Blood Ties

46

"Swell." Accalia wheezed out and pushed harder against the boot from crushing her chest.

Melina laughed, her sun-kissed skin glistening against her moonlight, but she was bound to something much worse. The recent months shaped her into a worse mould of herself. More beautiful, but with deadlier intentions.

"You must be acquainted with Adriana, I'm guessing?" Accalia said through clenched teeth.

Melina clucked her tongue. "You must be even closer to Lycus, I'm assuming? I can smell him all over you like a bad rash. How is he anyway? I just saw him, but the wolves lunged at him like hyenas on a lion."

Accalia's heart jolted and Melina smirked, her head coming closer to sniff out Accalia's frightening anxieties.

Thrax and Zenith aligned one way or another, mingling their pack members as one to ensure a levelled battle against a pack like Fenris. Why not combine lycans and werewolves? The untamed and feral?

"Where's your brother?" Accalia asked Melina.

If she was graced with one Thrax lycan, Accalia couldn't help but shake inside over what the brother would have installed for her. They had a long-time vendetta against not only her but Cadence and Lycus too.

The hope of where Lycus was filled Accalia with such fear she couldn't lay still, she couldn't hear him, she couldn't feel him near. And Cadence, her only surviving cousin ... they would want a fearless hunter like her, to wipe out all the strength she carried and change it into terror.

"Dead," Melina stated bluntly.

Accalia pondered if that was some effort of a sick joke.

"Why are you in such a rush to leave?" Melina pouted at Accalia who attempted to release herself of the lycan's brute strength that weighed her down.

"I need to—"

"Get to Lycus?" Melina questioned and a devilish grin swayed across her plump lips. "You don't have to worry about him, he doesn't belong to you anymore."

Accalia disregarded the she-wolf's spiteful words, knowing her to be full of filthy lies and vengeance. No other lycan or werewolf charged at her, only Melina and Accalia knew the killer was rounding on her prey.

The lycans and werewolves would gladly let Melina have the first bite of the hunter that had been the cause of her frustration.

"Neat scar." Accalia snapped, looking at the jagged and misaligned scar mangled across her arm. She would have to tell Cadence about it ...

A hand thundered across Accalia's face and the world above her swayed, white lights flashing through her vision.

"You have one too, bitch." Melina spat poisonously and the harder she pressed down, the deeper Accalia felt her thread to life slipping away.

"By the way, where is that cousin of yours? I wouldn't mind visiting her." Melina hissed through her elongated canines and those pools of honey eyes swelled into obsidian.

Cadence would very much appreciate her visit. The Larren hunter didn't like leaving a job unfinished.

Accalia spluttered on her words. "Cade—Cadence is here — guarding Cole in one of the dungeons."

That garnered Melina's attention and she loosened her weight, lifting her head to sniff out Accalia's cousin.

Accalia seized her chance, grabbing the back of Melina's heel and the front of her boot. Twisting it away from her, with much strength she could muster, Melina's ankle snapped and a crack flew into the air.