84: Fear of death

**Warning! Mentions of gore and graphic violence**

**Tristan**

I could tell that Ambrose was not at all impressed to see his sons alive. Nonetheless, he smirked before raising his hands and saying, “Oh goody! All my demon spawn gathered in one place.”

Ambrose then took a moment to analyse us all carefully. He nodded to himself and then chuckled. It was then that I felt a sudden shudder of nervousness take a hold of me. All of us were in no shape for a fight. The only people capable were London and Amber and unfortunately, they were much weaker and inexperienced than Ruth, Ryder and Ambrose. I also feared that the other rogues would be closing in on us soon. If that were to happen, we were all seriously fucked. But I couldn’t give up now. None of us could.

I took a moment to think, to form some type of plan in my head. However, it soon became apparent to me that everyone else preferred to act before thinking anything through. This came in the form of sharp, long claws which protruded from Ambrose’s shoulder. Blood came gushing out of his wound, staining his shirt in the dark colour of red. I assumed that a wound like that would have been painful, but Ambrose barely even flinched. Instead, his smile grew wider, more sinister, unsettling the lot of us. He slowly turned around with London’s claws still stuck in the side of his shoulder, making her hand twist around his back as he moved. Next, he swiftly grabbed her by her throat and the terrified look in her eyes shook me down to my core. I’d never seen anyone as afraid of Ambrose as she was. However, the moment Ambrose laid his hands on London, Amber was ever ready to lay her hands on him. Unfortunately, Ruth grabbed Amber the moment she tried to launch her hand into the side of Ambrose’s face, pulled her against her chest and then wrapped her arm tightly around her throat.

That was when I saw the look on Jasmine’s face. Her brows were furrowed, framing the enraged look in her eyes and her jaw was clenched as tightly as her fists. She was just about ready to attack and although I knew she’d be capable of injuring Ambrose, I also knew that with Ruth and Ryder so close to him, it was way too risky. And so, I attempted to attack in her stead. Despite the crippling exhaustion in my body, I willed myself to rush forward towards the man. I, however, was not the only one ready to attack. Lucien and Damon were right behind me, running towards the bastard too.

“Put her down you asshole!” Lucien yelled. It was then that Ambrose turned around to face us, London’s throat still at the mercy of the grip his hand had around her. That smile still remained on his face and he let out a chuckle before lifting her up off of the ground and saying snarkily, “Your wish is my command.”

Suddenly, the sound of London’s screams pierced through the air as her body collided with all three of ours. The impact of her body against ours sent us all crashing to the ground with Damon even landing painfully on his arm which, once it hit against the floor, made a ghastly *crack* sound. My body was none the better. My skin was already on fire and my muscles were aching from the withdrawal setting in, and so when London’s body crashed into mine, my suffering became almost unbearable. I assumed Lucien found himself in a similar position as a look of complete and utter anguish appeared on his face. I was certain that London herself, was in pain, and yet despite this, she was the first to take back to her feet. I was surprised by the look that had taken over her face. She was no longer terrified, instead, her face was consumed by the hot rage that she was feeling.

“Damon and Lucien were right, *dad*, you’re a fucking dead man.”

Ambrose raised his brows in a sense of sarcastic surprise before saying, “And who the fuck is going to kill me? You? Please London, don’t kid yourself. You couldn’t kill me if you tried.”

She shrugged and then nodded. “You’re right. I can’t kill you… but she can.”

She then looked at me and gave me a quick, small smile before setting her eyes back on her father’s. “I hope you’ve got your affairs in order, because today will be the last day you live, *dad*. Now get your hands the fuck off of my wife, Aunt Ruth!”

“If you want your wife back, London, then come over here and pry her from Ruth’s hands.” After Ambrose said this, Ruth tightened her arm around Amber’s throat. London growled lowly, threateningly. Ambrose, however, ignored her and turned towards Ryder before nodding. Ryder nodded back and then grabbed at Jasmine roughly. That was all it took for us all to pull ourselves together and get back to our feet. Jasmine shrugged her arm away from him and growled lowly, warningly. Ryder responded by doing the same, but just before things could get too heated between the two, Oliver stepped in. Both Jasmine and Ryder stopped growling immediately and Jasmine gazed up at him questioningly.

“It’s my dad. I can’t let him lay a hand on you. This is not your fight to fight, it’s mine.” He said softly before resting his eyes back on his father.

Jasmine looked conflicted but said and did nothing more to stop him. It was a matter between father and son, and she could not interfere. Loren, however, was more than ready to help Oliver out. But once again, he refused. Even I could see that Loren was nowhere near ready to fight. Although Lucien and I had healed her, the consequences of the wolfsbane poisoning were still not out of her system yet. Then again, Oliver didn’t look so hot himself. He was still overly exhausted and weak from the entire debacle with Loren and the dark circles around his eyes and the paleness to his skin were more than proof of this. And so, I elected to try to help him too. Not only was the person he was trying to protect my sister, but the person he was fighting against helped raise me too. And so, I’d refused to take no for an answer if he tried to stop me from helping him too. Again, I started running, we all did, with London running towards Amber, and Damon, Lucien and me charging straight for Ambrose. I wasn’t, however, as fast as I’d hoped I’d be. Instead, I could barely keep myself up on my feet. Lucien glanced back at me, concerned, but I shook my head. At least one of us had to make it there, at least *one* of us. Or so I thought. London made it to Ruth with ease, but the moment Lucien and Damon made it to the front door, Ambrose grabbed each by the throat and slammed them down hard onto the ground. Both were winded and caught off guard, but Damon soon started struggling against the strength of his father, Lucien too. Although Damon was proving to be quite a challenge for Ambrose to hold down, Lucien barely had any strength left in him. That’s when the panic started to set in and the speed of my aching, wobbly stumbles increased, even more so when I saw the deadly look on Ambrose’s face. He wasn’t just trying to hold them down; he was trying to suffocate them.

