Skinned

Killian

Pale,

Bloodied,

And dead.

The former Luna’s bare body laid hauntingly on the forest ground with her crimson hair thrown everywhere in a chaotic disorder. And on her neck laid the unforgiving damage of Valerie’s wrath, the bite set so deep that it almost decapitated the female’s head.

Celeste’s eyes were open upon her death, and the icy color of them had lost their glare, replaced by the permanent mark of fear that seemed to point directly at me.

She had already been dead by the time I arrived at the scene, and Valerie’s wolf made a swift escape to the North before I even had the chance to see her.

The stench of blood was enough to sting my senses, and I turned my head away from the sight before bringing my eyes to Heath who sat on a log with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands tightly clasped together.

“Azeil already picked up on her death by now,” Heath said, the muscles on his jaw working as he tried to collect the proper words amidst his rage, “There’s no questioning that he’ll be out for Valerie’s throat and I can promise you that he’ll stop at nothing at doing just that.”

“I won’t stop him,” I said nonchalantly, “but I can’t promise that I’ll spare his life one more time if he hurts her again.”

The Beta’s features were hard as he observed the female’s corpse, he looked like he wanted to say something, but he shook his head before pinning Amell down with eyes that were all too murderous.

“Send that dumbfuck into the penitentiary section,” Heath told the other three werewolves, his words pressured as he spoke with a flash of teeth. And they were quick to obey his order, moving in a haste as they easily caught his threat.

Even from the distance, Valerie’s turmoil was ringing through my head, the emotion so raw that I stood still on my ground as her pain quickly became my own. She was condemning herself for the death that she had caused, the weight of her guilt sending a painful ache to my chest,

And I could feel her fleetingly breaking apart on her own as she branded herself as the murderer.

“This can’t happen again. She already killed one of our own and there’s no denying that she’ll do it again if someone else tries to cross the line,” Heath told me cautiously, “I’m telling you this as a Beta. I saw her wolf and it’s way beyond anyone’s power to make it listen, which is why it’s best that you keep her under your radar when she can lose herself at any given moment.”

I clenched my jaw and refused the urge to release a snarl as his statement alone managed to hit a nerve.

“I’m going after her,” I said, giving Heath a look that warned him of his words, and his eyes instinctively went down to meet the ground beneath his feet.

“Go,” he gritted out, “I’ll call my brother to help with the body. You wait for me when you find her, Killian. Valerie can’t go back to the pack unprotected when Azeil’s grief is enough to set him unhinged, and he’ll do anything to make her fall into the same fate as his mate.”

“She won’t,” I told him.

I didn’t have to question which way she had gone, the path she created in her escape left a trail of scent, giving me the benefit of tracking her down easily.

I began to draw nearer to the border, and the closer I got to the boundary of the territory grounds, the more I started to feel the inner pressure that was trying to reel me back from stepping outside the governed land.

I was going deeper into the forest. Valerie’s cries began to grow audible to my ears, and as I neared her location, I saw her hunched figure sitting amidst the tall trees with her legs folded beneath her thighs.

Her dark brown hair was in disarray, skin painted with dirt and blood as she wrapped her arms around herself in a feeble attempt to seek comfort. She kept her head hung low while she cried to herself, and her face was hidden behind the curtains of her hair.

I stepped on a branch, the sound of it easily picked up by her ears, and I noticed how her back visibly tense up from the acknowledgement of my presence.

“Please don’t come any closer,” she pleaded, “I can’t hurt you too.”

I didn’t think she could hurt me physically, but I figured that her words alone were the perfect weapon; she could simply speak of things that could cut me deep to the core.

I allowed my feet to take me closer to her. Slowly, I lowered myself in front of her, and the smell of fresh blood carried by her harsh, warm breath plagued my senses.

“I don’t know what happened, I—” Valerie choked on her words and sobbed, and I could see her tears meeting the skin of her thighs.

She began by saying that she was sorry,

That she couldn’t control it,

And that she didn’t deserve mercy.

Words ran along her mouth in a parade of apology and hatred that directed were solely to herself, and they were voiced out with a tone that expressed the rawness of her pain, until all that was left before my eyes was a poor, vulnerable little girl that held all the power to bring me down to my knees.

She was quivering, shoulders curved forward in sorrow while she allowed it to consume her completely.

It was a sight that tore me apart from the inside and I failed to find a way to give her the solace that could numb her pain.

Valerie had done something that destroyed her from within, and its damage was far too deep for me to reach and fix.

I’ve never seen her so lost.

Her hand was planted deep into the forest ground and I slowly reached for it. She didn’t try to deny my touch, and I let my fingers curl around her hand completely.

She shook her head and released another wave of cry, and I didn’t hesitate to pull her into my arms and give her the only comfort that I could offer.

Valerie’s arms had circled themselves around me, clinging to me with muffled cries as she buried her face in the crook of my neck.

“It’s not your fault,” I told her weakly and leaned my cheek on the side of her head, my hand instinctively placing itself at the back of her head to keep her secured against me.

