The Lycan King's Fate Calling

Crystal's POV:

'What did it say?" Rufus asked, turning serious now. "I deleted it," I lied without missing a beat.

That message was calling me out by my original name. Rufus must not see it, no matter what, or things would only get even more complicated.

"Do you still remember what it said?" Rufus frowned, his eyes never leaving my face.

I nodded. "I didn't recognize the number, and I have no idea who the sender might be. But whoever it was, they knew my name and made some threats. They even mentioned Beryl."

"Do you think you can recall the phone number?" Rufus asked, never doubting my words for one second. "I can have someone trace its IP address."

"Yes, I remember." I had pored over that message repeatedly last night, unable to sleep. Naturally, I had come to memorize the cursed number.

I cited the numbers without batting an eye, only for Rufus to hold up his hand. "Too fast, I didn't catch it." "Huh?" I frowned in confusion. This man had a photographic memory. How could he have missed a short series of digits?

Nonplussed, Rufus took out his phone and handed it to me. "Add me on your contact list and send me the number."

he up to? But our priority was to find Beryl, so I quickly swapped our contact details on our phones

phone calls. When he faced me again, we finally had results. "The IP address was traced back to the imperial palace, and it was last active

spoke, and

barked at his men, and we all headed to

shrouded with a foreboding aura, just as it

be denser, and a veil of mist seemed

Rufus. We walked side by side, our senses keenly attuned to

after all, because he strode straight into a certain direction like a homing

woods, where the sky turned darker, and the ground beneath us was covered with thick moss so green, it was almost black. If we weren't careful, the moss could swallow our

vines intertwined on massive tree trunks in a strange, almost symmetrical

my first time coming to the forbidden forest, I was still as creeped out

calm and

the scenery around us became more familiar. I didn't realize until then that Rufus had brought us

tall, prominent tree, and I recognized it immediately. This was

turned to me and said,

He moved forward, and I trailed behind him. My own intuition told me that Beryl