Percy's POV
Riding along Adam's back with my shaking vision I barely recognise that the large gathering of clouds now dissipated. The large mass of stomps and thuds across the ground drown out the surrounding sounds all the wolves run together, each colour blending with the next as they run in a satisfying coordination.
"Wait!" Yue's wolf in the front barks out which causes the pack to slide along the dirt to an alarming stop.
"Why?" I try to ask her, only to be ignored by her impatient posture now rapidly scanning the environment around us.
A small scoff emerging from Adam as he repeats my question, "Why...are we stopping?" his wolf breathes out.
"Rogues" She stares at the entrance of the lake that she once called home. A brief moment of eerie silence holds everyone's tongues. The crumbling of stone being heard as numerous crimson eyed wolves emerge from the gaping hole in the floor.
Some charging out of it mindlessly and injuring some of our own, while others wait patiently for someone opposing them to move. "Yue!" Melanie's small wolf cries towards her mate after noticing one leaping towards her. Her yellow eyes illuminating a bit before stepping backwards from the drooling mess of an animal. The two begin circling each other with clear disgust run across her face, "Now!" a distant voice calls from the back of the surrounding forest.
The sheer number of clear blue eyed wolves now outnumbering the crimsoned ones, "Alex" Yasmine and Adam murmur out before advancing in front of everyone. A small nod of the head causing water to rise from the lake and engulf the feral wolf, bubbles rising from its mouth and rapid kicks sometimes kicking through but not enough to save it. The sound of a burst followed by its wet ragged body hitting the floor and being kicked away by Alex into the pit that it came from.
Adam passes him, looking down to signify his respect for his Beta before signalling to head down after them although I hop off him for a moment. "I'll be right back Adam" his confused face stares at me but dismisses it, 'Don't stray far'. Continuing to advance on with the others and chasing the rogues further down into the Moonlit Sky pack's home.
A thumping noise resonates in my ears, drowning out the growls and barks by the wolves fighting each other. I walk through the battlefield of what was left of the impatient wolves, some bodies flying over me and sliding across the ground. For Yue's pack being the weakest...they certainly aren't weak.
𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘥
I hear it calling to me, the beating of a heart beat. I scan the bodies of wolves, some more mutilated than others I squint my sight and change my vision. Trailing a current of light that leads me towards a breathing body of a rogue, staring into its eyes as the pupil locks onto me but the body remains still.
𝘚𝘯𝘢𝘱
"I just can't be too sure"
𝘚𝘯𝘢𝘱
"You know bud?" I talk to it, continuing to snap it's paws in my own hands. The gesture bringing a slight smile to me.
𝘚𝘯𝘢𝘱
"C'mon now just one more then I'll let you be" I whisper to its ear after hearing a whimper
𝘚𝘯𝘢𝘱
I grab the limp legs of the rogue, playing with them like a doll and pretending that it's running still. "Haha yeah that must of been fun right?" I giggle a little to it, brushing it's soft hairs before fully placing my palm against it. The dumb bracelet beginning to shine once more, "C'mon just let me have this one..." I feel my hand pulse against it. One, two, three. The crumbling of dust and ash causing me to blow away the particles from my face. "I didn't want to, trust me. You were just some needed material" I laugh, standing up and turning back to where my beloved Adam disappeared off to.
The snapping of bones causing me to halt my movement, "Percy...was that you?" A soft voice calls from behind me.
I turn to view a pathetic excuse for what counts as "Powerful" in this era, "Melanie!? No of course not, this bracelet protects...well...it protects you from me." I extend my hand towards her purple eyes, feeling an insatiable grin whip across my face as I get an idea.
She steps back, tripping over a rogue's lifeless body and her tear filled eyes beginning to weep "Percy please" she begs.
"I wouldn't do anything you didn't want!" I shake my hands up in defence, "But say, where's that pretty Alpha mate of yours...?"
Her eyes widening before looking around, noticing that the only ones left up top are us and a bunch of corpses. "YU-" She tries to scream out
"No no...she'll come later hush for now." I place my hand over her mouth, a light being released from the damn bracelet again, still restraining me to an extent but nothing that isn't useful enough at the moment.
"I'm gonna need your life, just for a second...that's all you'd be worth anyway." I press harder across her mouth, muffling her screams as I press my body weight against her. One hand across her mouth and another against her hand, sending a pulse down it. 1, 2...a tear drops down my eye with a burning sensation.
A jolt of electricity forcing me off of her, "REVE!" A deep voice booms from underground along with an eruption of flesh piercing winds. A voice that admittingly could even make me shake at some point in my life. Attempting to stand up but my body shakes a bit from weakness.
"YUE!" She takes the chance to run down towards the hole.
"Wait please!" My body exclaims from the deepest part of it's soul.
'You mean my body!' The shining bracelet shakes my brain. My attempts of catching her resulting in just flinging my body down the hole itself.
