The Alpha Mate Revenge

When The Blood Spills

The sentence, yelled in my mind, just as it had been yelled in the mind of every other inhuman member of the pack, resonated false, uncalled-for, unbelievable.

My feet menaced to give in as the words didn’t seem to make sense in my mind.

The voice, it had been the beta’s one, Alarik’s. A voice that I recognized instantly. One who had been plagued with shame by its tone.

“What happened to you dad ?” I couldn’t help but ask myself, anxiety building inside.

My feet, despite wanting to give in, continued to run, hitting the cutting ground with new-found strength. I could feel my bare feet being scratched by glass, stones and the harshness of the soil. Just as my body had been susceptible to the trees’ branches and trenchant leaves. But I didn’t stop. I continued, enduring it, enduring all the pain and the suffering while only wishing for it to not be too late.

My body and my feet were hurting me, but I wouldn’t have stopped for anything in the world. My gown was filthy, the pearly white becoming a black and muddy mess by the end and my lungs aching for steady breaths.

But I still ran.

Ran with the hope that it wasn’t too late.

Soon, in my submerged state of hunting for them, I started to hear voices, voices in the large rising with the wind and the silence of the night.

I stopped to a halt right after, hiding between the trees, when I was in front of a clearing where dozens of men I knew weren’t ours were encircling some others that I recognized, while some were simply lying on the ground, already dead.

I tried to move my head, to see more of it, to understand the meaning and, as my hand left the solid and harsh wood of the tree, to make my body able to bend further ahead. I saw the kneeling figures of my father and Alarik. That simple image had made my eyes widen in fear.

They were outnumbered, circled by men and females, with no way to escape.

Even worse were the words that came next, echoing to my far-away ears, moving my body with a powerful jolt of panic.

“Nigel Almaran, your sentence will be death tonight.”

No, no, no, no.

My mind screamed those words and as I saw a sword aiming for him, my body just couldn’t refrain from whatever unthoughtful action I had prepared to doom us all even more.

I left the trees, only to start running towards the crowd of amassed bodies. The soldiers blocking the view felt my presence and as they tried to move and look back to take a glimpse at me and catch me, I debated, sending blows and removing my caught limbs tiresomely, with screams and cries of protest leaving my mouth.

“ No, dad !”

I was beyond afraid, and it gave me the strength of a thousand men as I continued moving front, uncaring for the fatality that would be plaguing us all. When my body passed them successfully, I doubted it, but continued anyway.

I ran to my father, with no regard to anybody else, and when he saw me, I could fully recall and see the sorrow and the reprehensions he was having for me as I approached him.

I ignored it all, simply because I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

The time seemed to stop or only slow, with figures trying to catch me again, almost in slow motion as adrenaline was pumping harder in my system, making every feeling and sensation tenfold in both my body and mind.

Fortunately, I dodged them, arriving finally in the middle of that sordid assembly. My body jumped towards my father’s and I encircled him like never before, with a strength I rarely used. I kept his bloodied and beyond hurt body against my trembling one. My hands went feverishly around the back of his neck while my cheek collided horribly with his bloody and open one.

I tightened my hold even more than possible, keeping him next to me, never wanting to leave him whatever it would cost me.

At that moment, I was ready to protect him with my life.

“ Please, don’t kill him.”I heard my voice scream in the clearing, ravaged by the cracking sound linked to tears I never knew about before that moment. “ Leave him alone.” I added even more desperately.

My dad didn’t move, even though I felt him stiffen next to me. Despite it, despite the shame and the tears, I willed to stay right there anyway.

“ Move away.” I heard a strong voice speak behind me, a voice that made my back straighten, and my fear hit new tops. “ Or you will die with him.”

My eyes widened for a second at the statement and the coldness and inhumanity of it, before they closed forcefully again.

All I did, despite the fear, was cling to my father even more, tears running and spilling loudly from my eyes and face to his shirt and back as I cradled him stronger and fearfully against me.

“ Alba.” my father called, making my sobs calm for a split second.