Luckily for me, I wasn’t the only one alarmed by Ambrose’s new targets. Surprisingly Loren rushed to Lucien’s side, trying to pry Ambrose’s hand off of Lucien’s throat. Jasmine, in her own panic, rushed towards Damon. But before she could even touch him, Ambrose let go of Lucien, grabbed Loren and swiped his clawed fingers at her face before pushing at her, sending her falling to the ground. That was when everything went even further downhill. Oliver was immediately caught off guard by the sight and sound of his mate’s body colliding with the ground and almost instinctively abandoned his battle with his father before racing to her side. And it was within all of this distracting chaos, that both Ryder and Ambrose swiftly attacked. Ryder plunged his claws deeply into Jasmine’s chest, sending blood gushing from the wound and Ambrose let go of Damon too and in a movement so swift I could barely follow it with my eyes, he lodged his claws deeply into her chest too, intertwining his claws with Ryder’s. In that moment, I could practically here their claws rip right through her beating heart. And as her heart ripped apart, so did mine. It was as though the moment were suspended by a tiny thread, hanging in the air, for all to bask in the horror of it. And then, the thread snapped, sending reality crashing down on us all. That was when I snapped too, driven to the point of insanity by the sight of my sister’s body plummeting to the ground and the blood from her gaping wound, pooling onto the floor. All I saw was red as my body shifted involuntarily, transforming into a wolf version of myself I’d never quite experienced before in my life. This version of my wolf was powered by something dark, dangerous, deadly. The urge to kill had ignited every inch of my body. It was at that moment that red, hot blood no longer flowed through my veins and gave me life; instead, it was the pure, raging hatred which pulsed through me and elevated me into a new level of power I’d never truly experienced before. I barely registered what my body was doing. It was a flash of colours of red and the metallic scent of blood and the sounds of screams all meshed into movements of ripping and biting and clawing. At some point, Ambrose had taken to his wolf form too, shocked at my reaction to his act of killing my sister. But he was hardly strong enough to defend himself against this version of me. I ripped through his flesh in an instant, tearing right through, clawing and clawing until the floor was stained in more red. He tried to fight back, at some point even managing to take a clawed swipe at my left eye and a hard kick into my side. But the searing pain of his attack did nothing to deter me from my task- to *kill*. Ruth and Ryder tried to come to his aid too, but were stopped immediately by London and Oliver who, like me, were high and powerful on emotion too. The only people who weren’t in full blown attack-mode were Damon, who had his hands over Jasmine’s chest in a desperate attempt to stop the unstoppable bleeding and Lucien who was at his brother’s side, hands over Damon’s in an attempt to share the anguish his brother was consumed by. Loren had gotten out through the back door upon instruction of Lucien and attempted to find the pack healer. Bloodshed reigned supreme within the house, with grunts and cries and the sound of claw and teeth against the softness of warm flesh and of blood splattering on the floors and walls filled the air.

The first to fall was Ryder, dead by the hands of Oliver who had nothing but a cold and disgusted sneer to offer his father as a goodbye. Ruth was the second, completely beheaded by London who thereafter clutched at Amber tightly and then joined the rest around Jasmine’s body. Finally, Ambrose began to fade too, overwhelmed by my rage and hatred and anguish. I would have gone further and absolutely disfigured the man to something completely indiscernible, but it was Lucien’s voice that stopped me, pulling me out of the rage-filled frenzy I’d found myself completely trapped in. Slowly the red began to fade, and with it, my exhaustion replaced it. I couldn’t even hold my wolf form, and the moment I turned human, Lucien wrapped me up in the old shirt he had been wearing. I neared Ambrose’s body cautiously. His body was on the floor, blood-stained and limp. His heart was barely beating, but his eyes still darted around the room, and then, they rested on my face. That’s when I saw it- an unfamiliar substance welling up in his eyes. Tears. They soon ran down his cheeks, staining against the paleness of them. Although it was strange to see him cry, I felt no pity or sadness for him. I couldn’t.

“I-I’m afraid…” he uttered softly before slowly lifting his arm and beckoning for me to come closer.

I wanted to hear what more he had to say to me, but before I could even move, Lucien gently touched at my shoulder and when I looked up at him, shook his head. I shrugged his hand off gently before ignoring his warning and moving closer to Ambrose.

The fear of dying had consumed his hazel eyes. I found it strange to see him so frightened. What was stranger, however, were his next words to me.

“I-I’ve never l-loved a-any of m-my biological children. B-but y-you… y-you I loved like my own d-daughter.” It left his mouth in a stumble of sounds and breaths and hisses.

For a moment, I had no idea how I felt about the words Ambrose had just told me. And then, after a moment of contemplative silence, the feeling finally set in. I was angry again. I was angry because he’d deluded himself into believing that he *loved* me. He’d deluded himself into thinking that taking away who I was and replacing it with who he wanted me to be was love. Instead, Ambrose had at some point begun to fear me. And it was that fear that compelled him to keep me as close to him as he possibly could.

And so, I said, with warm, angry tears running down my face, “You have never loved me a day in your life. You only admired me because you feared me. And I’ve never once been your daughter. Instead, I became your weakness- the only thing that could possibly bring about your downfall. Ambrose, I once gave you life again because I could not live without you, now I’m taking it back, because I can’t live another day with you.”