Olive’s eyes widened.
“You fought against hundreds of men yourself? All at once?” she asked, eyes as wide as saucers. He chuckled darkly and sipped his wine. Then he bit on his lips while smirking and looking into space with a dangerous look. Something about him immediately seeped out danger and Olive got goosebumps. This man was something.
“How? If I may ask?” she managed to say, despite her survival instincts screaming at her to run from this man.
“By turning feral. I won’t shift, but I would turn feral in this state,” he answered and looked at her. She had been the one looking at him ever since he began his story.
“When does that happen? Do you control it?”
“Happens whenever I get an overwhelming emotion of anger and hate. Mind you, I was very quick tempered back then. So I could snap anytime. Because of that, I hardly had people around me.”
“You are using past tense. Does that mean you’re no longer quick tempered?”
“I am. I just know how to control it now. I don’t turn feral, except I want to,” he answered and leaned on his knuckles again, tilting his head sideways and looking at her while swirling his drink gently.
“Earlier, was that you turning feral?”
She was referring to when he was oozing with darkness and had almost killed her. She knew the Green Witch had controlled him into turning feral using Lord Lina’s connection.
“Ah, no. That’s just another shade of me,” he answered casually and she looked at him in awe. So what she saw earlier wasn’t even him turning feral? That image of him when black smoke was emitting from his body at any step he took couldn’t leave her mind. So that was just another shade? Talk of the Big Bad Alpha!
“What do you look like when you turn feral then?”
Wayne once again chuckled. He sipped from his glass without breaking his eye contact with Olive.
“Would you like to see?”
Olive blinked repeatedly and swallowed a lump in her throat. No, she didn’t want to see. Everything in her screamed a big ‘NO’ to that.
“I guess not,” Wayne muttered and she scratched the back of her neck.
“I’ll see it. Just not… not now that we’re under some… witch spell. What if you lose control and…” she trailed off and bit her lips.
“I agree,” he replied her stuttering.
They sat in silence for a full minute before Wayne spoke up again.
“No more questions, mate?”
“No. Just waiting for you to continue,” she answered immediately.
“Do you know the first thing I did after I turned Alpha?” he asked and Olive looked at him with curiosity.
“What is it?”
“I got a few packs to construct roads for us in Balendin under strict supervision,” he answered.
Olive frowned. She was expecting him to say something about waging war against their enemies and showing his extraordinary power. But he just said what human governors used to say about casually constructing roads.
“This certain Alpha wanted to make me his puppet after finding out that I was just twenty years old and the youngest to join this country’s League Of Alphas. He was such a proud man and wanted to boast of having the biggest Alphas under him. You know, the godfather thing,” Wayne began to explain.
“Like in the Mafia?” Olive asked with interest.
“Exactly like the Mafia. Balendin didn’t have this much landmass then, but my father had made us a core pack still. So in getting me to be under him, he would control Balendin indirectly. Bastard man,” Wayne laughed to that.
“So… what does this have to do with the construction of roads?”
“Oh, I challenged him there to a fight. And we vowed that whoever lost would have to oblige to the winner’s demand,” he answered with a shrug. Olive laughed.
“I can guess who won,” she said after laughing. Wayne grinned proudly.
“I didn’t even show them anything. Just a little power. Turns out that pack was very good at construction. So I made them construct new roads and buildings for us. This Alpha’s ego was bruised because he lost to a new Alpha and even had to serve his pack. So, he came back later on and challenged me to another big fi-ght. Whoever won would take over the loser’s pack.”
Olive’s eyes widened again.
“What? Is he daft?”
“He thought he would win this time because he had gotten reinforcement. He was stronger. But too bad, he lost. I got his pack to join Balendin. Since there were about three packs between his and mine, I took over them too. That was the beginning of this huge Balendin Pack,” he stated and chugged down the whole content of his wine. Olive on the other hand still had a good amount of it since she only sipped once.
“Tell me the details, please,” she pleaded.
“That Alpha, I turned feral and… killed him. People were watching and they saw it. The news spread quickly that I was a monster. Not that I cared though. So when I approached the three packs and said I wanted them to join me, they were too afraid to refuse. One Alpha rejected it, but I threa-tened him with his mate. He gave in.
