Prologue

Prologue

The Accords

From the dawn of time, two magical races have existed, the witches and the guardians. The witches' magic was based on the elements as it was their job to see that the land thrived and the guardians' magic was based on animal form because it was their job to protect everyone and keep wars from happening.

Then one day the peace was broken when the guardians and witches went to war against each other. It all started when the mate of the leader of the coven Ingrid, who was a human, looted and pillaged a coastal town. The guardians demanded that he be turned over to them to face justice but the witches refused and the war ensued.

Many guardians and elder witches were killed during the fighting though the younger witches suffered the most.

When the former coven leader died, the new leader named Hildy emerged and tried to bring peace to both sides. The elder witches however, didn't listen to Hildy for they all wanted to be powerful and rule the realm. Hildy and the younger witches fought hard but they were weakened for they were fighting a war on two fronts. With the guardians gaining the upper hand and the future looking uncertain, Hildy seduced the Phoenix guardian, the leader of guardians in a desperate bid to protect her people. She tricked him into believing that he'd be stuck permanently in his animal form for a hundred years (though it only lasted a short while) and with this act of betrayal, Hildy hoped to bring any punishment down on her own head and leave the younger witches in peaceful exile on the witches' island for eternity.

The guardians did grant peace to the witches but as punishment for they created the accords for the guardians did not trust the witches. The accords were a set of agreements that ended the war and created a truce however the main clause was that after the youngest witch turned five hundred, then the witch's exile would end and they would become a consort or mate of a guardian.

The witches were horrified by this prospect of being forced to marry because the guardians were widely known for their dominant sexual natures and the witches wanted to refuse but they knew that this was their only chance at peace.

Once they all returned to the island, Hildy, her sister Hermione and her best friend Meehan created a barrier to keep the guardians from taking the witches away from the island. It worked for when the allotted time frame was up the guardians could not take any witch from the island and in fact only a select few could even step foot on it.

It was determined that those who could cross the barrier would do and seduce their chosen witches, hopefully ending the standoff. Uswi of the Turtles was sent first and he wooed Meehan of the Waves into becoming his consort. He was successful, but far from ending the standoff, it created an uproar among the witches. Ultimately, Meehan was forced to choose between becoming Uswi's consort and walk away from the coven or stay with coven and walk away from being a consort. She chose love and left the coven with a heavy heart. Only one witch had fought against Meehan's banishment and she was the most beloved of all of them;

Hana of the Flowers

.

Hana was the youngest witch of the coven, and was only five at the time that the war broke out. Being so young at the time, Hana had been quite neglected during the wars, and every witch had sworn to never let that happen again and they would protect Hana no matter what.

Hana had quietly shamed all the witches in her own way, for turning their backs on Meehan when she needed them most. Hana also became determined that they would all stand by Meehan during the consort ritual. So she campaigned on behalf of Meehan and Hildy eventually gave into Hana's demands. Hildy went to Soren and struck up a deal with him, that she would spend one day with him if the witches could attend the ceremony without fear of any reprisal for the broken accords.

Soren agreed and after the ceremony, the guardians gathered, all demanding a chance to woo their chosen witch like Uswi had been able to. Soren had calmed them down and promised that the day would come soon for he had a new plan that revolved around Hana of the Flowers becoming the next consort for she was the 'heart' of the coven.

Her mate was the youngest of the guardians as well, Owain of the Wolves who had a fierce and legendary name for himself as a warrior. Though Soren knew that Owain, who had gone out of his way to protect Hana during the war was her mate, Soren regretted forcing them apart by asking Owain to take up his role as guardian after his father passed away. Though now was the time to right that wrong and solve the issue between the witches and guardians once and for all.

* * *

During the Guardian War...

Owain couldn't believe it, this was his very first mission to hunt down the witches and he had gotten separated from the rest of his pack during a surprise attack. Owain had wanted to make his father proud though getting lost was not the way to do it. He continued to wander through the forest only to become more hopelessly lost and angry at the situation.

Suddenly, the forest ended and became a field of wildflowers. Owain stopped and looked around at the flowers taking in the beauty and peace of his surroundings.

The he heard a low noise alerted him to presence of someone else. At first, he ducked down expecting an attack but then he recognized the noise as it was the sound of someone crying.

His ears twitched as he followed the sound and he nearly missed her for she sat up at the last moment.

Owain was transfixed again because the girl was pretty, and her beauty caused Owain's heart to pound, though he didn't understand why. She had long red hair that was the colour of red roses with a string of daisies on top of her head. She wore a white and yellow dress that matched the daisies in her hair. From the side, Owain could see that her face freckled and softly tanned which suited her.

She seemed so sad and Owain couldn't help but creep forward because wanting to comfort her. The noise from his movements however, alerted her to his presence, she turned her head to face him with her lavender blue eyes wide in shock.

At first she tried to scramble away but Owain pounced on the end of her dress. It frightened her as she opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out. Owain immediately tried to look as non-threatening as possible by lying flat on the ground and tucking his ears and tails down. For a few minutes they just stared at each other and waited for the other to make the first move.

The girl broke the spell as she moved first towards him with her hand out shaking. Owain watched her hand and when it was close to him he muzzled it to show that he was friendly, even licking it once. The little girl withdrew her hand quickly and looked at him some more as if she was deciding something in her head. Then fresh tears welled up in her eyes as she moved towards him slowly. Owain sat up just as slow and waited until she wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into fur. He shifted back into his human form which appeared to be a boy of nine, he wrapped his arms around her to comfort her.

"What's wrong?" Owain asked softly.

"Mummy died, my sisters have disappeared and I'm all alone now," she cried.

Owain just held her tight, unable to find the right words to say.

Finally he said, "Come on, let's go back to your home together for someone must be worried that you're lost."

The girl shook her head, "I'm not lost, the elders brought me here and told to stay put. They told me that mean scary guardians are fighting against us and that I'd be safe here. They also told me they'd be back but no one's come and that means they're all gone too."

The girl started to cry harder and Owain realized that the mysterious girl was a witch.

Far from hating her, he wanted to protect her and make her smile, though he really didn't understand why. Though to be honest, he didn't care about the reason though because she was miserable that was enough for him.

"They're not all gone, the witches are still alive, they only had a big misunderstanding with the guardians, who really aren't mean and scary at all. They're going to work it out, you'll see. Though adults aren't like us kids, sometimes it takes them longer to sort things out but until then, I'll protect you, I so swear it. I'm Owain by the way, Owain of the Wolves."

"You are a guardian then?" The girl asked in a small voice as she sat back from him.

"I am but I'm still a kid like you, I'm not scary at all see. What's your name by the way?" Owain asked as he still held her hand.

The girl looked at their hands for a moment, before looking up and giving him a small shy smile as she replied, "I'm Hana, Hana of the Flowers."

When she smiled Owain wanted to stay by her side forever but the war wouldn't let them. Twenty years after promising to stay by her side, Owain was forced to take on the full title of Guardian of Wolves and enter the war fully. He swore to himself, that one day when he could, he'd find Hana of the Flowers again and this time he'd never let her go.