Aries

Hey there!

Warning: This chapter could be triggering for some as this chapter has violence. A lot of it. I am not going to sugarcoat it.

********

The next time Arien visited, Cathara, Skye and Miguel could not see him. In fact, they were speaking to themselves as if we were not there. For a second panic took over me, but I calmed down when I saw that eyes again. Pity, he came wearing a mask and a hood. Despite his attempt to disguise, I could tell him from that scent alone.

“Arien?” I called.

“So they were right,” he said. I could hear a smile in his voice. “You could resist my power.”

“Huh?” I asked.

he shook his hooded head. “Nothing much. Just here to check.”

“On?” I asked.

“You,” he said simply. “I tried to save you yesterday. Can’t I check if the female I saved is alive?”

As a scientist, I knew that feeling. Checking on the things that you did.

“You can,” I said. “You can.”

He then chuckled. “I never expected this.”

“What?”

“There is some sort of familiarity,” he said. “I never expected that.”

“Oh!”

Then he sat outside my cell. “What crime did you commit?”

I looked down and then at the chains that bound me. “Do I look like someone who had committed a crime?”

“Never judge a book by its cover,” he said.

“I was mated to the Alpha of my pack,” I said, each word burning my insides. “He chose another female. He rejected me and threw me here. I am a human, after all. An unshifted werewolf.”

He scoffed. “That Alpha is a jerk. Want me to kill him for you?”

I blinked. “Why would you do that?”

“No one deserves to go through this,” he said. “I have no idea why the Dungeon actually opened to put you in. If I could... I would release you.”

I chuckled. “Thanks for the words.”

“No,” he said. “I do want to open it, but if I do that, I am worried that the true felons of this Dungeons would be free.”

“They are here?” I asked in wonder.

He nodded. “There are so many dark creatures here, Lyra.”

The way he said my name sent a blanket of warmth in the coldness. “You know my name.”

“Alioth told me,” he said. “Crime?”

I shrugged. “Since you saved my life, I guess not.”

“What pack do you belong to?” he asked.

“Does it matter?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Does not.”

Then he looked at the other three. “Their time is up.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking at Cathara who was trying her best not to laugh at Miguel and Skye.

“They are free to go,” he said. “It is a matter of time.”

“Do they know?”

“No,” he said with a smile. “I want to know how they would react if it was a surprise.”

“You like that, don’t you?” I asked. “Knowing something and then seeing how the other would react?”

He smirked. Then he stood and closed those eyes. After a minute, he opened them and I could see a bit of hesitancy in them. “I have to go. I got an important call.”

With that, he left and whatever spell he had put over, shattered and the three gave me very weird looks. After a second, they started talking to me like it was nothing. Did they truly not notice when Arien came?

*********

The next three days passed with us talking. Mostly they spoke and I listened. There was nothing interesting from my part to say. They had seen years that I could never compare. But it did take me hours to convince them that Arien came to meet me.

Their company kept my mind from thinking of the rejection and at times I did not feel the cruciating pain that carved my heart whenever Ethan mated with Harper. Whatever these people were doing, helped me. This was not much, but I could not complain.

It was on the morning of my twenty-first birthday that we heard doors rattling and the faint click of the lock.

Skye was telling us about a whole tribe of snake shifters. Apparently, they had been one of the greatest worshipers of the Moon. She stopped and stood up.

Cathara straightened herself and Miguel continued to lay on the floor.

Dan came in with a torch and he wrinkled his nose when he came near to my cell. Cathara growled lowly at him. Who knew what she had read in his mind? Skye smiled sweetly at him. So sweet that I was terrified for him. Miguel, on the other hand, kept glaring at Dan.

“Alpha Ethan summoned you,” he said.

I frowned. What could he possibly need me for? He had left me to rot here and he had made sure to convey that message to me via the dying bond between us two days ago. Apparently, Harper had convinced him to not to see me again.

“Why do you need her for?” Skye asked in a childlike voice.

Dan gave her a disgusted look. “I don’t converse with vermins here.”

Skye cocked her eyes. “You are here, aren’t you? Does that make you a vermin too?”

Dan momentarily forgot me and growled at her. “You witch!”

