When Alphas Bleed.

The hall was a bomb about to go off--still, but with the promise of eruption in it.

Motion was still.

Selene held us in a queen of thorns, with curled lips. It was a cool shot, on her part, her red dress--which equalled in ceremonial crimson my own, only that hers was self-chosen. Owned. It was like a burial-cloth to mine.

Beside her Alpha Kai was a statue of motionlessness. He had not stirred, but he sank perfume of his presence into the room in the manner of smoke, visited the hearts of all the doers there.

A short, shallow breathe burst out of me. My hand was lying in that of Xavier but felt as well as it was tied to a stone. His hand did not tremble, but I caught the vibration through the flesh.

Xavier with his growl “Kai,” his voice was husky enough to make the pavement of marble beneath our feet vibrate. “You’re trespassing. This not your pack. This is not where you belong to.”

“I was invited, said Kai calmly, Dangerously by someone with greater right than you.”

He looked at me.

Everyone in the room looked in the direction of his eye.

I made no comment.

It was because I had not invited him.

Had I?

My lips were going to let off, when Kai went on. “No need to worry Larissa. I have come not to war with you before the Elders.” His eyes flew to the elevated seat upon which were seated the five old wolves, half fearing and frozen, who can't describe what they are experiencing as a political ruin where the forebodings were realized or a prophecy being fulfilled.

“It is my purpose, said Kai slowly, deliberately, to remind Larissa wo she is. What she never was allowed to be.”

Then Xavier moved--standing between me and the wall. “She is the Luna of mine.”

Kai spat with furious rage ready to tear anything apart on his way. “By force or with terror?”

A general intake of breath went through the audience.

Selene was leaning over the rail of the balcony, and her fingers were twisted all around the edge so as to retain herself back, she seemed to want to have jumped down and tore me to pieces.

I went round Xavier.

I was not sure why I went but something sent me ahead, anger or pride, or confusion. But I would not back behind anybody now.

“I had decided,” I finally lift my lips

Kai in a compassionate tone. “Well did you?”

His voice was not mocking. Not now. There was no sound. A sounding years back.

And in an instant I despised him more than Xavier. Due to his knowledge, he knew- he knew what his silence was back then. and here he was today, a ghost in time.

“You abandoned me to rot, I angry said. You were present when he was humiliating me. You never went after me, when it counted.”

“There, he confessed, i wasn't prepared to burn for you.”

And the very truth of that was uglier than the lie.

The elders are there, in their ritual garments stirring in the movement.

“Alpha Kai, Elder Mirwen said, and her voice was old but steady. Thou art violating sanctified ritual, and interfering with the tranquility of the pack. This we won't let it continue.”

Kai stared at her then at me. “Well, then, ask her.”

Those in the room were taking breath again.

And he said, again, still louder, so that all could hear, ‘Ask her. In case she is actually desiring to be chained with Xavier. Did she make this a choice of her own will?”

Once more Xavier had my wrist in his grip. Tight.

He whispers me, “do not do this.”

I gazed at him. Up to the man who had said to me I was nothing. Who was now so sure of all he could ever have, who had everything, except my heart.

“Say it,” Larissa, Kai bid.

I opened my mouth,--and the agony choked in my throat like smoke.

I was not able to tell him a word

Because, me saying yes...it would be a lie

In case of saying no… I would burn everything all down.

Then Selene made a leisurely and dramatic laugh above. “The silence speaks volume, doesn't it?”

And that was the breaking point of Xavier.

“You are out of place here;” and his eyes flared like gold. This is the Luna, and this pack belongs to me!”

The spell broke out of him, an alpha s fury was born. His feet had broken a crack in the floor. The lanterns dangled about spookily. Wolves on the stage knelt in automatic obedience.

Kai made no signs of flinching.

“You see I have fought more than you ever did, Xavier, he said. but I am still here.”

And then hell broke loose.

Xavier sprang - claws bared, with a flickering movement of black and rage.

Kai went quicker.

Both crashed against each other in the air hitting the ceremonial altar. Stone shattered. There was the arching of dust and blood upon the dais.

Screams erupted.

The priestess hardly wheeled aside.

Guards stormed the circle, now no one dared to come between the two alphas as they tore into each other with a violence that years had made grown.

I was once more helpless, standing rooted to my stop, and watching my past, my present bleed across the stones.

Xavier shouted, and pounded Kai against a pillar. “You ought to have been dead to her!”

Kai snarling, turned him over. “You ought to have been straightforward!”

Fangs made contact with skin. Teeth engaged teeth.

The floor was stained by the blood as a sign.

And in all this it seemed to me I could not scream.

I had no mobility.

This isn't about me anymore

This was a power issue. Pride. Possession.

The prize was my body and nobody asked about my desire.

and then I saw her.

Selene.

She was gone off the balcony.

She was advancing upon the circle--slowly, steadily. She lost her smile. Her face was sculptured of ice.

And in her hand she… held a dagger.

I was shocked.

“Enough!” With an ancient power Elder Mirwen cried out, shaking the walls.

At last the betas of Xavier broke in, and the fight was broken. Malrik, Corban and two more of them dragged Kai on the ground, with his snarling and his biting bloody red defiance notwithstanding.

Xavier reeled away, blood dripping in his mouth, eye halfway closed. He looked deep into the eyes of Selene-and the entire world stood still.

She made no response whatever.

What! she simply laid the dagger on the floor with a loud clang

All over the sound was heard.

People could observe how the face of Xavier altered--not terror, not indignation, not wrath, but shame.

Meaningful. Intense. Shame.

All the Elders were united.

Mirwen pronounced that marriage void. And any union under duress Is of none availlance. The Council will determine this until then.”

Gasps. Outrage. Confusion.

The priestess nodding. The ceremony was dismissed

Kai, still pinned, grinned through blood streaked lips. “And that I'm telling you with a smile at the side of his lips, I told you - Larissa was not yours.”

Xavier gazed at me and the first time since he re-entered my life...

He had no assuring look.

I collapsed on my knees.

It is not through weekness

But out of the fact that I was not any more the girl they were fighting over.

My new condition had the label of something different attached to it.

And I would never again allow these people to make a decision for me.