Wolf Dominion Volume 2

Skye’s POV

3 months felt like 3 decades under the control of Imperator Opular and his eldest; Tyra. Where I could go was heavily controlled by those two. Tyra was 24 – 6 years younger than I, but she acted almost like my Elder.

Hades sold you out, was the first thing Opular ever said to me when he walked in and stole everything from me. Rubbing in the betrayal of an older brother.

Then Opular ordered the murder of Mila’s unborn son.

Vastian and I were witness – Raygar too, and he thankfully protected Fyre’s vision from the brutal operation in the labs.

Then to top it all off, Hades took my Luna.

Ryder.

There were so many reasons to live – and yet my broken pride made me want to wither away. I had nothing left.

The only two protected from extreme torture or humiliation or use, were Raygar and Fyre – who were guarded by Lemeri’s well defined possessiveness. Quite like her father.

I meet with Opular now, after being gifted to him by Tyra for this dinner.

Apparently, there was news that must be shared with me. I had no other reason to be here.

“Skye… tell me about your beloved Luna Ryder,” Opular sits the son I gave him on his knee, bouncing him up and down to make him laugh and smile up at him. Ryder thinks Opular is his father – and that I am a simple slave.

I – an absolute disgrace and coward – never thought I would see Ryder’s little face when he was handed over a hostage as a babe. I thought it was critical brutal thinking – that I would feel nothing if I never saw him, but it would serve to silence the Cat’s and bolster their position away from Wolf Dominion.

I was wrong – and I was paying for it. I was glad to be paying for it.

I deserved it all.

Hades disabled all security, all warnings – and sold out information on how to breed large Cat Beasts.

The list of betrayals never ended.

“I asked you a question, Skye,” Opular whispers over the table, entertained by my traumatic thought process disallowing me to stay present for too long at a time.

I’m staring at my lap – starved and beaten regularly, I don’t have it in me to look at Ryder, my son.

I’ve glanced him just a few times by accident. He looked just like his mother – with her big beautiful brown eyes. All of Ryder reflected in little Ryder. Aside from my white blue teeth, which was a Genesis bone evolution. The teeth would never wear away like a human. And the bones would have to be under enormous pressure to break. I’m glad he has that advantage.

“Dada!” I jerk up as Ryder turns in Opular’s lap and starts to play with his straight absurdly long golden hair – as bright as the sun, it glowed under moonlight and sunlight.

I am glad I can only see the back of my son’s head, and now I meet Opular’s gaze but I say nothing.

“You better answer me, Skye – I want to know about Ryder before she comes to stay with me personally for the week – I like to take time to get to know each new member of my harem personally,” Opular smiles and I see rows of the same blue-white teeth, sharper than wolf at the canines and slightly longer like a lion. Opular had feminine features and gold eyes, but despite his unique appearance, I would still consider him the most terrifying Alpha male I had ever met in my life. No one scared me as much as he did – but something about him was more unpredictable than a wolf or any other creature I had encountered up close. I had no idea what he wanted at any time. He could change his desire in an instant. A best friend to you for one second, a violent abuser the next.

“Dada?” Ryder keeps thinking it’s him. It’s not.

The shame I feel would make me sick – but now I feel nothing.

“Your mummy is coming to visit,” Opular pats him on the head and Opular smiles at me, kindly almost.

It takes me awhile to process his words – being so low on energy.

“Who is coming?” I whisper the question, my voice hoarse.

“Your Luna. Is coming to visit for a whole week,” Opular is patient with me – always has been. Despite that, he was extremely confusing to read, “I want to know more about Ryder. Tell me, tell me… tell me…” I go silent again, “…I have heard you enslaved her… as a human… how does that work in your favour?”

He didn’t need to ask that, he already knew the answers. He had tortured and killed every single Wolf Elder, gaining access to all our secrets.

“Ryder’s… strong,” I choose to say this, speaking up a little and feeling her strength almost as I say her name – giving me a moment where I am able to lift my chin and face him with my head held up higher.