“The pack members thought I would be harsh to them, but they were utterly surprised when I got the first pack to build infrastructures for them too. And made education free. They swore their allegiance to me and vowed never to betray me.”
“But the Alphas, what about them?”
“The Alpha who I threatened with his mate left. I gave him the freedom to do so. The other two are the Mayors of their packs now. Which are actually cities under Balendin Pack,” he answered.
“You are not that bad then. You’re considerate.”
Wayne gave her a mischievous smirk.
“Did you hear me say they’re under Balendin Pack?”
“Yes, I heard you.”
“I was considerate to them, after they became Balendin Pack. Did you think about what I made them go through before they became part of my pack?”
Olive gulped at that question. She didn’t want to think it. She had heard at the cult that the Big Bad Alpha would destroy any pack or organization that dared to go against his wish. Until they would be at a point that their only choice would be to accept him.
“How many packs have you… ehh… added to Balendin?”
“It’s been over ten years. I’ve had about twenty packs already. I stopped adding to it when I realized some packs just want to be merged with me for selfish reasons. Balendin became so popular and strong that they wanted to belong to us. Plus, I treated my Mayors nicely so the greedy Alphas didn’t care anymore. They just wanted to join. An example of such a pack is Selcece.”
Olive chuckled.
“I’m not surprised,” she muttered.
“Do you want to know about what I can do? Apart from being dangerous dangerous.”
“Let’s hear it. I already know you can control the atmospheric temperature and this sometimes seems to be in conjunction with your emotions too. Like, the temperature drops when you become all cold and dark,” Olive tabled her observation.
“And turns warm when I get turned on by you,” Wayne stated and Olive froze.
“Wh-what?” she stammered.
“This one is somehow rare. I hardly involuntarily change the temperature to warm. It was always below freezing point. But… since you came, I find myself bringing out so much heat when you begin to drive me crazy.”
Olive’s cheeks flushed immediately and she turned away from him. Her lower abdomen tightened on its own and she clenched her thighs. Gosh! Wayne got turned on by her that much? She knew but why did she feel this way because he said so. Ah, her heart was racing.
“I can smell your arousal,” she heard his deep voice drawl behind her. She gulped and looked at him.
“You don’t have to always say that!” she nagged.
“Come here,” he whispered and she felt tingles moving up and down her spine. His eyes peered deep into hers… sexily. No, this wasn’t the time for this. They were talking about his powers. They were talking about what he was.
“Don’t change the topic, Wayne,” she warned and adjusted on her seat. She gulped down wine and looked at him with a serious expression.
“You were talking about what you can do,” she reminded him. He smirked and flicked a strand of curled hair from his face.
“I can read minds. I can hypnotize. I can inflict pain using the mind. I can teleport, mildly. I can control wind, sometimes. I speak with real wolves more than anyone can. I have super strength, and speed, reason why I won a lot of battles on my own. And lastly…” he trailed off as he stared at Olive who had her jaw dropped open.
“I can levitate now. Thanks to you.”
Olive gasped and laughed.
“I can’t believe this. Trust me, Wayne. You’re not a werewolf. You have magic blood. There’s nothing you would tell me that I wouldn’t believe you have magic,” she stated.
“I don’t. I don’t want to.”
“And more power is coming? Isn’t that ridiculous?”
“Exactly my thought.”
Olive sat still and marveled at all the things her mate could do. If he showed people those things, he would inflict enough fear in them to en-d their lives at the spot. So that was why he was called Big and Bad. All the stories she thought were exaggerated where obviously true to her now.
“There is something I haven’t told you,” he suddenly said after a while of silence.
“What is it?” she asked.
“It’s the mystery of the White River,” he answered. She thought for a few seconds and furrowed her brows.
“The one you took me to?”
He nodded. He remembered how Jake was angry that he took her there.
“I’m wondering why it didn’t have any effect on you,” he thought aloud while looking into space.
“Effect?”
“That river is capable of freezing anyone’s heart to the point of death. It’s a forbidden river and only used for training of my elite soldiers. I don’t know why I took you there, but Olive, the river had no effect on you.”
Olive looked at him with confusion.
“Why didn’t it have an effect on you too?”
“Because… it once did. I stubbornly went there as a kid, I drowned in it. When they found me, they thought I died. But I woke up. And my powers were brutally awakened. The White River didn’t freeze my heart, it turned it dead cold.”