Skye laughed and I could hear the cool darkness of her home she had left behind. “Witch? Have you been with wolves so much that you forgot what other species are? You call me a witch?”

I did not know what happened to Dan, but he paled. He subconsciously took a step away from Skye’s cell. Shaking his head, he turned and unlocked my cell.

“Don’t come further, Dan,” I warned, tugging the chains that bound me. “I am happy being here.”

Cathara glances at me sideways. When our eyes met, I could see the rage in them. What had she read in Dan’s mind?

Dan sneered. “Your words don’t have any power, pretty one. Even your father disowned you.”

“Her father may have disowned her,” Cathara said in a cold voice. “Her mother did not. Evelyn Throne did not disown her.”

My heart broke for the man who grew me up, who I had called father. I remember him being so proud of the fact that I was the one who oversaw the defence of the pack from the technological aspect. He gave me his mother’s heirloom, officially stating to everyone that I was his daughter. If there was one person who loved me more than my mother and Rhaze, it would be my father.

Dan laughed humorlessly. “Yes. Evelyn Throne did not disown her. In fact, she has said that she would break the mate bond with Carter Black for not supporting their daughter, Lyra Throne. Your mother is breaking her bond and her rank today, within a few minutes for you. That is one of the reasons why you are being called up. Care to come?”

I turned to Cathara. “Is that even possible?” I whispered, a lone tear escaping my eyes. “To break a mate bond after living with your mate for a hundred and fifty years?”

“Yes,” she said softly, so soft that the still air might be louder than her voice. “Yes, it is possible. By an alpha.”

I tugged my chains again, this time not to stop Dan from taking me up, but urging him to do it faster. Breaking the bond with Carter would kill Mom. No matter how much of a hardass she was, she loved her mate at the end of the day.

She would never be able to survive without him. She did not need to do that for me. Evelyn had given me her family name, claiming me as her daughter. Daughters took their mother’s surname and sons their father’s. For what I was worth, it was more than enough.

Skye cleared her throat when Dan pulled me out of my cell, forcing the guard to halt. “Lyra? No matter what happens, just remember that the choice Evelyn made was hers. You have no right to deny her choice of choosing her daughter over her mate. She chose you, her daughter over her mate and that is a very hard choice for a mother. Whatever choice she made, make sure it’s worth it.”

I just stared at her young face that held so much pain and agony. I did not know what the future held for me, but I was grateful that I had the chance to meet these three people. I nodded at the star.

Miguel stood up. “If things go wrong,” he paused and gripped a grill of the cell. Fire, in hues of orange and green, danced on his hand that touched his cell door. “Just give a call.” The metal melted to a puddle, giving him solid five seconds to get out before closing like a wound. “We’ll try to help.”

Dan took a step back and gaped at my neighbour. “H-how’s that-”

Cathara snarled lowly. “If you harm that girl,” she began slowly. “We will do worse.”

Dan half-ran out of the floor, dragging me with him. A nail pierced my right foot and if I had not been wearing sneakers, it would have turned really bad. Yet, it went half an inch in my sole. As he dragged me, I left a trail of blood. Somewhere below, I heard the growl of a certain phoenix shifter.

My dress that had already torn when Cain dragged me here, caught many nails and rough rocks that ruined it further. Mingled with my blood, sweat and grime, I knew what a sight I was. When Dan pulled me to the surface, it was a murky day. Grey clouds gathered, denying the sky above to see what might happen below. Some guards laughed and sneered at me, while some gave me a look of pity. Just two gave Dan a stare that might have killed him, provided if someone could die by a stare.

Dan continued to drag me. On my way, I saw Andrew and Catherine being chained to the tree, stripped bare. Their backs were visible to me, their whip marks even more so. I wrenched my hands out of Dan’s hands and ran to them.

“Cat! Andrew!” I cried, sprinting towards them.

Catherine turned as much as she could and gasped at me. “Lyra! By Moon! Are you alright?”

Andrew groaned and that was the only action that assured me that he was alive.

Dan caught me and whelped me across my head. I fell to the ground with a scream.

“Lyra!” Catherine shouted from there. “Let her go, you bastard.”

Dan pulled me away from them towards a gathering. Wolves had gathered for this?

