by Unknown
"Jesus, the fuck is that smell!" Complaining, my third in command retracts back from the slight opening.
Taking a step back as well, I wait for the stench to wear off. Hell lot of fresh air will be needed to fan inside in order for the mixture of moisture and carrion to fade.
"Why did we have to come here again?"
Glancing at Jason, noting his wrinkled in disgust face as he breathes through his mouth, I'm starting to question this decision as well.
There's urgency in him, one foot tapping on the gravel floor underneath as his hands clench and unclench.
"A meeting," I choke out, bracing myself before I step inside, holding my breath.
Sticking to the illuminated by the creak in the door path, I try to see any shapes hiding in the deep dark inside the place. Moving forms, wrapped in darkness, I can feel them closing the space around us the further we go into the building.
"A meeting," Jase echoes doubtfully, following in my tracks. "No meeting will be ever worth us being scent-raped."
"Scent-raped, huh?"
"Damn right, man. Damn right. Who are we meeting anyway?"
"Naaame iiisss Asssh." We freeze on the spot as soon as the sound comes. I know who he is since his voice sounds the same it did ten years ago, however, it's not how he spoke back then.
He's lost it all. All traits of humanity he has ever had are gone, even his speech mutated from once nearly human to this hissing, scratching on vocal cords semblance of talk.
The boy who once struggled to become as human as possible has now deteriorated back to his true nature.
A few seconds later, I see him emerging from the darkness. Even with the few specks of light permeating the warehouse, the place is enveloped in darkness making it hard to see the one standing a few feet in front of me.
The outside appearance misleading for the unknowing observer, no light probes through the nonexistent creaks and crevices of the joint steel panels. No windows have been cut into the plates, rendering the construction a black-filled edifice of metal.
He steps into the solitary light, closer to me now his frame is more than a moving shadow in the darkness, the stench clinging to his mangled from old wounds and battle scars body. The left side of his form has taken the biggest impact of all. It's not the same but a melted mess of flesh that will always carry the grotesque. A sight to frighten and repulse, no hair has grown on the flesh as it has over the other side, turning the man I knew into a full-fledged wildling.
"Raeeegan," he gurgles at me, inching closer with his hand thrown into the air, black claws on his deformed fingers. "I see yoou are quiiite imprrressseed by my brrrother masssterrr piece."
I give him a nod, ignoring the offered hand, too disgusted by the creature to venture a touch.
Did your brother do this to you? I want to ask but instead, "I've come like your brother wanted," I state evenly, my heart racing inside my chest.
"A mooossst welcooome gueeessst in myy priiivattte hooome," Ash hisses, angling his mouth-muzzle into a smile, more frightening than any I've seen on his face before.
"Cut the crap, Ash. What am I here for?" I snap, running out of patience.
"Aaaloonee, had tooo cooome alooone," the creature corrects, a line forming on his forehead in concentration. He's no longer the boy I knew either. He's changed both outside and in.
The shadows around us move, a sound like something's being dragged closer to where we stand ringing through the place.
"You brooought one... weee toooook one," Ash hisses, golden eyes looking straight at me as another beastly man steps into the light, dragging something behind.
As the creature makes his way to the lit-up path, my mind begins to make sense of what I'm seeing. It's not something but someone the creature is dragging toward us. A man. A wolf I've seen living and breathing just yesterday.
Now, that wolf is a bloodied, mutilated mass of dead flesh, the screams frozen on his face.
"A small token to remind you to do as bid, Alpha Greene. We wouldn't want you to forget our agreement now, would we?" the other wildling says, speaking human unlike his superior. He flings the body at my feet, stepping back to stand with Ash.
"I always did what you wanted from me." I grind my teeth together, suppressing the growl threatening to escape after finding out they've killed one of my own.
Standing unconcerned besides his superior, the creature seems to notice my predicament and gives me a wolfish grin with his muzzle. It's so strange to see this half-wolf, half-man mocking me.
He shares a lot of features with Ash. His eyes, even not being the same golden color, are still a shade of yellow, beastly, mad eyes that perceive too much in his quiet observation. He is much shorter than Ash, his frame nearly half of his master's, however, looking at both of them, you can almost convince yourself they are blood-related.
All wildlings look alike since they flaunt their beasts for all to see. It's who they are and what they are. Born as wolves, they grow quickly and shift to their humans when puberty hits. But then most of them slowly turn into something else, something that even we, normal wolves, cannot explain or accept. Nature going amiss with simply allowing them to exist.
"I'll be the one to do the talking since Beta Ashwin finds human speech bothersome," the creature informs me after a slight nod on Ash's part.
"He didn't have that problem before," I comment.
"Things change, Alpha Greene. People give their loyalties where they are appreciated. But you know all about loyalties, don't you, Regan? It takes a deep understanding to sell a friend's life for a title." It's the other wildling talking but these are Ashwin's sentiments he is expressing.
He blames me for what happened to him after I left. He feels like I have betrayed him.
I did betray him when I left him behind and he betrayed me when he sent his people to chase me out of my home, when he sent them to kill my own.
