Dark Lullaby

**TRIGGER WARNING **

With closed eyes, Visenya shut out the sound of the feral beast charging towards her, seeking solace in the knowledge that once it was all over, she would finally find peace. It would have been the easy way out, but fate always seemed to have its own plans for Visenya, and convenience played no part in them.

A strong gust of wind whooshed by, drowning out the tiger's malicious growl and replacing it with a gurgled, retching sound. Visenya opened her eyes to find Lucian wrestling with the savage creature, his hands tightly wrapped around its neck as he pinned the tiger beneath him.

The tiger thrashed wildly, desperate to free itself from the grip of a much more dominant predator, but it was no match for a dragon... no one was. With ease, Lucian snapped the tiger's neck and tossed its lifeless body aside. Then, he turned his attention to Visenya, who lay naked on the ground, her body painted in her own blood.

He darted towards her like a raging cyclone, his anger evident in his fierce gaze. "What the hell is the matter with you?! Why are you just lying there?! Why weren't you fighting back?!"

Visenya found herself unable to answer him, as she struggled to make sense of her own emotions. She felt disconnected from reality, as if she had completely disengaged from the world around her. Despite the pain coursing through her body, she managed to pull herself to her feet.

"You've disobeyed me... again!" Lucian's voice echoed with frustration. "You know that you are not allowed outside my borders!"

Visenya remained silent, her grip tight on her abdomen where the pain was most intense. Her silence and the avoidance of his gaze only served to fuel his anger further. Lucian surveyed her wounded body, searching for any injuries that might require attention.

"You come all the way out here, not telling anyone where you've gone," he muttered under his breath as he furiously unbuttoned his shirt. "No concern for anyone but yourself, you heartless woman!" He shoved his shirt at her, demanding that she put it on at once.

"Heartless?" She scoffed, snatching the shirt out of his hands. "You're one to talk."

"I'm not the one obsessed with some bullshit utopian fantasy land where only Lycans and humans exist... and just fuck every other species on the planet, right?! You're just like your father!" He accused.

"I don't know what you're rambling about, but I am nothing like my father!" Visenya snapped back.

"No? Are you not fixated on carrying out your father's sick agenda?" Lucian challenged. "Trying to kill off the next species by starving them all to death for the last ten years? And look at you now... you don't think I know what you were out here looking for? You don't think I know what those berries do? So, what does that say about you?!"

His words had quite the bite today, but she refused to assume his role as the villain in this story. She had always strived to do what was right and just. She wasn't a monster for protecting humans, nor was she a monster for not wanting to bring children into such circumstances.

Angry tears welled up in her eyes, urging her to let them free, but she defiantly held them back. "Fuck... you..."

"Oh, you've already done that... in more ways than one. And I can't help but wonder how many of MY dragons you've flushed along the way... all because you're a self-absorbed, soul-snatching succubus!" He spat.

"Is that all I am to you, a fucking dragon breeder?!" She exclaimed, her frustration coming to a head.

He smirked, his tone dripping with arrogance. "No, not at all. You're also a nice place for me to put my cock whenever I'm bored."

Visenya screamed with outrage, her fists swinging wildly at him like a madwoman possessed. Yet, he effortlessly evaded each strike, only fueling her wrath further. Fed up with her outburst, he swiftly hoisted her over his shoulder and took his dragon form.

Despite her continuous barrage of expletives, he soared through the skies, carrying her back to the castle. Lucian landed near the palace doors, placing a visibly hysterical Visenya onto the cool cobblestone. With a swift transformation, he reverted back to his natural form.

“There! Now you can throw your damn tantrum to your heart's content!" He exclaimed, his voice tinged with exasperation. “But you’ll do it on my territory and with your damn clothes on! And should you ever dare to defy me again, it'll be one of your little humans who takes your place in the hole! Do you understand?!”

Visenya's eyes flared with indignation.
“Of course, you’d use the innocent against me!” Visenya retorted, her voice dripping with disdain. “Yet, you have the audacity to judge me?! You’re nothing but a miserable bastard who has to bring me down with you because you can’t even stand the thought of being alone with yourself!”

A surge of anger coursed through Lucian's veins, pushing him to retaliate. "Oh, believe me, being alone would be a blessing compared to this curse of being paired with you!” He shot back, his words dripping with bitterness. “I am counting down the days until I'm finally free from this wretched bond!"

Perhaps, Lucian should have never said that. In fact, he probably shouldn't have said a lot of things, but she made him so angry with her own below-the-belt insults. The guilt of his words began to eat away at the barriers of his closed-off heart, especially when he saw that all the anger in her eyes was immediately replaced with an unmistakable sorrow.

This is exactly how she gets him, tugging at his heartstrings with those big, brown eyes of hers. But not anymore, he reminded himself, determined to break free from her spell. She closed her eyes, attempting to quell the welling tears, and he couldn't help but roll his eyes at how predictable she was becoming.

"Let me guess..." He taunted. "This is the part where you start crying?"

Her eyes snapped open, no longer filled with sorrow but replaced with a fiery gaze of scorn. "No... you are not worth my tears. You never were."

She crumpled to the ground, a sharp pain shooting through her belly. Lucian stood above her, his gaze burning with frustration and annoyance at her obstinacy.

"Shift into your worthless wolf," he snapped, "...and stay out of my sight. I don't want to see your face for the rest of the night."

He stormed off towards the palace, leaving her hunched over on the ground. Delilah growled furiously, longing to sink her claws into him, but Visenya's distressed cries demanded all of her attention.

“Shift, Visenya... Let me heal whatever is causing you pain,” Delilah pleaded.

