Chapter 65 – Cutthroat
“Is Fate getting what you deserve, or deserving what you get?” – Jodi Picoult
Third Person POV
Ariel found her equilibrium and rose to her paws, trotting toward Darien. As a wolf sprit, solid objects pass through her hollow body, so the man couldn’t pet her even if he tried. Her emeralds gazed into his watering aquamarines, expressing silent hope and happiness.
Ariel is finally happy.
The red wolf released a mighty howl toward the moon, echoing through the hushed forest. She called for Selene to wrap her arms around her to take her from the earth. All watched her translucent body fading into silvery dust, starting from the tail. A painless transition. Darien watched helplessly as Sirius‘ mate returned to Selene’s side. In utter sadness, the black wolf howled in agony at watching his mate disappear.
He couldn’t stand. Galen and Jacqueline had to steady their forlorn and heartbroken friend on his feet as he wept for Ariel. Wanting her back. Wanting to ease his wolf’s suffering
And his own.
Odessa, bound against the tree, huffed. Mara, in silence, removed her blindfold before retreating. Sad and irritated hazels glared at the dozens of eyes staring at her in scrutiny and disgust. She felt insignificant and bitter; frustrated that her punishment is losing Ariel forever.
Becoming human.
“Do you have anything to say, Odessa?” Elder Estella asked the million–dollar question everybody wanted to know. Her lips formed into a snarl as her reality settled in. Human. Damned to weakness and vulnerability. Her eyes found Neron’s, void of love, filled with burning disappointment. Darien’s sniffles echoed in her ear, grating at her eardrums. The two men who were supposed to love her watched her downgrade without resistance.
Hatred burned.
“F*ck you all.” She spat out. “I have nothing to say to a crowd of dirty dogs.”
“May Selene have mercy on your soul.” The crowd quietly dispersed, returning to the lands of Zircon Moon, leaving the ranked wolves, the Garnet Moon team, and the guards. Elder Estella, Elder Marjorie, and Mara gathered their supplies, bid Alpha Neron farewell and good luck.
Mara and Darien lingered for a bit, staring at each other for what seemed like an eternity. The woman wasn’t sure what to say to him, but silently prayed to Selene to heal his broken heart. She joined with her mothers and left the distant pack grounds.
Odessa was reticent, refusing to acknowledge the surrounding people. Everyone disgusted to her and earned every droplet of her hatred. Alpha Neron sighed, mentally deciding on what to do with Odessa.
“Execute her.” Onyx suggested, his voice filled with venom. “Her crimes are too great. Ariel punished her
b
Chapter 65 – Cumclenat
y leaving, but she still is responsible for harming our mate. If she dies, she won’t have the chance to hurt Kiyn again when we get her back.”
Neron was inclined to agree. Odessa is a furious woman who has proven that she can and will kill to enact her revenge. She may be human, but her living will merely give her the ammunition to harm others. With knowledge of the supernatural world and darkness lurking around every corner, it was too risky. He didn’t want to be a killer, but this one will be justified.
“Guards.” Neron demanded. All four stood tall, ready for orders. “Take Odessa back to her cell. I will decide her fate in the morning. Afterwards, retire for the night.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
“Dar? Are you alright?” Galen whispered to his childhood friend, who stood stiff and unblinking at the cuffed woman against a tree. Once upon a time, he was ready to give her all the love he held and hunt for the happiness she deserved. Now, his heart felt hollow. Empty,
The sparks are dead. Forever.
“Let us go home.” Darien’s detached voice answered. “There is nothing more for us here.”
As the six members of Garnet Moon prepared to take their leave, a heavy groan stopped them. It followed with two more grunts interlaced with agony. Heads turned to see Neron, Valerian, and Kwame clutching their heads and gritting their teeth. Raina and Lorelai, alarmed, ran to comfort their mates, but their touch didn’t quell the tsunami of voices from their pack signaling for help.
“Alpha Neron!” Omar, Kwame’s father, rose from the sea. “We need you back on the land! There are multiple reports of intruders coming in from all sizes of the territory. Some are attacking our patrols!”
“Shit!” Neron growled.
“Is there trouble?” Sapphire asked.
“Big trouble.” He emphasized. “We’re under attack.”
“Need help?” Jacqueline asked casually. “We’re at no rush to get home.” Darien didn’t reply but nodded in agreement. The Alpha grunted, pointing his head to the pathway back to the mainland. He reiterated to the guards to take a different path back to the prisons while the rest of them took off into the shadowy forest.
“Don’t f*cking touch me.” Odessa snapped, “I rather stay here than to go back to those dingy cells.”
“Sorry, girlie. Alpha’s orders.” One guard reprimanded with an eye roll, unaffected by Odessa’s heated glare. They were performing their duty of transporting an unruly woman back to prison. Simple, right?
