"Okay, now that the matter with the changing of the rules is out of the way, let's get started on our history class." Gabriel said, trying to deviate the students' attention, fearing someone might find a flaw in his announcement or the reason behind it. Really, he even had to miss the meeting with the Council for it.

"Can any of you tell me, what are the great taboos that have incurred the wrath of the Goddess, in our long history?" Gabriel asked, grabbing his book, while he leaned in front of his desk.

"No one?" He asked again, when he saw not one of the ten students raising their hands.

"Celia, can you tell us?" He looked towards the girl, like a teacher who would appoint the student he favored in class. If she did not know the answer to his question, then none of them knew.

"The seven great taboos committed along history are the acts collectively known as the "Peccata predecessores" or " The sins of the predecessors" , they are the only times a mistake made by a particular creature made the Goddess take actions with her own hands." Celia answered easily.

"Thank you! Indeed, as we all know, each and every creature under the rule of the Goddess, whether we are taking about vampires, witches, werewolves, fairies and so on, all have free will. Which means that, as long as one does not commit one of the seven sins, generally the Goddess will never intervene in the creatures' lives.

But in our history, unfortunately, these seven taboos have been broken at least once. Well there will always be some idiot who will think the Goddess will not intervene, but She did in some way or another each time.

Can any of you enumerate them for me?" Gabriel inquired again and, seeing that no one dared again, asked Celia to answer.

"Celia, can you enumerate them?"

"Yes. Having been assigned Latin numbers, the "Peccata predecessores" or " The sins of the predecessors" are:

I (ūnus) The eating of the flesh of mermaids, which grants eternal life to the eater.

II (duo) The stealing of a black dragon's inverted scale, which grants the stealer ownership of said dragon.

III (trēs) The creation of artificial werewolves, or commonly known as a lycans, which granted a human the powers of a werewolf.

IV (quattuor) The stealing of the ashes of a phoenix before it could revive, which granted the stealer the power of regeneration, even healing him on the brink of death

V (quīnque) The use of black magic to summon a demon by a witch, which granted the said witch 3 wishes

VI (hexa) The creation of more than a hundred ghouls by a pureblood vampire, effectively creating an undead army.

VII (septem) The killing of any ruler of any type of supernatural creatures, directly appointed by the Goddess." Celia said, finally sighing relieved, as she finished the enumeration. Thankfully, this was one of the things she reviewed the day before.

"Yes, thank you very much. That's an accurate description. Indeed, any of those particular facts will undoubtedly incur the wrath of the otherwise gentle Goddess.

And one of the proofs of incurring her anger is the killing of the queen of all the dragons, by the white dragons." Said Gabriel to prove his point, and the fact that the seven taboos were real, not myths, as they were rumored nowadays.

"Teacher I didn't know there are white dragons, I thought there are only black ones." Asked Liam, a fact known by all of them.

"Correct, there are no white dragons now, but there were before, long ago.

In the past, the Goddess informed the dragons of the identity of their future queen, who was until that point a normal village girl.

A bit naïve and easily controllable, the young girl was lead by the white dragons into their palace, teaching and actively transforming her in a puppet ruler, instead of grooming her as an actual leader and showing her how to really use her power.

In time, Nyx, the queen fell in love with a black dragon, and one of the dragons who had disapproved the white dragons' use of their queen for their own purposes.

The frictions between the two factions led to a terrible war between the black dragons and the white ones. A war which ended in tragic deaths, as the queen of the dragons lost control of her powers in grief for her lost lover, who had fallen on the battle ground moments earlier, effectively decimating alone more than half of the entire population of dragons and herself in the process." Gabriel explained a part of the general history.

"But I don't understand, why do you say the Goddess intervened, if the queen killed herself, and did not die by another dragon's hand?" Jake asked, intrigued by the story, which seemed more like a fairytale rather than actual history.

"Because the dragons more or less indirectly participated in her loss, and because to maintain their superiority on the battlefield against the black dragons at that time, they had feasted on the queen's wings which had the ability to continuously regenerate their wounds.

They spilled her blood and caused her harm, without a care for her wellbeing, up until she lost control of her powers." Gabriel fervently explained, glad that he had managed to capture the students' attention. In fact, history was his favorite subject to teach.

"As such, they committed the seventh taboo, they killed their own ruler.

This incurred the Goddess' anger, and their total annihilation. Although, today there are still black dragons alive, you will never find a white one. The moment the queen died, all the white dragons, even the ones that had not participated in the war, fell ill and died soon after.

It was rumored that the white dragons that did not take part in the war still had a part in the Goddess' anger, because of their passiveness. The black dragons at least fought for their queen, but the white ones who did not actively fight against them, also did not help her.

Another point you should remember is that for us werewolves, the leadership of all the werewolves is given from the father to his pup, so the king's position is inherited, but the mate of the king has long been thought of as being decided by the Goddess, as She decides which werewolf possess the queen's half a soul.

