Seren

I am going to destroy that dress.

Vyra always looked beautiful, but tonight she was something else entirely.

Not because she was wearing a fancy garment that left little to the imagination. Or that I caught Titus ogling her for a second too long.

The "Outcast" looked every bit as regal as any other Lycan. Like she was made for it.

When she walked towards me, head held high, I let my mind wander, envisioning a world where she could remain at my side.

Nothing else mattered.

We danced. I forgot myself, feeling her soft skin under my fingers, her body molded to mine. Her soft white hair tangled in my palm.

The mask I so delicately crafted fell away, and her midnight eyes finally saw a glimpse of me.

It was a mistake, because I deluded myself by thinking that she could learn to admire me under different circumstances.

I nearly brought her lips to mine...then thought better of it.

She would truly hate me then.

Sitting on my throne, I tried to shake off the feeling of her in my arms and the desire for her mouth on mine. Anger was the only thing that kept my thoughts from drifting to my forbidden mate.

I thought back to my conversation with Cyrus earlier in the night. He suspected I fell for Vyra, and would likely take it out on the wrong person.

I gripped the sides of my throne, reminding myself I could not go find him now.

Without reasonable threat, it would mean he could challenge me if I started a fight, which is more than likely what he wanted.

Even if I sent Titus or Mena after him, it would count as unlawful aggression.

Later. I would deal with it, without witnesses.

My thoughts naturally strayed back to Vyra.

There was a whole celebration before me, and I could think of little else. I tried to be so careful.

Why did she run away from me?

Because I am a monster to her. And I'm doing a great job of making it worse.

I almost invited her friends to the feast to make up for crossing the line the night before. But I needed to keep my promise that she would not see them until she shifted.

She needed to.

By using terrible names and her family against her, I hoped to rip the wolf from her, to give her a fighting chance.

I kept myself a stranger to her.

Yet, Vyra had an unnerving way of getting under my skin.

It was one thing to understand she disliked me. It was another to hear being mated to me was so devastating, even before she realized she was a contender to become the next Alpha.

You're just like your father.

Everyone else would see it as a compliment. Alpha Marcus Umbra was revered amongst the pack, for driving out the poison of betrayal.

It was my biggest fear, because of the girl who insulted me with it.

It's not like I could tell her.

She already barely had any fight left in her.

When she apologized to me for saying something about my mother I almost laughed.

It had been the only sign I had ever seen of Vyra giving a shit about herself. It gave me hope, that maybe in the end, that she would try to win.

That she will fight me with everything in her.

Familiar panic rose in my chest at the thought of our battle, ten months from now.

Time moved so quickly when you wanted it to stop.

I searched through the sea of Lycan, trying to see her once more before she went home with Titus.

Where is she?

My fingers tapped along the wood, as I thought of all the terrible possibilities. I was not the only Lycan who could not pull my eyes away from her.

They would feel emboldened, because in a year she would be gone. And so would the evidence that they broke pack rules with an Outcast and someone else's mate.

She obviously did not want me. That didn't mean she would write off all other males, as she clearly stated the other night.

"Fuck." Cursing at fate, I slumped in my throne. I was sick to my stomach.

I felt it then. A spike of fear and deep rage within it nearly winded me.

Where the hell did that come from?

Seren!

I stood up from my seat immediately, hearing Titus before I saw him. Clan Umbra had the ability to mind speak.

The guard appeared in the crowd, running so fast his hair fell from his knot. "Seren. Come with me!"

I had no idea why he looked so out of sorts. But it didn't matter, I had to find Vyra first.

Sighing I began to explain, "No, I need to—."

"It's Vyra." Titus interrupted, wincing.

I had little time to process that I should be angry at Titus for not watching her, Vyra for not going back home like she said she would, and whoever else caused this.

My heart plummeted to the earth.

That feeling. It came from that thread of fate that tethered both Vyra, and that neither of us nurtured.

She was hurt. All while I had been daydreaming, and too much of a mourning asshole to realize.

"Where. Is. She?"

***
Vyra

Dying felt like reuniting with an old friend.

She embraced me entirely. After all, I had escaped her many times.

Once as a newborn, with a knife to my chest. Another time as a child, when I fell into a lake much deeper than this. I wasn't sure who pulled me out then since I woke up alone on a snowy bank.

I was tired of fighting.

Freedom is what I crave.

I was ripped out of the water before I let go.

My ears rang, my lungs seizing. My vision filled with violet and black, leaving me blind.

Someone started pulling on my body and began to hit my chest. I could only wheeze in response.

A man's deep, frantic voice shouted in my ear.

"Breathe dammit!"

My back slammed onto the ground. My head lulled to the side as I struggled to breathe, the feeling more painful than I expected.