“How would you say she’s most strong, physically, perhaps more mentally I assume, as a woman?” Opular slowly raises a brow and leans over the table, waiting for my answer.

I don’t want to say anymore about Ryder.

She also betrayed me.

I had no allies left.

No pack.

Vastian and Mila had escaped.

Ryder took them and left.

Raygar would not speak to me.

No wolf wanted me. I was outcast.

I was the greatest failure of an Alpha in the history of Wolf Dominion.

Of all of Genesis.

“I heard rumours you were in love with one another,” Opular’s eyes are the kind of sly and cunning, right in this moment, that I know my response will matter greatly. I think through every reply – but I hesitate too long. I had to say something. Neutral – but it would sound forced. True – and I would endanger her. I didn’t know how to answer, “You can’t hide it,” Opular answers for me, “I know that look in a man’s eye,” I look down in shame again, strength evaporating, hiding all my useless suppressed rage, “…can you think of a more pathetic man on this planet, than you, right now, Skye? Neither can I… you were once so feared.”

It was all true.

I was hollow.

I was shallow.

There wasn’t anything left.

I had no fight in me.

Opular goes on and I hear nothing more of his rambling until I am to be escorted out.

“Put him to bed, my darling,” Opular instructs his Sworn Third – the kind concubine takes my arm and leads me from the table in my old residence.

I don’t get a cage – I get worse.

They lead me to a closet outside any residence, between Tyra and Opular’s new quarters. When Tyra was busy, she couldn’t object to this treatment – although she usually did.

Despite her obsession with me, I did not understand it.

“I’m so sorry,” the concubine apologises as she pushes me down underneath the last shelf, so I have to crawl in.

I rest my head on the cold metal floor – and I curl in my legs.

A man should not ever rest in a foetal position – you’ll feel like a boy again in a second.

As the door clicks shut and locks me in – the pure darkness consumes me and I close my eyes – and then I open them.

I stare and I don’t think for some time.

As Helpers walk by, someone trips outside.

No.

I imagine it as I hear it but I also feel it as what I assume to be water floods in from below the smallest crack in the door – and it touches my face and my torso.

It’s not cold – it’s warm.

Blood.

No doubt a confusing choice of torment from Opular.

But effective. I feel my mind break further.

I imagine it’s wolf blood – Zrot’s blood.

And I can’t stop imagining it.

Opular would often wear a robe of Zrot’s fur.

I had been broken a thousand times already in the past 3 months, and now I was lying in someone else’s blood from my pack I once protected.

I wish it was my own blood.

I wish I could turn off my brain – but I also couldn’t help but think about it over and over, while the blood forms a caked dried stain on my skin.

But.

My stupid Alpha genes.

My Alpha mind can’t help but wonder. Why the hell was Opular still asserting his place? I was done. But the only reason Opular cared to torture me was frustrating. For some reason; he still considered me a threat.

And people still pitied me.

Why did they think I mattered?

Why did I think, deep down, that I still did?

I wished that small thought would leave – so I could finally end it.

But for now it was still there. Tiny and small and nagging.

I guess being an Alpha that wanted to die – without actually wanting to die – meant dying slowly and hopelessly in silence.

Ryder’s POV

I was hysteric with excitement. I arrive with the purest intent of death.

I wasn’t going to free my son and then give Opular what he wanted.

I was going to free my son and give Opular everything he never wanted. Because I was never going to lose again.

I didn’t care how tall or menacing he was.

I arrive alone and outside and opposite his door.

I face one lone guard standing in front of a janitor’s closet, patrolling the wide gold corridor.

I casually walk up to him and then casually slit his throat with my unchecked dagger made of bone early that evening – so it didn’t get detected by the metal detectors on the way in.

As the guard drops, I cover my hands in his blood and then make sure they’re dripping nice and red.

The sight of blood often makes the enemy pause, Jawkin’s words, it’s a good distraction.

