Authors: Rhea Wilde
Chapter 23
Thorne walked up to me and embraced me. He gave me a passionate kiss and I found myself wanting nothing more than to give him what he wanted. He was mine and I was his. We stood alone as beasts in the middle of the room, trying to satisfy our sudden cravings.
But when I closed my eyes, I saw the vision I had just seen moments earlier. I pulled away from Thorne and sniffed into the air.
“Something is wrong,” I growled.
“What is it, my queen?” he bowed to me.
“There’s someone here. Someone is coming here.”
“Who?”
“Close your eyes,” I told him. “Smell him. See through his eyes. He is killing our own kind. It is the only way I can see.”
I closed my eyes once again and I found myself deep within the castle. The beasts were surrounding me but I was fighting them. I was biting at them, slashing their throats while I growled.
“Who am I?” I said. “Who has come to slaughter the Rucai?”
“It is Shadow,” Thorne said to me. “He is a traitor. He must be stopped.”
With my new body, I followed Thorne down into the depths of the castle, searching for the traitor that he had labeled. As we moved deeper inside, I could hear the growls of my new brethren echoing against the walls. It sounded like a slaughter and when I heard it, I rushed even faster to see what was happening.
I entered the hall and found all of the Rucai lying on the ground, beaten, bruised and bloody. The traitor growled as he slashed one final wolf to the ground.
“You!” Thorne shouted at him. “Shadow, you dare kill your own kind?”
“No!” Shadow shouted back to him. “I won’t allow you to do this. This is not the Rucai. We are not murderers. This must stop now.”
“You are not the one to decide the destiny of our clan! You have no right! What is to be done with this traitor, my queen?”
I took a few step forwards and I looked at him. Shadow stared at me for a moment and I saw a look of confusion on his face.
“Ariel…” he whispered. “What did he do to you?”
“I… I have found myself,” I said to him. “I have found my place in the Rucai. I am the Alpha Queen.”
I watched as Shadow started to change. The imposing beast slowly transformed into a familiar figure. Instead of a werewolf, I saw an ordinary blonde man. He stood there in the nude with no shame, his hands offered out to me.
“Ariel,” he said to me. “This is not you.”
“Don’t tell me what I am,” I growled back.
“Listen to yourself, Ariel,” he pleaded with me. “You’re not one of us. You’re not thinking straight.”
“Don’t try to influence me.”
“It’s me, Ariel. It’s Vaughn. Don’t you remember, Ariel? Do you remember how it felt when we were together? I loved you.”
“Ha!” Thorne scoffed. “Don’t make her laugh. There is no need to push your idealistic and foolish human morals upon her. She’s left that behind her. She knows what’s important and she’s no longer fooled by the emotional and irrational feelings that you’ve become attached to.”
Thorne took a step in front of me and blocked me from looking at Vaughn.
“Don’t listen to him,” Thorne said to me. “He is weak. He is a traitor. He has turned his back on the Rucai and deserves to be dealt with. The only punishment for traitors is death!”
“Please, Ariel!” Vaughn shouted over him. “Close your eyes. Look at yourself. That’s not who you are. You cannot deliberate between life and death—”
“Shut up, traitor!” Thorne interrupted him. “My queen, please. Look at what he has done to your clan. I am your alpha! I have the right to destroy him!”
I was unable to control my own thoughts and instincts. The girl I knew as Ariel was gone. I shook my head as I thought about what I used to be. I wasn't a human anymore. I was the Alpha Queen of the Rucai. I looked around at the destruction and made up my mind.
“You are the alpha,” I said to Thorne. “You are my chief. Kill this traitor and be done with it.”
“It will be done, my queen.”
Thorne turned to the blonde man standing across the room.
“Then I challenge you!” Vaughn shouted. “You are not fit to lead the Rucai anymore!”
Vaughn started to transform once again, the blonde man being replaced by a beast with silver fur, white streaks lining his stomach and arms. The brown beast Thorne rushed at him and I screeched as the two of them engaged one another.
