Loud growls from the alphas drowned the faint whimpers from the group as debris came crashing down on them. The fully transformed werewolves dodged with most of them tucking their tails in between their legs in fear of the strong.
A few stubborn alphas bore their sharp canines while pacing back and forth glaring at Aperius. Seeing this, Aperius smiled coldly, his pupils flashing a dazzling blood-red color. The veins on his arms protruded with his skin rippling with subtle signs of transformation.
From a glance, one could tell he was restraining himself. That's because today was the day he was meant to be marrying the love of his life but someone just had to challenge his authority. Fighting his natural instincts he stood there with a cold expression, with his nails that had partially transformed into claws digging into his palms.
Two of the alphas showing their canines transformed into their human forms and as the bright light faded away two people, one female, and one male appeared. The intriguing thing was that the pair of them had very similar faces like they were twins.
Genetically they would be called fraternal twins but this pair looked very identical despite them having different genders.
They both wore white and gold frocks and had a pattern on their foreheads denoting their Aseatas pure bloodline. As one of the pure blood descendants of Lycaon, they were naturally powerful.
In fact, they were so powerful that when their father died they challenged each other but after fighting for three days straight there was no decided winner. It was because of this they became the only known cases where two alphas ruled the same pack. They were famously known as the Sapphire twins of Aseatas.
"I can say that we chose the wrong occasion to do this but-," said Atas the male alpha only for his twin sister to continue his sentence,
"You left us no choice, your majesty." After saying this Ase bowed with a smirk on her face her eyes flashing with a bright crimson red.
Atas walked in front of her and carried on saying, "We the Sapphire twins of Aseatas,"
Ase, "Challenge King Aperius,"
Atas, "For the position of the all supreme werewolf king."
The other alphas transformed into their human forms and began to rebuke the hot-blooded youths for bringing up a crucial challenge at such an occasion. These twins had barely been leading their pack for half a year before they came here to cause trouble.
They hadn't even had their first shift yet when Aperius was uniting the packs and defending Odessa by breaking down the alliance between the descendants of Ambrogio, the first vampire, and the followers of Circe also known as the witches.
Yet the moment they grew a pair of wings they flew right into the golden eagle's nest and challenged its territory. Worse of, they dared to challenge him on his wedding day. Unlike the Sapphire twins, these older alphas were well aware of Aperius' unparalleled strength thus the would pick their battles wisely.
But that wasn't even the most terrifying thing. The scariest thing was that this was Lilith's big day that she had been looking forward to ever since she gave birth to her pup, Lowell. Now that someone had ruined her perfect day how was she going to react?
As expected Lilith didn't seem to take it well. A bone-chilling growl like that of a beast trapped in a cave for a thousand years ripped through the air as a woman leapt out from the highest floor in the colosseum.
Mid-air her body was suddenly shrouded in a bright azure light and a half vantablack half snowy white wolf with azure cracks etched deep into its fur landed on all fours in front of the pair.
Lilith didn't waste time trying to reason with them. She slammed Atas with her paw and the man flew straight into the wall of the colosseum creating a huge dent. Dust flew everywhere as Lilith snarled and the audience in the peanut gallery became excitable.
This was their Queen, the legendary queen who brought down the witches and nearly brought them to extinction. How could they not be thrilled at this moment?
It was a rare moment of witnessing a legend show their strength. Atas who had been slammed into the wall in his human form crawled out of the hole with his clothes in tatters, his lustrous hair covered in dust looking quite pitiful.
His expression though was far from the word forlorn. His eyes were narrowed as he gritted his teeth in both anger and pain. Ase who had been watching on the side with a mischievous smile finally spoke up her tongue as disrespectful as an ill-mannered child.
"Is this the king you want to rule you? A cowardly king who let his mate fight on his behalf?....," she said her gaze transfixed on Lilith's beautiful blue eyes tainted with something sinister.
Dissatisfied, Lilith growled showing her sharp canines. She was about to shut the mouth of the little girl by putting her in her place when a pair of calloused hands ran down her back raking through her soft fur as though calming her down. Her vicious expression gradually mellowed like raging flames slowly dying down into bright embers.
Under Aperius' touch, she became as soft as putty in his hands like he had some sort of soothing effect like incense.
A slight smile appeared on Aperius' face as he lowered his head and his forehead pressed against Lilith's. She was still in her wolf form and such intimate actions stung the eyes of the onlookers. Yes, they were here to witness the union of two lovers but they weren't prepared to be blinded by such lovey-dovey scenes.
His red eyes stared straight into those blue eyes clouded by portending energy. In a soft tone, he whispered, "σε προστατεύω….. Με προστατεύε."
Spoken in the language of the Greek gods it sounded like wisps of love floating within the chaos but the meaning was much simpler than expected. "I protect you….. you protect me," was what he said. She instantly wilted with the mist in her eyes fading away as she transformed back to her human form.
Soon a slender figure dressed in a black sheer dress with azure cracks on her porcelain skin appeared in Aperius' arms. Aperius rested his chin on the top of her head with his hand caressing her waist drawing her into his embrace.
Lilith's long nails dug into his arm holding onto him tightly like she was afraid he would disappear at any moment. Her rapid breathing gradually turned to long deep breaths.