Marked by the dark Alpha

Disha Flynn The claws tightening around my neck felt different this night. “Die, you little b***h, why don't you just die?” the soldier’s raspy voice scraped through my head like chalk and my lips parted in a silent scream. Da’s stocky body still twitched in the corner of my eyes and tears rolled down my cheeks as I pounded into the man’s chest. “W-why are you doing this?” My breathless cries bounced around in my head instead as the man’s cruel eyes whirled into focus…pitch-black, his fangs flashing dangerously close to my face. Da’s sticky blood pooled around my ears and I snapped my eyes shut when Ma’s haunting screams cut through the air too, like clockwork, followed by the sound of a sword whooshing and a meaty thump. The darkness waned in and out of my vision and I was alone when I came to, sputtering through the thick bloody phlegm that had gathered in my throat. The puckered flesh where the soldier’s sword had torn through Da’s neck gaped at me and I scrambled back on my hands and knees, running, panting. The smoke…there was so much smoke. Great white fumes seemed to billow out from everywhere and the cracking of wood and brick fell all around me. Heat scorched the hairs on the back of my neck as I ran to the one place I hoped I would be safe. It shouldn't have been different from all the other times, and yet, my thighs burned and my legs felt weaker than before. “Please, goddess please,” I cried inwardly, dashing up the creaking staircase and letting out a hollowed scream when the high dome ceilings crashed down behind me. The jutted ends scraped a deep, bleeding gash across my back that made my eyes widen, forcing me to dive for my brightly lit room. Something buzzed in my eyes and the ringing in my ears grew louder as I dove for the covers, snapping it around my body as my heart pounded hotly inside me. The Saint brothers…the leader of the Titan soldiers that killed Da and Ma… always came after the ringing. Did I lock the door? Good God, how could I have forgotten to lock the door? I could feel the suffocating press of the bed around me as I struggled to curl my fingers, willing my body to move as the stampede of footsteps pounded onto the hallway outside. So close, they were so close! “Help-” I wheezed, but the sound strained pathetically where my throat had trapped it before I heard the brass doorknob rattling and my body shot off the bed. “Oh my goodness, oh my-” I croaked, pressing my hands to my face and hair and body to make sure the horrid nightmare still playing behind my eyes wasn't real. I felt the muscles of my throat close around air and braced myself against the bronze canopy pillars, damned near tumbling over the mess of thin cotton sheets that tangled around my legs. I blinked frantically around the room and my entire body shook as I took in the mess of clothes in the corner, the shadowy grooves in the wall that seemed thicker than usual. The luxurious room looked nothing like it used to before the raid that happened nights ago, with sad wood walls holding the broken frame together. I pressed my hands into my eyes, willing the pounding of my heart to stop. Alone. I was alone. There were no monsters here. No Titans. I was safe for now, but how much longer before those monsters decided they hadn't had enough and came back? I staggered to my feet, bracing myself against the wet wood walls and sending a silent curse to the moon goddess. “Oh please, not this again,” I wheezed, coughing through the burning smoke I could still feel in the back of my throat from the nightmare. My heart was beating so hard that I clutched a hand to my chest, barely able to suck in a breath before i caught a look at my frightened face in the mirror’s reflection. Big hazel eyes glared back at me with large dark circles surrounding them. My sharp, small nose tipped over full pink lips that were still parted with breathless pants. Seven nights. That was how long it had been since the night the Titans broke into our pack and murdered my parents, taking all our treasures with them. In six weeks, I was going to be Queen of the Swan Pack. Queen of a dead pack. It was cruel, that I looked nothing like my mother. Valerie Flynn had been a monarch…with a tall proud face and thick black lashes that did nothing to mask the wisdom in her startling green eyes. My mother had never been afraid of anything, and yet, I ran like a coward that night and left them to die. Valerie Flynn was perfect, even in death. I looked like what was left of Little Red Riding Hood after the wolves were done with her. I wrenched my eyes away from the mirror when a sharp throbbing shuddered through my body. The sweet smell of rot and mildew made me wrinkle my nose before I staggered to the water pitcher, slapping some of the cold liquid onto my face and hoping it was enough to make me look more alive than dead. What did I ever do to deserve such pain? Someone banged on the wooden double doors of my room and I whipped around so fast that nausea rolled up my throat. “M’Lady?” A servant’s squeaky voice came just as the doors creaked open noisily and I squinted at the girl’s pale face, lined by a thin sheen of sweat. “Your Grace, I-Its the soldiers! They're back, M’Lady, It's horrible-” Rina whimpered, and something bitter balled in my throat when I saw the glassy hint of tears in her pinched eyes. I sucked in a large breath, snapping the fading silk of the only night coat I had left before hurrying out with the maid stumbling ahead of me. The noise of wolves wailing and crying filled the charred remains of the castle square. Rebuilding our fortress after the raid has not been going well. We didn't have enough resources for the materials. The Titans left our pack with NOTHING! Thunder rumbled through the early morning sky that was massed with thick gray clouds. How long had i been asleep? “Kyle? What is this?” I hissed, but my brother’s steely gaze was trained solely on the wooden gurneys laid at the center of the crowd, filled with wounded soldiers. “Goddess, what happened here? R-Roger? Tito?” I whimpered, sinking to my knees beside my brother’s stiff body and trailing my fingers carefully over the battered bodies of the men. I had sent over a thousand troops to Titan pack each night since the raid and not one of the men had come back alive. None of them had been able to avenge our pack’s disgrace. I swallowed the urge to retch into the burnt grass surrounding us, desperately waving off the fat, buzzing flies that hovered around their open wounds. “P-please, there has to be something you can do, Uncle, Anything-” I cried whipping around to face the stocky wolf elder, as more of the soldier’s wives rushed forward, falling to the ground with pained, gut-wrenching wails. “There is nothing, Your Grace. The men are missing their organs. It is what the Titans do, leave empty husks for other wolves to find and drag back home,” One of the fortress guards wheezed and I swallowed a shaky breath, screwing my hands up to fists at my sides. These set of soldiers had been my last hope, highly trained and skilled and yet, they were wiped out in a single night without so much as touching the Titan Pack gates. “How could this have happened?” I managed to choke out, but Kyle must have been waiting for me to speak because he tore to his feet, whirling to face me with angry hazel eyes. His dark hair was short, cropped around his angular face like a cap and his thin lips turned down in enraged lines. I held my hands out in front of me instinctively when I noted the dark look on his pretty face. Whatever was brewing inside him was close to blowing, and every nerve in my body warned me to get out before it did.