DROWNED

Love?

I almost choked on the pancake.

"I think you're drunk," I force out, although I want his words to be true.

"Probably. But, you do know that, as werewolves, we have control over how it affects us. We can control over how drunk we can get and how sober we are, after consuming alcohol," he pauses, observing my reaction. Which is confusion and lack of understanding.

"And, I'm guessing, that you're drunk as fu-"

"No. I'm not. I am stone cold sober. And Clara?" He laughs breathily, "I think I fell for you. I think I love your eyes. I think I love your hair. I'm pretty sure I love the way you look down when you blush, and how your eyelashes fan across your cheeks. I really love your smile, more than anything I can even come to put into words."

"Exactly. You think-"

"But I'm not though, I love you so god-damned fucking much. You don't even have to say it back-"

"Thats all I wanted, no 'I think's or 'I'm pretty sure' or shit. Because, I love you too."

"Great! Let's get married right now!" He says excitedly, jumping up.

"You haven't proposed yet, dumbass," I reply, standing up and making an attempt to start cleaning up the mess from breakfast.

"My dad did that for me," he says in a 'duh' tone, his sarcastic expression is replaced by wide eyes, "that sounded different in my head."

I laugh, before plastering a serious expression on my face, "he doesn't know we're mates."

Before I can process what happens, Lucas walks in, "and he can't find out that you're natural mates, no doubt with his bad experience with his own mate, he will separate you two, forbidding your relationship."

"Clara, you need to go. For Declan's own good," Lucas says, completely facing me.

"You know Clara?" Declan, looks between us, confused.

"She is an ex-prisoner of ours," Lucas states, as though his words are well-rehearsed.

Declan's eyes widen considerably. A low rumble escapes his throat, and his eyes darken aggressively, "what haven't you told me, Clara?" the way he says me names sends shivers down my spine-the bad kind.

"Uh, well..." I bite my lip, my gaze sets on Lucas, a growl of my own enters the atmosphere, "Lucas?"

"She murdered Dean's son, and my beta. As a vendetta for her grandmother..." Lucas states calmly, watching me tauntingly, because he knows that not only is Declan an Alpha, but he's a king, of all Alphas. Both those important characteristics, might, overpower the mate bond.

SO potentially, my mate is capable of murdering me where I stand.

But, as Lucas tells his story, its clear he still doesn't know about Leya being my 'wolf'.

"I have a murderer as my mate?" he growls, his growl is deadly. He faces me, "Murder is punishable by death, you know?"

I quickly and discretely take in my surroundings, we're in the dining room. I look or an escape route, the doors are too heavy to push open quickly, and no doubt Lucas brought backup. There is a wall length window, the building is old enough that the glass would be thin. "Death?" I squeak.

"What about, being mates?" I ask him, although I already know the answer.

"As king, I have the ability to get a new one," he growls.

Crap.

"I have a reasoning," to this, Lucas perks up, yet Declan looks on the brink of causing WWIII.

They look at me expectantly, "What? I'm not telling you," I laugh, humourlessly.

Declan jumps up, flipping the table, the remnants of our breakfast go flying. He lunges towards me but I dodge by millimetres. By now, his face has half shifted, his nose marching into the shape of a snout, his eyes blazing red. His claws extended and his back hunched over, while his spine makes an attempt to reshape.

I growl back, shaking the knives and forks on the floor. In my peripheral vision, I watch Lucas jump back in shock. I can feel my eyes glow a bright, inhumane, blue. To this, for a split second, Declan's half-morphed face, resembles shock. Probably because my eyes aren't supposed to be blue, Lucas runs out of the room at this. I extend my claws and lash out at him, he dodges gracefully.

I sense my own face begin to morph, while my fur starts to prick out from the skin on my back, underneath my shirt. I slowly begin backing away, to a comfortable stance from the window, whilst manoeuvring my body to dodge Declan's attacks.

I shift completely, right in front of him, again for a second his face resembles shock, before he recovers and shifts too. Great. Now this is going to be more difficult. I calculate the distance between myself and the massive window, I brace myself before running directly at it.

Before I know it, the glass is directly in front of my nose and then is shattering loudly behind me. Glass litters the air around me as I jump out of the second story of the building, landing on a thud on the ground. My wolf unintentionally yelps, before recovering and sprinting off into the woods. The sound of Declan's paws behind me smother my senses as I attempt to push my wolf to go faster.

I run farther, until I sense the air around me change, I have entered another pack's territory. Crescent Moon. But something feels different, like a new sense of belonging has settled around me. I continue to run, listening to Declan behind me, until I reach the clearing where the pack house and beta's houses are.

Declan pounces on me, tearing into my shoulder, the smell of my own blood suffocates me. I quickly flip us over, biting his front leg, hearing him yelp almost makes me sad. But I shake off the feeling as I sink my canines deeper into his arm, until a satisfying crunch fills the air.

I sense other people running out of the pack house. Declan jumps back, limping on his leg, he takes a fighting stance, circling me, ready to attack. He runs toward me and jumps onto me, before scratching at my shoulder, ripping into it with his claws.

I flip over a bit, so he's standing over me and ripping into my chest, I attempt to claw up at him, but my efforts are fruitless. I sit there staring silently, giving up, I stare at him above me. I chuckle a bit, somehow even though he's literally killing me, he still looks flawless. I can somehow even smell the vodka still on his breath, although, not even alcohol could cause something this evil to overcome someone so...good.

Just hours ago, we were talking about our children. I shift back to my human form, only now noticing the people who have crowded around us, attempting to get him off me. He continues to slash at my bare chest, probably attempting t get to my heart, to stop it.

He shifts too, now instead he is in human form, but with his claws slowly receding in length.

Until its just him, unmoving, staring at his hands covered in his mates blood.

History has a fun way of repeating itself.

He gets thrown off me by another wolf, I don't recognise.

The aura around the unfamiliar wolf, is pure strength and power. Probably even more than Declan.

The wolf shifts into an old, yet somehow, now, familiar elderly man, "Get her to the hospital!" he screams.

Darkness surrounds my vision as I almost visualise, death clasping my heart in his cold hands.