"A man's true heart is shown in the hardest of times," she spoke her wisdom that condemned me with every step we took toward the training grounds. A criminal and a true persecutor.

I knew why she was leading me there, to the place he spent his time lately.

"You must do it, Lucas. You must be the one to mediate. Find the strength in yourself and be the man you're supposed to be."

Once Oracle had shined like a guiding lighthouse at the edge of a cliff and I'd pined for that land's reprieve, for that shelter from the sea of grief and heartbreak. Now, she was still the same, only she wouldn't send me to safety; this time she would crash me into the rocks to my very end.

Having sought me out to feed me her poisonous reason, a vision she claimed to have seen months ago and one I cared not a whit about with that dying heart of mine, she was trying to make me admit and bend to her venerable stature for the last time. For the first time, she was trying to have me forgo everything I held precious in my life, even that very life.

"Be the person you should," she went on, urging, commanding me to showcase that person-hood I wasn't even convinced I had in me to manifest.

More bitterness added to my torment as I recalled the part she said I had to play.

I wasn't a man possessed by his own greed, not at all, but what she was imploring of me this time exceeded all of her previous entreats.

Was I even capable of quitting my own life? Was it even humanly possible to do it?

Faltering several yards from the training field, her feet shuffled her in front of me as she whirled her body to face me. Her small, frail hand flew to mine, encasing it within hers, clutching it in a tight, desperate grasp.

Her sightless eyes met mine, pale blue boring at my insolent spirit and giving the impression they could see it all, both the outside and the inside.

"You have a different future, Lucas, and it's not to remain by her side but much greater," she chanted the words like they were some kind of vocal gift she was bestowing or maybe a secret that mustn't have been revealed but she was unveiling it nonetheless.

For my benefit and hers.

Jaw clenching, "You don't have the right to ask this of me, Oracle," I clipped out, her fortified reason weighing on my conscience as I did refuse her request. "You know what's in my heart and you just go on and demand I be your martyr!"

It was the first time I'd ever wanted to hit a woman, the first time I'd rebelled against Oracle too, but how could I not when she never stopped a moment to consider me? How could I just yield my future because of her or her Goddess' caprice? Even if it was so others would live, even if it was so the woman I loved would be loved, I couldn't do it. I was not ready to... disappear.

"Please, Lucas. You must understand--"

"No!" I ripped my hand off of hers and spun around, purposely starting toward the training grounds.

I was going to mediate, alright. Just not the way she saw necessary. I was going to mediate my point across.

"One way or another you're going to die," she screamed after me. "It's only a matter of time, Lucas, and all that's up to you to decide is what you leave behind!"

I straightened my spine, placing more resolve into my steps as I refused to act out of deference to her.

"I don't care!" I shouted back as I placed more distance between us.

The sight that revealed when I reached the track didn't surprise me in the least. I knew Regan had been blowing the steam this last week. He was at it again with his beta.

Two men battling against each other—an Apex who looked on the verge of a mental breakdown and a beta who snarled nasty comments in between his flying fists, the provocation was as tangible as was the tension that saturated the air.

A small crowd had gathered to watch the two males, most appeared to be females. The picture was not something worth the females' appraisal, however, I suspected it wasn't their Apex' disheveled appearance that had brought the she-wolves to this purlieu but the show of strength and testosterone.

Jason, unlike his Apex, looked the part. While Regan brooked not an inch of bare skin on his body, the other male had opted for movement liberation, wearing just a pair of shorts as he swung back and forth to avoid his superior's blows and managed to sneak in his own.

Regan seemed to have digressed for the short while I hadn't seen him. Barely a day had passed since our last encounter and he was now even gaunter than before. That haunted look remained the same. The sunlight didn't seem flattering to him but rather amplified the ghostly paleness of his skin.

Averting my eyes from the show, I scanned my eyes over the cluster of females, bristling once they stopped on a familiar blond head.

Lately, I'd been charged with babysitting the beta's bitch as per her mate's request and finding her once again where I'd ventured during my break did nothing to elevate my spirits.

Shifting my eyes back to the fight, I was just in time to register Jason's fist connect with Regan's solar plexus.

"Son of a bitch!" The curse flew past Regan's lips as he wobbled on his feet for a few seconds before regaining his balance. He struck back, managing to catch his beta's jaw.

"Jerk-faced pussy!" the other man shouted and spat on the ground, rising a few snickers from the crowd watching the match. I had to stifle my own laugh from the insult just then.

The spectators didn't know the reason for the ass whipping, but I knew all too well what it was that made their Apex unstable to the point he needed to vent out that building up frustration. It brought a kind of gleeful anticipation in me to see him suffering in the way I'd been and know that there would be more once I made my move.

On the other hand, I had to bite my tongue not to shout to him how stupid he was to be rejecting Scarlet. I wasn't stupid, though. I wasn't going to miss my chance now that I finally had it and I was done holding back for the greater good and their future only to be forbidden my own.

I deserved it as much as any one of them did. I deserved Scarlet more than he did. I could make her happier than she could ever be with him and I intended to do it.

~

"It's my place. Please go," she'd said as soon as she noticed me.

I sat down next to her, the words fading. She didn't object further and that silence left only the crepuscule, the leaves that had splintered on the ground, the wilting grass shuffling underneath her feet as she swung them back and forth, the skin shuddering against the windy touches... that evanescent time when I sat by her side.

I never wanted it to end, that moment, that part of forever we could be allowed one day. Yet, she wouldn't look at me as she drowned in her misery.

I wondered what he did to her. I could feel the heat radiating off of her. At an arm's reach, all I had to do was reach out and caress it off her skin but I didn't dare move for fear to become even a bigger bastard than I already was. I didn't want to take advantage of her. I didn't want to be the guy who used her. I didn't want to be like him.

I didn't leave her, though. I couldn't stop myself from breathing the air she breathed. I couldn't walk away when she was so hurt, so broken it tore every single part of me to be just watching her in her desolation.

I stumped over the words I would say, over the feelings I would carry into them. I came up empty, wishing to say so much but unable to do it.

"I'm just so... so stupid," she spoke instead. Merely a whisper. A broken cry that no one but the man next to her would hear, the man who had his heart filled with her while hers was shattered by the other man.

There's no place in a shattered heart. There's only pain.

"Why, Scar?" The nickname slipped, making me curse myself in my head.

"He does nothing but hurt me... time and again... and... and I still can't stop myself. I know how stupid it is, how pathetic I am to be holding onto something that's... gone and... I can't stop holding onto him..."

There was a shakiness in her voice, her shoulders quaked from the cries cutting her speech, her head fell into her palms that shaded her face from me allowing not a glimpse of her.

I brought my hand to her head, nearly jumping from the surge of sparks as I let it glide over.

"I'm in heat so you shouldn't touch me, Lucas," she said, my sudden intake of breath not gone unnoticed.

"I can take care of it for you, you know, Scarlet. I'm your mate too after all," I said, threading my fingers into her hair.

She lifted her head, turned to look at me, her eyes flashing red as she leaned into my palm. A moan escaped her lips as my hand cupped her cheek and a second later, as if a bucket of freezing cold water had been poured onto her, she drew back squeezing her eyes shut.

"No," she gasped, hopping to her feet. "I don't want you to do that. I want him to take care of it for me, not you."

Her retreat was a blow, winding me so hard I had to struggle for air to just push out the promise, "I'll wait. Come when you're ready, Scarlet."

She nodded, brushed off her tears then started for the house, for the world that wasn't right for her.