Lycan King’s Possession

Coriander’s Point of View

“Hurry up, Coriander! You’re walking like a dying pup!” the pack matron shouted at me while waiting at the entrance of the Silverpine Pack’s stables.

I rolled my eyes while holding two large buckets full of water for the horses. I didn’t even make an effort to change my walking pace.

“Then maybe stop assigning work meant for three wolves to one,” I snapped back.

“You’re talking back again! Haven’t you learned your lesson from the punishment you got yesterday?!” she asked, her eyes widening.

A small smirk appeared on my lips, and I said, “Try harder, Mrs. Millers.”

After I said that, I walked past her and then filled the water trough where the horses were supposed to drink. I also saw my fellow Omegas busy feeding the horses with fresh grass.

I hadn’t gone too far from the entrance yet, so I could still hear Mrs. Millers’ furious voice, nonstop cursing at me.

Fuck her too.

“Hey, what did you do again to the pack’s matron?” Theresa, my housemate, curiously asked while arranging hay on a side near my spot.

I winced without looking at her. “Maybe she’s pregnant and I’m the one she’s craving for? Just leave her alone. She’s going to die from high blood pressure anyway.”

Theresa chuckled. “Tsk! You’re insane. She’s already menopausal! And stop engaging with her, or you might get punished again for what you’re doing. It’s a miracle you’re even standing because twenty-five lashes would have put any other Omega in the infirmary for a week.”

I shifted the heavy buckets, feeling the stiff fabric of my shirt tug against the raw, dried scabs on my back. A sharp heat flared across my shoulders with my every step, but I didn't let my knees buckle.

I shrugged. “If that was supposed to hurt, they’re really bad at their job,” I said.

After I finished filling the water trough, I then took care of bathing the horses.

It was only five in the morning, yet we were already wide awake because of our duties in the pack. These horses would be used later by Alpha Donald for his daily morning horseback riding routine, along with several Alphas and Betas from neighboring packs.

After we finished all our duties across the Silverpine Pack, Mrs. Millers and Beta Arlo, Alpha Donald’s right-hand man, called us to the servant’s hall for a gathering.

“Hey, have you heard?” Theresa suddenly asked, appearing out of nowhere beside me as we were walking toward the servant’s hall.

“No,” I replied simply.

Theresa frowned and scratched her head, as if she was already losing her patience with me.

“When will I ever get a proper conversation out of you, Cori? You’re starting to annoy me,” she said.

“I’m getting annoyed with that noisy mouth of yours too. When is it ever going to shut up?” I shot back.

She just rolled her eyes at me. I thought she would finally shut up, but I was wrong.

“So, here’s the thing. Didn’t you hear? The Grand Wolf Gala at the Obsidian Fang Hall is happening later tonight. I really think we’re invited!” she whispered excitedly.

“Oh, and then?” I asked, uninterested.

“What do you mean, ‘and then’?! Obviously, we’re going to look for dresses to wear! Something fancy, okay? We only get to enjoy like this once in a while!” she said.

“I don’t want to go,” I said flatly.

“Tsk, don’t be such a killjoy, Cori! Almost all werewolves and Lycans in the world will be there. Who knows, you might even meet your mate there, right? Don’t miss the chance!” she tried to convince me but I didn’t respond.

My mate?

I’ve known who my fated mate is for a long time, but no one knows that. From the very beginning, I already knew I would be rejected.

That’s why I started training in secret. I wanted to prepare for that day—the day I would be rejected by my fated mate, Alpha Donald Hanger, who doesn’t even bother hiding his disgust toward me.

Maybe he already knows I’m his mate too. He just refuses to accept it.

Well, we feel the same way anyway. I don’t want him either. I don’t want any male wolf, not because I’m a lesbian or anything like that, but because I don’t want extra headaches in my life.

In this world, she-wolves are far weaker than male wolves. Once a she-wolf is rejected by her fated mate, the pain is beyond explanation, and it can even become a cause of death—especially for those with weak bodies, just like what happened to my sister.

“Listen up, everyone,” Mrs. Millers began, scanning all of us lined up neatly in the servant’s hall. When her eyes landed on me, she only gave me a sharp glare, as if I did something to her. “All of you will attend the Grand Wolf Gala tonight at the Obsidian Fang Hall!”

