Blood Queen || COMPLETED

Chapter Four

Some say that death is peaceful, calm. That the sweet release of death is painless and quick. I say that is complete bullshit. My body feels like it's burning from the inside out. It begins to seize out of control and a scream builds up in my throat that I refuse to unleash. Screaming won't solve this. Screaming won't make this all-consuming pain go away. The fire devours me without mercy, like hot molten lava making its way toward my heart. My poor heart, defenseless as the lava crashes against it.

The real sad part is the longer this goes on, the more I begin to relax into it. Sadistic bitch that I am, I may even enjoy this. If I could laugh at the moment I would. Death can burn me for the rest of eternity for all I care. Nick is in charge and I have every confidence he will make a throne out of their corpses. I'm free to burn in what I can only assume is hell. It's no secret I'm obsessed with fire. I may have even been an arsonist in my past life, who knows?

As I become pleased with the warmth surrounding me, it's pulled away from me all too soon. The seizing stops and I fall. I drop deep down into a cold dark abyss. The flames diminish until they are gone altogether and I land roughly onto cold hard ground. Slam is a more accurate term. I grunt in pain as my eyes flutter open.

What I see is not what I was expecting to see. The night sky is lit up with the flames of the burning forest trees surrounding me. The heat rolling off in waves might've been overwhelming for an average wolf, but I reveled in it. A bitch in heat, oh the irony.

Seven wolves hover over me, their eyes a familiar red. They don't move. They just gaze at me, studying me. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, I grunt in annoyance "Either kill me or get the hell out of my face."

At that, they shift into their human form and I avert my gaze. Nudity is completely natural in our culture but for some reason their red eyes have me looking away. I've never encountered others with my same eye color, other than my grandfather that is.

"Alora." Says one of them.

I look to the left and my eyes widen "Grandpa?" I whisper in shock. I haven't seen him in over five years. He looks perfect as usual, not a brown hair out of place. He looks exactly as I remember him. Werewolves tend to age like a snail on even ground. Slow and smooth. My grandfather's wolf kept him so youthful and agile that as my father began to age, he looked more like his brother than his son. Something that my father was not too happy about.

My grandfather was always so powerful and indestructible that I just assumed he would always be around. Until one day... he wasn't. We had been so devastated. He disappeared off the face of the Earth. We couldn't even have a proper burial because there was no trace of his body anywhere. That always gave me hope that maybe he hadn't died and he'd just abandoned us. Honestly, I was hoping for the latter because as much as that would've sucked it would have been infinitely better than the alternative. He is the best person in the world to me. He's always there, always looking out for me making sure that I'm making good choices and comforting me when I don't. Like a light guiding me down the right path in life. He is the one person in the world that makes me feel like a little girl and a woman all at the same time. Looking at him now makes my heart swell and unbelievable joy sweeps through my bones.

He smiles and extends his arms. I run into them and hug him with a fierce grip. I almost faint at his familiar scent of faint cigars and aftershave. No matter who I am or what I have done, I will always feel like a little girl in his arms. I know that is not the case. I am most definitely not a little girl anymore. If my grandfather were to ever find out the things I have done, the people I've killed, he might have a heart attack. Albeit they were not good people, but that is still blood on my hands. I am no longer pure. What would he think of me now? Would he understand or would he be disappointed in the ruthless techniques my pack has been trained to execute?