Rising Within

Abomination

Flashback

“My love… if it is what I must do to win your heart and have you as my mate to cherish, consider it done!” He brushed the loose red curl behind her ear and signed.

“You know the compromising position I’m in, I wouldn’t ask this of you otherwise.

If we can give them what they want, then we’d be free. I know the cost, but it’s the only way...I’m so sorry!" A single tear danced down her cheekbone and bounced to the floor.

They stood embraced; entwined like an intricate marble statue, their sadness bleeding to push through its confines. It was what happened when two worlds were polar opposites or more correctly put, historical enemies.

His nature, to live and flourish in his communal settlement working in tandem with its people and hers; to tear down each and every one of their cursed existence.

A formidable dance of push and pull, of heartache and injustice, bloodshed and persistence. That is until her people found the key to end it all forever, to finally dissect the curse and rid the world of abominations. Only then would they let them survive as mates, as He had called them.

And they vowed to protect each other through it all. Even if He was to be the last of his kind left. Love was worth it. Without his mate, he was nothing…

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“Ready your men, Angus. He’s finally decided to take our side, Evelyn has done her duty convincing h i m of it.” Grant scoffed at the mention of his daughter’s lover.

Grant had known about their affair, even though they tried desperately to conceal it. Their filthy love had to be useful for something… Evelyn was promised to Angus’ son, Conor and they would wait patiently for the plan to be seen through. They weren't the type to roll over easily. The embarrassment flooded Grant’s face as he remembered the day he caught them in the woodlands, as she dishonored everything his people worked so hard for.

The Boutiste family roots ran deep through Evelyn’s veins, the head of the family succeeding the last, as tradition had it. It was the only thing their worlds had in common. That, and Evelyn’s love for his kind, or more so...

H i m.

The plan would be easy. He would be able to access their source and strip them down. He would sacrifice his family and those of the surrounding packs. Evelyn believed He would be spared; Grant had told her that much. Her father would keep his word and Grant wanted his daughter happy, even if it meant she would kick him in the face and decide to breed with the abomination, infecting his family’s strengthened bloodline. Evelyn held onto that deep within, her own measure of safety, her father’s promise...

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In the clearing, the young wolves dashed to feel the cool of their sacred spring, the clear blue water slightly agitated by the pressure of the waterfall. It was deemed sacred because it flowed across all the pack lands and pooled a water hole in each territory. Blessed by the Moon Goddess herself, to heal and cleanse all her children alike. The waters were a refuge, a play space and spiritual ground for wolves in their lands, and the treaty protected this space and the rest just like it.

He walked to the open cave behind the waterfall away from unsuspecting eyes. The water was refreshing his nervous perspiring skin with its teasing splashes. He knew they were watching him. Too far to be sensed by the warriors but close enough to make sure it was done.

Approaching the back of the waterfall, He removed the large flask from beneath the baggy jumper he chose to hide his atrocities and opened it. The putrid stench hit the back of his nostrils; it was enough to make him stumble. He took a moment to deliberate his escape and loosely prepare for the finality of his betrayal, and his own curse.

The elixir glugged out of the flask, its tar-like texture miraculously dissolved in the water. It would slowly make its way through the waterways and be ready for the Blood Moon Feast Day, only a week away. As he prepared to conceal the flask again, a shuffle was heard. Over the noise of the waterfall, the shuffle was significant.

“What are you doing? What was in that?” Came a booming voice as the oversized figure approached.

Out of shock He fumbled with the flask, and it fell rolling with a click-clank to the feet of the figure, a man. The man bent to pick it up and in that moment, the decision that followed was necessary.

The man didn’t expect what was coming and He took that opportunity to quickly knock the man into the rock face and smash the back of his head with a deadly crunch. Limply, the man slinked onto the cool rock floor, dropping the flask with a piercing crash. Vermilion stained the wall and floor of the sacred space, tainting it with a new taste.

He was too calm. He must have been too broken to feel, or maybe his wolf was protecting him, for it was his wolf’s idea to live this happily ever after. And so, He proceeded to scoop up the man in his arms, struggling slightly with his size as He took him along the path and into the heart of the pack lands, to the pack house.

Clumsily enough, the flask was left behind. But in the strong foundation of the pack house, the pack gathered in flocks. Their sorrow infecting one another at the sight of their fallen, their chorused wail bringing them to their knees.

The Luna fell to her knees too, her gentle blue eyes glued open, unable to look away. Her heart clenching tight as it felt like it stopped, and her link burned with a hollow absence. She watched in a dreamlike state as her brother-in-law set down her Alpha. Her Mate.