Fragile Frame (1)

Alarics pov

The taste of wolf stench clung to the back of my throat, bitter and foul. My mother’s soldiers lined the path to our carriage, like armored shadows glinting beneath the moon.

The whispers of wolves and Lycans alike trailed after us like ghosts. They weren’t cheering.. They weren’t celebrating...

They were waiting.. waiting for the first sign of fracture in the fragile treaty that had been signed in blood. This was politics after all.

The girl at my side moved like someone who had been walking through cages her entire life, who had learned long ago not to falter even when the bars dug into her skin and I felt oddly drawn to that.

The carriage door quickly shut with a hollow thud, sealing us inside.

She sat across from me, with her hands folded neatly in her lap. Those blue eyes never stopped staring. Not timidly, not defiantly, but as though she were searching for something inside me.

My bride… though she wasn’t supposed to be.

The instant she stepped into that hall, I knew. The scent wasn’t Dahlia’s. Wolves always carried a sharp, earthy trace, but this one smelled of rain after fire, too fragile, too unworldly to belong to a wolf.. Human.

The word still burned on my tongue like poison. Humans were meant to serve us not be joined with us in holy matrimony…

Now, in the dim light of the carriage, she raised her head and moved her hands delicately in the air. The motions were soft, flowing… a language of silence.

“Thank you”. She signed, but I ignored her.

I leaned back against the seat, shutting my own eyes, forcing her image into the darkness behind my eye lids.

But the silence broke. Her hands moved again.. small, deliberate motions in the air. I opened my eyes reluctantly, tracking the strange flow of her fingers.

“Thank you for defending me”

The words carved themselves into me. Not spoken, but seen.

Zorrak stirred at once, his voice echoing like iron chains in my skull. ‘She thanks you. You should answer her.’

‘I don’t owe her an answer,’ I muttered, my gaze fixed out the window. The night was wide, endless, far more interesting than her frail gestures.

‘You saw her humiliation,’ Zorrak pressed. ‘The wolf bitch exposed her silence before all. She should have broken. But she didn’t.. She stood.. She smirked… That is strength.’

’She is a human,’ I snapped. ‘And a burden I did not choose.. I did what any owner would do, defend my property. That is all.’

Zorrak growled low, his voice rattling through my bones. ’Do not lie to yourself. She smells different. She looks at you differently. And you..’

’Enough,’ I coldly cut him off. My beast instantly became quiet, but not before leaving me with a thought I could not shake.

I turned back toward her. She hadn’t looked away. Those blue eyes were still locked on me, questioning, probing.

“Stop staring like I’d jump at you and eat you..,” I told her, making sure my tone was as sharp as a newly made knife .

A humorless laugh left my mouth. “If I wanted to harm you, little bride, I would have done it then and there. In front of your people... In front of your family.. Don’t mistake restraint for mercy.”

“My mother promised that no one would touch you without your permission and for some weird reason I’m included.. and as much as I would love to harm you I can’t… cause a vow to the lore is sacred” I added.

It was obvious the words struck her.. Her hands lowered to her lap, curling into tight fists against her gown. But still, she didn’t look away... She endured my cruelty with silence, with fire buried beneath fragile flesh.

Zorrak rumbled in the hollow of my chest. ’She doesn’t fear you enough. That unsettles me… as much as It unsettles you.’

I didn’t answer.

Minutes dragged, the steady clatter of hooves and wheels filling the void. At long last, she leaned her head back, her lashes fluttering. Sleep tugged at her fragile frame. Her breathing deepened, in a soft and rhythmic way.

And yet, even in sleep, she looked fiercely beautiful. Her body tilted, her small hand slipping against the cushions.

Foolish girl. Reckless girl.

I should have turned away. I should have closed my eyes, shut her out, buried the strange pull clawing at my chest. But instead, I studied her in the lantern’s glow.

Without the veil covering her face, she looked even smaller, and a bit too delicate for the world she’d been thrown into. But her lips were set, not slack in surrender. Even in sleep, she still carried defiance.

Zorrak whispered, almost amused. ’She is not wolf… Do we keep her? ‘

I clenched my fists. “She is nothing,” I hissed under my breath. “Nothing.”