It was a violent tangle. Silver and brown in a ragged swirl before my eyes. A dance in which either one of them could fall dead with a single misstep. Thorne lunged at Shadow’s throat, trying to take a bite out of him. Shadow stepped back and slashed at him, cutting him across the chest. Thorne stumbled back in pain as the blood spilled down onto the ground. But it didn’t deter him from jumping back into the fight.
I watched with eagerness, waiting to see who would come out on top. They wrestled with one another, trying to dig their claws into the other’s flesh. Thorne grabbed Shadow and tossed him to the side, causing his body to skid across the stones. Thorne started to stalk him, his head low as he paced toward him.
“Finish him!” I growled. “Kill the traitor!”
I didn’t know what had come over me but I wanted nothing more than Thorne to follow through with my order. He was the chief of the clan. I wanted him to impose his will upon him. As Thorne picked the beaten Shadow off of the ground, he held him around the throat.
“You know what happens to traitors of their own kind after they die?” Thorne said to him. “There is no place even in Hades for you. Your soul will be condemned to an eternity of misery. How does that make you feel, Shadow?”
“No!" Shadow shouted at him. "I am no traitor. You are. The one who would bring upon the destruction of a city and innocent lives... You are a disgrace to our clan!”
“Brave words from a wolf who is about to die. Look, Shadow. Look upon your queen. You could have served her but instead you chose to be a disappointment.”
Thorne gripped Shadow’s head between his massive paws and turned it toward me. I looked into Shadow’s eyes. The blueness sparked something inside of me. Something that I remembered.
I closed my eyes. I saw what I had become through Shadow’s eyes. My humanity was gone. But it was more than that. I felt what Shadow felt. The feelings he had for me. They were still there. And I could feel how sincere they were. They were real.
I gasped as I opened my eyes. A moment of clarity washed over me and the instincts and desires I felt rushing through my body were now gone.
“She is my queen,” Shadow muttered. “She always will be. But you are not my chief.”
Thorne started to squeeze Shadow’s eyes. I could see the life beginning to slip from him, the blue sapphires growing dimmer with each passing moment.
“Argh!”
I growled as I felt a sudden pain shooting through my back. I fell down onto the ground and continued to shout in pain. I rolled over onto my back and looked up at the man standing over me.
“It’s okay, Ms. Everhart,” Irvine said to me. “You’re going to be fine.”
“What is this?” Thorne growled.
I rolled over onto my side as Irvine’s distraction had given Shadow the moment he needed. He ran his claws deep into Thorne’s throat and Thorne shouted violently. I watched as he dug them in as hard as he could, blood beginning to pour from Thorne’s throat. Suddenly, I was watching Thorne getting the life getting drained from him.
“You… fool,” Thorne said to him, gasping deeply. “Look around you… You have killed your entire clan… And now you kill your own chief… You will never be an alpha!”
Shadow responded by yelling even more violently and squeezing the rest of the life out of Thorne. Thorne’s body became lifeless as it fell to the ground, his head nearly separated from it. Shadow stood back on his feet and started to walk over to me.
I looked up and Irvine and Sasha were now standing next to me. I raised my hands above my vision and saw that my claws were returning to the human form I was more familiar with, the fur beginning to disappear. My vision was cloudy. I was gasping for breath and doing my best to gather myself. Sasha and Irvine continued to comfort me and console me.
“It’s okay, Ms. Everhart,” he whispered to me. “I’ve injected you with an antidote. You’re going to recover.”
The three of them stood over me as I slowly started to regain my senses. Finally, my vision became clear and I caught my breath. They picked me up off of the ground. My naked body was the least of my worries but Irvine picked some scraps of cloth from the ground and wrapped them around me.
“Don’t try to move too much,” Sasha said to me. “Just relax.”
