The Truth Shall Set You Free-Part Two

"So... it's Visenya now, is it?" Her stare pierced through him, as sharp and deadly as ever. "Not dog? Or mutt? Or whore?!"

Lucian squeezed his eyes shut, a breath of despair escaping from the depths of his soul.

"What have you done?" She whispered, her gaze falling upon her chest.

The tips of her fingers delicately traced the marking that was now etched into her flesh. "Delilah!" She cried out, her voice filled with anguish. "My wolf..."

"I didn't know she wouldn't return with you," he confessed. "I didn’t know how any of this worked.”

Her hands dropped to her belly, and the weight of the loss that she had suffered was evident in her eyes. He could sense her grief, her guilt, as if it were still fresh from the night it all happened.

"All this time..." she glared at him, her voice trembling. "You have just been lying to me this whole time?! You are sick!”

"I wanted to tell you," he confessed, his tone apologetic. "Every single day...I wanted to tell you the truth."

She walked right past him, her eyes cold and distant, no longer interested in hearing another word from his deceitful mouth. He followed her up the stairs, reaching out to take hold of her hand in a feeble attempt to explain himself.

"Do not touch me!" She snapped, shrugging his hand off of her with force. "Don't you ever touch me!"

"Where are you going?" His heart crumbled into a thousand pieces as she headed straight for the palace doors.

She turned around, her eyes blazing with anger, burning a hole right through him with her livid stare. "I am leaving!"

The doors burst open behind her, unleashing a hair-raising gush of wind. Thunder roared and lightning bolts illuminated the dreary night sky, as if nature itself echoed her rage.

"Please," he pleaded, his voice filled with desperation. "It's the middle of the night. Can we just talk about this?"

"What did you do to Caspian?!" She demanded, her voice trembling with anger. "I swear to the Goddess, if you've harmed him..."

"He's fine... I swear it," he reassured her, his voice pleading for her trust. "I would never do anything to hurt you... not anymore. I love you, Visenya."

"No..." she whispered, her disbelief turning into a torrent of tears cascading down her cheeks.

"I do..." he persisted, his own eyes welling up with emotion. "I love you."

"No, no, no! Stop saying that!" She cried out, her voice filled with pain. "You don't love me! You don't treat someone you love the way you've treated me!"

"You're right, I was wrong," he admitted, his voice filled with remorse. "But I'm different now... I've changed."

"And what?! You think that just erases all those months of hell that you put me through?! I hate you!" She shouted, her fists pounding against his chest. "I fucking hate you!"

He endured every single one of her blows, knowing very well that he deserved far worse. Her strength soon faltered, and her head lay against his chest as she burst into uncontrollable sobs. Lucian couldn't resist the urge to wrap his arms around her; his longing to hold her was overwhelming.

All he wanted was to make things right with her somehow, someway. But the moment she felt his touch, she immediately recoiled and stormed out of the castle.

"Visenya, you can't leave," he pleaded, trailing behind her like a lost pet.

"What are you going to do, lock me away in your basement?" She spat. "Don't you get it?! I would kill myself a hundred more times just to get away from you!"

"You don't mean that," he whimpered. "You were happy... we were happy. You know it's true. We belong together."

"Belong together?" She scowled. "I am nothing to you, remember?! You said that! Those were your words!"

Fueled by her anger, she stormed off towards the stables, the crackling of the electrical storm mirroring her volatile temperament.

Lucian, overwhelmed with remorse, pounded his fists against his head, his wails of regret echoing through the air. "I didn't mean it! I was angry, I was bitter!"

Driven by desperation, he bolted after her, closing the distance and wrapping his arms around her waist.

He buried his face into the warmth of her neck. "You have to believe me. You are everything to me... you're my everything."

For a fleeting moment, Visenya succumbed to the yearnings of her heart. She melted into the security of his embrace, deeply moved by the sincerity of his words as he wept his bleeding heart out... but that moment quickly passed.

With a forceful gesture, she pushed his arms away and marched into the stable to retrieve her horse, which was already agitated by Lucian's presence. Gripping the horse's reins tightly, she fought to maintain control of the frenzied animal as she guided him out of the stable. Lucian stood in front of the exit, his towering figure blocking the only way out.

"Get out of my way!" She demanded, her voice filled with authority.

"You don't have to go out there alone," he offered, his tone gentle and reassuring. "I'll take you wherever you want to go."

Her horse began rearing in fright, its movements growing more erratic by the second.

"Goddess, even the animals fucking hate you!" Her words spewed out like venomous daggers.

With a firm tug on the reins, she brought the horse back down on all fours and locked eyes with it, commanding it to be still. Whatever she did seemed to work like sorcery because the horse now stood calmly at her side, no longer threatened by the dragon's presence. She moved forward, leaving Lucian with no choice but to step aside or risk being trampled.

Just as she was about to mount her horse, Lucian dropped to his knees in one last desperate plea. "Visenya, look at me! I am on my knees... I am begging you! Please, don't leave me! You're all that I have!"

She stood there, frozen, with her back facing him, her mind and heart locked in a fierce battle. She desperately told herself not to do it, "Don't you dare look back!" She screamed inside her head, but she just couldn't help herself.

Reluctantly, she glanced over her shoulder at him, and what she saw was a sight she never thought she'd witness in her life: Lucian, on his knees, sobbing uncontrollably like a neglected child.

She approached him with a slow and deliberate stride, kneeling before him with an aura that exuded power and grace. Their eyes met, and she found herself gazing into his sorrowful and pleading eyes.

Leaning in, she delicately brushed her cheek against his and whispered in his ear, "Stop crying... you look pathetic." She rose to her feet, casting a cold, piercing gaze down at him.

"Visenya?" His tone void of all hope when she turned her back on him, leaving him to wallow in his pitiful state down in the gravel.

In that moment, she made a resolute decision to block the link between them, shutting him out of her heart just as he had callously done to her in the past.

"Visenya?!" His desperate cry reverberated through the night, a plea filled with anguish and regret, as she mounted her horse and disappeared into the darkness, gradually fading out of his life.

"Visenya!!!" He cried out one final time, his voice echoing with the deafening clap of thunder while the lightning cast an eerie glow upon his crumbling world, as if to emphasize the weight of his shattered heart.