Although, we do not have clear evidence for this, as the Goddess never ascertained it herself, like She did for the dragons, and also a queen of ours has never died from unnatural causes.

So I cannot tell you what would happen if someone were to murder our king, but the murder of the future queen could potentially cause an even greater calamity that could befall on us, if this fact would turn out to be true." Frankly spoke Gabriel.

In truth at the time when he took Celia to help Salas with his treatment, he indeed had acted rashly. He was one of the most competent officials in the kingdom and one who would generally coldly judge a situation and act accordingly.

But at that time he lost his cool, seeing his friend hurt that badly, and Celia's identity as the mate's king was also not certain, he asked for her help, but if she had died... would the Goddess have done something to them?

Not to mention only this, but also the fact that all the council members and him had tried to find a mate for Salas. If Salas had not waited for Celia, would this have also impacted them in some way?

The seventh taboo only mentioned the killing of a ruler, it never said anything about forcing the king to accept his mate, as the Goddess would not force mates together, not that any king in the past had refused his mate, so this fact could not be checked for certain either.

He sighed relieved that these questions would only remain "what if" questions, and continued with his lesson. By this point all the students' attentions were fully on him.

"Now then, returning to the dragons, do not judge them too harshly, we also have our own foolish werewolves. From the distant past it is widely known that werewolves cannot bite a human and let him live after that bite, because the said human, could possibly transform into an artificial werewolf. There is a small chance of that happening, about 1 in 10.000, but the transformation in an artificial werewolf is still there.

Can any of you tell me, why do we call the surviving bitten human an artificial werewolf?" Asked Gabriel, and seeing that Evan raised his hand, nodded for the latter to answer.

"Because werewolves, normally, are born with two sides, a human one and a wolf one, but humans, by becoming an artificial werewolf through a bite, would not possess a wolf side.

They would not have a distinct personality inside their minds granted by the Goddess, so would never be able to transform into a real wolf, only partially transforming into a chimera of sorts, a lycan."

Gabriel nodded satisfied by his answer, as it was correct, then added more details to Evan's description.

"Yes, an artificial werewolf can never become a real werewolf, and thus would also never even have a proper mate, as the mates are separated into halves before birth. Not born as werewolves, they would not have a soul shared with another werewolf.

Now here lays the problem, it is difficult for a werewolf to transform a human into a lycan, but once that human becomes a lycan, the possibility of him transforming another human into a lycan increases. One in ten bitten humans, become a lycan if they are bitten by him, with the nine left untransformed, dying in the process.

And also, lycans are savage creatures that cannot maintain their sanity. They viciously and indiscriminately attack everyone in their way. And they get more savage and mindless as the one who transformed them gets transformed by a lycan further away from the original lycan, the first one to be bitten by the werewolf.

Even human towns are left destroyed in their plunder, which could lead to our exposure to the humans. As opposed to new vampires, who retain their mind and have some control to their newfound instincts.

You see, the Goddess has maintained a frail equilibrium with the human world, as she has only dominion over the supernatural creatures, but would never dare to hurt others, even the humans that are not under her rule.

Not to mention that lycans, are to her imperfect wolves, a mutation to her creation.

Incurring the Goddess's furry, the werewolf who would break this taboo by creating a lycan, would immediately die, along with whoever would help him do so, regardless of what type of creature that is."

"But teacher why would a werewolf ever want to do that? Why would he or she transform a human into a lycan?" Asked Marcus confused. Why would any werewolf break the taboo and kill himself?

"Well now in our time, no werewolves under the king would, but at one point before, in the distant past, when the packs were not yet united under one werewolf, they were severely hunted.

So some rashes decisions were made. Some werewolves just bit the hunters thinking that creating lycans would make the other hunters, refrain from attacking them, seeing that members of their families were also werewolves.

But the fact was that they did not take note of how hard it was to create a lycan. They would have to kill thousands of hunters to create just one of them. In the end, they did not manage to create even one, and only got more hunted, by the revenge fueled hunters.

To put a stop to their foolishness, the Goddess created that taboo, and in a way it was also for their protection.

As watchers, even though your main duty is to ensure the protection for members of a pack against a cruel alpha, you will also have other obligations. Ensuring that the seven taboos are not broken is one of them.

Now then please take note that the seven broken taboos will consist as material for the final exam, so please study them properly. Also, by next Monday, please research at least one of the other six cases in which the taboos have been broken, other than the one we have discussed today. Your report should have at least two thousand words.

Let's continue with the war that happened thirty years ago ..."

***

Before beginning the meeting with the council members, to discuss the information about the attacks, Salas took the phone out of his pocket and checked the time. At this hour, Celia would still be attending courses. If he remembered her schedule correctly, she previously had history course, and now would be in the training course. He sighed, as she would not be able to answer his phone call.

She would keep the phone with her in the classroom, he made sure of that, but during training, perhaps, she would not be able to carry it around.

It was several hours ago, that they parted, and he was already missing her. How would he be able to hold on until Friday? Would the petite woman also miss him? He pondered, hoping that she would.

