“Forgive her,” Zev cut in quickly at the growls surging from the Pack. “She’s unaware of our ways.”
“I know enough,” Dyna replied defiantly, much to his horror. She met Owyn’s cold gaze head-on, fists shaking at her sides. “A member of your Pack attacked me. It’s against Pack law to hurt the mate or family of another wolf.”
The men snarled at her.
“Dyna!” Zev whispered sharply. “You cannot speak here. Please step back.”
Prince Cassiel yanked her behind him. He snapped open his wings, concealing her from view.
“Zev Astron,” the Alpha’s gruff voice rumbled. “I allowed you to stay on my land to repay my debt to your father. Yet you betrayed me and ran to the Celestials for sanctuary.”
“I didn’t betray you, Alpha.”
“You killed my nephew!” Owyn roared. His power pressed into Zev, forcing his body to prostrate in submission. A hostile growl drew his attention to the man flanking the Alpha. The Pack Beta—Kenlan, Owyn’s brother, and Faolan’s father. He was shorter, leaner, but hardened with the same brutality that came with fighting to keep his position.
“I’m sorry,” Zev said. “I truly am. But Faolan left me no choice. He was past the Madness and had gone feral.” The men abruptly stopped growling, their shock sticking to Zev’s skin.
It was the duty of the Alpha to put down any wolves fallen into Madness for the safety of the Pack. They became unstable and confused before the feral stage came. A feral wolf was dangerous. By the Alpha and Beta’s expressions, they had suspected Faolan’s condition, but they couldn’t bring themselves to end him. Family was always a werewolf’s weakness.
Owyn rubbed his face. “When Faolan wandered off, he hadn’t yet gone mad.”
“He shouldn’t have been left to reach that state,” Zev said.
Owyn’s mouth twisted into a snarl, fangs extending. “Are you questioning me, half-breed?”
“No.” Zev lowered his head again. “If I may ask, what caused it?”
“He lost his mate.”
Werewolves felt everything so deeply. Joy. Anger. Pain. But grief most of all was a treacherous trigger for Madness. Zev was constantly teetering on the edge of it.
Owyn looked past him to Dyna. “Who is this female with you?”
“She is family—daughter of my uncle,” Zev replied, hoping the fact would hold sway in his case. Owyn sniffed the air to verify the claim. While she wasn’t a wolf, there was no denying the scent of kin. “Faolan targeted her as prey. I had to stop him.”
Kenlan hovered between both human and wolf as he vibrated with rage. When he spoke, the strained words were more of a growl than speech. “It doesn’t bloody matter who the bitch is.”
Zev snarled, his wolf nearly surfacing at the insult.
“She’s not of the Pack nor are you. You had no right to take my son’s life. Now you will pay with yours!”
“Will you answer the challenge?” Owyn asked him.
Zev inhaled a deep breath to calm himself. He didn’t want to kill anymore. He’d done enough of that. “I don’t wish to fight.”
“Then do you wish to bear your neck?”
The question should have frightened him, but he was numb to it. He looked up at the Alpha, reading the verdict there. Kenlan was the second strongest fighter, and the other wolves were Pack warriors. They weren’t here as witnesses.
They planned to end him.
With life comes death. There was no chance of avoiding such a definitive end. And no matter what Zev did, death always followed him.
What kind of life was this? Belonging nowhere, shunned for what he was and always struggling to remain sane. Living had become too hard. He had no home to rest in. The home he once had was haunted.
His old house flanked by ash trees was nestled in a garden of wolfsbane. It was late Autumn when the yellow leaves had floated in through the broken window and stuck to the crimson splattered walls. His father’s mangled body lay on the floor, entrails torn out, blood seeping through the cracks in the floorboards. The stench of carrion filled his nose as his mother’s terrible screams echoed in his memories.
“You did this! You killed him!”
Weight compressed on Zev’s chest. He couldn’t breathe. Darkness clouded his vision, and a piercing ring filled his ears. All sound and surroundings faded. His very being plunged through him, as though the earth was dragging him down. The Madness was attempting to take him again. He fought to claw out of it. He needed to resist, but it whispered luring promises.
