1. Revenge

TWO YEARS LATER... 

(ARES)

"No, Brian. Stop. It is me..." 

But he clawed and growled. 

My heart twisted when I looked at the way Brian's neck fell limply to his side as the doctor injected him with the mixture of watered down aconitum, nightshade, and valerian

root

extract to weaken his wolf, and concentrated extracts of madwort and yarrow seed to keep him sedated.

Doctor Riker had come up with this concoction especially to help my brother sleep and help his Lycan wolf calm down.

"Will he ever get better, doctor Riker?" 

Doctor Riker shook his head, scratching his chin, his eyes grave. "We will never know. I am doing everything I can, Alpha, but it has been two years," the doctor said. "I will leave you with your brother, Alpha."

Brian looked nothing like the man I once knew. Happy, kind, strong. He was THE ALPHA, and now, he was reduced to this- this animal, who only scratched and howled.

"Come back, Brian," I whispered. "Azalea needs her father, B. She is already growing up so fast. She is five, and I don't know... I don't know how to take care of her and you. Fight this, whatever this is." My heart twisted in a dark rage.

I walked out of the room, my body trembling in anger and pain. Everything in me screamed for vengeance. Bloody, bloody vengeance. 

I wanted to show hell to Albert Fucking Adams. I wanted to destroy him until he barely remembered who or what he was. 

"I would bury him in his own blood and bones." I vowed. 

I was closing the door to my brother's room when one of my envoys came running. "What is it, Miller?" 

"Alpha, Alpha Ares." His voice was breathy as he stopped. 

"Any minute now?" I growled, and he shook his head before he looked at me, a hint of worry in his eyes.

"We were patrolling the borders, and w-we heard some whispers. You told us to-" He stopped as he gave me a look. "It is... about Turquoise Falls." 

Just that pack name sent a torrent of fury inside me. A loud growl left my lips, and he took a step back from me, his face pale.  

"GO ON." He kept looking at me, opening and closing his mouth, looking like a dying gold fish. "Any minute now." 

"They are celebrating the future Alpha's birthday tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Celebrating?" The words came out in a thundering growl. 

My body burned in anger and revulsion. After destroying everything I loved and treasured, he was celebrating. He shouldn't be celebrating. He should be mourning, just as I was doing for two long years. 

"I will turn this celebration in to a tragedy," I growled out as I tightened my fist and punched the wall, making a big dent in it. Miller took another step back, as if he was afraid I would rip his throat off.

"Alpha, I will tell Beta Kai to come meet you?" he muttered under his breath, and ran away. My body trembled as I leaned against the door. My vision was a red haze. 

"Ares, calm down," Kai walked towards where I was standing. "I know you are angry, but-"

"I am furious. He is the reason for this, and now he is happy, while we are- I am forced to look at my brother like this." I slammed my palms against the door and winced in pain. "I have to punish him for that. I have to show him pain and suffering." 

Kai took in a deep breath, his eyes conflicted. "Tell me. What do you want me to do?"

"Take the one thing he cherishes more than everything, the one thing precious to him than his own life." My eyes gleamed in anger as my canines protruded out of my lips.  

"Ares? What are you saying?" He looked shocked. "This is- this is going to cause more problems. This will start war, if you are not careful." 

"And it is war I want. Kidnap his daughter and show him what it feels like to lose the thing you love the most." 

Kai hesitated for a second before he looked at the closed door and his eyes flickered in pain. Brian was as much a brother to him as he was to me. "Yes." 

***

(ELYN)

“Stop wasting your time and go help the cook.” I looked up from my painting, to see Luna Amelia glaring at me. Her nose wrinkled in disgust, and her dark eyes were filled with hatred.

“It is only-” I started and she shook her head with a huff.

“Do not talk back.”

I woke up earlier than everyday, just so that I could paint something. It had been so long since I had painted, and I just bought a new canvas. I looked at the half-finished painting with a sigh. It was a scene from my dream.

Sometimes, I had this dream. It was a happy one. In that dream, my life was not so terrible, like it was now in Turquoise Falls. It was a pleasant one. In my dream, I wasn’t the Alpha’s illicit daughter.

In that dream, I was running through a meadow filled with wild flowers, my laughter trailing behind me, a little boy chasing me  through the overgrown grasses.

And when I woke up, I would miss that little boy terribly, but he was a part of my life that was long gone. My grandfather was long gone. The boy, whose name I didn’t remember anymore, was long gone.

The little boy and the girl in that painting looked free. I was stuck.

I sighed and looked at Luna Amelia as she waved her hands in front of me, her mouth stuck in an unpleasant frown.

”Ungrateful bitch." 

"What should I be grateful for? For you trying to kill me every chance you get?" I said as I grabbed my stuff. I knew she wouldn’t let me pain, not anymore.

"You are still alive, aren’t you?” she snapped, looking vicious.

I could see how much it was bothering her, that I was still alive despite all her efforts, but I wouldn’t. Oh, I wouldn’t die yet. I wouldn’t die until I watched her die. I was stubborn like that. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have survived in Turquoise Falls.  

"You will miss me terribly if I die. You won't have anyone to torture, you sadistic psycho," I growled out as I stood up. 

It would be easier if I kept my mouth shut, but my mouth had always been my enemy, and it rarely heeded my advice. 

She glowered at me, and I knew she was hoping she could incinerate me with her eyes. Unfortunately, she had no such power. It was my luck, or I would have become ashes a while ago and she would have peed on the ashes until there was no trace.

"You think we are too beneath you, you little useless shit, but in fact, you are the lesser species." She grabbed me by my shirt and crumpled it under her fist. "You are the ordinary kind, the weak one, the unwanted one. You have no wolf, nothing," Luna Amelia hissed out.

It hurt... The truth of her words. 

"Fuck you," I whispered when she walked away. 

THIS WAS MY HOME, SWEET FUCKING HOME! 

This was my home, with the Luna lording over me, an Alpha father who barely had time for me, a mother who lived in shame and silence. This place was a reminder of everything that was wrong with me, my life.

I clutched the compass I wore around in a chain, remembering the day my grandfather gave it to me. He had been my guardian angel.

"I hope I can still find my way, grandpa," I whispered as I rubbed a finger against my compass. When my grandfather gave it to me, he told me that this would lead me to my destiny. I hoped that the magic would happen soon.

Because this was not my destiny. 

This was a prison, and I was trapped here, forever shackled in their hatred and their twisted vengeance.

It was not my fault that I was born, but as far as everyone in the pack was concerned, it was MY fault. I shouldn't have been born.

My mother was not the Alpha's mate. He strayed, and I was paying for it everyday now. 

I hated everything here, except two people. My half sister, Reyna, and my best friend, and the love of my life, Liam. As long as they were there, even this hell would be worth it.

I quickly took a shower and walked to the kitchen to see the cook walking in with a big bowl of strawberries. 

"Are you making strawberry frosting for Reyna's birthday?" I asked, and she nodded. 

I couldn’t wait for tomorrow, but when tomorrow came, I wished it hadn’t.

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