Having no other option, he at least thought to send a message.

"I miss you my lovely fiancée. Please, let me know where you want to take me to, for the date you wanted. I am available this weekend." He smirked as he sent the message and returned the phone to his pocket.

Several minutes later, all the members of the Council took their seats so the meeting could begin. Normally, he would be last to appear, but as he drove Celia to the Academy, he showed up earlier at the Council's office and summoned them all earlier.

"Your highness, before we begin our talk about the attacks, we would like to offer our sincerest congratulations for finding your mate." Said one of the council members, followed immediately by the others.

They had already been informed of this by Emery, with the latter bragging about the fact he was the first to see her majesty, in her new status.

"Thank you! Don't worry you will all get to see her in due time. I can only hope that this settles your mind and will stop interfering with my personal life." He said, with the last part using a harsher tone.

Slightly guilty, Emery coughed to hide his embarrassment. He had indeed reflected on his behavior, he knew that he had sinned towards the queen, would her majesty keep a grudge on him? Perhaps, Salas was right he truly was becoming a child, he should be more careful in the future.

"Then should we start to talk about the information we gathered your highness?" Emery said trying to deviate the subject. Even if he was regretful of what he had done, in front of the king he would never admit it.

Salas nodded and did not insist on his words, the attack was the most important right now. If the attackers were not dealt with, he would not be able to have Celia in her proper position as the queen.

The council members, Micah, Gabriel and Jenna, the most powerful maid he had at the palace, were the only ones who knew about her, but more and more people could find out. The attackers dared two times to enter his borders, what would stop them to enter a third time? And knowing of the existence of the queen, they might attack her to weaken him, he could not risk her life.

"From the information Gabriel and his team has collected so far, and from her majesty. We know the following.

One, the attackers have someone on the inside. They knew his majesty will not be present in the palace during the hunters' attack. We have pinpointed some people, and have already released a bit of fake information to them. Now we are waiting to see which of the information make its way outside. Based on that, we hope to determine the exact source of the leak.

Two, they used witches when they attacked, but as our connection with the covens are a bit strained right now, it is a bit difficult to determine if some of the witches are missing from their covens or have fled of their own free will. The witches also keep refusing to talk with us, reasoning that their leader is currently away, so before she returns they will not say anything."

Micah shared the information he and Gabriel had compiled in a report.

"Or they could know of the attack and are actually collaborating with the attackers. Perhaps, they are trying to hide it. They were the one who started the war thirty years ago, when they broke the fifth taboo." Said one of the council members, having no trust in the witches.

"It is not likely they know, the witches have a curse placed on them since the war, to not engage in fights with any creature. The curse should still be in effect for at least twenty more years. And also the current leader is a white witch, as opposed to thirty years ago, so we highly doubt that it is an action from the covens as a whole, and not just one or two witches.

They could be solitary witches or new witches born after the last war. If the hunters found them when they had just discovered their powers, then it is possible to have them under their control. Also her majesty said the hunters had on his neck an amulet, which he used to nullify the spell for a bit.

We found the amulet on the ground when we cleaned the forest, it is the one a witch cannot be without. She would never willingly give it away." The beta explained, before resuming to read the report.

"Beep!" One of the phones rang, just as all of them concentrated on the meeting.

"The phones should be closed during the meeting! You all know that, just who left their phones opened?" Asked Emery with his voice raised upset. They were discussing something very important, there could be no interruptions.

"Beep!" The phone rang again, just as Salas was taking it out of his pocket.

Emery had wanted to keep admonishing the council members, but swallowed his words when he saw the king taking his phone out.

"What date are you talking about?" The message on Salas's phone said.

"I never said I would take you out on a date???" Said the second message, making Salas brightly smile, as he was already picturing Celia's flustered face.

"The date you wished for at the ball, of course. Your hard earned date!" He replied happily, imagining an even more speechless face. Perhaps she would even call him shameless again. Coming for her sweet mouth the word resembled more of a compliment, rather than an insult.

He was so immersed in the messages he was exchanging with the petite woman that he did not bother to look around him.

If he did he would see thirteen faces looking absolutely stunned at the small smile that adorned his face. Unknown to Celia, she had become the most respected werewolf woman in their minds, and not only because she was their queen, just for the fact she managed to tame the big bad wolf.

I cannot believe the book managed to get over 50.000 reads, in such a short time. 😳😆

Thank you for the votes and comments, as always they mean a lot to me (the comments that show your feelings for the book and storyline, the ones about the main characters, even the ones bashing the antagonists because it means I am doing a good job, at least I hope, at portraying them in a certain way).

For the new readers that took the time to read almost all the chapters in one go, thank you very much, it makes me happy that the story kept you interested enough to read it so quickly.

For the current readers that have being reading the book, since it only had 20, 15 or even less chapters, thank you so much for taking time out of your free time to go back and vote for the earlier chapters, as I have noticed some have done so.