences you all have outside this vicinity? We can't allow the participants to see that you all have nothing but hate for each other”, Gamma Ashley spoke softly, not wanting others to hear what he was saying.

“Fine”, Zephyr fumed out of the hall, Ariel and Efe followed right behind her.

Ashley followed them as well.

“Ashley, if it hadn't been for you, I would have…”, Efe halted Zephyr's speech and began to laugh nonstop at how she was whining about her brother.

“Oh, I'm sorry, you can go on. Don't mind me”, Efe continued with her laughter. Ariel couldn't stop himself from laughing as the sound and sight of Efe's laughter was contagious.

“Do you see how they are making a mockery of me? I don't blame them. Luna Eleanor should be blamed for this if she had instilled any values in them on how to be respectful, then I…”, Efe retorted at Zephyr.

“Don't you dare speak ill of godmother”, Efe bellowed.

Her gaze suddenly flattened evidence of her spitting rage. She was inhaling rapidly, her fingers carving a hole in the table that she stood by.

“Now, there is no need for you to get angry over what she said”, Alpha Grey said from the tab screen.

Ashley had put a conference call through, between him and Luna, Eleanor.

“Godfather”, Ariel greeted.

“Why is Zephyr there? Isn't she supposed to be in your chambers warming your bed?”, Luna, Eleanor insulted.

Her words stabbed through Zephyr's skin like daggers.

“I wouldn't be here if these two weren't treating the conquest like it was their playground”, Zephyr said with gritted teeth, as she attempted to hide the bitterness she was feeling towards Eleanor.

“Whatever changes they made, I am aware of them”, Luna Eleanor revealed.

“Eleanor, you shouldn't have done that without discussing it with me first”, Alpha Grey countered.

“Really? Did you discuss with me when you sent your mistress' borrowed son, Zeke, to the conquest?”, Eleanor retorted.

“Zephyr shouldn't be at the Conquest Arena in the first place. Also, if this is why you called Ashley, then you just wasted your time and if anyone has a problem with how Ariel and Efe are handling the conquest, then they should bring it up at the next council of elders meeting”, Eleanor said and ended the call before Grey could give her a response.

“Well, we all heard her”, Grey didn't protest about what Eleanor had said because he knew it was of no use.

Even if it were brought up at the council of elders' meeting, everyone would support Eleanor as they still felt guilty towards what they did to her years ago, which was forcing her to sacrifice her son.

“Alpha Grey, she can't just do as she pleases. There are rules to be followed. Since when did we allow participants to be under the tutelage of a high priestess? Luna Eleanor is setting out to use her godchildren's authority to get what she wants”, Zephyr disagreed with Alpha Grey's conclusion.

She knew Eleanor was up to no good, and she had to put an end to it before it became a thorn in her flesh.

“Zephyr enough! You already took her child from her. What else do you want from her?”, Alpha Grey, full-throated in irritation.

His response was remarkably candid, he was done with Zephyr's non-stop whining about the conquest, Eleanor, and his godchildren. Ariel and Efe's expressions changed as they were surprised by how Alpha Grey shouted at Zephyr.

“I am done talking about this. And Zephyr, if you want Zeke as my next in line, you should drop this and bring your noisy ass back to the pack mansion”, Grey ended the call, he was forthright with his words.

It wasn't a threat but a warning to Zephyr.

“Is anyone out there?”, Gamma Ashley called out. An omega rushed in and greeted all of them, waiting for the next order.

“Have all the mentors report to me and also bring in some refreshments”, Gamma Ashley relayed his orders to the omega.

The omega hurriedly ran into the task hall and informed all the mentors that their presence was needed by Gamma Ashley and ran out down to the cafeteria to get the refreshments Gamma Ashley had asked of her.

Airen watched closely to get a glimpse of what was going on. He needed to speak with Gamma Ashley. This was his chance. He decided to chase after the omega who relayed the message to the other mentors.

“Excuse me”, Airen stopped her, catching his breath.

“What? I'm in a hurry. Gamma Ashley asked me to bring in refreshments and I can't keep him waiting”, the omega replied apprehensively.

“That's why I stopped you. I am part of the participants Zara punished. So, I wanted to offer my help because it seems only you can't carry all of those snacks and drinks”, Airen smiled at her as he offered to help.

The omega's cheeks turned red as she took a glance at who was requesting to assist her. It was the most beautiful and enthralling male she had ever seen.

