Promised to Wolves

dekaéxi

The man was huddled in a corner, shackled with heavy irons that made his thin frame slump against the wall with despair. As I walked into the room and saw his dishevelled state, I could hardly believe that this man had been able to kill Marcella. Narrowing my eyes, I took a few steps forwards and watched as he shrunk further into the corner.

"We found him hiding out in the drains underneath the city, waiting for a chance to escape," General Castor told Octavia and me and he motioned for two warriors to grab the man and drag him towards us. "He was half-starved and not right in the head. I reckon it will not take long to break him."

"Good. You may begin," the Princess directed as she took a seat on the chair she had ordered a terrified servant to bring her.

The General looked alarmed. "Are you sure you want to see this, your highness? It will not be pretty."

Octavia rose and flashed her fangs, slowly moving her sharp nails towards the General's exposed neck with unnerving slowness. The General could not move, even when her nails scraped against his skin and exposed blood. Because she was too important to offend and he had done that. 

"I would do the deed myself, but this dress is too pale a colour and I would hate to have it stained by blood." Her voice took a steely tone. "Now, begin."

The General nodded to one of the warriors who strode forwards and smashed his fist into the side of the man's face with brutal strength. I revelled in the way the man's head snapped back at the impact and he crumpled backwards into a sobbing heap, blood spraying onto the wall behind him.

"Why did you try to kill the Lamia Princess?" the man demanded, allowing the man enough time to sit back upwards before driving his heel into the man's abdomen and knocking him to the ground again. "Were you hired or was this of your own accord?"

There was a howl of pain as the man's wrist shattered beneath the boot of the warrior and I heard Octavia sigh in boredom as she leaned back on her seat. "You can do better than that," she muttered under her breath. 

As if the warrior heard her comments, he reached for the knife in his leather belt and grabbed the man by his hair, pulling his face upwards to meet the blade. "Why did you try to kill the Lamia Princess? Were you hired or was this of your own accord," he repeated as the man struggled and pleaded. 

"I don't know what you are talking about! Please, I am innocent!" Tears dripped down his face and snot trickled from his nose as he tried to helplessly pull away from the blade. The scream of fear he gave as the blade was tilted upwards until it was pointing at his eye was horrifying. 

"I will ask only one more time. Why did you try to kill the Lamia Princess?"

Pressing his lips tightly together, the man's eyes searched the faces of every single person in the room with desperation, finding only hatred and anger staring back at him. Realising there was no escape, the man relented with a pathetic whimper that even Octavia struggled to hear.

"What did you say?" the warrior demanded as he moved the knife an inch away from the man's eye to allow his panic to subside slightly.

"H-he told us to do it."

The man was dropped into a heap on the floor and we watched impatiently as he cradled his broken wrist and looked at us with teary eyes. "He told us to do it. Said she would be alone and undefended in her chambers. That she would be an easy target. He even told us to use the servant passages to get there." He paused with hatred curling around his tongue. "But he betrayed us. Didn't help us escape like he said he would and didn't pay us the gold he promised."

General Castor stepped forwards snarling at the man with murderous intent. "Who is the man you speak of?"

"I-I don't know. Never gave a name. But he reeked of Alpha blood."

The atmosphere in the room turned tense as the warriors closed in on the man and Castor bent down to meet him eye to eye, shock slapped onto his face.

"What did you say?"

The man coughed a little, spitting out blood as he shrivelled under the hardened gaze. "An Alpha told us to kill the Lamia Princess," he stated.

My heart almost stopped at the sudden burst of laughter that shattered the tense atmosphere and replaced it with one full of anger and animalistic growls. Turning my head, I saw the Lamia Princess shaking her head with laughter. "So much for the loyalty of the wolves," she mocked. "How does it feel to finally be betrayed by one of your own. Shocked? Angry? Do not fear though, in time you will get used to it."

The growling subsided as she stood up to her full height and gave them a dangerous look, all trace of humour vanished. "Find that Alpha and bring him to me. The alliance depends on it."

But before I could follow her out of the room, the man opened his mouth again.

"I remember you," he croaked. "The girl with the knife that almost killed me. You were nothing like your friend. She was easy to kill, so easy it was almost pitiful to put her down."

The rage that flared up inside of me was uncontainable and not my own. A fierce growl erupted from my body whilst I was still standing in shock at the man's words and my claws lashed out before I could reign it in. But as soon as my knuckles made the bone-splitting crunch of it colliding with the jaw of that monster, I realised I did not want to walk away. An animalistic desire for blood rose inside of me and I embraced it.

My senses were dulled by the raging flames of fury as I plunged forwards, all rational thoughts gone. I wanted him to feel pain. I wanted him to suffer. I wanted him to know the pain he had put me through as I had watched my greatest friend bleed out in front of me and then I wanted him to die so Marcella could get her revenge from him in the afterlife.

His warm sticky blood splattered across my face and coated my stinging knuckles as the rage burned inside of me. A duller pain poured from my mouth as my canines sharpened and pushed through my gums and I made use of the weapon, ripping and biting with feral intent. His screams were incoherent, but so were the shouts of those rough hands that were trying to drag my body away from its prey. 

"Artemis, look at me!"

Warm hands gripped onto my jaw, warmer and more comforting than a summer's day sun, and I felt the bloodlust lessen slightly. Blinking once, then twice, I made out the blurry shape of delicate yellow eyes through the red haze. Then something surged inside of me and my concentration focused on the bloody heap on the floor. I lunged forwards but felt myself being slammed into a stone wall behind me that knocked the breath from my lungs.

"I don't know your name, wolf, but you need to let Artemis take control," the voice demanded and I realised exactly what had happened. My dormant wolf had finally returned to me, wanting blood and death in a twisted way of protecting me and I had allowed her to take control and do so. But I needed now to reign her in.

Philomela, I called out to her softly, feeling her strong, comforting presence vibrating through my mind and swelling in my heart. I have missed you so much. But you need to stop this, you have to stop. I promise we will go running together in the forest, but for now, I need you to listen to me and give me back control.

For a moment, I believed she would not do it. But then our promised wrapped his arms around us and she relented. My mind tumbled into Andreas' embrace and there I lay, horrified at what I had just done.
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Merry Christmas!!