'That's what I said, my body' I snicker to myself, slumping down from rock to rock until giving up and just throwing myself down to the bottom.
-
Yasmine's POV
I stand firm although still gritting my teeth through the pain of the razor sharp winds passing through the underground. A repeated gale of death that passes in giant bursts, the rogues that we were following, now torn to bits and thrown across the buildings. Scattering bones and organs past us like confetti as we desperately try to avoid the blood sprays. I stare towards Alex's strong frame marching through it along with Adam and Yue, I'm happy to of found my mate. But admittingly...I left something behind after healing him, when I was alone in the village I hurt myself accidentally. I tried to heal it...I couldn't.
I shut my eyes from feeling the dryness of my eyes as the winds soak up the moisture. Picturing Alex's form in my mind...I paid the price didn't I? He truly died there...the price of a mate. I feel the wind carry a tear to fly from my eye and behind me, focusing my attention towards the approaching Melanie and Percy's body making it's way down towards us.
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"Melanie!?" I scream to her panicked face, grabbing onto her before she gets pushed away by the torrential wind. "It-" She tries to speak but gets silenced by a strike of thunder from outside of the cave. I bite her scruff to lift her forward with us, practically digging my feet into the soiled ground in order to keep my place.
Looking ahead to see nothing but a dance of gale winds surrounding the area ahead of us. Black electricity encompassing it more and more with each passing second. Until it all eventually just...stops.
'CHARGE!' Adam pings through our heads, taking the chance to dart forward and be met with a sight that could intimidate an Alpha. The beast once called a hero...standing opposite from what looks nothing more than an ordinary human.
-
Adam's POV
A giant release of energy sharply robbing us of our breaths, gaining sight of the two beings in front of us. "So what, am I meant to call you grand father?" The smirking man begins to laugh to himself, "You know he did tell me about you, those eyes. The ones himself couldn't recreate. Oh I'm so jealous of them" He slaps his forehead in a hysterical motion as if its the most entertaining thing in the world.
"Where is he?" Aeon's sturdy form stabs the ground with the engraved sword.
"I have no clue who you mean, I know a lot of he(s)" He fixes the tie on the suit that he's wearing, although the material itself having enough scratches and holes to be considered scrap by now.
"But...how...why?" Aeon sounds almost defeated in a sense, his eyes scanning the emerald eyed man with concentrated glow in his eyes.
"Why? You never did even bother to catch up with your own son did you?" He begins to walk mid monologue, only to be stopped by the metallic sound of Aeon slightly moving. His cocky stance from before now replaced with the slightest hint of fear, one that I myself couldn't strike into him when we first met.
"As for how...well you know all too well how we imitations were made, don't you? He told me about them...Eros...Theos...Atlanta" He bows towards Aeon with a smirk, winking at him before returning back to his original posture. Fear striking his face as he blinks frantically, unable to spot the sight of the oversized beast that was once in front of him.
The delayed sound of thunder crashing followed by the floor beneath us getting torn apart and uplifted with a simple swift movement. The large frame of a beast disappearing from sight all within a blink of an eye, appearing behind Reve's extended arm and slashing downward within the air in a circular motion, carrying a blood red and pitch black trail of death with a heavy strike.
"YOU-" Reve screams out, watching his bloodied arm bounce along the ground for a moment before being crushed by Aeon's weight landing on it. "YOU JUST DON'T WANT ANYONE TO BE HAPPY, DO YOU!?" The frenzied man slams his hand across the open bone of his arm, what otherwise appeared to be a clean cut was nothing but that. The shattered pieces of bone lingering out and the flesh messily torn as if on purpose.
"DO YOU NOT SHARE OUR DREAMS!?" He spits towards us all as we stare in shock at his flailing body, scattering blood with each turn his body makes. His head shaking with an unfathomable rage with twitching eyes that can't seem to settle on one thing at a time. "LOOK AT YOU ALL, GATHERED HERE FOR THE SAKE OF US HAHA! WE'RE DOING THE SAME THING AS EACH OTHER! WHAT'S SO WRONG IN OUR METHOD!?" He begins stomping, shaking the entirety of the cave. The vehemence of his actions doing all too well to show his anger...but why isn't he shifting?
His hate slowly subsiding as Aeon's emotionless figure stands there. Leaving him with no target for his rage anymore. The light of daybreak causing the shadows to come out from the light, our wolf like appearances being mimicked by the dark...all but one.
"Ah, you're a dereliction of sorts" Aeon huskily laughs, briefly closing his gleamed eyes before pointing towards the backwall behind Reve.
"What...is that?" I unshift to properly view the erratic movements of the cave shadow, all matching that of Reve.
"Dereliction!? I was the best out of all of them!" He lifts his foot, as does the shadow. Stomping down and rumbling the cave again.
"So there were more of you?" Aeon calmly replies
"He took his time! Woman after woman, his to have, his to make, all for the sake of out doing...You" He points towards Aeon, as does the shadow.