“Okay, you can assist me”, she agreed with a hair flip and smiled at him flirtatiously.

Airen thanked her for accepting his offer and they both ran down to the cafeteria to get the refreshments.

Once they arrived at the cafeteria, the servers already had the trays filled with snacks and drinks, they handed them to Airen and the omega maid.

“Hold on. You do know you have to taste whatever we take to them first?”, The omega halted and made sure Airen knew about the tasting rule.

“Why?”, Airen asked.

“In case it is poisoned”, the omega girl answered.

“Who would want to poison them, and I thought Werewolves were immortal? Cheap methods like poison can't kill them”, Arien shared his little knowledge about werewolves with the omega girl.

“[You're that naive?]”

Sky interjected, amused at his host's naivety.

“Shut up!”, Airen muttered.

The omega thought he was talking to her, and she asked for him to be more audible.

“Sorry, I wasn't talking to you”, Airen smiled awkwardly.

“We had better be fast, we can't keep Gamma Ashley waiting”, the omega picked up the pace with her steps.

She knocked at the door the moment they arrived.

“Gamma Ashley, the refreshments are here”, she said, and waited for him to ask her to come in before she went into his private chambers with Airen behind her.

He kept his head low to prevent Alpha Ariel from recognizing him, but unknown to him, his scent had already given him away to Ariel, as immediately he entered the room, Ariel could detect his scent.

“Thank you”, Gamma Ashley said as they put down the tray.

“You may leave”, he added.

“Hold on”, Zephyr, stopped Airen and the omega maid from leaving.

“You haven't tasted it”, she said.

“Oh, Goddesses, I am sorry for my carelessness”, the omega apologized swiftly, she signaled Airen to apologize as well.

He did as she had asked him.

Airen was about to taste the drink when Ariel stopped from doing so and asked the omega maid to do it.

“Why did you stop him?”, Efe uttered into his ear.

“It is Airen”, Ariel replied.

“Why is he here? In front of her?”, Efe inquired, using her head to gesture.

“How would I know?”, Ariel whispered.

Ashley took notice of the siblings's awkward dialogue and turned his attention to where their eyes were focused, and immediately he gasped as he sighted Airen standing in front of him.

“Why is he here?”, Ashley whispered, utilizing his eyes to communicate with the siblings. Ariel shrugged his shoulders because he didn't have the answer to his question.

“Is there anything you three would like to discuss with the rest of us?”, Zephyr asked as she took notice of how they were acting.

“No”, the three of them chorused.

Zephyr pursed her mouth in a smirk.

“You, omega boy, get me a warm glass of milk”, Zephyr asked of Airen, who still kept his head bent, endeavoring to keep himself from being found out by his mentor.

“No”, Ariel stood up and yelled out subconsciously.

“Why? Are you setting out to frustrate me further?”, Zephyr stood up in anguish.

“No, I just thought that…”, Ariel stumbled over his words and didn't know what to say to get him out of that situation: thank the Goddesses, Efe came to his rescue.

“He meant to say that the young omega boy has to run an errand for Gamma Ashley. Besides, why allow a lowly omega to serve the great Zephyr when Elyria, my most trusted maiden, can do that?”, Efe interjected.

“Elyria, are you out there?”, Efe called out. Elyria replied in the affirmative and went into the room.

“Please get Zephyr a cup of warm milk”, Efe asked of Elyria, using her eyes to communicate with her, as she noticed Elyria was puzzled by her request.

“As her high priestess wishes”, Elyria bowed and went to get the milk.

“And you, go do as Gamma has asked of you”, Efe said with a stern look at Airen.

Airen was perplexed by what was going on, but he did as she said and left the room.

Zephyr became wary of Efe.

She pondered why Efe would ask her trusted maiden to get her the milk instead of the Omega boy. Something was up between them, and she had to get to the root of it.

She let out a self-satisfied smirk and collected the glass of milk from Elyria, who was behind her, and shook her head.

They were idiots to have taken her for a fool.

A/N

Hello, how are you all doing? I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Please don't forget to share your thoughts about this chapter in the comment section.

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So I have got some news: I am starting a new book, which means I won't be updating this regularly, but there will be an update. The reason behind this is that my editor told me this book wouldn't be approved for signing since it doesn't have the normal damsel in distress plot in it. She suggested I change the plot, but I decided to stick to it and start a new book, but will continue updating this book when I can: I hope y'all will understand my situation and support my new upcoming book. Thank you so much.