68. Bloody White Part I

“Hawthorn, I—”
“Who goes there?!”
Seff whipped around at the harsh bark. The two wolf-form guards were bounding toward them. Immediately Hawthorn pushed her behind him like a shield. “Hawthorn Henbane and Seff Bleize. I was sent an invitation by Sienna Haru to visit her.”
Fear speared her heart. *You idiot! They’ll kill you!*
“Seff Bleize?” one of them huffed. He padded around Hawthorn to find Seff hiding behind him. “*You’re* the one he’s so obsessed with?”
On her other side, the second wolf nosed her shoulder, quirking his head to the side. “You smell like Moon pack.”
The first, his gold pelt indicating him pureblood Sun, wrinkled his nose and retreated a step. “It’s not a secret that she and Lord Kiran are fighting over her.” Then his tongue lolled out between his teeth when he wheezed a laugh. “You’re just a slut for them to play with, right?”
The second’s fur was the coloring of Sky pack. His laughter was cackling as they trotted back in front of Hawthorn, raising themselves higher to show dominance. Seff managed to see their ears over Hawthorn’s shoulders. He was perfectly still, heartbeat steady. 
“Don’t,” she whispered to the curve of his spine, grabbing his wrist. “It’ll make things worse.”
Hawthorn didn’t return her touch. He was not a temperamental Alpha. If Seff was the only thing he loved, he had no one else to be territorial of. They were taken from each other, only just reunited, and of course the worst had to happen: she whom Hawthorn loved was insulted by the pack who separated them. 
“Hawthorn, please,” Seff begged. 
She heard the Alpha males snigger. “Are you her third lover? She must be *really* good at fucking.”
“Oh, look how angry he is! What, is a delicate Magnolia like you going to go up against two Sun Alphas?”
The sound of Hawthorn’s Shift felt like it tore Seff’s eardrums. His human form erupted into his wolf form and barreled into the Sky male first. Snarling and snapping, they rolled down the slight slope and crashed into an apple tree, sending the fruit falling down with thick *plunks*.
Seff watched in horror as Hawthorn’s fur splattered with blood—he yelped in pain when the Sky’s jaw clamped down on his foreleg.
“Hey, bitch.”
The Sun male blocked her view, towering over her, teeth bared and ears forward. The firelight reflected in his gold eyes made them glow with savage delight. “Can I be added to your list of lovers?”
Seff was done. *Done*. She wouldn’t stand to be tossed around by uncaring wolves or called nasty slurs, couldn’t bear to be the subject of jealousy and spite, absolutely sick of letting it all happen while she watched her own life fall apart.
She was done feeling helpless. 
A month and a half of all this shit dug a hole for anger and sorrow to well up in. Nw it overflowed and she was ready to take control—to take her life *back*.
The Sky male cried out, and it ignored the fuse in Seff’s chest.
The Shift ripped apart her body to form another. Snarling “Fuck no,” she leapt at the Sun male. 
He met her teeth with his. They were a sudden mass of fur and claws and spittle tearing up the grass, slamming into trees, tripping ungracefully on apples. 
Pain bloomed from each bite and scratch. Adrenaline fueled Seff’s every muscle for her; she was blind with the instinct to defend and attack, mindless with the intent to *win*.
She bit and scratched back. The smell of blood and sticky fur mingled with the sweet scent of apples, the Sun’s hot breath, all assaulting her nose and eyes. 
She thought she was winning. The Sun male rolled off her, backing up, ears flat and head down, ever the defeated whelp. She felt no pride yet, because *I’m not done with you*, snarled her wolf blood. 
The whimpering was only an act; she couldn’t let her guard down.
But Seff was an Omega and he was an Alpha. She could fend for herself for only so long before the superior body type outweighed the smaller. 
In her peripheral she could see Hawthorn looming over the Sky male, who was exposing his belly. The firelight illuminated their white pelts flattened with blood.
It was a mistake to look away.
The Sun roared and lunged, shouldering her with enough force for the wind to be knocked out of her. Her spine slammed into the trunk of the oak tree. The agony was like a lightning strike forking down each of her vertebrae. Her vision shuttered black and she forgot how to breathe.
