2: A CONTRACT BETWEEN ENEMIES

ATTICUS

"While we understand your pain, Alpha Atticus, rules are rules and our rules are sacred. We can't just break them. Failure to find your second chance mate before your 30th birthday, you'll be removed from the Alpha King line."

The remembrance of those words, said to me during the last council meeting made my blood boil hotter than anything, it pushed my wolf to run faster in the forest. I was howling, tearing through bushes and trees.

"You have just six months left, Alpha Atticus. Six months to say goodbye to the palace if you fail to produce your second chance mate."

I ran faster, my anger increasing. I wasn't angry at the elders for demanding that rules must be upheld. It was up to them. The rules are sacred and there'd be severe consequences for breaking them. I was angry at life, at fate, at death that snatched away my first mate, the love of my life, and our unborn child.

I was angry at the people who killed it. Who tortured and tortured her till she died.

I ran faster, howling even louder. I wanted to destroy every one of them, to pay them back in their coins. I wanted to make them pay. The only way for me to do that was to become King. The only way for me to become King was to find my second chance mate and future Luna of the Feral Blood Pack.

But the Moon Goodness didn't like me enough to grant me that even though it's been two years since Rachel's death.

I ran faster, pushing my wolf to its limit. This was the most I could do. The only outlet for my anger.

I was still running when I smelt it. I slowed down. It was the smell of someone that has just been banished from a pack, the smell of someone who'd turn rogue soon. I turned to the direction of the smell and the anger that filled me when I saw the originator of the smell terrified even me.

I stopped, shook my fur, and shifted to my human form. I made towards her. She had already noticed me but she made no move. She remained leaning against the dress, her head devoid of the crown she was always wearing around. Already heard about her banishment before dawn broke and just before I could send my men to go on a manhunt for her, she was right here in my territory.

"I guess you intentionally came here to have yourself killed."

"Alpha Atticus," she raised her right hand to her forehead and she curtseyed a little. There was nothing respectful to that gesture, it was full of mockery and ridicule.

It was the same way she had greeted me two years ago after she told me to my face that there was nothing I could do to her or her stupid Coven even if they were the ones that murdered Rachel.

She insisted they were not the culprit but everybody knew they were the one. The kind of things that were done to Rachel... only the filth that runs through the blood of those witches could produce that evil that was done to Rachel.

I wrapped my hand around her neck. Her skin broke easily and my claws drew blood. The sight made satisfaction bloom in my chest.

I was going to have a field day ending her life.

"Didn't I promise that I'd end you? That it might take a long time but that I'll end your life."

She scoffed and a ghost of a smile appeared on her lips.

"Are you giving up on your dream of becoming King?"

"I only have one dream and that's to make you suffer like Rachel did."

She rolled her eyes as if I was too stupid to still be holding on to that after two years. My grip on her neck deepened.

"Too bad I came here with a proposition to make you king."

"Too bad you think I'd accept anything from you when all I want is to break your bones and make you beg for a death that I won't grant to you."

"Don't be stupid, Alpha Atticus," her tone was dismissive, the defiance and power were still in her eyes even though she was nothing more than a banished witch who'd turn rogue and die in four days even if I didn't touch her.

"You need a mate to become King. I'm here volunteering to become your mate, with the powers of black magic, of course. It's a win-win for us; you become King and I get to stay alive."

I stared at her. She was serious. I smiled. It was just supposed to be a smile but before I knew it, I was cackling so hard tears leaked from the corner of my eyes.

When I regained my senses, I tightened my hold around her neck and slammed her against the tree. She winced.

"You have to be delusional to think I'd help you."

"I'm not delusional, just desperate to survive. You see, I need to teach someone a lesson before I die. And think about it, I'd be dead in four days; you'll never get your revenge if I die that soon and you'll never become King too. That'd be you losing in two ways."

She'd be dead in four days. Once she turned rogue in two days, she'd be useless to torture but if I agreed to her ridiculous proposition, she was going to be alive. She was going to live in my palace. I was going to have free control of her.

Other ideas were blooming in my mind; ones where I get to show her hell, ones where I make her regret ever proposing this. Ones where I make her beg for the death that I won't grant to her. Becoming an Alpha King has never been of importance to me, it was just something I wanted because it'd have given me the powers to avenge Rachel. Now, the one person I needed to ruin was here, proposing that I have complete control over her.

It wasn't a bad idea. At all.

"You're banished and demoted. How do you fake a mate bond without your powers?"

She smiled. A triumphant smile before she stretched out her right hand. She muttered two words. Her eyes glazed over and white fire bloomed on her fingertips.

"I'm Hera Volkov, do you think that I'll lose my powers that easily?"

The triumph in her voice angered me but not as much as the sight of her powers made my very core vibrate with hatred. I hated her. Hated the whole of her Coven, hated that their powers were untamed and no one outside of their pack could understand the powers.

I wanted to burn them to the fucking ground. I wanted to eliminate them so they would cease to exist. And I was going to start with her.

"You have a whole council of elders to convince that the mate bond is real," I started, observing her and thinking of all the ways I could ruin her, all the ways I could destroy her completely.

"They're powerful and smart. Some of them have lived for more than a century. They already hate you and they're desperate to have your blood on their hands. If they catch on to the fact that what we share is fake, the blame will be solely on you, and trust me, your punishment will be worse than getting banished."

She didn't flinch.

"They'll never find out."

"Fine, then do it."