"Anyway, enough talking of the past. We're here to speak about the future. I presume Alpha Collen told you that we are well aware of the vampire's plans." I nod, playing by the rules these creatures have set for me.
"We know you're working with him and are planning to draw our leader out. Little does he know he's already found him," the beast-man giggles, actually giggles.
"However, as you've probably guessed, Collen has other plans and you and your little mate, Alpha Greene, are essential elements of the agenda."
Unable to hold it back now, I growl. Do the wildlings actually think they can threaten my mate? Do they think I'll allow them to hurt her?
"Hold that bark in, dog!" the creature snaps, voice dripping with mockery. "It's us who will let you live soI suggest you play the good little dog we've trained you to be," he barks out. "Understood, Alpha?"
I close my eyes, the Alpha in me curling his tail between his legs just like the dog they see me as, surrendering to a fate that's never been in my right to change, my neck bending as my head bows low.
And play, I shall.
(24) Love Letter
|Scarlet's POV|
Words echoing in the silence. They've been spoken minutes ago yet you can still hear them inside your mind. Thoughts of chaos, fear stirring up inside, bleeding through your ears, the same ones that listen to these words that are no longer said but there, hanging like an invisible threat in the frozen air.
It can't be true. This isn't real.
Breathing in then out, is it time to fall and fold or is it time to fight?
Someone watching, quietly observing, breath fanning at the back of your neck, raising fine hairs, rippling awareness on your skin.
The letter's folded on the table after Cole dropped it there, hands shaking too much to be able to hold it.
Picking it up with trembling fingers, his own fear ignited inside, "They are asking for a meeting," he says passing it to me.
Crumbled, the paper looks worn off, like it's been read one too many times before it was showed to us. How long exactly did Cole hold onto it before letting
us know? Why did he hide it from us? The envelope is missing. No date and no sender to be found.
"Does Michael know?"
Secret looks, words that are passed without words, guilt in their eyes when they meet mine.
"He's aware of the situation, however, he won't be able to attend the meeting since he's swept up with work. We'll be on our own."
Is this a lie too? Or is he just not telling the whole truth?
"He's not the only one you told about this, is he, Cole? All of you, you knew about this and hid it from me?"
Turning away, he doesn't look at me. None of them can. I've guessed right.
"I'm sorry, Scar. With Samuel and then the news about your old pack... I just didn't know how to tell you..."
Shaking my head, "Cole, just shut up, alright," I say and I look down at the 'love letter' in my hands, reading the beautiful cursive.
'We know what you are and who you are. Meet us at Stonegarden on the night of the full moon.'
Tonight.
"This doesn't look like a meeting request, Cole," I point out, dropping the paper like it burned me. In a way it did. This letter is nothing if not a threat to my family, one I'm going to make sure is disposed of as soon as I get my hands on these fuckers.
Micah rolls her eyes at me. "Thanks for stating the obvious, Scar. We couldn't have figured it on our own."
"Bitch," I mutter quietly but she either doesn't hear me or doesn't care. My bet is on the latter.
"So, what is the plan for tonight, Cole?" she asks instead. What, I'm sure, everyone must be curious about. Cole may not be our Alpha. After all, we are a family, not a pack, though he is as close to the patriarch of the family as anyone can be. He is the responsible one, the one who'll shove it up your ass if you misbehave. Figuratively speaking, of course.
"Hunter and I are going to the meeting alone while the rest of you are staying on house duty," Cole explains calmly, the way someone will let down a stubborn child. He breaks it down on us as gently as he can. Which, as you may guess and you'd be right, isn't met with happy cheers and applause.
Always the firecracker, "The hell we are!" Micah snaps instead of going nuclear at the news as I'd have expected.
"I'm with her on this one," I join. "And what's this freaking house duty you're talking about, Cole? There's no such thing as house duty here. What are we supposed to do? Guard the walls?"
"This is our home," he growls out, anger rolling off of him in waves of heat as he gives each one of us a hard look filled with the promise of pain.
Unfortunately, he seems to be forgetting the most important detail here. The notion has been introduced to us, ingrained in us as our past is, at least once by his hand alone even if that's been done with good intentions in mind. Pain has shaped who we are now and pain is what we keep living with.
We feed off it as we feed off flesh and blood.
"You're not going to win this one, mate," Hunter announces, standing up and squeezing Cole's shoulder blade as he leaves the scene.
A couple of minutes later, minutes that feel like hours in the heavy tension, Cole finally gives up under the expectation-filled stares his way.
"Fine!" he huffs, jumping to his feet. "Everyone who wants to come with me and Hunter, be ready in two hours. And better not die on me or I'll dig you up and kill you myself! Understood?"
"Why are you looking at me? I'm not helpless!" Adam's remark brings a small smile to my lips.
We're back to normal even if nothing is normal anymore. Not with Alpha just waiting to get his claws in me and not with the unknown threat we must face tonight.
It feels good to be back on track even if it's just a pretense.
"You tend to turn soft in this kind of situations. That's what I meant, Princess," Cole enlightens Adam with a smirk. Jaz lets out a soft giggle as I exchange a look with David, who seems to find the exchange as entertaining as everyone but his brother. Finding humor in teasing or watching your sibling being teased by others never gets old I suppose. Especially when said sibling delivers as good as he's receiving.
