Blood and Betrayal

"Help" Maya shrieked, her voice tearing through the quiet night.

She threw herself against the floorboards, tearing the collar of her nightgown with her own manicured nails. Tears flooded down her cheeks in a frantic, desperate wave as she pointed a shaking finger toward the doorway.

"Help me, Someone help" she screamed, her voice echoing down the stone corridor. "He tried to force himself on me, Olivia helped him She set me up"

I froze, my blood turning to ice in my veins. "Maya, what are you doing?" I gasped, taking an instinctual step backward into the hall.

"You brought me here" Maya wailed, scrambling backward into the corner like a wounded animal. "You told me Cassian was waiting for me in this room You wanted him to take me so I would not be pure for the ceremony"

"What.. I...I did no such thing" I shouted, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. "You came here on your own"

Heavy, thundering footsteps tore down the hallway before I could process another breath.

Cassian burst through the doorway, his eyes glowing a dangerous, feral yellow. Curved black claws sprouted from his fingertips, and sharp fangs extended over his bottom lip. He took one look at Maya sobbing on the rug with her clothes torn, and his control snapped completely.

"Get away from her" Cassian roared, his voice carrying the deep vibration of a wild beast.

"Cassian, listen to me," I cried out, reaching a hand toward him. "She is lying, I saw her, she was trying to...."

"Shut your mouth, you useless snake pig" Cassian snarled, shoving me hard against the wall with enough force to knock the air straight out of my lungs. He rounded on Lucian, his chest heaving with blind, violent rage. "You came into my pack's house and laid your filthy hands on my mate"

Lucian stood by his desk, towering over the room. He slowly smoothed the cuffs of his dark shirt, his silver eyes cold and entirely unbothered by the wild animal standing before him.

"Control yourself, Cassian" Lucian said, his low baritone dropping like a heavy stone. "You are making a fool of yourself in front of your elders."

Members of the pack council rushed into the doorway behind us, shouting in confusion as they saw the blood on Maya's neck and the claws on Cassian's hands.

"Why would you do this"" Cassian screamed, drawing a heavy silver hunting blade from his belt and pointing it straight at his father's chest. "I challenge you to an immediate duel. Right here, right now, You will pay for touching what belongs to me"

"Cassian, no" I yelled, pulling myself up from the stone wall. "He did not touch her, She offered herself to him, I saw..."

"Silence" my mother yelled from the crowd of council members, glaring at me with raw hatred. "You have done enough damage, Olivia, You helped this monster ambush your own sister, look how far jealously has brought you"

"I'm not jealous of Maya"

"Shut it, we all know you wanted Cassian for yourself but this is a low move Olivia"

I looked away, so mom knew, everyone knew, probably even Cassian

"Do you accept the challenge, old man?" Cassian growled, his body shaking with fury. "Or are you going to hide behind your rank?"

Lucian let out a long, slow sigh. He did not reach for a weapon. He did not even raise his hands into a fighting stance.

"If you insist on being broken, son," Lucian said smoothly, "then I will break you."

Cassian let out a wild roar and lunged forward, swinging his silver blade in a brutal, blinding arc aimed straight for Lucian's throat.

The attack was fast, but Lucian was faster.

Lucian side stepped the blade with effortless grace, sidestepping the strike as if Cassian were a child swinging a wooden stick. Before Cassian could recover his balance, Lucian snatched his son's wrist in a grip of pure iron. A sickening crack echoed through the room as Lucian twisted the joint, forcing Cassian to drop the knife onto the floorboards.

"Is this the best the Silver Moon pack can train?" Lucian asked coldly.

Cassian cried out in pain, swinging his left claw toward Lucian's face. Lucian simply ducked beneath the strike, slammed a heavy fist into Cassian's exposed ribs, and swept his leg out from under him.

Cassian hit the stone floor with a deafening thud that rattled the glass windows. Before he could push himself up, Lucian brought his heavy leather boot down, pinning Cassian's head firmly to the cold floor right in front of the horrified council members.

"Stop!" Maya cried out from the corner, though her eyes were darting toward the open door, looking for a way to run. "Please, Alpha Lucian! Do not kill him!"

"Get off me!" Cassian choked out, spit and blood flying from his mouth as he writhed helplessly under his father's boot. "She is my mate! The moon goddess chose her for me! You cannot take her!"

"The moon goddess had nothing to do with this," Lucian said, his voice dropping into a deadly quiet that made every elder in the room freeze.

"You are just bitter because she chose me instead of an old monster like you!" Cassian hissed, clawing uselessly at Lucian's heavy boot.

Lucian reached down, grabbing Cassian by the back of his shirt collar and hauling him up until his son was forced to look directly at Maya.

"Look at her collarbone, Cassian," Lucian commanded, his tone sharp enough to cut bone. "Look at the mark you bragged about for six months."

Cassian blinked through his swelling eye, staring at the small, dark swirl etched into the side of Maya's neck. "It is the mate mark! We bonded during the spring moon!"

"That is not a mate mark," Lucian revealed, his silver eyes flashing with terrifying authority as he looked up at the council. "That is a dark blood ritual forgery, drawn with black root ink to fake a bond that never existed."