Give in to the wolf and rest. The words were a sweet luring caress—and a sharp whip. All you touch withers. All those you love die. Forget it. Be unburdened from pain and despair. Forget it all.
Forgetting. That would be a welcomed peace.
Yes, it hissed greedily. Forget what you have done. Murderer.
The accusation struck down Zev’s wavering will, and he let go. The Madness took from him, plucking away each fault.
Killer.
Destroyer.
Monster.
Each sin snipped away left him weightless. The ache in his chest eased, and he drifted away. The Madness would take him to a new home. To a place where there was no pain or grief. Where nothing mattered at all. As he faded into the void, he questioned why he had resisted to begin with.
“No, Zev. Come back!” a desperate voice cried out. “Don’t give in! Stay with me!”
His consciousness burst back to reality with an abrupt force. His soul barrelled through his body snapping into its rightful place—along with all of his sins. He fell on his hands and knees, gasping heavily as his black fur receded, and his elongated canines shrunk.
“Zev!” Dyna shouted.
He groaned at how shrill it sounded in his ears, clutching his aching head. She called him again, and he raised a hand to show he was fine.
“He almost went mad, did you see?” Kenlan said.
Their disgust and hatred pressed into him. They wanted him gone.
“Rubbish,” his father’s last words came to him. “Don’t surrender, Zev. When you surrender, the Madness sets in. A mad wolf becomes a feral wolf. And when you become feral—you’re dead.”
No Alpha would suffer a mad wolf to live.
Zev looked up at Owyn who watched him with cold calculation, clawed hand poised to strike.
“The Madness was always meant to claim him,” Kenlan sneered. “He’s an Other.”
The word was like a curse from the Gods. Since Zev had been old enough to understand his mother’s scorn, he realized he was different.
Something … else.
An Other, the Pack whispered whenever he passed. He didn’t understand what they meant until he had his first full moon shift. Werewolves had one form, but he had two: the wolf—and the Other.
“It was a mistake to let him be reared,” Kenlan told Owyn. “We bore witness to the outcome. You should have broken his neck that day!”
The Pack agreed in rumbling growls.
“Now you question me, brother?” Owyn bared his teeth. His Alpha power demanding subjugation filtered through Zev’s senses and he nearly keeled over. The men dropped to one knee all at once.
Kenlan hunched forward, straining under Owyn’s might. “No, Alpha,” he grunted.
Owyn glowered down his nose at Zev. “You’re on the brink of Madness. I may as well kill you now, but my brother seeks that satisfaction. I ask again, do you wish for death?”
Zev glanced over his shoulder at Dyna, her face marred in tears.
Do you wish for death?
Not yet.
She needed him. As long as she did, he would fight to go on. Keeping her safe was all that kept him from sinking into the oblivion of his mind.
“I will fight.” He nodded at Cassiel to take her away. She shouldn’t witness what was about to happen if Kenlan won.
“No!” Dyna tried to reach him, but the Prince yanked her back.
She fought him angrily, kicking and flailing. Cassiel
swept her off her feet, struggling to restrain her squirming form in his arms. In their scuffle, the journal fell, unnoticed in the mud. The Prince crouched, his wings expanding wide, then he shot into the sky.
Zev remained prostrated, listening to the flutter of wings fade with Dyna’s cries over the treetops.
Kenlan’s mocking laugh rang in the glade. “I’ll hang your bloody pelt on my wall, Other. It’ll be the last thing she sees before I rip out her pretty neck.”
Rage pumped through Zev’s veins. That was all he needed to let go of his restraint.
As the last of the twilight vanished, the men tossed aside their clothes and they shapeshifted. The ripple of their change tugged on Zev’s wolf. The Pack wolves were massive and powerful, all with variants of dark fur. They stood at about the height of his shoulder, snarling and growling, their sharp teeth glistening. Kenlan dropped on all fours, becoming a dark gray wolf with a pale patch on his chest.