“I don’t know if I can... something feels terribly wrong,” Visenya confessed.

“Please, just try,” Delilah urged with concern.

Visenya just wanted to go to her room and lie down. Summoning her strength, she pushed herself upright and slowly made her way back to the castle, wincing with each agonizing step. The spasms were growing more frequent and intense, tormenting her with their relentless grip.

Finally reaching her room, Visenya collapsed to the floor, unable to suppress her groans of anguish. It felt as if someone were mercilessly grinding her insides.

“Please, let me help you,” Delilah pleaded with desperation. “Why won't you let me help you?”

A wet and warm sensation trickled down Visenya’s inner thigh, and her eyes widened as she noticed the pool of blood between her legs. Crawling towards the lavatory, she intended to cleanse herself, believing that her body was simply reacting to the withdrawal from the berries. It was either that or she was having the menses from hell.

She hadn't menstruated since she started eating the berries, which was five and a half months ago. So, that's surely all this was, she told herself as she clung to the edge of her bathtub, wailing in excruciating pain.

"I feel like... I feel like I need to push!" Visenya exclaimed, her voice trembling with urgency.

"Push? Push what?!" Delilah asked, her voice tinged with panic. "What is happening, Visenya?!"

"I don't know!" Visenya replied, her distress evident in her voice.

Visenya could no longer resist the urge to bear down. She hastily grabbed a towel and stuffed the end of it into her mouth, biting down with all her might to stifle the scream that erupted as she pushed with every ounce of strength she had.

First, a little head emerged, followed by a tiny face and delicate shoulders. With trembling hands, Visenya cradled the back of the newborn's head, gently guiding the rest of its tiny body into the world.

Visenya was in a state of utter shock, horror coursing through her very soul. All this time, she had unknowingly carried a child within her. The days of sickness and nausea, which she attributed to the berries she consumed, now took on a new and profound meaning. The moments of excessive hunger, she had simply chalked up to her master's cruel starvation tactics.

“I... I...” Delilah stammered, her voice trembling. “I never sensed her... I swear...”

Visenya leaned in, pressing her ear against the baby’s little chest. “She isn’t crying... I can’t find a pulse...”

Desperation filled Visenya as she gently rubbed the palm of her hand up and down the baby’s chest, desperately trying anything to revive her. “Please...” Visenya begged, her voice filled with anguish. “Please...”

“Visenya...” Delilah uttered softly, her voice full of sorrow.

“No!” Visenya dismissed her, her eyes welling with tears, already knowing what she was thinking. “She'll wake up... I know she will. She has to...”

“She’s gone... she came too early, Visenya.” Delilah's voice cracked with grief.

Visenya clutched her little baby close, her touch gentle as she traced her fingers along her tiny little feet... to her tiny little toes. With tender love, she placed her finger into her tiny little hand and kissed her tiny little fingers. Her heart ached as she noticed the smallest alpha mark she had ever seen on her tiny little shoulder, and the marking of a Dragon Lord etched across the thin, delicate skin of her tiny little chest.

"Such a special little girl you are," Visenya whispered softly, her voice trembling with heart-wrenching sobs that broke through and consumed her entirely.

Visenya thought she had known pain before, but nothing compared to the overwhelming grief she felt in that moment. She struggled to catch her breath, as if being crushed by the weight of her own guilt.

"This is all my fault," Delilah wept, her voice filled with self-blame. "I couldn't sense her... I'm a bad wolf."

Visenya shook her head vehemently, refusing to accept any of those words, not one bit of it. "How could you have sensed her? I've been poisoning her all this time. My own child... this precious little angel. You tried to warn me... you never wanted me to eat those berries from the start. I should have listened to you."

"You didn't know, Visenya," Delilah said, her voice filled with compassion. "If you had been in a better situation, where you were loved and wanted... you would have never made the choices you did."

"What about her?" Visenya mourned, her voice trembling with heartache. "She needed me to love and want her... and I failed her. Lucian was right... I'm no better than my father."

Visenya sat on the cold tile of her lavatory, cradling her baby girl close to her heart, as she wept all the tears she would ever weep in this lifetime. Gently, she wrapped her in a small, soft towel and placed her in the same basket where she once held those detestable berries.

With one final kiss upon her sweet child's head, Visenya tenderly tucked the basket onto the bottom shelf. Staring at her own despicable reflection in the mirror, she was overcome with self-revulsion for the choices she had made.

In a reckless fit of rage, she shattered the mirror with a clenched fist, fragments of glass scattering in all directions. As her lacerated hand dripped blood, she paused, contemplating the crimson flow, before using it to inscribe a final message on the wall. All the while, the haunting howl of Delilah echoed through her mind.

Visenya retrieved a shard of broken glass with her bloodied hand and climbed into the bathtub. "I'm sorry that I'm not stronger," her harrowing words escaped her lips.

"You are the strongest person I know," Delilah offered consolingly.

"I love you, Delilah," Visenya whispered, her words heavy with emotion.

Delilah's response was filled with equal affection. "I love you too," she said softly. "Rest well… my Queen."

Visenya's trembling hand clutched the broken glass, its sharp edge glistening ominously in the dim light. Resolute in her objective, she ran it along the center of her left wrist, then mirrored the action on her right. The pain was both agonizing and strangely liberating. She allowed herself to sink deeper into the tranquil embrace that had eluded her for so long. She wasn't afraid that death was coming to claim her; she wished it had come sooner.

As Visenya closed her eyes and took her final breath, her existence faded away. In that exact moment, a sharp, wrenching pang coursed through Lucian's heart, as if a piece of his soul had been torn away.