Wrong.
Before any of them could uncuff the woman from the tree, a violent gush of power rushed passed them. Hairs on the back of their necks rose in full salute, signaling danger approaching fast. Too fast. In the blink of an eye, one guard plopped to the ground with a grunt, a pool of crimson forming around his head from his open
neck.
Chapter 65
Then another. And another. All four guards fell to the same cutthroat fate, bathing the grass in deep red around the woman. Odessa whimpered in fear, confused by what happened. Hazels widened like plates and her lungs went out of sync. She had seen nothing, and the guards literally dropped dead all around her.
“W–wha-!”
Giggles announced themselves like an auditory strangulation. They wrapped around Odessa’s throat, imprisoning her as her eyes looked every which way to find the owner. The moon hid itself behind impenetrable clouds, obscuring the ritual space in obsidian black, her white dress glowing in the dark.
“Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The top bitch of Zircon Moon is a wolfless human, chained helplessly to at tree. It is about time you found your true place; on your knees.”
Clicking of heels resounded in the darkness, unhesitant and meticulous. Each step radiated with deathly power and poisonous excitement. Trepidation gripped at Odessa’s spine as she struggled to free herself from her cuffs, only to have the metal dig against her skin.
“W–who are you?” Odessa demanded, failing to steady her voice. The child–like giggles turned into sharp, adult laughter. A pair of crimson orbs pierced through the darkness, launching invisible chains to hold the woman’s soul in place. A captive. The clicking grew in volume as it closed in on the defenseless woman. Stepping over the corpses of the fallen guards, the darkness cloaked the woman’s identity.
“You’ve already forgotten me? Odessa, I’m ashamed of you. The least you can do is give me the respect I deserve.”
An icy hand gripped Odessa’s chin, forcing her chin upward. “But…” The mysterious person whispered. “Why would a bitch like you ever respect, who you called, a former slave?”
Odessa’s breath hitched in her throat. She lost all her werewolf senses and abilities, but there was no mistaking the voice; formerly rich and feminine dripped with sarcasm. It was sadistic, yet sweet.
“…K–Kiya?”
The darkness suddenly cleared, revealing the woman in question, dressed in an unfamiliar garb that emulated her new status. Her amber necklace rested on her cleavage, drinking in the fear of the newly–formed mortal. Kiya shined a charming smile, her thumb caressing the point of Odessa’s chin.
“Did you miss me?”
Odessa stuttered. Was it from nerves or from her shock? Her stuttering got worse when Kiya’s grin widened, fingers shaking with anticipation. What could she say? Words failed as the woman took in her adversary’s appearance. She didn’t look like the Kiya she previously knew with her springy coils, soft browns, and mildly conservative clothing. Now, she was regal with her hair completely straightened, sinister reds, and adorning a dress that exposed all her aged scars from past abuse.
“What happened to you?” Odessa asked, curious. “This isn’t-”
“Like me?” Kiya finished, arching an eyebrow. “I’m surprised you actually paid attention. Study your enemy to discover the best way to take them out, correct?”
Chapter 65 Cutthroat
“T–That’s not what I meant.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Her fingers squeezed her chin, digging her sharpened nails into her flesh. Odessa whined. “Figuring out what made me tick was your surefire way to insure I don’t interfere with your plans. Did you think I was too stupid to figure it out?”
“No. You were too smart for my liking.” Odessa grumbled; eyes cast down. “If you were dumber, it would’ve made things easier.”
“Mhm.” Kiya released her chin and stood erect. “Stand up.” When the woman didn’t comply, she grabbed her arm and forced her on her bare feet, earning a shriek of pain from how tight she grabbed Odessa’s arm. Upon release, she noticed red blossoming from their place of contact. She cocked her head to the side, running her fingers across the bruise. “I forgot. You bruise easily, now.”
“Did you come here to gloat?” Odessa asked in irritation, her lips frowning. “I lost my f*cking wolf. Aren’t you glad?”
“Not at all.” Without hesitation, Kiya brandished her gifted blade from the sheath on her thigh, the blade gleaming in the captive’s eyes. “I’ve come to kill you. However, because you’re wolfless, you won’t feel the effects of the silver and wolfbane on my blade. I’ll have to find another way to make you suffer.”
“Y–You can’t!” Odessa shrieked, pressing her back against the tree bark. She was literally trapped between a rock and a hard place–the aforementioned rock being the insane woman admiring her blade like a child with a new toy. “Please Kiya, there has to be something we can work out!”
Kiya’s crimson eyes shot daggers at the brunette. She flinched and cowered from the intensity of her glare, feeling the heat incinerate the hairs off her flesh. Odessa, for the first time in her life, was terrified for her life. Living as an untouchable woman disseminated her luck in her precarious situation where instead of killing her enemy, her enemy will kill her.
