TWENTYSEVEN

I counted down the days until they would finally be free.

In a way I saw them as my people, and in a way I guess they were.

Either way I felt responsible for their wellbeing and wouldn't rest until I knew they were safe, they deserved that much.

When the day finally came I ran down to the dungeons at day break, before the Alpha had even woken.

I had stolen the keys from his office the night before, but for some reason my heart seemed to pound more now than it did then. I put it down to the Adrenalin, the thrill of the moment. After all the Alpha would have my head if he realised I had gone down to the dungeons without him.

Even though he wouldn't admit it, I knew he secretly didn't trust these people, even after all they had gone through.

Only three figures sat hunched in the cell now. The other four couldn't overcome the chemicals in their system, it was a grisly and undignified end. Though I saw to it that they were buried in marked graves, just beyond the border line.

There was a slight jingle as the key slid into the lock, then a click, and a screech of iron on stone as the door creaked open. A shock of white hair stood out amongst the darkness as they began to stir.

A pile of broken and mangled limbs began to untangle, becoming three separate beings.

One male. One female. One child.

Her haunting lilac eyes shone through the darkness like a headlight.

They all came to their feet, standing offcentre like a witches creations of horror with their crooked limbs and hair that was matted thick with blood. Life had not been kind to these souls.

The male, rising to his full height had to stand at at least 6'3, and though his body was gangly and gaunt with many nights of empty bellies he still had muscle like a cat. The light rebounded off his deep toned skin, giving him a reflective quality, and making the hollows of his cheeks and sunken iris all the more prominent as he stumbled towards me with uncoordinated steps.

"What is your name?" I asked, tilting my chin and trying to recreate the Alphas stony coldness and authority.

He kept coming, like a rolling boulder he could not be stopped. I stepped back, only to be met with the frigid stone behind. I repeated myself, this time with a little less certainty.
"I said, what is your name?"

He tilted his head, like a dog hearing a command but he didn't stop and within a few dragging footfalls he was towering over me.
I refused to show my fear.

"Speak!" I growled, the harsh sound ripping through the hall. The child shrunk back behind the woman.

His honey coloured eyes dragged lazily over my features. Before finally a stomach wrentching smirk that resembled more of a snarl tugged at the outer corner of his lips.

"Pollux." He said, but he didn't stand down. The challenge was still there.

"Well Pollux.. I don't know what you're trying to prove, but I'm not here for a fight." I snarled, "So stand down!"

His eyes narrowed and eyebrows knitted together as he studied me for a long while before he finally said. "You don't remember us do you?" His hand reached out to trace my cheekbone. I froze, sucking a frigid wind that caught in my throat. I struggled not to choke.

My mouth opened but no words came out, all I could do was stare into his face and desperately hope for a connection to form. Instead the only think that happened was the child screamed as Pollux was slammed into the metal bars.

"Don't touch her!" Theos roared, his hand wrapped around Pollux's throat.

"Let him go!" I cried, lurching forwards to try to rip the two giants apart. But I doubted Theos even heard me. I tried digging my nails into his forearms, hitting his back. Goddess, I even tried pulling him, but still all he saw was Pollux's paling face.

What I did next was brash and uncalled for, but I couldn't think of anything else to get his attention. I stood behind him and put my arms around him, lowering my fingers with sinful ease over his pants till they brushed over his manhood.

Immediately Pollux fell to the floor, the once massive man now seeming smaller than I, as the Alpha rounded on me with gunmetal eyes.

"Theos!" I shrieked as he shoved my into the wall, burying his face in my neck, his large hands on my waist holding me there. "Think about what your doing!"

I felt a tender kiss on my skin, before it was set on fire as he buried his teeth in my neck.

***

He said what he did was called a claim.
To open a bond between us, that would be sealed by mating. Forever.

For the very second his canines buried themselves into my flesh a door opened that could never be closed.

Beyond that door was a whole new world. New senses, new thoughts, new feelings.

It was like we were the only two to exist in this wretched world and that distressed me. This was wrong, so wrong. I felt like I had betrayed my sister, though he didn't directly kill her it was his command that lit the flame that blew up in her face.

My entire body felt as though it was humming with the electricity of his touch, whatever had been there before seemed like a tiny candle flame compared to this inferno.

But we weren't and I was brought back to reality by a sniffle from the pale haired child.

The very child who now sat curled up in a ball before the fire. The safe place Theos had spoken of was a large timber cabin on the outskirts of the pack. His home.

It felt strangely personal to be let into his own private space.

The flames hissed and cracked as they devoured a fat log under the safety of the hearth. The child didn't stir as I slid from her grasp, venturing across the hall.

Theos sat behind a desk in his study doing paperwork, the light casting harsh shadows in the hollows of his cheekbones, making him look just as threatening as he actually was. A shark pang of pain in my shoulder reminded me of that.

I leaned against the door frame, just watching him for a while. How his forearms flexed and tensed. How his hands ran through his dark hair every now and again.

He knew I was there, but he made no move to acknowledge me. He was angry with himself, his pride had been wounded when his beast took control. He said his beast had only ever managed to get full control over him one other time.. the day Mare died. He wouldn't say anymore, but his actions spoke louder than any words ever could.

With a sigh he threw down the papers he had been working with on the desk. "Why don't you just come in already?"

I bit my lip, edging further in I mumbled, "I didn't want to disturb you."

He pinched the bridge of his nose, wrinkling his forehead. I must be annoying him, I began to back out. "I should go.."

"No." He rumbled. "Stay."

Part of me liked him telling me what to do. The simplicity of the short and sharp commands made sinful parts of myself tingle, but the nonconformist within wanted to rebel just to spite him. Maybe that was the part that was still bitter over Mare..

I stepped inside the room, sucking in a anxious breath as I shut the door, careful to keep it from slamming.

"You said you didn't want to disturb me?" He said with a frustrated smile as I perched on the edge of the desk next to him, scanning over the documents. I nodded.

"Then tell me Artemis," His smouldering honey eyes seemed to pierce holes in my heart, making it fumble and skip beats. "Why no matter how hard I try.." His strong hands wrapped around my hips and a bolt of lightning shot through my every limb, pulling me toward him in one fluid moment so that I slid from the desk to straddle him, the electricity practically humming between us. "I can never seem to get you out of my head."

My greedy hands climbed to feel his hard and muscled chest, to feel his heart and that sacred spark that only mates could feel, only to feel the strong pulse was just as erratic as mine. My lips parted slightly, slow, shallow held breaths trying to settle the raging tides inside that caused my fingers to shake in a way that they didn't before though seemed to now.

He gazed down at me lazily through half hooded eyes, watching my fascination at the deep, rhythmic bass of his heart. I couldn't stop the whisper that escaped my lips almost in disbelief at my discovery, "You feel it too?"

A small smile spread across his lips, as his hand cupped my cheek. "Of course I do."

He was thunder.
He was lightning.
He was rain.

But after it all he was the sun, the blinding ray of gold that shone through the darkness he surrounded himself in.