{i'm so in love with this song right now it's so pretty.
M xx}

Grey's night was long and sleepless. Spent staring out the window of her room, counting the stars and watching the brothers run through the trees. She heard their howls, mournful, sweet melodies that stirred the creatures of the night. For this one night, they were not beasts, they were not seeking blood, they crave the taste of the sweet liquid that dropped from human veins, nor the bitter scent of death lingering in the air. No, they were broken souls this night. And Grey heard this in their songs to the almost full moon, she saw it in Maksim's eyes the next afternoon, she could feel it in the air; they missed their mother with every fiber of their beings.

"Maksim?" Grey was cautious as he set a plate down in front of her. "I'm sorry."

His eyes met hers. "It's the past."

"But it's not. It may have happened years ago but it's still a part of you. It's not okay to push it down, to act like it doesn't effect you both the way it does. . ."

He was silent for awhile and Grey would've thought he had left had she not been looking at him. He shook his head and shrugged. "She wouldn't have wanted us to mourn her like this. But it's hard no to when it's been eighteen years."

"How old were you?"

"Ten. Alexei had just turned eight."

Grey was left speechless. The human girl knew loss, she knew it all too well, she knew what if felt like to lose your mother, but to have been through so much at a young age, she couldn't imagine what they must of felt. And she didn't even want to imagine what events happened afterwards that made them who they were now. As she opened her mouth to speak, in walked the beast himself with his shoulders back and head high, his stoic face and snarky attitude back as if yesterday never happened.

The moment he entered, Maksim's head whipped towards him, eyes ablaze and nostrils flaring, but Alexei was only focused on Grey.

She couldn't help but take him in as he did her - almost as if it was natural - he looked more confident, stronger, there was something different in the air around him that had Grey breathing in through her nose and out of her mouth in an attempt to calm her racing heart. It didn't work.

Maksim stood and took a stance in front of Grey which Alexei did not take kindly to. This male, brother or not, was too close to his female. He greeted his older brother with a growl of warning, sharp teeth bared in a threat.

"I thought we agreed you'd stay far away today, brother." Maksim's voice was harsh, an underlying hint of annoyance masked in venom.

Alexei's vicious demeanor dropped and instead he gave a casual shrug and walked towards where lunch lay on the counter. "The day is young and nightfall is nowhere near."

"The moon is high in the midnight sky somewhere. You are not stable today and I thought we agreed you'd stay away."

He shrugged again and leaned against the counter as he chewed a piece of his sandwich. Once again, his predatory eyes were on Grey and hers were on him.

"What's going on?" She finally asked.

"The full moon is tonight." Maksim said, sitting down slowly with his eyes still on his brother.

"And?"

"The moon brings out the darkest beasts, little lion." Alexei said. "And my beast wants out to play with you." He snapped his teeth at her in order to get a reaction, and he got just that.

A shiver passed through her body, not going unnoticed by Alexei who's eyes grew dark as he watched her reaction to him. His hands tightened on his plate, his restraint slipping.

Maksim growled. "Watch yourself, brother."

"I'm fine." Alexei's voice was gravelly, growling out his words through clenched teeth.

Maksim turned to Grey slowly, his body angled enough to where he could still see his brother. "I think it's best if you go upstairs and lock yourself in your room. I would like to end my night with a nice glass of whiskey, not cleaning up the dead."

With wide eyes and a nod, Grey left her lunch on the island half finished and began to walk out of the room, her eyes lingering on Alexei for as long as they could.

He watched her walk out until she was completely out of view, but the image of her hips swaying slightly with each step she took would be forever burned into his mind. It was barely past noon but his beast was pacing inside of him already, anticipating nightfall and being able to roam with full control.

Alexei knew the beast's intentions for when the moon was high in the sky. He knew he wanted Grey, plain and simple. He was raging inside, wanting out to get a taste of her not only her sweet body, but her blood too. However, he didn't know the full extent of what that beast would do to get her.

"I'm restraining you earlier tonight." Maksim stated calmly as he washed the plates. "You've never had a bond with a full moon and I fear for not only her life but yours, brother."

"Double up on the chains and locks." Alexei was looking at his older brother with pained eyes. "Do whatever you can to not let me out. He wants her and he won't stop for anything until he has her."

Maksim's deep breath was the only sign he was still listening. He turned around, facing Alexei and he nodded. "I will do everything I can but we both know tonight will be just the beginning of a whole new hell."

Had Maksim not been listening he wouldn't have caught his brother's soft words. "Don't let me hurt her."

"You have my word." He breathed out slowly. "Go find some way to calm the beast for now. Go far away. I have to go speak with Grey."

Maksim was leaving the kitchen before Alexei could answer, he couldn't handle it in there another minute. He'd never seen his brother like that, not even when their mother died. Never had he seen him look so torn. Never had he seen him look so weak yet so strong. It scared him just the slightest.

