by Unknown
There's just one of them left to take the mark now. A female who did as much wrong to her as I. The female who was her friend when I came here but turned against her at the first chance that presented itself.
Sasha steps forth towards my mate. Her head is bent down, eyes downcast as she treks towards her luna. I've laid with the girl more times than I can count – a regret I'd bear in my chest for as long as I live, yet, in this moment I don't really recognize that girl. She doesn't look like herself. She's holding back in a way I've never seen her do in front of someone else but me. Making me wonder if she's now apprehensive of her Luna as she has been of me.
The female stops in front of my mate. Slowly, her knees bend until she's kneeling in front of Scarlet, her body shaking but her eyes hard and unwavering as she raises them to meet the gray ones.
"Brand me as yours, Luna," she grits out, her lips parting in a snarl, slipping out despite her carefully built poise of outward wariness.
Her crystal eyes skip to me, just for a moment, as if to tell me, 'I'm doing this for you. It's all for your sake,' without her actually saying the words aloud. And then she averts her gaze back to my mate, mindless of the shame that lifts up to my skin.
Scarlet straightens her spine, her own awareness of what has just passed between the other female and me evident in the way she carries herself now. She never turns towards me, never questions me with her eyes. They stay trained on the female kneeling in front of her, her nod directed at Sasha as she grips the device tightly with her hand, raising it to the barren in invitation flesh above the torn cloth.
The hiss of flesh is accompanied by the hiss of the female, suppressing her scream as she embraces the touch of hot metal on her skin, tears leaking from her eyes but never notes of pain. The stench of burned flesh lifts to my nostrils once again, carrying the unique scent of the female now bearing the mark.
As disgusted as I am by her, I can't help but admire that strength. A male would have shouted to the skies, cursed under the Moon, but females are different. Just like the rest of the pack bitches, this one is keeping her pain behind her teeth but unlike the rest, she's doing it for my sake and not for her Luna's.
The act may be flattering and from anyone else it would have been taken with the gratitude it deserves, but it's her and that makes it mind-numbingly twisted. Wrong.
The metal retreats from the skin, tearing small chunks of flesh as it goes. Scarlet drops it on the ground, as far from her as she can throw it without hurting any of the bystanders.
"Stand up," her voice rings loud in the post-branding quiet.
Picking up the bowl of oil from the ground, Sasha rises to her feet, offering it to her Luna. Scarlet douses her fingers into the liquid and applies it on the newly burned mark before the other female places it back on the ground.
Standing on her feet once again, the bitch stares at her Luna for a few minutes, measuring her up and down and then leans closer to whisper something in her ear. Words spoken so softly that I don't catch.
Sasha retracts a step, gives a curt nod, then swirls back, retreating into the crowd of wolves as my mate looks motionlessly after her.
I want to go to her, ask her what the other female said but there are things I must do before I can act on my curiosity.
I take a sweep of the place, noting each one of my wolves is waiting in place, except that now Sasha is standing next to Jason, clinging to his arm, his face blank as hers is smug with satisfaction. Knowledge.
What is this about? Since when are they close to each other?
In the twirl of recent events, I've missed this one development. I've never considered that he might betray me like the others did but perhaps I should have. He didn't join my side when I called. He stayed idle.
Regan. Scarlet's call comes like a gunshot, dispersing my thoughts. My family. It's time, she reminds.
I step back into the middle of the circle, wishing to take my place next to her but knowing that this won't happen for a while.
"There is one more reason for our gathering here tonight," I announce in front of the pack, feeling her gaze stuck on me as she awaits the announcement just like the rest of them.
I've known that it will eventually come to this but it's still hard for me to do what has been requested of me. By him and now by her – the one person who should let me have my freedom to choose but doesn't.
Instead, in her blindness, she's pushing me further on the downward spiral, letting me fall deeper and deeper with all her conditions.
Turning toward the hybrids, I give Collen a nod and shout out, "I call forth those of you who want to join this pack."
He is the first to make the first step, a ghostly smile tweaking in the corners of his lips, letting me know that they will answer my call.
A call marking my submission to his terms.
(50) Exile
|Regan's POV|
I can barely look at them as they kneel in front of me, ready to accept my claim over their lives, to accept me as their Alpha.
What is that sick game Collen is playing with me? Will tonight be my biggest mistake since becoming the leader of this pack or will I finally gain control over something I never believed I can control - the hybrids, the wildlings, their leader?
It all comes to this moment of truth. What will I find in this moment of revelation?
My heart is trembling in my chest. The hand holding the silver dagger is shaking. The tension is rolling off of me. I can feel it in the silence pregnant with their expectation.
The faces of my wolves look sullen as if they've been defeated under my iron fist only mere seconds before its palm starts bleeding.
I raise my left hand, the one that's empty and will my flesh to mold into the shape I wish it to be. It's a skill the wolves of my lines have. A skill I inherited from my bastard of a father and he - from his father.
It's a skill which fed his delusions that our line comes from the first wolf. The original wolf. A proof that made me believe it too. At least, until Scarlet came along. I no longer know if it's true or if it's a tale one crazy ruler passed to another.