Seff could still see the Sun and his gold eyes standing over her, muzzle wrinkled in a smile, tongue flicking up to wet his nose. “Pretty good fighter for an Omega bitch. Never mind on fucking you. The sight of all this blood made my rut end.”
The last of her adrenaline funneled away. “What,” she wheezed, “you’re going to kill me now?”
“I thought about it.” He looked her limp body up and down. “But I want to live. So I’m just going to get out of here and let you bleed out. No one’ll know it was me. And to make sure my scent is gone…”
His jaws closed around her scruff. Seff yelped. Her body was paralyzed as the Sun male dragged her toward the Crystal River. If he had been at his normal strength, it wouldn’t have taken much effort, but Seff had managed to land decent injuries, so he grunted with each step. 
“Don’t,” she whimpered. Her body had given up, but her mind hadn’t. She wanted to shout, swear, bluff how his scent could never wash away and Kiran would—
Realization crept up her weak spine. He was taking her to the river. She could barely move. She could hear the water rushing. It wasn’t deep or fast, as the Alphas had proved with their fight, but it could still carry away a body.
“Haw-Hawthorn!” The name squeaked out of her. The Sun male jerked his head. She felt like her scruff was just going to rip off. 
The grass turned to sand. Rushing water filled her bloody ears. The Sun was grumbling about how to get her in the water without getting his own paws wet.
*“Seff!”*
At the keening cry, the Sun opened his jaws. Seff hit the rough sand with a thud that jarred her vision black. “Hawth…”
It wasn’t a male’s voice. It took all her energy to lift her head. 
Backlit by the firelight, it was a small human form at the top of the knoll. “Get away from her!” shouted the female.
“Another contender,” chuckled the Sun to himself. “Hey, pretty flower, you wanna try to take a bite?”
“Yeah, I’m gonna bite your fucking face off!” she snarled. She broke into a run—but she waiting until she was halfway down the hill to Shift, as if hesitant, realizing only seconds before the male snapped his teeth together that there was no way a human form could defend against a wolf’s.
They crashed into each other like two waves in a storm, but the Alpha was still stronger than the Omega, and the female was shoved onto her back like a pushed-over toy. 
*“Allium!”* The howl tore from Seff’s raw throat, but the emotion behind it tore her heart open.
Her best friend had barely taken mock-battle lessons in the old fields of the College. She refused to get her white fur dusty. No matter how much her other friends and Seff tried to convince her it would all wash out, she would turn her nose up and refuse. 
“Fighting’s for warriors,” she would always say. “I’m not a warrior, I’m a flower waiting to be held by Kiran Cyrus.”
Seff didn’t see a flower here. Assuming a fighting stance and wrinkling her muzzle in a vicious snarl, Allium’s eyes glowed an unearthly green, staring down the Sun male with pure hate.
The male was bigger, stronger, older. An Omega winning against an Alpha was near-impossible. Even wounded, an Alpha’s strength could only be matched by another Alpha. And an Omega who never learned to defend herself?
“Allium,” Seff rasped. “Alli, no…” She had to get up. *Move, you damn idiot!* she yelled at herself. But she couldn’t keep her head up anymore; her cheek hit the sand. Her spine was clenched, and she had a feeling that even if she got to her feet, her legs would give out. *Gods, this is pathetic. I’m pathetic. Just…just lift your damn head*.
It took her all her will to simply do that. At the perfect time, the Sun launched himself at Allium.
She didn’t meet his attack with her own but instead rolled to the side. The male’s head whipped to snap, but she was out of reach. He spun around. She was nearly kneeling as she backed up step by step toward the thick trunk of the oak.
*No, Allium, you’re backing yourself into a corner!* Seff thought desperately. 
The Sun was chuckling, thinking the same thing as he matched her prowl. “Not a good place to be, pretty flower. I just broke your friend’s spine there.”
Seff couldn’t see if Allium looked toward her or not. Either way, the Sun jolted forward, jaws wide open, every ounce of strength propelling his legs forward.
Seff’s neck gave out. Her face hit the sand. A high-pitched yowl and the *thunk* of a body against solid wood splintered the night air.