Walking up the stairs to Grey's room, Maksim's mind was plagued with worry of what the moon would bring tonight. He worried more about his brother than Grey - she was tough, she could overcome anything that happened tonight - because God knows that if something happened to her tonight, Alexei would never forgive himself and he would never admit that it hurt him. He never liked being seen as weak, it was something their father had programmed into his mind at such a young age. Even as their father would punish him in the most cruel ways, Alexei wouldn't make any sign that it hurt because if he did, he'd get a whole new round of torture.

Grey opened the door immediately after he knocked, it was as if she was waiting for him. Her wet hair and overwhelming scent of lavender filling her room showed him that she'd just finished showering. She looked at him in question, begging for answers to all the questions that plagued her mind. And how he wished he could answer all her questions and send her back home. The poor girl didn't deserve this life, she deserved so much more but fate was cruel to even the kindest of souls.

"Maksim?" Her voice held fear of the unknown.

"I need you to understand that we are cursed, we were not meant to be beasts, we were meant to be human. Our father is the reason we are what we are and as you can tell Alexei has the worst of it. He would've been just a normal lycan, but our father wasn't a good man and he was full of hatred. All that hate and darkness made the curse worse." Maksim entered the room and paced as Grey sat on her bed. "When Alexei was born he lacked a heartbeat and our father may have been a terrible man but he loved our mother and seeing her break as she looked at Alexei drove him off the edge. He sought the help of the only witch he knew - the witch who cursed him - and he managed to make a deal with her to bring Alexei back. What our parents hadn't known was that our father had broke the curse long ago and when he needed the witch's help, she made him a beast again without his knowledge. When she brought Alexei back to life, she cursed him as well in the process; she never meant to do it but she did."

"Our father blamed Alexei for his affliction and took out all his rage on him from the time he could walk. Mother would always try to stop him, try to protect her baby boy but he'd always win and Alexei would end up with lash marks down his back. I always watched on from inside, I wanted to help but what could I do against my own father? I watched my little brother suffer and my mother cry as she tended his wounds and I never did anything about it. I'd still listen to my father teach me how to be a man, how to be a human who was feared by all."

"Human? But-"

"I was never cursed. When my mother got pregnant with me, my father still carried the lycan gene and it was passed down to me. So no matter what happens, I will always have the wolf inside of me."

"Wait - So if the curse is broken, Alexei will be human and you'll still be a lycan?" Maksim nodded. "Does he know?"

"If he knew he'd never try to break the curse, he'd let himself suffer just so I wouldn't be alone. He'd die for me."

"He's kind."

"He's foolish."

"Did your father know?" Grey was about ready to cry, these poor brothers.

"I didn't figure out until I shifted for the first time long after my parents died. I thought I was cursed too until I realized what happens to Alexei every full moon happened to my father and not me or any other born lycan."

Maksim sighed. "I'm stuck like this but I have learned to live with it. I'm tired of having to chain my brother up in the forest every full moon." He looked at Grey with such an intensity it left her breathless. "Please Grey, help me free him."

• • •

By the time Maksim joined him in the forest, the sun had painted the evening sky orange and red. In his gloved hands he carried large silver chains that Alexei would be adorning on this eerie night.

"How is she?" Was all that he asked.

"She is locked in her room with a dresser in front of her door. The front door is locked tight, as well as all the windows." Maksim spoke as he wrapped the chains around a thick tree.

Alexei stood and watched the sun slowly disappear beneath the horizon, his thoughts only on Grey, he was staring at the sky, praying to whatever higher power looked down at him to not let him harm the human girl. Begging the night to pass without her bloodshed.

When he turned back to Maksim, he was watching him with sad eyes. "I hate doing this to you."

"It's for the best."

He sighed as he stripped of all of his clothes, discarding them on the ground before him. Thankfully, now that almost all of the snow had disappeared from the ground, it was warmer and smelled of spring and summer. He let Maksim bind his wrists and ankles, the worst one going around his neck; he'd no doubt have marks in the morning.

And as the final rays of sunlight left the sky to the moon, Alexei felt his body begin to change, more painful than all the other times. His screams and grunts of pain made Maksim cringe as he watched on from a distance. His pleas to his brother to let him free, that the silver was burning. His begging to the moon to stop all this and free him from a life of misery. This part was always the worst for Maksim and Alexei; the elder watching his brother wish for death was something no sibling should ever witness of their family. Then it was all silenced when that auburn beast finally stood on four legs in front of that tree. Chains tight around it's legs and neck, panting heavy as its head was tilted down to the ground.

Even though Alexei and his beast were far different creatures, it's mind was still filled with the silver eyes and endless legs of Grey. Everything that drew not only the beast, but the human as well, to her. It breathed in deeply and even though they were miles away, that lavender scent filled it's veins and drove it mad.

Maksim knew it was going to be a long night when the beast looked up and it's eyes were shining blue.