“I remember a game you and Raina used to play with your friends back in the day.” Kiya’s voice filled her mind and the clicking of her heels filled her ears. Odessa felt the strands of her long hair shift from her shoulders to her back by the other woman’s hands, fingers caressing and smoothening out the river of brown silk with care. “You both called it ‘The Hunt.“”
Memories of those times filled Odessa’s mind like concrete to a hole. Revitalized and powerful, her mind plunged into the sensations and emotions she felt that day. Mischievousness. Playfulness. Malice. L hatred. Her body remembered everything, right down to the phantom sensation of scissors in her hands.
“You were the hunters, and I was the hunted.” Kiya continued, her voice soft and melodious. “I was to run and hide while your posse searched high and low for me. My fear awakened your beasts and attracted
you all to me. Every single time. Your reward? Hacking off my hair with five pairs of scissors. My broken body took in your assault while you decorated the grounds with bits and pieces of my hair.”
“I always wanted hair like yours.” Kiya cooed, bunching up strands. “Soft. Silky. Long. Beautiful, even. Do you know how long it took me to obtain the length I have today?”
“Ow!!” The back of Odessa’s head slammed against a tree as the woman tied her hair around the tree bark, tight. If anyone were to free her, they’d had to cut through the knots. “W–What are you doing?!”
“Three years.” Kiya ignored Odessa’s question and tied the rest of her hair together, admiring that it fully exposes her neck. “Through the bald spots, oils, trims, and the rest of the shit I had to do to make my hair healthy ag
I felt hideous. You damaged my crown because the evil in you wanted to make me suffer.”
“I’m sorry-!”
“You aren’t.” The woman walked back to Odessa’s front, admiring her handiwork as she watched the wolfless woman panic because she can’t move her head. “I wish you can see how exposed you are, knowing within minutes, you will die.”
“K–Kiya, please!” Tears fell from Odessa’s checks like raging waterfalls. “Don’t kill me!”
“Instead of owning up to what you did, you elected to beg for your life.”
“What is killing me going to solve?!”
“Everything. My pain will disappear and all who hurt me will die.”
“B–but that means you’ll have to take out all of Zircon Moon!”
Kiya exploded into a fit of laughter, clutching her belly before standing erect. “That’s the f*cking point, you dumb bitch! But there is a bright side to all this for you.” She brandished the blade once more, pressing the tip against the thin skin of her throat. Tiny bubbles of blood dribbled out because of Odessa’s struggle, pleas going unheard. “Once Neron is dead, the both of you can be together in Hell. That is what you wanted in the end, is it not?”
“No! Kiya!” Odessa sobbed. “Please don’t do this! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for everything I did to you. I was a shitty person! Give me a chance to prove it.”
Kiya paused, staring at the helpless, writhing, wailing woman she is about to kill. A tiny sensation sparked in the pits of her heart, shouting in a miniscule voice to not take Odessa’s life. She is better than this. However, the memories of her abuse overrode it all. Hatred roared in her blood, and sparks of red decorated her vision.
“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”
The darkness was her weapon to kill the guards, but her blade was perfect to ridding the world of Odessa.
A perfect cut from ear to ear; apricot flesh splitting open under razor–sharp silver. Blood flowed and sprayed in the small space between the women, decorating brown flesh with crimson and dying the white dress crimson. Kiya knew she nicked Odessa’s carotid arteries and watched as her enemy succumbed to a swift death. The screaming that grated in her ears quicted to nothingness.
“And I’m no longer the Kiya you knew, little human.” She watched Odessa’s body go limp, held up solely by her hair tied around the bark. Five bodies surrounded her in a sea of violent crimson, claiming its next victim.
And certainly not the last.
Untouchatře (The Moonlight Avatar Series Collection)
Chapter 66 – Kneel
“Maybe I am villain in your story, but I am hero in mine.“–Shon Mehta
Neron
Chaos has a distinct, indescribable scent. Some say it is the amalgamation of fear and sweat. Others say blood and tears. Tonight, chaos smelled like trepidation and woody nuances. Oak trees whizzed in my peripherals in blurs as adrenaline pumped through my legs. Omar’s warning replayed in my head like a broken record, perforating the fabric of my mind like a knife through lace. Every stomp and jump brought me closer to the lands I was born and raised upon.
Zircon Moon is under attack, yet again. This time, it feels different. Nightfall made its landing hours ago, but an unnatural darkness billowed through the trees, swallowing any remnants of light. The moon is a wolf’s guide through the darkness, but not even she can penetrate through the thick black.
Behind me I can hear the plethora of stomps, each of different weights and speeds, from my wolves and Gamet Moon alike. My heart warmed at the other pack’s willingness to help me combat this foreign threat. It brought us together under the unification to save the one most precious to us..