When I turned to Theresa, she was already looking at me with a wide grin plastered on her lips.

“I told you,” she mouthed quietly.

I smirked back at her before shifting my gaze again to the menopausal old woman speaking in front.

“You will go there to serve, not to enjoy—don’t get confused!” Mrs. Millers continued.

I bit my lower lip to stop myself from laughing when I caught Theresa’s reaction from the corner of my eye. It looked like the sky had suddenly fallen on her shoulders.

“You will serve food, carry drinks, and remain in your assigned positions at all times. No talking unless spoken to by higher ranks. No wandering. No mistakes,” Beta Arlo said seriously.

“Did you hear that, Miss Lunaria? No mistakes,” Mrs. Millers added with raised brows, clearly making it her daily habit to call me out.

“Yes, I heard it. I’m not as old as you are to have hearing problems,” I replied.

“What th—”

“Enough, Mrs. Millers,” Beta Arlo cut her off. “Hurry up and finish explaining their tasks for later. You still need to prepare what the Alpha will wear to the gala.”

“Yes, Beta Arlo.”

After she finished explaining our tasks for tonight, she finally left the servant’s hall together with Beta Arlo. But before she walked away, she gave me another murderous glare—one I honestly couldn’t care less about.

“You’re really crazy, Cori! You’re definitely in trouble again with Mrs. Miller tomorrow,” Theresa said worriedly as we walked back to our apartment to prepare.

“She’ll be in more trouble with me if she starts again. She might actually die from all that resentment she has for me,” I said seriously.

When we got back to the apartment, we immediately prepared the servant uniforms we would wear later that night. Theresa kept complaining that she couldn’t even wear the dress her mother had given her last year.

The night passed quickly. Before we knew it, it was already time to leave. We returned to the pack house where a bus was waiting for us. It would take us to Obsidian Territory, about thirty minutes away from the Silverpine Pack.

Almost everyone inside the bus was excited about the event. Meanwhile, I stayed silent, simply staring out of the window.

I leaned my forehead against the glass of the bus window and reached inward, searching for that familiar spark.

“Pip?” I whispered into the silence of my mind.

I waited for the low growl or anything to prove she was still there. But the space where my wolf should have been was hollow. My heart sank as the seconds ticked into minutes.

Five years of reaching into the dark, and all I ever got back was silence.

I have a wolf. I can feel her, even if only faintly, but until now she still hasn’t shown herself to me.

“Cori, wake up. We’re here…”

I immediately frowned when I felt someone shaking my shoulder. I hadn’t realized I had fallen asleep during the trip.

Slowly, I opened my eyes and saw Theresa raising an eyebrow at me. When I looked around the bus, I noticed it was already empty—just the two of us left inside.

“They already got off. Hurry up, or Mrs. Millers might catch us here. You’re going to be her target again in case,” she added.

I quickly slung my bag over my shoulder and followed Theresa off the bus.

“You sure took your time getting down, Cori. Feeling like a VIP, girl?” Ivy said sarcastically, one of my fellow Omegas who often cleaned horse manure.

“You complain a lot for someone who shovels manure all day,” I snapped back without looking at her.

Some of our companions laughed. I immediately felt Theresa lightly hit my shoulder, but I just ignored it.

“Don’t worry, Cori. You can take my place later, because I’ll make sure I find my mate tonight!” she said confidently.

“I don’t care.”

It didn’t take long before Mrs. Millers arrived in Beta Arlo’s vehicle. They quickly led us to the back gate of the Obsidian Fang Hall so we could enter.

The moment I stepped inside Obsidian Fang Hall, I felt an overwhelming, unexplainable presence. The hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end, as if an invisible barrier surrounded the entire place.

“Did you feel that?” I asked Theresa while scanning the surroundings.

She looked at me in confusion. “Feel what?”

I quickly shook my head and didn’t answer. I just followed them inside, but as time passed, the heaviness in my chest grew, and I became more and more restless—like I wanted to run out at any second.

So this is the territory of Lycans, huh? It felt like there were eyes watching us—and I couldn’t tell if that was something to fear… or something even worse waiting ahead.