And then….

BANG.

The wheels of the carriage jolted, the horses shrieked in panic. My head snapped up just as the night split open.

The carriage violently moved sideways, nearly throwing her to the floor. Instinct quickly ripped through me and I caught her before she could fall, her small frame colliding against my chest.

Her scent flooded my nose and senses like a dangerous weapon it was sweet like pineapple as mnd coconut and for one disorienting breath I almost forgot the chaos outside.

Almost

The shriek of tearing flesh and the clanking of swords snapped me back. Growls rose like a storm..low, guttural, snarling and layered over the clash of steel and the screams of dying men.

Zorrak’s roar thundered inside me. ‘AMBUSH!’

My sword was already in my hand before my thought caught up. I shoved her away from me, shielding her with my body as the carriage jolted again.

“Stay down!” I barked.

Her fingers caught my sleeve, but I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t... Not when rage boiled so hot beneath my skin and Zorrak wanted to come out and play.

“Don’t come outside until I come for you.” I ordered her, my eyes already on the door.

She stared, her blue fire eyes wide, the unspoken question of ‘what was going on?’ burning in there. But I didn’t answer.

I forced the words out again, harsher, and more commanding: “Don’t. Come. Outside.”

I threw the door open then closed it almost immediately, and the night greeted me with blood.

A wolf quickly lunged towards me, his teeth bared, and his claws flashing. My blade arced, slicing through fur and flesh in a single motion. The stupid creature crumpled at my feet.

The stench hit me hard.. wolf and lycan both. Rogues... Too many of them.. Too far from the border and too.. organized.

I laughed, and the air trembled beneath the weight of my fury. “You dare attack me?”

‘Let me out,’ he growled. ’Let me tear them apart.’

Not yet. I wanted their blood to mean something to send a message to who ever was in charge.

I cut down two more, but unease gnawed at me. The carriage… I kept checking every second and I couldn’t help but feel relieved as the door was still shut.

And as if on cue, the air shifted and a mighty force slammed hard against the carriage as though hurled by some invisible hand.

The entire structure screeched, wood splintering as it toppled sideways with a bang. The impact shook the ground, dust and dead leaves scattered everywhere.

“No…!”. Without wasting another second I rushed towards her, only to find that the carriage had been opened through the other door and there was no sign of her..

‘We shouldn’t have left her’ Zorrack growled

“FUCK!” My roar cracked the air, raw and savage.

My eyes darted towards the direction of the trees.

And there she was cowered at the base of a twisted oak, her hands pressed against itsbark.. slick with her own blood. Her veil had slipped, her hair wild, her breaths coming in short, frantic bursts. Her eyes locked onto mine the moment I found her.

And then the world slowed…

A rogue came from the shadows behind me, his blade gleaming with precision. Not aimed at me.. Aimed at her!

And immediately her body froze with fear, but her eyes didn’t. They flared up... No longer soft, no longer dulled with fear. For a heartbeat.. one slow heartbeat they looked as though they burned. Not wolf fire... Not human fragility. Something primal... Wilder... Ancient.

The blade paused midair as though the world itself had paused.

Every hair on my body rose. My grip on the sword trembled.

“What the hell…” The words ripped from me, raw, guttural, disbelief heavy on my tongue.

And then it was gone. Like smoke..

The blade came down again, and I wasted no time as I lunged, intercepting it with my own steel. The clash sparked in my ears, a ringing echo of what I’d just witnessed.

I shoved the attacker back, rage twisting in my head..my movements brutal and fast. He barely had time to scream before my blade cleaved him open.

But victory was still too far.

Because that moment I had been distracted, another shadow slipped from behind her, unseen. A lycan with his blade hilt raised hit her head with force.

The sound was soft, but it ripped through me like a scream. She staggered and dropped on her knees first, her veil slipping sideways as her body hit the ground with a dull thud.

I didn’t remember moving. One moment the wolf loomed over her preparing to strike her.. The next, he was beneath me, his blade shattered in my grip. I slammed him into the earth so hard the ground split, his skull cracking like brittle glass.

The battlefield blurred.

All I saw was her.. fragile frame, and her blood seeping into the soil.

And something inside me snapped.