They made way for Dan to get through with me. Some spat on me, while some being creative threw rotten things at me. What were we? Five years old again?

One female, Wylla went as far as slapping me on across my cheeks. I winced and turned my face. My lips had split and were bleeding profusely. But the pressure Dan had on my hand disappeared. What was happening?

Someone held me by my hair and tossed me to another wolf, whom I did not recognise. He sneered at me and punched my face. “You think you can take Ethan from Alpha Harper?”

My heartbeat rose and confusion settled in. The wolves I grew up with, the ones who I saved, ones who had called me their friend, their sister, their daughter now was hurting me, humiliating me, shredding the last shards of dignity I had in this pack. What was going on? What had happened in three days?

Before Maria, a female who once called me her granddaughter, could scratch my face with her nails, a familiar voice shouted from the centre of the gathering.

“Stop it, Ethan!” Luna Violet’s voice was still strong. “You rejected her, yes. But why are you doing this?”

Ethan laughed and Maria did scratch my face with three nails. I screamed and fell down. It was then the stampede began. The kicking, the spitting and being called names I have never heard. My wounds closed fast, but they were faster. I screamed and cried until I was not sure what I was doing.

“Lyra!” Catherine’s voice was a distant sound.

“Stop!” Alpha Violet screamed again. “What is wrong with you?”

Ethan stopped his laughter. “I am doing this, mother so that she will realise that I am the Alpha of the Western pack and she had no claim in these lands. No one will support her, no one will follow her. If anyone wants to follow her, they can see Catherine Meyers and Andrew Williams as an example. And if they still want to follow, they can see the decaying carcass of Aurelia Knight on the borders of our pack.”

My blood ran cold. My sobs and screams died. Aurelia died?

“But...” Ethan drawled and then rose his voice. “Stop!”

A kick to my face was stopped but I would have welcomed it if it meant Aurelia would be next to me. I would have welcomed anything if it meant Aurelia would live. I would have accepted to be thrown in a cell with a rogue if it meant Aurelia would smile at me if I made it out. Anything. Perhaps I deserved to be thrown in the last floor of the dungeon for causing so many people the pain.

Andrew, Aurelia, Catherine... and Cheryl. Cheryl would have lived in hell feeling every inch of pain her sister would have gone through because of the twins’ bond they had and would have died knowing she could not do anything for her sister. Between Catherine and Cheryl, I knew which would have a hard time to recover.

People around me cleared and Cain stood next to me. “Still alive?”

I managed to spit at his boots. He might have hated me, might have chosen his friend over his foster sister, but he was friends with Mike and Andrew. He bloody had a past with Aurelia. They were shifters. He could have at least protected them.

Smirking at me, Cain Black picked me by my hand and pulled me to the centre. I stumbled and regained my balance again when I saw who were there in the centre tied to the poles. Mom was unconscious and though her skin weaved itself over the many wounds, bloodstains served as remainders.

Alpha Violet was tied down though she was unharmed. Her eyes held fury that had scared so many felons during interrogations, yet her son who bore its full weight smiled at her.

Mike was bound to another pole. Two metal spikes were on either side of his neck. I knew what they would do. They would electrocute him and he would die because his brain was fried. I called them Stingers and called it for a reason. Reece stood next to him, but with a vacuum in her eyes. She kept her head down and held her mate’s hand tightly.

Rhaze was held down, not only by ropes as the previous two females but by metal chains with two guards holding her down, preventing her shift. She snarled when she saw me and then bared her teeth to Cain. she almost released herself and her limbs melted to fur. Another guard pounced on her and injected a serum that my team had developed two years ago to calm down ferocious wolves. In spite, of the serum being injected, her aggressiveness notched down just a little.

“I am ashamed to call you my blood, Beta Cain,” she growled.

He looked down at her. “So do I, Delta Rhaze. So do I.”

“She is filthy as ever,” a nasal voice cut through my thoughts. “How could she ever bear the title of an Alpha?”

I turned my head to see the source of all my pain. Harper was in a grey pencil skirt with a white top. She held a tablet in her hand. Her hair was twisted in a bun and her blue eyes were icy as ever. It did not bother me that she was using my dress and my tablet, but did bother me was how she had used my technology against me.

