𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐒✔️

NINE|CAERULEM

"Forgive and forget."

Those were the words my mother once spoke to my younger sister.

Liliana was only seven when she died, trapped beneath a wall of raging inferno.
A bitter soul had set the pack house alight...
A bitter soul that was bound to me by the moon.

Liliana perished in the flames.

I was trapped beneath a fallen beam as the fire licked her tiny body before my eyes.

I heard her screams every time I closed my eyes.

I felt the flames kiss my skin every time I blinked.

I saw my mate hanged every time I breathed.

I could not forgive.

For I had destroyed the life I once had, I was living in a shadow of the past.
Forgiving wouldn't bring any of them back, it would make me weak. Forgiving would put the pack in danger.

I could not forget.

I had tried many a time but the memories would never fade, so instead I drowned my demons below a bottle of whiskey and cigarette smoke.

It worked, at first...a but before long my demons had learned to swim.

They never faded, I suppose I only learned to cope with them.

"What have you done to her, Witch?" The beast within me willed to be free, to tear the female apart. -Was this some kind of cruel joke?

"I didn't do anything Theos! She came to me!" Astoria threw her hands in the air. We both had our demons, maybe that's how we found an unlikely ally in one another.

"You know what I mean!" I hissed. "Why does she look like her!"

Astorias past was a questionable one at that, but she had found solace as a healer, Ismara had saved her from herself.

"I don't know!" She shrugged, slumping into her worn armchair and rubbing her temples. "Did she have a twin sister or something?"

"She never mentioned a sister, but I know of a brother..."

"Great. Do you know his name or anything we can use to try and track him down?"

"His name is Marus Henara and he's the Alpha of Grey Moon."

She froze, every muscle, every fibre grew tense and cold.

"What.." she breathed. Her eyes were hollow and haunted, the eyes of a ghostly pale past.

"Do you know him?"

"No." She answered too quickly.

"Don't lie to me." I growled, the patience of my beast was wearing thin.

"It doesn't matter." She muttered. "He's just an old headache."

I hummed, there was no point in pressing her further. Astoria was a stubborn old bitch, she'd never been one to go down without a fight.
We had that in common.

"I'll ring Marus tonight and arrange a meeting." Her breath hitched in her throat, only a subtle change in the rhythm but it was enough to have my wolf grinning wickedly. "I expect you to be present during the meeting."

We shared a glass of scotch twice our age that she had found in the back of the cupboard.

We had never said goodbye to one another, it had always seemed too cliche for the both of us, instead I felt her eyes burn holes in the back of my head as I left.

Soon skin shifted to fur in a hurricane of breaking bones, two feet fell to four and clothes tore from my body.

I ran.

Up the mountain, to the place we used to share.

The place were I first laid eyes on her.
She was a rogue, that much I knew, but her scent was different. That was what first lead me to the summit of the cliff, above the clear blue lake on that cold winters day.

The water had long frozen over and snow lay thickly over the forest floor, like a blanket of white. The scent was so strong.

I thundered through the undergrowth, following the scent that had crept into my dreams ever since my first shift.
-Violets and fresh linen.

It was crisp and clean, seemingly the purist thing in this tainted world. It was the light that shone through my darkness.
-and that was how I found her, curled in a ball, her stark white wolf blended with the thin layer of snow that formed on her thick coat.

At first I thought she was sleeping, I stood there for a long second. One glance and I was already helplessly in love. She didn't move a muscle, that was when I realised her sleep was not one of a willing embrace.

I moved closer, nuzzling her with my snout.
I flew back at the sparks that shocked my skin, running through my veins like a bolt of lightning.

She was ice cold.

I shifted, taking her in my arms.

I carried her all the way back to the pack house.
My mother and I had sat for hours in front of the fire with the small white wolf, Liliana watching from a distance in the background.

I still remembered the first time she opened her eyes. My body grew weak at the thought.

The strangest yet most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen, hauntingly pale yet bright enough to line the night sky.

My weakness soon turned to a sick feeling. Who would've known the true beast behind those stunningly blue eyes.

She killed Liliana.