The Boy Who Brought Nostalgia

The ball was in full swing. Lights hung high above the heads of the noble attendees, the entire castle ablaze with vibrant colors. If there was one thing the Night Wolf kingdom excelled at, it was grand occasions such as these.

The king, Alorea's father, sat on the highest seat at the end of the grand hall, at the center of it all. Beside him sat his wife, Marianne, her expression one of anger and disturbance.

Her dark demeanor failed to dampen the spirit of the ball, as princes and princesses, kings and queens, danced around with abandon, celebrating the day.

Suddenly, the grand doors swung open, halting every movement and stilling every sway. All eyes turned, captivated by the sight before them.

"There is the princess! The beautiful Alorea of the Night Wolves, the heartbeat of our world!!!"

The crowd gasped and clapped, cheering with joy as Alorea walked gracefully into their midst. With each step she took, the crowd parted, eager to please her.

Alorea felt her skin prickling, goosebumps spreading all over. She had long forgotten this feeling. The sensation of being a cherished princess, loved and adored by everyone, the center of deep admiration. She didn't remember how to accept it, how to react to it.

It used to be a symbol of who she was, a sacred part of her that had been defiled by Nathan.

"That bloody monster!" The thought of him filled her heart with sorrow. She used to be the most important woman she knew, the one person everyone was happy to die for, as long as she would acknowledge their loyalty.

Just to speak to her, men would line up for hours, hoping for a word from her. Her voice alone was enough to charm their hearts. Yet Nathan had reduced her to a slave, making her serve his bed for three years.

"Please, princess, dance with me. It would be the greatest honour."

A young man in a nice black suit, similar to the ones worn by mortal humans, stood before her. His head was bowed in respect, his hands outstretched, hoping for her touch, and a smile graced his face.

"My name is..."

"Arthur of the Darkened Moon Tribe."

Arthur looked shocked. "How do you know my name, your grace?"

She remembered him.

This is the first person who asked me to dance in my past life, and here he is, doing it again.

Alorea knew how this would end. Arthur would end up pushing himself to the brink of death for her.

As she remembered, their dance was smooth and the crowd marveled at their chemistry. But Arthur was not a prince, he was just a random beta who happened to be at the ball by chance. He held no true status among his pack.

Alorea rejected him afterward, telling him to at least become an alpha first before hoping to have a chance with her. A few months after the ball, she heard about his death. He was executed by the Darkened Moon alpha, a fearsome and terrible werewolf king, for attempting to commit treason.

"Your grace??" Arthur's voice brought her back to the present. Here he was before her, alive again. She had to keep it that way.

"Never mind." Alorea responded. "I cannot dance with you, sir. I am not a fan of dancing."

"Oh, your grace. That is not what I have heard about you. I have heard that you are a great dancer..."

"Whatever you have heard about me, it is all in the past now." She interrupted his speech, giving no room for him to convince her. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Prince Arthur of the Darkened Moon."

As Alorea left the stunned man behind, she could see the look of pain spread across his face. But this was for his own good; she did not want to lead him to death for a second time.

"It is my fault you died, I cannot let you die again."

Alorea intentionally referred to him as a prince so he would not think that she rejected him because of his lowly status. She had to make him think that she had assumed that he was a prince, and had still rejected him.

"That way he won't do anything crazy in the future."

Alorea reminisced about her past as she left Arthur behind. The memories of this ball came back in a patterned fashion as she looked all around her, many more men she danced with that night in the past life. But none of them was able to have her to himself; she gave a sour remark to each one of them.

"I wonder who else has a bad future ahead of them all because of me."

There was no way Arthur would be the only one. Her heart ached at the thought.

Maybe this was the reason she was given a second chance. So she could correct her mistakes of the past, so she could change her future as well as the future of these men.

Thus, she decided not to dance with any of them and just take her seat beside her mother. That way they would all be safe from the sad realities that awaited their destinies.

As she walked away slowly, another man stepped into her path. His hair curled and fell behind his face, he was a man of tall stature. His muscles bulged and bulged, desperately peeping from his long-sleeved covering made up of multiple clothing, one stacked on top of another.

He had a fixed smile as he gazed down upon Alorea.

"People have said so much about your beauty. It is nothing like what I imagine, you are more than what they say."

A cold blade seemed to slip between the walls of Alorea's heart. Her head rang loudly, audible only to her.

"I am from the Rising Sun pack." The man continued. "My father is the great king Theopilus, the sole alpha. They call me Scorpio, the most handsome prince in all the lands."

Right before Alorea was the man who tortured her for three years. The man who betrayed his own alpha and conspired with a vampire, helping the lycan king to capture her and leading to her death.

How could she forget about him? Scorpio was the son of the current alpha and he was the prince who represented the Rising Sun. In Alorea's past memories, he was the only one who managed to make her smile at the ball. But now, the mere sight of him brought nothing but pain to her, and she was not ready to give him an audience.

"I know who you are. And I am not thrilled."

She made to exit his presence but the amazed prince stepped before her again, blocking her path.

He was just as arrogant as ever. No one else would ever dare do that to Alorea, none except the arrogant prince of Rising Sun.

"You are just as hard as they say. I like that," he muttered, obviously overconfident in himself.

"What do you want from me?"

"What every other prince wants. A dance with your grace."

"No thank you. I will pass."

Alorea left him rooted in dismay, unbelieving of her rejection, and she made her way to the fourth highest throne. The third throne was for her brother Allister, the crown prince.

Seated on her ruby-laced throne, Alorea couldn't stop thinking about Scorpio. Vile thoughts filled her head, and she couldn't stop them from coming.

"That bastard. I should just find a way to kill him now before he hurts Nathan in the future..."

"What??!!" She interrupted herself, shocked at her own utterance. She still cared about Nathan.

"No way!"

She had nothing to do with him, he was just as evil as Scorpio. This time, she had to make sure that their paths would never cross and that he would never have her hand in marriage.

"No matter what happens, he is a foe and a foe only. Not my mate, not my husband."

A shadow quietly crept onto Alorea. She looked down upon the figure from her throne.

"You are the beautiful princess," a weak and young masculine voice said almost immediately as she set her eyes on him.

He was a differently dressed fellow, about eighteen years old, probably one of the servants or a very low member of one of the guest packs. He did not look familiar, at all.

"And who might you be?" She replied reluctantly, unwilling to engage in conversation.

"No one calls me by my name. There is no point if I tell it to you."

"Then there is no need for me to speak to you, nameless." Alorea snapped at him, surprised at his unusual confidence. Not even the great princes would talk back at her like that.

"I have a letter for you." He ignored her, calm and unassuming, stretching forward to give her a carefully wrapped roll of paper.

"Read it yourself," he added as Alorea received the letter. Then he slowly walked away, not glancing back even for a moment.

This boy seemed strange. And the way he spoke reminded Alorea of someone, a face she couldn't quite place at the moment. He gave her a feeling of nostalgia, a deep one. A very deep one.

"Could he be....? No... There is no way."

The ball was in full swing. Lights hung high above the heads of the noble attendees, the entire castle ablaze with vibrant colors. If there was one thing the Night Wolf kingdom excelled at, it was grand occasions such as these.

The king, Alorea's father, sat on the highest seat at the end of the grand hall, at the center of it all. Beside him sat his wife, Marianne, her expression one of anger and disturbance.

Her dark demeanor failed to dampen the spirit of the ball, as princes and princesses, kings and queens, danced around with abandon,