Then I was turned on my side. A fist hit the center of my back with more force.

"You do not get to escape me so easily Vyra." Seren nearly growled out, livid. I knew that voice, but it couldn't possibly be him, begging me to live. "Do you not understand? If you try to meet death, I will visit her just to drag you back."

Water poured from my lips as I vomited, my stomach convulsing. My eyesight was still blurry but slowly the world came into focus.

After expelling all the liquid from my body, I fell onto my back.

A very angry and wet Alpha hovered above me.

Shit. I am not dead.

"You saved me." I whispered, my voice scratchy and broken.

I thought he would accept my gratitude and stop glaring at me like my near death offended him.

Instead, my show of thanks seemed to incite rage. The Alpha's face contorted in the dark night.

"I shouldn't bloody have to!" He snapped, "You should be able to save your damn self!"

Well sorry for the inconvenience...

He stood up, leaving me like a wet mop on the ground.

Then he began to drag me like a Lycan child by the back of the neck.

Spluttering, I dug my nails into the ground. "Hey! Get off of me."

"Oh, now you want me to? You didn't even fight when I grabbed you from that knuckle deep stream. What if I was about to finish you off?"

I still flushed at his judgment. If it had been Cyrus, I would have actually been dead.

"Where are you taking me?" I tried to twist my neck to see him, but he did not yield.

He dragged me through the forest like I was a bag of feathers. More snow made its way down my back.

The male huffed, charging forward. "Why were you alone with Cyrus?"

I fought through the pain. It was easy when he asked such a crazy, irrelevant question

"I was just having a little private catch up with a man who has belittled me all my life. You know, the usual."

My skirt caught a twig and tore. I glared up at the Alpha when he didn't stop.

"Well I can't find any other explanation."

"He caught me while I wanted to be alone. By myself. Without anyone around."

"Now why would you do that?"

"Are you blaming me for almost getting murdered?"

The Alpha erupted, "Yes! Because if you could shift on command you wouldn't be helpless."

I reeled, looking for an answer for his blatant anger. Why would it matter?

If I had died by his Clan member's hand, he would remain the Alpha and I would be a problem he didn't have to solve.

So why?

My frustration with the situation got the better of me. I was tired of being left in the dark, so I provoked the Alpha to get answers.

"Cyrus was right. He was doing the hard part. Why do you want me to stay alive? So you can kill me yourself and feel like you earned your place as Alpha? Like you didn't steal it? Is having me stay in my room, in my clan's fortress that we built, striking a nerve?"

My chest heaved with the truth behind my punishment worthy words. It was mine before, even if it wasn't now.

Seren stayed silent. But I knew deep down he wanted to beat me for his claim to integrity.

My face met the icy dirt.

I lifted myself weakly onto my knees. "Where are we?"

We were far away from the feast, the music only a distant hum. My body was soaked and frigid.

From what I could see, we were in a clearing full of snow. A single giant oak tree grew above us, blocking out some of the moonlight.

Seren paced before me, his body tense. He pointed at the ground before me and waited for me to look down.

His next words were so blunt they stole my breath once again, "This is where your father is buried. And that unmarked grave? Your mother. Over there where the grass won't grow and the snow will not lay? Your entire clan is in a grave, thrown together."

My hands twisted into the snow, my body shaking.

I thought they had been turned to ash. To hear that not only they were buried so close to me, but also not given a proper burial devastated me.

The Alpha did not stop there, "I have nothing to prove. This is your future." His silver eyes were daggers on my skin, "I believe you when you say you don't want revenge. You don't even know anything about your family."

"Seren." I whispered. My voice was sharp, my nails piercing ice and mud as I fell deeper into the darkness.

The shadows longer rejected me. It enveloped my heart and my mind.

"By all means join them. But will they even recognize you in the afterlife? Will you run to your mother and father and tell them just how ashamed you are to be their child?"

I let out a snarl before I lunged at the Alpha. I barely felt my skin rip and slide, my teeth elongate, or my bones twist and pull.

I needed to draw blood.

With heightened vision, I saw Seren's surprise as I latched onto his forearm. It satisfied me more than the salty warmth on my tongue.

Shifting back into my human form was easy.

I stayed crouched, snapping my teeth at him. Blood ran down my mouth and down my throat, but I did not care.

He clutched his forearm, leaving red droplets in the snow.

Seren staggered, his lips parting as he stared at me, stunned. "You bit me."

I knew exactly what I just did, and how.

I wrapped my arms over my chest, shivering. My dress lay in scraps around me. "Fuck you!"

Seren's smile was slow and genuine, as if satiated by my beastly actions.

He's insane.

"Well done, Vyra."