Lucien sat in silence, his eyes narrowed as he stared into the fire heart in his room. His crippled and shattered leg throbbed in pain, forcing a silent wince as he shifted his weight.
Even after all these years, his werewolf blood - and all the remnants of his strength as an alpha - still tried to stitch his shattered leg back together.
He waited for the heat from the fire to reach him. To melt away the cold in his heart, but it didn’t. It never did. He glanced down at his leg, the twisted vertical scars ran from his thigh to his calf.
His door barged open and Lucien snapped his gaze towards the door.
Anger flashed through his eyes at being interrupted, but he quickly stifled his emotions. He was not the man he once was.
“Why didn’t you knock?” Lucien hissed, his sharp icy gaze directed at his once loyal subordinate and junior brother,
“Why would I?” Alder chuckled, smirking, “Get up, Lucien. Your bride has arrived,” he ordered,
Lucien blinked, his eyes widening in surprise. He could not respond. He didn’t need to. This wasn’t his choice. This was a choice forced upon him by his own Clawhold, his brother – the new alpha had made sure of that.
“She’s…. smaller than I expected.” Alder remarked, “Though she is pretty for a Stillblood, maybe you would actually like her – that is if you like the broken ones.”
He chuckled at his words, the clear disdain showing through his eyes as he looked down at his elder brother.
Lucien’s jaws clenched, he turned his gaze away from his brother, away from the mocking jeer. “Just get it over with,” he murmured.
With those words, he stood up to his full height, and with a throbbing mangled leg, took a step towards Alder.
Alder smiled, his gaze lingering on his brother’s shattered leg before snapping back to the pained expression he could see on his brother’s face. “Follow me Lucien.” he ordered, “Let’s get you presentable for your bride.”
With a chuckle and a flourish, he turned around and walked out.
The “ceremony” was a complete joke. The Clawhold had been cleared out and the courtyard had been cleaned for the first time in years.
Snow fell down the mountainous ranges in small lazy flakes, painting the entire courtyard white. Which was in sharp contrast to the red roses that were littered around the courtyard.
His soon-to-be bride, Aria, was already standing there.
His eyes lingered across her features. Aria was dainty, she wasn’t as small as her brother had said she was. But compared to his almost 7 feet, she was small.
She had long wavy silver-blonde hair, eyes that were haunted and scars.
Wait, scars?
Lucien’s eyes widened as his gaze lingered around her exposed flesh, her arms and wrists. There was makeup covering them, but he could see the scars, and he was sure every werewolf here could too.
She didn’t look at him. Her gaze was down, as if she wanted the floor to swallow her whole.
Lucien limped forward, his fists clenched beside him as he temporarily suppressed the pain. He leaned heavily on the obsidian cane strapped to his right arm.
Every single step sent spikes of pain traveling through his body, every step a brutal reminder of how far he had fallen.
He held his chin high, his gaze wandering across the courtyard as he saw the members of his Clawhold and hers watching the ceremony with smirks on their faces.
He would not bow down, not to Adler, not to his Clawhold, and certainly not to this broken thing that they sent to contain him. Aria Thorne.
He took a deep breath and inhaled her scent. She did not smell of fear or anticipation, she smelled of resignation.
“Let’s make this quick.” He growled as he reached his bride and stood beside her.
Aria flinched at his voice, he noticed it. Of course, he did, but he didn’t care.
Why would he? She was more broken than he ever was. She was Stillblood.
She did not say a word, only nodded and shuffled on her feet.
The officiant of the ceremony was a half-drunk elder who stumbled as he walked towards them.
Lucien clenched his fists and averted his gaze. This was obviously a farce. Neither the elder nor his Clawhold cared about the wedding. To them, this was just the joining together of two broken things.
“Lucien.” The elder coughed, his eyes red as his gaze darted towards Lucien’s shattered right leg. “Do you accept this St… sorry.” The elder quickly apologized for his drunken slip up, “This ‘woman’ -" his disdainful gaze darted towards Aria as he said that, “- as your mate?”
“I, Lucien Vine, once alpha of this great Clawhold, take this…. Woman.” He started his vow, his pause deliberate as he glanced at Aria, “To be the Luna of my house. I vow no love, no care. Just duty and nothing else.”
Aria blinked, her lips parting as she stood shocked by his vow. She gulped and chose to keep silent.
The half-drunk elder turned towards her, his gaze lingering on her body for a moment before snapping towards her face.
“And you, Aria Thorne?” he drawled, his speech coming out slurred, “Do you accept – ”
“I do.” Aria replied quickly. Too quickly.
Lucien snorted, the disdain in his eyes deepening as he turned around to face her. “Too eager to belong, are you?” He asked, “You’ll never belong.”
Aria’s gaze snapped towards him. A spark flickered across her eyes, but it quickly died down. Her sharp gaze noticing her step-brother already taking a step towards her. She knew that if she did or said anything else, this would probably be her last day alive.
In moments, the rings were exchanged. The vows between the two parties were shared.
And the kiss…. Of course, it didn’t happen.
The elder didn’t even bring it up.
Who in their right mind would want to kiss a Stillblood.
And just like that, Aria Thorne was now his.
She was property now. Nothing else. Not even cattle or even a lowly human. Just a broodmare.
Once the ceremony was over, Lucien turned around without another word. He limped away, the tip of his obsidian cane striking the courtyard in a sharp audible thud.
Behind him, Aria froze in place. She had no idea what she was supposed to do now.
Should she follow him? Where would she stay? How would she live?
All those questions flashed through her mind as she watched her new ‘master’ limp away.
“Go on Ari.” Lyra’s sharp voice echoed from behind her, “Follow your mate, you have to consummate the mating, right? Or are you too broken to do that too?”