I leave the body to drain of blood, most of it flowing into the closet where he fell.

The residence slides open with an easy welcome and I walk in with my hands outspread and dripping red.

I walk straight into the bedroom.

I pause to see Opular by the windows in the bedroom as he greets me in the exact same way.

Opular’s long slender hands are dripping in blood as he stands in a black bath robe with gold trims. I know he’s naked underneath that.

But I didn’t expect bloody hands – no body around – and perhaps he didn’t expect them on me? But – I am so confused.

He also pauses.

Perhaps we played the same trick on each other… but… that didn’t seem right?

I try to focus.

I had access to the Imperator – and I was going to kill him.

This lion I’ve never met is staring at me after I’ve just entered his den, with an attack clear on my mind. It’s in my stance and in my eyes. He knows it.

Read the situation as quickly as you can.

I was trying.

“What are you aiming for,” Opular already has assessed the situation, a bit quicker than I have as he starts, “Even if you managed to slaughter me where I stand – the whole Dominion will tear you limb from limb.”

“This is the normal colour of my hands,” I say, cryptically. I would just confuse him back.

“So you are insane and kill randomly,” Opular guesses, trying not to smile as if adoring that fact.

“Why would I kill randomly – I killed the only witness to your murder,” I state, “And I, Ryder, Luna of Wolf Dominion, will end you tonight. You’ll drown in your own blood.”

Opular’s cheek bones are high and mighty – and they pull with his smile.

“So, this is what a Luna is –” as Opular talks I take out my dagger and I approach with a steady gait – knowing I can use his enormous height to my own advantage. He would be slower than me. His eyes flash as he holds out his hands to show he has no weapons, perhaps asking for calm, and I notice there is suddenly no blood on his hands… it was just in my imagination? I saw a delusion? What the – “Think. I am defenceless,” he adds, almost pleading with me.

No mercy.

“And as such, it is the best time to attack an immovable force,” I sound a bit robotic, but I also have a chance to remind myself why I’m here, so I don’t slow my approach – and I am confident I can end him as I zig zag left and right, pretending to be over confident, “Any last words, Imperator?”

“You have no regard for your life, that is a great waste – you think you’re worthless,” Opular doesn’t even worry, he just looks down at me, arms spread out – seemingly surrendering to my attack.

He really wants me to back down but I will not.

I stop before him, wondering if he’ll lunge for me – that could make it easier.

“I am worth those who I protect,” I answer quietly.

“So, you agree you are worthless?”

“Agreed,” I don’t even blink.

“You think nothing of yourself,” we already clarifyed this, but okay?

“Nothing,” I agree again and my mouth barely moves, “Although I do think you could be useful dead.”

Opular makes the mistake of not moving.

I make the mistake of striking out at a hologram.

I’m proud of my speed as I pounce, but as my bone dagger passes through the hologram, I immediately feel my heart drop in a panic.

I fucked up.

I pull back to see his holographic hands now covered in blood again – another trick. Because it was digitised. I’m an idiot, shit.

And I’m still distracted.

My own trick fails me.

Opular’s hologram ticks off in front of me, until only the window remains.

And then I see him in the reflection.

Opular hovers over me from behind, placing a long blade to my throat as he holds my head up, preparing to cut.

He’s so smooth.

He’s been practiced in more quiet combat from the shadows, just like me.

I feel his blonde hair brush my cheeks and it’s softer than silk.

A sweet caress of death.

I drop my bone dagger, and I accept my fate.

I fucked it all up – and now I was over.

I was overconfident, too cocky, too rushed – but it’s too late to reflect any longer.

I close my eyes, waiting for the final cut. I guess this was fitting.

Opular tightens the blade to my skin, then twists it and it slides gently across my skin, on its flat side.

No cut is made, just a play.

“You’re not leaving here alive,” Opular puts his hand to my cheek, and turns me into his front, holding my cheek with his strange long fingers as he looks at me up close, “…until you understand you’re worth every piece of Solividian on this entire planet.”