Fangs of Love

Chapter Fourteen

Cassiopeia Nyx

My fingers shook as I caressed my cheek softly, my wide eyes stared back at me from the clear bathroom mirror, I couldn't recognize myself, my eyes had changed from the regular dull brown to something entirely different, it looked identical to the Alpha Kings when he wanted to mark me earlier. I looked so different, almost as if I was looking at someone who looked really identical to me but wasn't me.

My shock still remained as I stood—bare and naked before the full-length mirror, the large expanse of this extravagant bathroom swallowing me whole. I couldn't help the shiver or disgust that racked through me as I stared at my frail and fragile body. My ribs jutted out like a sore thumb, legs too thin, hips too wide and chest too small.

But it wasn’t my body that made me feel disgusted. It was the scars that littered the front of my chest and my abdomen, a few on my legs but quite so many on my arms. I couldn't even dare to turn around to glance at my backside, If I thought this was worse, my back was another different story. I didn't want to stare any longer but I couldn’t bring myself to look away. With each scar that I traced with my fingertips, the lingering memories rushed through my mind.

The scar around my navel was the most prominent of the ones I could see with my eyes, the skin around it pulled together as if trying so hard to patch the indent, the wound seemed to be growing smaller but I could remember the pain vividly like it happened a few seconds ago.

On a normal day, I would have thrown up so hard after thinking about the torture, panic attacks were my best friends but now, I wasn't feeling anything except exhaustion, I was so tired, I didn't even have the stress for anything. Whatever wanted to happen would happen.

If the Alpha King decided to finally let me die on peace, then fine. If he didn't, okay. I really didn't care anymore.

"You're my mate, mine Cassie."

He didn't know what he was saying if he truly meant it, No one could ever love something or someone so broken, someone whose pieces had been scattered along the way, someone whose pieces were so sharp that you would have to cut your fingers just to pick them up. That was why I could never and would never let my guard down. If my own parents didn't love me, then no one could.

Oh, but I knew he didn't mean it, he was the Alpha King for God's sake, a man who killed and massacred more than a thousand people just at the age of eighteen. Such a man didn't know anything about love. The dark didn't like the light. But it deceives it to come closer so it could swallow it whole. He just wanted me to let my guard down.

At that very thought, Something at the back of my head began to pulsate again. I clutched my head tightly, my eyes pressed shut in a bid to stop the pain as I pushed back, feeling the control over my mind slipping through my fingers.

It wasn't until that same voice resounded in my head again that I stood still in my motions, raising my head slowly, my heart pounded in my chest erratically as I glanced around the bathroom for any sign that someone had actually spoken and I wasn't just hearing things.

The voice was gentle yet firm, resounding inside my head with a clarity that sent shivers down my spine.

Cassie…

I froze, my hand still clutching the side of my head as I blinked, heart hammering in my chest. It wasn’t just a voice — it felt like a presence. Someone or something was trying to speak to me, trying to reach me.

I glanced around the bathroom again, my eyes darting from the ornate mirror to the marble tiles and the golden fixtures. But there was no one here, no one except for me. And yet, I wasn’t alone.

Hera, the voice echoed again, but this time it wasn’t just a name. It felt like an introduction, a realization.

“I’m Hera,” the voice said firmly in my mind, “your wolf and your other half”

I staggered back, nearly falling as my knees buckled. My wolf? I thought i didn't have one, my father said it was one of the reasons that proved I was a cursed one. My lack of a wolf only fuelled the packa hatred for me.

"i've always been here but you shut me out, Cassie," she said softly.

What?

I shut you out. How?

"I tried to reach you for years, but it seemed you had built up a wall so high that even I couldn't break, Mate was just what we needed to set me free,"

I stumbled forward, gripping the edge of the sink for support, staring at myself in the mirror again. This time, the change in my eyes was even more obvious. They glowed a bright and piercing violet shade. It shined like crystal orbs from across the mirror. It was my wolf's prescene.

My wolf was finally awake.

“Hera,” I whispered aloud, my voice shaking, unsure. Why now?

"Because you need me," she replied simply her voice growing more primitive. "Mate lowered your walls for a moment and i broke through. You need to Let go of the pain Human"

Let go of the pain? How could I do that when it was all I had left? The scars on my body were reminders of what I had endured, of the torment, the rejection, the betrayal of those who should have loved me. If I let go of the pain, what was left? What would I be without it?

"You’re more than what they did to you, Human. What they did to us. I could feel it too. Hera ’s voice was soft again but filled with conviction. "You are strong, even if you don’t see it. You survived for us, human."

I swallowed hard, my throat dry as tears burned the back of my eyes. I had survived, but at what cost? I was nothing more than the shell of a person, barely holding on. The idea of healing, of moving forward, felt impossible.

You’re not alone Human, Hera reminded me. You have me now. You’ve always had me.

My chest tightened, the weight of her words sinking in. I closed my eyes, letting out a shaky breath as I tried to process it all. I hadn’t even realized how numb I’d been for so long, how detached I had become from myself. But now, with Hera’s presence flooding through me, I felt almost… awake.