Amidst the trees in front of me, while I had Valerie vulnerable and crying between my arms, my ears picked up on the sound of approaching footsteps. I let my eyes regard Heath with four other men who were prepared to escort her back into the pack,

And when my gaze traveled back down to my arms, I came to notice that the blood on Valerie’s skin managed to stain me too.

“I’m sorry things had to turn out this way, Killian,” Heath told me softly as he watched me walk up the front porch of my home with Valerie sleeping soundlessly in my arms.

I clenched my jaw, my fingers involuntarily digging deeper into her skin as I refused to acknowledge the Beta behind my back.

“I only wish the best for her too, but we just can’t tolerate—”

“Enough, Heath,” I snarled, my words pressured under the weight of my annoyance. Even from the tone of my voice, my threat was enough to force him into taking a cautious step back and turning his head the other way in submission.

It had been a while since he started patronizing me, and it was beginning to tick me off.

Without a bid of goodbye, I entered my home and left Heath standing outside on his own.

I slowly walked up the stairs and into the bedroom. Cautious as to not wake Valerie up from her sleep, I removed her arms from my body and settled her down on the bed before laying the sheets over her figure.

Right where her leg was left uncovered, I noticed the large bruises forming along her skin, and I figured that they were the damages set by the sudden force of shifting that her body was not accustomed to.

Despite the peace the surrounded her entirely, the pained expression on her face refused to go away even in her sleep, and I could feel how the horrors of what her wolf had done quickly turned into a nightmare of her own.

There was an underlying need to hold her in her sleep, yet I denied it completely as I remembered that we were never really on good terms.

My gaze zeroed onto my mark settled permanently on her neck. It was a sight that I wanted to curse, but I hated myself for not bearing any more regret for laying my claim.

It was wrong, but I couldn’t deny that it felt right to give her that mark, and it was something that I couldn’t imagine doing to anyone else.

I took a clean folded shirt from the closet and placed it on the desk where the lamp was left turned on, and with one last look at Valerie, I exited the room and closed the door behind me.

Valerie was fearful in her sleep, and the feeling was latching onto me as well. The tension never left my body as I served myself a glass of water and sat alone in the kitchen.

I stayed there until the sun was completely gone, and the moon had ruled the sky. The silence left more room for my thoughts to become louder within my head, consuming me completely.

A knock on the door interrupted the peace surrounding my den.

“Killian, we have to take Celeste to the burial ground with Azeil.”

I swallowed down the lump in my throat as I remembered the customary of the pack.

An Alpha has to offer his payers to the death of his own pack member.

Even though I was far from their own kind, I was still not an exception to their tradition.

There were no exchange of words between me and Heath as we walked to the west of the governed land where the grave was located. As we neared the location, I could see wolves lined along Celeste’s clothed body while Azeil remained standing at the far end of the six foot deep hole that had long been dug by the werewolves.

Dark circles were visible beneath his bloodshot eyes, and his cheeks were sunken and lost of color as he watched me approach the ceremony. The entirety of his shattered appearance was enough to convey his deathly grief, and it was the type of pain that I failed to imagine.

Maliha approached me a basket full of ashes that smelled of burnt flowers, offering me a saddened smile as I took it from her hands and scooped a handful of the ash.

I could see the shift of Azeil’s breathing, the air leaving his mouth was trembling and uneven, as the werewolves began to lower his mate’s body into the grave. Cries flooded my ears, some belonged to Celeste’s friends while a few belonged to her parents, but Azeil refused to break in front of everyone else.

I sent my silent prayer to the god that I wasn’t even sure if she regarded me as her own, and dropped the ashes to the body that had been the victim of a wolf’s rage.

The ceremony reached its end after everyone had said their farewell, and they began to bury the body in front of Azeil.

I avoided his gaze that was searing me with bloodlust, and I turned around to make my silent leave and return to my den where Valerie laid asleep.

As soon as I returned to my home and opened the door, I heard movements coming from the kitchen. I followed the noise, only to witness Valerie standing with her back against the sink while she hugged herself, a half empty glass of water settled on the counter in front of her.

She ran a tongue across her lips and sniffled before letting her brown eyes consume me completely.

“I can’t go back there, can I?” she asked weakly, with tears welling up in her eyes while she tried her best to suppress them.

“I’m sorry, Valerie,” I told her. “I can’t let you be alone anymore. It’s—”

“Not safe,” she finished, “not safe for everyone, right?”

The sudden ache in my chest bombarded me and left me breathless, and it took me a moment to realize that it was from the amount of pain that Valerie had been harboring from within.

“Everyone was wrong about thinking that you were the monster,” she shook her head as if to fight herself from shedding another tear in front of me.

My fingers itched to touch her and rid her of all the sorrow that seemed to plague her conscience, but I simply refrained.

So instead, I questioned her. “Why?”

“Because I turned more of a monster than everyone thought you were.”