I nodded my head to her as she and Irvine continued to comfort me. I turned to the side and the werewolf I had seen as Shadow this entire time had disappeared, replaced by a familiar blonde man.
“I’m glad you’re well, Ariel,” he said.
“Thanks to you.”
“This is… It’s all my fault.”
“Vaughn…”
“No, Ariel. I knew what was happening. I knew what Thorne had planned for my clan. I came here to put a stop to it. I couldn’t allow it, even if I was by myself. I’ve stopped them. You’re okay.”
“And it’s over,” I said. “The murders will stop.”
“It’s not over, Ariel.”
“Vaughn, what are you saying?”
He leaned in close to me and kissed me tenderly on the cheek. Then he took a step back from me and picked something up off of the ground.
“You left this back at the cabin,” he said to Irvine. “I brought it with me.”
He handed it to Irvine, who took it. It was Irvine’s sheathed blade.
“You have a reputation among my people, Gold,” Vaughn said to him. “When you’ve got someone in your sights, it’s a death sentence. You’ve never missed your target.”
“Never,” Irvine said to him.
“And your target was the entire Rucai. We all knew. I’m still Rucai, Gold. Do what you must do.”
Irvine started to unsheathe his blade and I immediately jumped between the two of them.
“Wait a minute!” I shouted. “You can’t do this! Are you crazy?”
“I’m sorry, Ariel,” Vaughn said to me. “It must be done.”
“Why?” I pleaded with him. “You can’t just let him kill you! You’re not the one responsible for the murders! It was the rest of them! Please!”
“Look around you, Ariel. These are the remnants of my clan laying here by my own hand. I am a traitor to my own kind. There is nothing left for me. A lone wolf who betrays the word of his own chief must die.”
“No!” I cried. “You can’t do this! Irvine! Please! Don’t kill him! He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
“Gold, finish your job,” Vaughn said to him. “And you can finally end this.”
I looked at Irvine and I could see a bit of resignation in his eyes. But he still raised his blade up and pointed it at Vaughn. I felt the desperation rush through my body as I put my hands upon his chest.
“You still have something, Vaughn. You have me. What about us?”
“It doesn’t matter. It is the laws of our people. I betrayed my entire clan. I must be put to death.”
“You betrayed your own people when you fell in love with me. And I know that you have these feelings for me. You spoke those words to me and I didn’t believe you but now I do. I felt it. It was real. You can’t just throw what we have away. You have something to live for now! Be with me!”
“Ariel, I can’t—”
“You speak of laws. You speak of words that you must obey because of the instincts you can’t control. You are the alpha of this clan now. Your word is law.”
“A lone wolf has no clan, Ariel.”
“Please!” I begged him with the tears now streaming from my eyes. “Your instincts… You have no control over them. But tell them they’re stronger than what you feel for me. Tell me that the love I have for you isn’t greater than any law you must obey or any instinct you must follow. Tell me that you don’t love me, Vaughn!”
I stared at him. I could see the hesitation on his face and the tears beginning to well in his eyes.
“W-what would you have me do, Ariel?” he asked me. “I am alone.”
“No, you’re not.”
I wrapped my arms around him and started to sob into his chest. I couldn’t take it anymore. I poured my heart and soul out to him. There was nothing else I could do.
“Mr. Gold…”
I pulled away from him as he stared at Irvine.
“Your reputation cannot suffer for this,” Vaughn said to him. “Tell your ‘agency’ that the Rucai are finished. To the best of my instincts, I will cause no more trouble. I will disappear and runaway. But only if you will allow it.”
I turned to Irvine and looked at him pleadingly. He still held the blade steady and Vaughn was doing nothing to stop him.
“Irvine, please…” I whispered to him.
It felt like an eternity as I stood there, waiting for Irvine to agree to Vaughn’s terms. Irvine took a deep breath and exhaled before finally putting his blade back into its sheath.
“You didn’t get away,” Irvine smirked at him. “I let you go.”