At those words, the silent crowd who had been watching the ceremony without a sound erupted into laughter. The disdain in their gaze was so piercing that Aria flinched.
Without a word, she took a deep breath and rushed towards her Lucien.
The laughter increased behind her. Before she even reached Lucien, she could tell that the others had already started partying.
Lucien glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, his brows furrowing as he turned his gaze straight.
Aria frowned as she followed Lucien towards an unknown destination and into a new life that would be no less as hard as her previous life.
Her life was not hers anymore.
She had left one prison only to be locked up in another.
The chains were gone, the collars were invisible. But they were still there, still ever present. Still binding.
And Lucien?
Lucien did not see a mate when he looked at Aria.
He saw a broken burden.
And as far as he was concerned, she was far more crippled than he was.
Aria blinked, confused by the sudden change in the expression of her friend.She turned around, spotted Lucien and understanding dawned on her. She smiled at him, and he walked away till he was out of sight.Aria knew how scary Lucien was to most werewolves. To a human, he might as well have been the devil.“Did you just flinch?” She softly asked, half-jokingly,Rose's lips parted, as she quickly shook her head, “No, well, yes. I just didn’t expect him to be there.”“Right.” Aria chuckled. She could still see Rose sneaking glances behind her with a nervous gaze.Rose nodded as she blinked and turned her attention back to Aria. “Anyway, are you really okay?” she asked, her tone solemn, “I heard from some of the traders that you were bloodied and completely scarred when you walked through the market trail.”Aria smiled, as stretched out her hand. “I’m fine Rose,” she answered, a warm fuzzy feeling rose within her as she realized that there was someone else who actually cared for her. “I
The snowstorm stopped falling a couple of days ago.Sunlight flickered, unobstructed through the window to the cottage room. It was the middle of the day, but the hearth was still it.Aria laid on the bed with a smile on her face. She raised her quilt further, enjoying the warmth it provided.It had been about a week since the attack on her by Ronan. From that day, Lucien had nursed her back to full health.She had healed faster than she ever thought she could. Her healing was still not as much as a full blood werewolf, but Aria could tell that it had grown much better.That wasn’t the only other thing that had changed since that day. For two days after the attack, Aria could barely walk and had to be fed directly by Lucien.It wasn’t that her body was injured, it was her mind. Her thoughts felt heavy, trying to think felt like she had just ran a marathon. It was slow and sluggish.Eventually, her mind cleared and that was when she noticed the changes.It was her senses. If her healin
Lyra was pissed.She paced around her brother’s recovery room, her fists clenched tightly beside her, her eyes narrowed as she scrunched her nose.The smell of burnt flesh filled the air.Lyra’s gaze was focused entirely on one thing and one thing only.Her brother's limp, broken body.Ronan lay crumbled in a cot, unconscious with slowly healing bones.That was the problem. That was why she was pacing around.He should have woken up by now.Ronan might not have been an alpha, but he was an offspring of one. All of his bones should have healed hours ago.They were all healing, but they were healing almost as slowly as a human would.Whatever had hurt her brother had made sure that he was going to stay hurt.She knew why he got hurt, she just didn’t know by whom, or how?All she had right now was a basic idea of what had happened.The tale of Aria walking bloodied and injured through the snow had already spread through the clawhold.Lyra had spoken to some servants who were present at t
Lucien ran.The snow blew past his cloak and bit into his skin.He didn’t feel it. In fact, he couldn’t even feel anything else at the moment other than fear.He had lost a mate once, and he had been permanently scarred after that. Lucien was not going to allow history to repeat itself.He was going to save Aria even if it cost him his life. So he disregarded everything, the pain that wrecked his body, the shivers that ran down his spine every time he placed his weight on his shattered legs, everything was pushed down.Only the thought of Aria remained.Snow crunched loudly beneath his booth as he rushed out of the castle, his legs screamed with every step – both legs. The stride he took was a stark reminder to his body of the damage he had taken that night, the damage he had never healed from.But once again, he pushed it all down. Pain meant nothing to him now. Only love.His breath came out in rough short bursts as he rushed through the market to the loud stares of the traders, his
The air in the throne room shifted the moment Lucien finished speaking.Alder grew still, his eyes narrowed as he met his brother’s gaze.“What?” he asked, surprise etched in his tone.“You heard me, brother,” Lucien said calmly. “We need to talk about you putting your hands in places where they don’t belong.”Alder slowly rose from his throne, his visage one of anger. He moved like a predator as he took a step forward, his silver eyes gleamed with fury, and the smile on his face vanished,It was replaced with something different, something far darker.“Are you giving me orders now?” he growled, his fingers lengthening into claws with every step he took, “About a stillblood?”Lucien snarled, his lips parted as he took a step forward, matching his brother’s pace. “No, I am telling you,” he answered, “You do not give her any orders. You do not command Aria, not ever and certainly not now.”Alder chuckled, his eyes darted towards his brother’s crippled leg, “She is in my clawhold. And so
Lucien tapped his cane rhythmically on the floor as he walked towards the large open gates of a castle that, just a couple of years ago, was once his.The loud sound of his cane tapping on the stone floor, echoed across the castle like warning bells.For the first time in years, the guards stationed by the gates bowed as Lucien walked through them.Just a couple of days ago, all of them had pretended not to see Lucien whenever he moved. Now that the news of his encounter with Varion had spread, he was beginning to not just be feared but also respected.He limped across the corridors of the hallways with his mind clouded and lost in thoughts. He had not walked these corridors in years, and he was glad that everything was just as he remembered.Lucien had been avoiding the castle, not because it reminded him of the power he had lost. No, he had been avoiding the castle because it reminded him of the Luna he had lost.Even now, as he walked through the corridor, he could still feel the e