All that I know is that I can feel the claws growing, the talons piercing the tips of my fingers, elongating in order to do what they are supposed to do.
Those claws will draw blood and blood will be drawn from the flesh they grow on. It's how this is done.
The blonde - Micah I think, will be the first I will mark as mine. I'll leave Collen for last.
I step towards her, my clawed hand reaching for the place on her body, just between her shoulders and neck, where the mark will be placed. One swift motion and a deep gash forms at the crook of her neck, red seeping through her broken skin. It will heal in minutes but these minutes are all I'll need to mark her as one of mine.
Sour, rancid scent drifts to my nostrils, like the one of a once fresh meat that's been left to rot for days. The last thing on my mind is how I will place my palm over the wound and mix my blood with hers but now is not the time for such thoughts.
I slash the inside of my hand with the blade, feeling the silver burn on my skin, and hold it in front of her. The wound won't close for a while since it's silver that inflicted it but, hopefully, it will stay open for long enough to place a mark on them all.
"I, Regan Conrad Greene, first of his name, Alpha of ShadowFang, offer thee the gift of my pack mark upon thy fresh," I recite the words I've heard my father utter so many times they are now engraved in my memory. "Doth thee accept my offering and pledge thy life to serve and protect this pack and its Alpha?"
"I do," the girl whispers softly, the Moon's magic already upon her skin as small shivers rake her body.
"By the Moon's will and mine, hereby, I claim thy body and soul as mine by placing this mark upon thy skin," I finish pressing my bleeding hand over her wound.
The bond stays quiet. Motionless and then, like an audible sizzle in the whispering wind, the connection forms with a snap, stretching over the female and pulling her into the
pack-link until I can feel her - a caustic, empty shell when she should be burning from the Moon's magical touch.
She isn't and that gives me a brief pause.
The girl' sudden inhale makes me snap out of my observation, brushing it off as another oddity, probably a fluke born out of her different nature. Gathering back my bearings, I move on to the next in line, repeating the process.
They are all the same. The words coming out of my mouth, the promises they give me back, the connection that forms between us. Even the feeling of cold emptiness. They are all hollow. Minds wiped blank as if they've been asleep for too long. No emotions exist in their world.
I stop in front of Collen. Once a false ally. Now - my enemy.
He has his usual blank expression on his face, his eyes not looking at me but certainly gleaming with satisfaction. He's finally going to get what he wanted. And I'm going to give it to him. No fight. No objection. No more stalling.
His mental voice is silent. He's been avoiding talking to me this way lately, the reason for his silence more concerning than his anger has ever been.
I flick my talons over his flesh. The gash is deeper than the rest I've made tonight, bleeding profusely as soon as my claws retreat.
The smell of corruption is also stronger. The same one I've caught from the rest of his hybrids but thicker as it wafts to me. Scarlet never smelt like this. Not before I found she was mine and not now when I've already claimed her as mine.
Hastily, I repeat the ceremonial words. Accept his affirmation of my claim and press my palm to his flesh, disgusted by the act but helpless to reverse it now that it's nearly over.
"By the Moon's will and mine, hereby, I claim thy body and soul as mine by placing this mark upon thy skin," I bellow, my hand withdrawing as the pack-link sizzles and snaps, instantly awake unlike its slow reaction with the others.
As soon as the link is formed, I can feel him. A powerful presence inside the bond, casting darkness and weighing the scales of balance further away from me as if he's gathering clouds in his hands.
I can hear the thundering approach of his mind, intent guiding it closer to me until it reaches the destination, reaches me. I take a step back from him, desperate in my hope that physical distance will hinder his progress.
What is happening? Why is no one reacting? Do they not feel it?
My pack is watching but I don't see awareness in their eyes. When I glance at my mate I don't see either. She's happy, her expression one of relief.
'What the fuck are you doing, Collen?' I try to scream into the bond but nothing comes out. Only the thought in my head remains. Not even a sound escapes out of it. Like screaming in the desert, only the desert is my own mind.
I meet his eyes, coals from a fire I've somehow missed in my mirth of finding a moment of peace with my mate. Those eyes are looking at me now, capturing me within their darkness.
You can scream all you want, Regan. They can't hear you. No one but I will hear you now. He smiles at me from his place on the ground. Still kneeling in front of his Alpha and portraying the submission expected of him but, nonetheless, triumphant on the inside.
Ghostly limbs are clamping over me. Extensions of his mind, their grasp is an iron hold I can't escape. It's striking deeper and deeper through my walls until there are no walls, until there are just the two of us.
I'm going to make the best of this meanwhile...
The world is fading in darkness. I'm looking through a hole the size of the tip of a needle. I can no longer feel my body.
No! You can't do this, Col--
Enjoy your exile, Regan. I certainly will, he cuts the connection off.
"ShadowFang, let us welcome our new members..." My voice turns into a distant echo, staying in a world that's no longer where I am.
Am I ever going see her again, ever going to hold her in my arms...
Numb. Empty. Everything.
It's gone. I am.
(51) Peace Offering
|Scarlet's POV|
"ShadowFang, let us welcome our new members into our ranks." He flicks his hand at my friends in a gesture that can be only translated as 'rise'.