“Shift,” Owyn ordered, before shapeshifting himself and standing beside his brother. Their sizes were drastically different. While Kenlan was smaller, the Alpha was powerful in girth and height.
Zev pulled off his tunic and let it drop over the journal. The ache came, as his body reformed itself, and he rose as his wolf.
The wolves backed away as all of them raised their heads to look at him, including the Alpha. It had been some time since Zev had shifted with them. He hadn’t realized how large he’d grown.
Owyn growled. He motioned with his muzzle for the Pack to move back, and they gathered in a wide ring around Zev and Kenlan.
The Beta circled, and Zev did the same, studying him. He had seen a few of Kenlan’s challenges before. He was a seasoned fighter. His thin and limber form made him fast. Like the Alpha, he didn’t lose fights, but Zev didn’t care. Kenlan threatened Dyna. He would not leave the glade alive.
They charged into each other in a clash of teeth. Vicious growls reverberated in the glade. Kenlan forced Zev down and aimed for his neck. He dodged but claws slashed through his shoulder. Whining, Zev twisted and swung at Kenlan’s face, tossing him away. Zev rolled back on his feet and pummeled through the Beta’s defense, pinning him in the mud. Kenlan kicked him off and bounded backward, putting space between them.
Zev snarled, crouching as they circled each other again. Pain smoldered from his wounds, hot blood oozing through his fur. Kenlan bared his teeth, exuding smug victory. That arrogance was to Zev’s advantage.
The Beta ran and leaped into the air for him, leaving his underbody exposed. Zev dove up and clamped his jaws on Kenlan’s neck in one swift move, bringing him down. The wolves quieted. Kenlan keened, his paws sloshing through mud, desperate to break free.
It was over.
Zev broke the Beta’s neck, crushing bone and tendon in his teeth. Hot blood seeped through his mouth and poured down his muzzle. The bitter taste of wolf blood churned his stomach, the sour scent stinging his nose. Kenlan’s last breath left him and Zev let go, dropping the body on the ground.
The werewolves howled in mourning, their long wail echoing in the forest. Owyn shuddered and shook out his flank at the loss of another wolf leaving the link of his pack. His fierce yellow eyes trained on Zev. The wolves quieted, shifting on their feet, their tails twitching. He smelled their unease.
They feared him.
He had killed the Beta in minutes and stood taller than the Alpha.
Owyn growled, low and deep. His fur expanded in a display of dominance. Whether intended or not, Zev was a risk to his position, and it couldn’t go unaddressed.
The Alpha amplified his power, but Zev’s own surged forth and shook off his grasp. A surprised rumble passed through the wolves.
“Are you to challenge me next?”
Zev flinched at the sound of Owyn’s harsh voice in his mind. It had been years since another wolf spoke to him through the link. “No. My place is not in Lykos Peak.”
“Other, there is no place for the likes of you.”
The wolves stalked forward, growling and snarling as they surrounded Zev. Clouds crept over the moon, darkening everything around him but the circle of iridescent eyes glowing in the night.
Zev bared his fangs. “I defeated Kenlan. By Pack law, I am pardoned.”
“Our laws don’t protect you anymore,” Owyn said, his sharp teeth glistening. “Nor your cousin. You’ve taken my family from me. I’ll make sure you never see yours again.”
The Pack attacked.
Zev bit, and clawed his way through the raging wolves. His ears filled with their growls and snarls. He tore out the jugular of one wolf and broke the neck of another. He struggled to fight the swarm striking from all directions. Blood sprayed in the air, but he didn’t know if it was his or theirs. He keened at the bite on his hind leg. It was all they needed to overpower him.
They took him down, their teeth tearing into his flesh, ripping him apart piece by piece. He fell to the ground as his blood poured out beneath him. The onslaught stopped and the wolves backed away. Owyn came into his view, superiority edging his unfeeling gaze. He would snap his neck, and that would be the end.
At last, Zev would see his father again and beg for forgiveness.
But wrath-fuelled desperation washed through him. His wolf demanded he get up. He couldn’t fall. Not yet. If they finished him, they would go after Dyna next.
Family. Must protect family. Those were his last thoughts before he sank so far within himself to think of anything else.