The ropes that held Mom and Luna Violet was my creation. They appeared to be normal ropes, but it would cause temporary paralysis. The serum my sister was injected with. The Stingers Mike had around his neck. Not to mention how she had gotten the password to my tablet, the one where I had stored all my ideas.

There were only three people who knew the password. One was dead, her body left in the borders of the pack, the other was fighting for her life in front of me. And as for the third...

Livvia stepped from behind Harper and whispered something in her ears. Another blow I couldn’t bear. First Cain, then father and now her? I did not ask them to die or suffer for me. They could have been quiet, could have saved Aurelia, Andrew, Catherine, Rhaze, Mike, Mom... at least Alpha Violet.

“Liv?” I breathed. “How could you?”

“Facing many betrayals, are we?” Ethan said, standing next to his chosen mate. “Brother, now a friend.”

“Where is my father?” I asked him, forcing him to meet my eyes.

Cain punched my jaws. “You have no right to call him your father.”

I sniffled. “Where is Beta Carter Black?”

“Why do you think your mother is knocked out?” Harper asked in a saccharine sweet voice. “She is trying to live past her mate’s death. Carter was a brave wolf who challenged his alpha female,” she paused for a dramatic effect. “And lost.”

I struggled even more on Cain’s arms. Harper had killed father for me. He did not even stop that?

“He...” Cain trailed off. “Opposed.”

I was right. My father had disowned me and wanted to break the bond with mom because he could fight and if he lost, Mom could not feel the pain of her mate dying.

I snarled at him and then faced the so-called gifted mate of mine. “You want me out of your life. Why attack them? Why kill Aurelia and my dad? Why torture Andrew and Catherine?”

When he did not answer, I screamed, “Just why?”

“They loved you too much, that they would follow you to the end of the world,” Harper replied instead. “I want that kind of loyalty to me. Not to you.”

I glared at her. “If you truly loved him, and had faith that he loves you, you would not act like a possessed crazy bitch. Are you afraid that you will lose Ethan to me? Are you scared?”

The gathering fell silent. So quiet that I could hear Harper’s heart rate spiking up. Then a laughter cut it. Alpha Violet’s laughter.

“Reply to that girl, Luna,” she said, with a grin on her face. “Reply to that and you will have my loyalty to you.”

Harper gaped and moved her lips, to find no words. At her action, Rhaze joined in. Her laughter made things way worse.

“Stop it,” Ethan said with his alpha command that stopped both the females.

Harper walked to me and leaned closer. “Want to play dirty? I can play dirty.”

Leaning back, she smirked at me. “Want to hear how Aurelia died?”

I kept my silence. Did I need to know this? Could I live with this?

“She came the night after Ethan claimed me,” Harper said. “The night you suffered from the mating pain and heat. How did you survive, anyway?”

I stared at her.

“Okay, since you became a tough nut to crack,” she said rolling her eyes. “Aurelia challenged me. She wanted me out of this pack. Died in the process. But she is clever, I give her the credit. She managed to shut your lab down with her last breath.”

I internally smirked at what Aurelia had done. We both had been on that team. We both knew what the cost was.

One glance at my left, I knew Mike and his mate shared the rage that would never die.

“Your father?” Harper said, circling me. “He wanted to break the bond he had with his mate so that he could fight for you. So that in case of a bad outcome, Evelyn would go home unscathed. When I found that now, he did not end well.”

So they had killed him just a few minutes ago. A few minutes before I was brought from the dungeon. Had Dan been a little early, Das could have been saved. I would have pleaded, sold my soul if that was the only way to save Carter Black.

I licked my lips and tasted salt. It was only then I realised I had been crying.

“I will kill you for this,” I swore, at her in her eyes. “And you will regret touching any of these people.”

Harper smirked. “I am waiting for you to grow a spine.”

I gritted my teeth. “You will-”

Harper then said, “Okay then. Is there anyone who wants to follow the ‘true’ alpha female of this pack?”

No one answered. Some scoffed at that idea and some looked at the ground beneath them.

“Now is a good time,” Harper continued. “Cause she is about to be banished from this pack and if you want to follow her, you are free to go.”

I might not be able to update the next Saturday due to my exams. The next update might be on the 4th of November. I am not sure.

Until then,

~Quill