Standing to their feet, they retreat back to their places, leaving him to stay alone in the middle of the clearing.
"Let us celebrate this night with..." his voice falters. He tilts his head up, looking ahead.
The pack stirs up, a sudden nervousness filling in the hushed space. Some turn back to look in the same direction he is while others lift their eyes to the Moon watching overhead.
Praying in silence as the forest starts to shake with the rumble of feet crashing through it with the unmistakable sound of bodies piercing the quiet as they advance our way.
What is happening, Regan? Questioning into the mind-link we share, I come to stand next to him.
My hand finds and slips into his out of instinct to find his cold, the tingles his touch usually invoke missing. Why is it that I can't feel them? Are they gone now that he's claimed me? Is that all there is to this bond we share?
I don't know, Scarlet, he says, voice void of emotion, of that warmth it takes when he's speaking to me. Is he cutting himself off of me, blocking his feelings from the flowing in between us bond?
'Regan?' I want to voice my alarm but before I can hundreds of stars appear, shining in the surrounding darkness of the trees and breaking me out of my brooding thoughts. Not stars, I realize as they step out of the hurdle and into the clearing. Eyes. Glowing with an animalistic glint in the darkness as their bodies, covered in fur and stuck in between transformation, neither human nor beastly, glint under the moonshine.
"The wildlings," the words come out breathlessly as if he's been caught up in the terrifying sight just like I have.
What are they here? What brought them out of their hiding? What stirred them into action?
A bloodcurdling scream comes from the circle of wolves, starting me out of my daze. And then, as suddenly as it has come it's hushed down.
A woman's body hits the ground, a woman who's lost her child to them and now she's lost too, her blood saturating the grass from the gash on her neck. The last boon She granted us is lost in that tragedy unfolding with the life that's slowly pouring out of the mortal wound.
I recognize the man who steps over her dying shell and slowly makes his way to where my mate and I are standing. The wildling's Alpha. Cole's brother.
He stops in front of Regan, only a few inches now separating the two males as one Alpha measures up and down another.
I glance away from the wildlings' Alpha, my gaze skipping towards Cole and the rest of my family, expecting to see the same terror on their faces I can feel hammering against my chest.
It's not what I see. The others' faces are blank but Cole's... It's like I'm seeing that familiar face for the first time. The expression on it – corners of his lips slightly upturned, dark eyes squinted into slits of black, staring at us, it's more frightening than the wildlings' presence here.
Trust spiralling down until it's gone, who is this man looking from within those midnight eyes? Is he my friend?
"What's the meaning of this?" Regan's voice rings through the place. A voice that should have been louder but is now just a whisper. Tension is splattering the night, vapours of fear rising from wary skin breaking in shivers.
Foreign, it's how Cole looks to me now, as foreign to me as a complete stranger would.
"I c-come in p-peace," the wildling says, his bestial, gurgling speech improved since the last time I've heard him talk. "And I've b-brought a peace o-offering."
Cole flashes his teeth in a grin that's nothing but an ugly grimace, clearly entertaining himself even if his brows stay furrowed in concentration. His eyes never leave our group, however, even with the fire inside them, they seem to be far away. Watching but not seeing. Devoid of warmth.
Just like my mate's hand wrapped around mine is. Cold.
Bitterness rises to my throat, my heartbeat intensifying its pace under my ri
bcage in a warning I don't understand as I reach out into the pack-bond, my mind flowing in all directions, trying to grasp the invisible threads connecting my friends to me and their Alpha now.
There's just one, blackened with darkness, weaving inside the bond thread, a mind, much more powerful and experienced in the mechanics of the mental connection than my own, guiding its apt tentacles from all of them and into the pack-link.
What is Cole doing? How is he doing it, whatever it might be?
I turn my attention back to the wildlings' Alpha in time to see him raise his clawed hand in a beckoning gesture. A few moments later, the crowd parts, letting in a group of his men leading a female towards us.
I opt for another try, my mind stretching into the bond once again, trying to pinpoint the source of the insidious presence inside that's staked a claim over something that should have been controlled by this pack's Alpha but is no longer.
Why? How?
Like a ghost running through the same place, skirting between all the people who have gathered here to watch, I run through the crowd, my mind projecting an almost substantial form into the pack-bond. A solitary frame searching for something dark and scary. Someone hidden in a sea of people.
My eyes register the moment the group of males accompanying the female stop in front of us, the woman stepping forth, waiting for the wildlings' Alpha next command but my mind is too deep into the mental connection to think anything of it while it keeps exploring further and further into the darkness that's taken hold of it.
The bond is heaving, quaking under the intent of the person. Frozen like a cold desert, there's only an echo of a whisper I can hear. The same echo you hear before you feel whatever is out there sneak upon you, breathing at your neck.
Who is it? What does it want?
The darkness runs thicker where my friends stand, each and every one of them like a lung wrapped over a beating heart that's bleeding out poison. Its beats are audible in the echo of commands, spoken so softly they are like the wheeze of the wind through the leaves crackling with exhaustion before they fall to their final rest.