Pressing a hand to his chest, "Why, you wound me, baby," Adam fakes hurt. The puppy look fading in a matter of seconds, it's being replaced by a mischievous grin. "If I remember correctly this isn't what you were screaming out last night."
"Keep dreaming!"
"Dreaming, Cole?" Adam snorts. "Yeah, right! Because I'm the one dreaming about this hot bod and moaning Oh, baby, har..."
Never seen this one coming, I press my hands to my ears to prevent myself from hearing more before I scram off to the safety of my room.
(25) Wild...lings?
|Scarlet's POV|
We've been standing under the midnight moonshine for nearly an hour now, the person threatening us a no show yet, the conviction that this is just a joke, a tasteless one, growing.
Has it all been a lie? Have we come here for nothing? Or is this just a part of that person' sick entertainment?
Making us wait in the midst of the nude, barren from greenery land with the few, graveyard-like stones planted in the still hardened from the fading cold ground, is this funny to him?
Wild desert stretching to the shadows of the treeline, silence, not even a sound from any animal or bird permeating the eerily quiet, is this some kind of punishment we are receiving?
The first sound that comes is that of footsteps. Approaching.
Whoever our little joker is, he or she, no-
They... are coming.
Monsters you never believed could be real. They are. And they are here.
A new life. A brand new start after leaving the past where it belongs. Behind. You can settle into that peaceful routine and forget. However, the thought keeps gnawing at you.
It will find you. Just like they have.
There are tales about them from the dawn of time. Hushed fables told by the moon children. Some believe, others doubt. Those are the stories you tell to frighten little children into submission, the hushed whispers around the campfire, the ones you know can't be real yet you keep wishing they are not. Perhaps, you recognize the grain of truth, just don't allow yourself to believe. The moon children are, after all, still human, sharing that natural instinct for self-preservation as they walk the earth amongst those who keep their eyes tightly shut to all things unthinkable.
Those children look up to the Moon for guidance, they pray and hope for her mercy but, sometimes, forget the lessons she has taught them and ignore her unspoken warnings.
Tales are just tales. Until they are not.
More beasts than men, they are nothing alike their brothers and sisters who serve Her brighter side. Everything good inside them is gone. Everything natural has turned insane.
Feeding off of humans, of their own people, they take and savor, feasting in their learned or, perhaps, hereditary cannibalism. They don't bind themselves to a land and a territory, they don't war over such things. No, what they need is flesh and blood and freedom to roam and exterminate everything in their path. They don't need bonds or true mates. They mate in the heat and discard their lovers when the deed is done. They will teach their children the same lessons they've learned and continue their defying nature traditions.
Those who stand on their path rarely live to tell the story, or if they do, they keep silent. You don't want to become their enemy.
The beastly men step out from the shadows, their cover - blown as soon as they enter into the clearing. The Moon lights their features yet it is a troublesome task to make sense оф what you see under the hairy facades they have.
The two males are so much alike you could mistake them for twins, except that they have different height and body structure. The one on the left is slightly smaller than the giant walking less than a step ahead.
Flanking him like a hairy, beastly bodyguard, the giant wouldn't need much help if he sets himself on to the task of defending himself.
Not wearing any clothes, they hardly need to. Their fur covers them as well as any clothing woul
d, the only sign that they are in fact males - the musky filled with testosterone scent that seems to be reeking off their flesh. It is the first time I'm setting my eye on creatures such as these two, still, from the first notice I know what they are.
Those are the monsters. The wildlings. I've heard the stories so many times as a little child that I could never mistake them.
The bigger one has a multitude of battle marks. His fur giving way to bare flesh where the carvings weave on his body. Half of his face and chest bare, burns melted the fine, black hairs and leaving disfigured mass of pale, gruesome mess on display, the muscles seem to be intact when the surface layer of skin is long gone. A walking horror come alive in its most terrifying shape and form.
The creatures' eyes unique, they look at us like two orbs of melted gold, frozen in their wolf shape just like the men are. Walking on human feet, they are much more beastly than any actual wolf could be. Claws, muzzle, canines, they are all wolf while the shape of their bodies is more human. Predators of a much greater strength than any of the shifting moon children could be. We forsook our battle forms when we choose to live like humans, only howling at the Moon for a few nights a month. They live, breathe, mate in that shape. They don't change forth and back.
"Cooole Wiinteeers, wee meeeet agaain," the giant speaks, halting in the middle of the clearing. His voice even, coming out in a semblance of human speech, is a low, shiver-worthy gurgle as if his vocal cords are too damaged to produce anything else. Rusty with a lack of use.
"Such a pleasure to know you found others to our taste," the other chimes in a melodic voice, words vocalized to perfection, as shocking as their very existence is to me. "Right, Alpha?"
"A treeaaat," the giant, obviously the Alpha, smiles, showing a sharp pointed set of canines. Small fires lit up in those eyes, his half-disfigured muzzle-lips carve over the teeth.
"What do you want?" Cole growls, his beastly side woken by the threat.