I waited for his sentence, but all that came was his hand moving and trying to irremediably push me away.

I didn’t budge.

“ No.” My shattering voice screamed at him in the silent void of the clearing.

It felt as if it was only me, my dad, and this death sentence awaiting us. All that being added to the numerous evil eyes sported on our bodies.

“Child” he called again, still trying to push me away, his voice softer this time.

I knew that he was about to say something else, but before it could have escaped his lips, I felt a hand hunch me back by my left forearm. Soon, I was still on the ground, kneeling, but facing me wasn’t my dad anymore as my wide and fearful eyes went up and collided with hazel ones.

The man in front of me looked at me with hate, hate that I tried to mimic to the fullest extent.

I must have succeeded in some way, because the hate started slowly to vanish and all that was left was his stoic face studying mine.

Pride is nothing facing death, the voice resonated in my head.

“ Please, don’t kill him, please. ” I begged, on knees.

How humiliating it must have been.

He didn’t flinch, look up, down or at any other thing than my eyes and somewhere in this stare, I thought I had maybe succeeded in convincing him otherwise, as his shoulders seemed to sink down.

How wrong was I.

In an instant and swift movement that my eyes saw but couldn’t stop, the sword in his hand moved front and all I heard was the struggle.

The gargling of a mouth full of liquid, bubbles forming, full of air before popping.

Somewhere in between his action and its consequence, I ended up drenched in a hot liquid, the side of my face fully blown by it.

My bewildered eyes met with one of my hands that touched my cheek only to be faced by liquid red.

The same that ended up somehow in my mouth.

The same red that was sprawled everywhere.

The red of death.

Still looking in his eyes, my stunned and unbelieving orbs were swimming in his antipathetic ones that didn’t tell anything of what he must have done.

His darkened eyes contained no remorse nor regrets.

My own reached my right side tentatively, miserably, trying to see whatever happened, to understand why my father stopped breathing behind me.

But I knew too much, too well, too soon as my eyes collided with the sword starting from the creek of his neck and ending in the inside of his abdomen.

And just for the figures, just for the fun, for the love of it, for the thrill, his body decided right there to fall loudly to the ground, lifeless.

He was dead, so dead and all I saw was red.

The red of blood, the red of danger, the red of madness.

And next time my eyes met with those murderous ones, I lost control as I launched.

My body left its kneeling position, but he didn’t move, he just stood there, ready for collision as my claws ripped through his flesh, deeply, making that constant red a sight of relief for the first time of my life when it flew between us.

He never tried to budge, didn’t debate.

Swallowed by the hate, I was ready to draw more, ready to kill for the first time, but my head thumbed at my side, loudly, painfully, and my body joined the ground limply.

I felt paralyzed by both the pain and my inside suffering.

At that moment, all I saw was red again, as it blurred my vision, enabling me to see fully.

My ears couldn’t pick up on anything anymore, but I still heard the faint deathly whisper of Alarik as death kissed his body too and made him follow the path of my father.

I was next, and my vision blurred even more, my teeth clenching painfully when, rapidly, a hot liquid touched my back and started quickly to stain my once pearly gown.

All I saw had been red, until I couldn’t see anymore and just at that instant, my body shot up, struggling for air.

My eyes searched for the arounds, searching for an enemy, a threat, but all they saw was a bedroom dimly lit by the moon’s presence.

My hands went in my somehow damp hair due to the perspiration and my heart, with each second that passed, started to calm down.

I stood up from the bed when I knew I had regained composure, walking towards the adjacent bathroom. I switched on the lights and as my body stood facing the immaculate glass in front of me, all I saw was me.

Me, the same one of minutes before, the same me that was running in the woods, searching for its father, assisting its death.

But it had been long since I knew that me wasn’t the same anymore.

I looked at my black hair, wet from the struggle, my green eyes dulled by the vision and my wan and pale face that never really got better.

I wasn’t her.

I wasn’t me of five years ago and I will never be again.

And I will show them all.

It was a nightmare animated by my vow, a constant reminder. I would see red again, except for the fact that it won’t be my people’s anymore.