Conquering His Cold Heart

‘What is this feeling?’ he asked himself breathlessly. He could hear his own breath so loudly that it drowned everything else, even his heartbeat that was drumming inside his chest. ‘Why do I feel like I am going to be swallowed whole?’

Everard gulped hard a few times in an attempt to moisten his parched throat. But that only hurt his throat further and he ended up gasping for breath.

As he had thought, that feeling slowly started to take over all his senses. He started to feel light-headed, his vision started to get blurry, and his whole body started to sweat profoundly.

For a second, he thought that he was going back to that dark place, wherever it was.

He wasn’t ready to go back to the same place from where he had just barely escaped. ‘No, no, no! I can’t get stuck in that wet and dark place again!’ He abruptly pushed himself up from the ground.

To his surprise, he wasn’t feeling one bit of pain in his body unlike how he had felt before blacking out.

He looked down at his hand to finally realize that he had woken up in his wolf form. He took a moment to gaze at his large paws, the shiny black fur, sharp claws... and the tight cuffs around his legs.

He disregarded the cuffs and tried extending and retracting his claws. He was further surprised to see how easily he was able to control his claws as though he had done that countless times already.

.....

The brief moment of clarity vanished when he was again overtaken by that same insatiable desire. He didn’t know what it was that he wanted. All he knew was that he wanted something, now. And he knew that to get that thing, he had to break free from his chains and get out of the dungeon.

He knew that the thing that he desired was out there somewhere. He could feel something tugging on his heart.

Without wasting a breath, Everard turned to face the wall. His whole body started to heat up and shudder because of the anger that he was feeling after looking at those heavy chains that were used to tie him up like some cattle.

He glared at those chains with his eyes that looked like burning embers in the dimly lit dungeon. If it was a person who he was glaring at with those eyes, they would have wet themselves in fear.

Everard aggressively growled while baring all his fangs, and he leaped forward to bite the ring that was holding the chains to the wall. He couldn’t bite through that thick iron ring, but he was able to cling onto it using his fangs.

‘Pull it!’ he screamed at himself.

He didn’t care if he lost all his fangs because he guessed that they would be back the next time he would transform. The only thing that he cared about was getting out of there and following whatever was pulling him.

He quickly pressed all four of his legs on the wall and pushed himself back with great force.

Clang!

The iron ring dropped on the stone floor, and along with it fell two of the chains that were linked to the cuffs of Everard’s left limbs.

He repeated that same tactic and pulled out the other iron ring as well.

Though the cuffs were still tightly clasped around all his limbs, he was now at least not attached to the wall. So, the moment the other iron ring dropped on the floor, without sparing a second to think, Everard leaped on all his fours and ran towards the door.

Bam!

He rammed his whole body against the door with such a great force that, though the door was made out of the strongest and thick pieces of wood, it broke right in the middle. But the crack on the door was too small for his enormous body to slip through.

“Hold the door!” Everard heard someone shouting out the order from afar, and almost instantly, he heard several footsteps marching.

As the footsteps outside approached closer to the cell he was in, Everard backed off a little so as to gain the momentum for his next attack on the door. He could already see a few guards lining up in front of the door with their backs pressed against the door.

He let out a loud growl to warn those guards. But when they didn’t heed his growl, he bent his front legs a little and took a leap again. He slammed his body at such a great speed and used so much force that he sent the door flying, along with the guards who were standing in front of it.

“Stop the Crown Prince!” Everard heard someone shouting from behind.

So, he immediately picked up his pace and ran even faster.

Far ahead, he saw two of the guards turning into wolves right before his eyes.

One of them kept on standing right on the narrow corridor of the dungeon, waiting to ambush the Crown Prince, while the other ran forward to block the stairs that led them out of the dungeon.

Everard turned his head to look behind him. A lot of guards were running after him while trying to grab the chains that were still attached to his limbs.

He wished that they all would leave him alone. He was already feeling overwhelmed by that strange feeling in his heart, he didn’t need everyone to work together and further overwhelm him.

Before any one of them could get to him, Everard pushed himself further and ran straight ahead at a greater speed than before. Just when the wolf that was running in his direction thought that it had him, Everard jumped above that wolf and quickly took the stairs.

Now that he was out in the open, the moonlight caressed his black fur and made him shine even in the night. For a brief second, he looked up at the beautiful full moon. The full moon looked so captivating that he couldn’t resist howling to the moon.

He could hear a lot of other wolves following his suit and howling simultaneously.

He, on the other hand, continued running like a blur of shadow across the moonlit path.

Everard didn’t know how but he felt that his feet were taking him exactly where he needed to be. The closer he got to the other side of the castle, he could sense the strong invisible force drawing him closer.

Jerome had previously ordered the guards to block the exit of the castle thinking that the Crown Prince might try to run toward Sorvando again. He had also ordered more guards to be stationed in front of the exit as well as around the walls of the castle.

However, unlike what Jerome had predicted, the Crown Prince broke into the castle and headed towards the other entrance of the dungeon.

After heading down the stairs and taking a few turns, Everard forcefully broke the door and barged into one of the cells of the dungeon before anyone could catch up to him.

However, he suddenly stopped right where he was when his amber eyes fell on another majestic wolf.

It was wearing a coat of white fur with a few spots of red on it.

“You’re here!” Everard heard the soft voice in his head.

And almost instantly, he felt as though everything finally fell into the right place.

Everard closed the gap between himself and Ruby. He looked at her with awe and breathlessly replied, “I’m here.”