Zev found himself standing nude in the glade, breathing ragged with blood leaking from his many wounds. The Pack was gone. What happened? He had no recollection. No memory would surface from the dark fog of his mind. That only occurred when …
A terrible chill sank through him when he realized he held the severed head of a wolf. Its glass-like eyes stared up at him, muzzle cracked open. The head slipped through his fingers and splashed in the red pool at his feet.
The moon rose above the clouds and bathed the glade in moonlight. Dismembered wolves splayed on the ground like gruesome roses, eviscerated with their innards spilled out, saturating the mud with blood.
The Other had come out to play.
A whimper drew his sights to Owyn, lying a few paces ahead. Bloody stumps cut off at the Alpha’s knees replaced where his legs had once been. Zev approached, his slow steps squelching through the sea of the dead. The Alpha watched him come. He could do no more than shiver as he bled out.
Zev clenched his fists, claws puncturing his palms. Why did it always have to resort to this?
“Lykos will never accept you as their Alpha,” Owyn snarled weakly. But the last fight went out of him and his eyes grew pleading. “Don’t harm them. Don’t you touch her. Tasnia was always kind to you.”
“I’ll not hurt your mate, Owyn.”
“Swear you won’t return.”
“I swear it.”
The Alpha nodded and slumped back in the bloody mud. His expression as broken as his body. He looked up at the sky as his thin breaths rattled in his lungs. “Kill me.”
Zev shook his head.
“Do it. You have ravaged me and mine. You owe me a quick death.”
Forgive me, Zev wanted to beg, but all he had a right to was completing the task asked of him. He carefully took the Alpha’s throat in his hands.
“You’re no wolf.” Owyn’s voice was but a faint whisper in the wind carrying the smell of death. “You’re a demon.”
“Aye … I believe you’re right,” Zev said, then he snapped Owyn’s neck.
Chapter 15
Dynalya
Dyna wrapped her arms tight around her knees, attempting to contain her trembling as much as it was for warmth. A chill had settled in her bones, and sitting close to the campfire did little to help. Cassiel stood guard across from her, arms crossed, silent and irate that she had insisted on building one. A fire would reveal their presence if any of the were-beasts came looking for them, he had said. But she couldn’t wait in the dark.
She looked around at the lakeshore he had brought her to. The water rippled in the wind, glistening white under the half-moon. A wall of pine trees surrounded them like quiet sentinels guarding them in the night.
Why did they come here? The Prince had flown with her for several miles without leaving their scent below. How would Zev find them?
She straightened. “We need to go back.”
Cassiel, who had been studying their surroundings, slid his eyes to her. He returned to surveying the dark.
“How do you know Zev meant us to come here?” she pressed.
“This is Lake Nayim,” he replied, as though it were enough explanation. At her confused frown, he sighed. “It is perfectly round. See the isle?”
At the center of the lake, there was a small isle with trees and shrubs. It had blended so well with the night she had not noticed it at first.
“On a clear day, the lake reflects the color of the sky. From above, it looks like a single blue eye.”
“Ah, like the eye of a Cyclops,” Dyna concluded. She rested her cheek over her knees, looking out at the lake again. Zev had not told her about this place. He didn’t tell her about many things but she didn’t care anymore. She only cared that he would survive.
“What is the Madness?” Cassiel asked after a while, surprising her with the hesitant question.
“At times, the wolf spirit can grow too strong and overcome the consciousness of a werewolf,” she said, watching the moon’s reflection ripple on the water. “That is the Madness. It reverts them to their wild instincts. They become increasingly more aggressive and more violent until they are nothing more than feral wolves. Who they once were vanishes.”
What she didn’t say was that the Madness came when a werewolf no longer wished to live. Zev had many reasons to give up. She feared one day he would. He had almost done so at the glade. As he had struggled to stay conscious, he had shifted between wolf and man, back and forth until he stopped fighting.
If she had not called his name …
Hours had passed since Cassiel took her away but her hands still shook. Fresh tears trickled down her nose. She couldn’t lose him too.
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