Delta [Epsilon #2]

Chapter Twenty-Nine

(TW!! Implications of sexual assault. Read at your own discretion.)

Kyra

******

I leaped off the seat. Luc stood frozen at my side, his face white. 

"Those are the Upsilons, aren't they?" He asked with a quavering voice. I nodded slowly, barely able to think over the roaring in my ears. 

Why were the Upsilons here? How had they breached the Northern Territory's defences? Pushing out uneven breaths, I scanned the treeline, counting those violet eyes. The Upsilon numbers were few compared to the other Southerners, but I knew how powerful one of them was. They were beasts running off nothing but emotional energy. All it took was one command from their master to become killing machines.

My heart dropped. Was Azriel here? 

"Kyra, we have to go," Luc urged, grabbing my hand. His palm was slick against mine, and I wondered just how many battles he'd fought in. 

I stared at the treeline, heart beating in my throat. I stared at the Upsilons as they emerged from the forest along with the other Southern wolves. I recognised a few, but those cerulean eyes never appeared.

I remained still. Part of me wanted nothing more to run away, to hide behind the marble fortress behind me. I didn't want to face the product of my own destruction, to fight my own failures in direct combat. 

But what would that make me?

"Kyra!" Luc urged, tugging my arm. 

"No," I decided, pulling away. I levelled my gaze with his. "I am going to fight. They're here for me? Fine -- they can damn well have me."

The boy stared as I allowed that fury back to the surface; that unending, yawning chasm of rage that seemed to be part of me now. The flame engulfed my fear, turning it to ash as my human frame morphed into that of the beast. Through purple-washed vision my eyes whirred, fixating on the distant targets.

You are the monster, I told myself as I took off running, paws thudding upon the sodden earth. The sun beat down on my dark coat, setting the indigo tint aflame. Before me, battles raged, and soon, I knew, blood would spill. Fear crawled to my throat as the scent of pine and snow greeted me, but I forced it under the surface, drowning it in the turbulent sea of my fury. I tuned out the familiar faces of the Upsilons, willed them to become blurred and unrecognisable. 

Do not fear. A few of the southerners had taken notice of me. A few grinned, their eyes alight with triumph. Perhaps they thought I'd freeze up as I had in the last encounter. Perhaps they recalled how I was back at the court, locked behind those bars, weak and vulnerable. I thought about Zion and Alia, and how they must regard them in the same way. Starved. Beaten. Brutalised. How they must relish in the pain of my friends, and how dare they. Liquid fire surged through my veins, the thought of their faces sending me to a new level of chaos, a new level of destruction. 

Be the feared. 

I fixed my attention on the first wolf I saw. He was the closest to me, black maw pulled back in a jeer. Maybe he expected me to stop short, to become a statue to my own fear. I didn't. His smile turned to horror, and horror to animalistic shrieks as I sunk my canines into his throat. Blood gushed down my knows, down my eyes and throat, as the animal before me thrashed. I held still. I bit deeper. Harder. He couldn't breathe. I drowned him in his own blood, his sputters and gurgles filling the air.