Aeon looks towards us, uncaring of the aggravated Reve's death stare. "Onerios was human, nothing within him changed that besides from the deep dormant genes of a Lycan's blood...so what would happen if that 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 and another human were to conceive another child?"
He briefly waits as if actually wanting an answer from our sick and tired forms, sighing before motioning towards Reve. "You get that...𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, the human who believes he's a Lycan with nothing but remnants of diluted blood running through him, pathetic honestly"
I stare at the beast shaped shadow again, the features replicating Aeon's but...tethered to a human.
"YUE!" Melanie's small form runs from Yasmine's grip, jumping towards Yue and crying heavily against her.
"Per-" She begins to speak, only to be interrupted by Percy limping towards us.
"Percy what's wrong!?" I run up to him and kneel down to his eyes
"A rogue attacked us, I'm sorry" He looks down with a look of guilt, holding his injured arm and folding into my chest.
"It-" The deafening vocal of a beast roaring out causes us all to hold our ears, Aeon himself dropping to the floor with a heavy thud as dust kicks up.
"FATHER!" Reve's visual sound waves burst through the roof of the cave, ripping it down piece by piece and covering himself up. Aeon's fist slamming across the floor and erupting ice that extends around the area Reve was in, attempting to trap him but the crystals immediately snapping under the pressure of each falling boulder collapsing like meteors onto of each other.
The pack members with us all howling with pain as the sound continues ringing through the air until a audible slice silences it all together. Cliodhna's floating form gradually making her way down the new opening...and she looks pissed. The aged skin barely wrapped around her skull revealed face, the unhinged jaw cracking itself back into position as she extends her hand towards Aeon.
"The man with no weaknesses, and yet here you are. On your hands and knees begging for life like the rest of your kind" She gestures towards us while some cough up spit and rub their bloodied ears.
"FUCK!" He breathes out, stomping back to his full height and kicking away the rocks that surround us until the lake. "FUCK!" He continues to chant, punching away what's left of the houses. Gradually raising his fists into the air until Cliodhna places a hand on them.
"Why are you even here!?" He spits out in annoyance
"Look around, you'll understand soon enough." She smiles as his head rapidly turns, taking in each and every piece of the cave until it settles on one thing. His illuminated eyes now fluxing with intensity as he drops to his knees.
"You didn't attack Percy just cause of some familiar ties and some underworld dog saying otherwise...you felt her, didn't you?" She explains before heading down towards us
"Did Percy at any point come in contact with that particular lake?" She forcibly drags my hand towards it
"He fell in...and he was there for quite a bit."
"Why was he in there for so long?"
"The water...was heavy"
"And with that curse of yours, what's the only other times that water has felt heavy to you?" She continues to lead me on
"When someone else has control over it...like Athena" I begin to piece together her smile
"Did you never recognise this area Oracion? The place that started your frenzied rue" She floats away from me, heading back to him and staring into his sorrow filled eyes. "Freya died here".
"I know that!" He throws his fist down, crumbling some of the rubble from above us
"So why did you feel it within Percy?" She takes her hood off, letting her green plasma hair flow freely.
"She's...still here?"
"That would be all too good for you I'm afraid...but someone else is. Someone who takes life in order to restore their own, much like how Percy was doing before his bracelet was given to him. Which by the way..." She wanders over to him, pulling his injured arm from him and towards her.
"Hey be careful with him!" I scream out before running between the two
"He-" Melanie coughs out but gets silenced by Yue pulling her in protectively
Cliodhna becoming distracted for a moment before continuing on, "It no longer has a limited restraint, simply a countdown until his reckoning. The Primordial wolf that you all fear, welcoming it into the world one last time. I do hope you're ready" She quotes, leaving us all with a heavy tension as the burden sinks in. We're risking all of this for him..."And I'd do it again if needed" I grab him into my arms after putting on minor clothing that Thomas has been digging through the rubble for.
"Me too!" Yasmine calls out, running to Percy and holding his arm.
"Alpha Adam, we're here for our Luna as well as you. Remember that" Alex's determined look encourages those behind him as they bow a little in their wolf forms.
"We've got nothing to go back to, so count us in. Adam" Yue stands up, tears in her eyes but standing strong. Her remaining pack members doing the same motion as my own.
"Thomas, Aeon!" Yasmine calls out, extending her arms towards them as they both begrudgingly take hold. An oversized fur covered hand and a shaky hold of the man who's saved my mate near twice already.
-
Our peaceful moment of silence now the source of an eerie silence. A droplet from the lake above falling into the disintegrating one below it. 1, 2, 3. "That's cute" A distorted but audibly feminine voice whispers out from it. Percy's mouth releasing a scoff as if in annoyance.
"I will bless you with my presence..." It whispers once more followed by the shifting of the water, "Wolves". Her previous graceful tone now replacing one of disgust...is this going to be an enemy...or ally.