The Queen's Shadow

A Wolf's Pride

~~~Anastasia

I remember telling him the truth, I remember telling Apollos how much I loved him. I dodge a punch, I dodge a swipe and here I am now, fighting a woman I loved. I was hurting a person I loved deeply but she hurt me first. I remember her betrayal, I remember how she killed her stepdaughter. She committed such atrocities because she wanted to be the leader of the pack. She killed so many, I know she wasn't the only one who helped. I know because I met Hans before anyone else.

I didn't tell the Queen this, I didn't tell anyone this but I knew I had to come clean. I had to tell them that night. It was the early days of January, a few weeks from now the sun would rise. I allowed myself to heal my wounds and I prepared for the battle. I remember how the conversation went. The Queen still had me by her side, I was so happy to have another family to be with. Even if they were vampires, I still considered them my family though now I must confront an ugly part of my life. I must confront Ilana.

I didn't tell his family the whole story. I left out a lot of facts, the person who betrayed me was my wife. She told me I had grown weak as an alpha, she killed our daughter. I don't know what went through her mind when it happened. All I knew was the woman I had married was no longer there. The man that I had loved was bleeding out and dying next to me. When I turned into a wolf, she cut me across my chest and that's how the battle ended for us. Now here we are, seven years later and I fight her with everything I have.

I fight the woman I love with everything I have. It's then that I punch her, knocking her a few feet back. I asked her, "Why did you do this?" She looks at me and says, 'Why? You can't be this oblivious, Anastasia,' she says with a hurt voice. 'I did all of this because you knew I wanted to be the Alpha since I was a little girl. You were living my dream,' Tears began to fall out of my eyes, "I couldn't live my dream if I lost my Wife and Husband my two best friends." I say to her. "I lost three people that day," I say to her. She then says, 'I lost three deadweights that day too,' could she be my Ilana? or was everything we went through a facade? Who could wear a mask for so long? Or was Hans capable of corrupting anyone he came into contact with?

She was serious when she spoke to me, it was then that I couldn't contain my emotion anymore. For the first time in a long time, my pack, my fiancé, and Ilana saw emotion come from me. As I was transforming, I said to her, "I lost three people that day so how about we end this now?" Ilana takes her form and she shows me her beauty in her wolf form. It's then that we both go at each other now, I and her keep fighting each punch connecting, each of our claws digging deep into each other.

I punch her and claw her face and she claws my stomach. How much of this pointless fighting am I going to have to keep doing? I say to myself

~~~Apollos

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask her. 'Why didn't I tell you?' She looks at me, her eyes looking cold but disappointed at the same time. 'Do you think I wanted to keep it from you?' she said. 'You think I wanted to hide information from you?' she says in an accusatory tone. 'I love you,' she says in a disappointing voice. 'I knew what that man was capable of and I knew what he took from me and I knew what he took from you. He took even more from you than he took from me,' she said to me. 'I lost my pack but I still had one of my family left. You lost everything, though. How could I tell the man I love that I knew Hans?' She made such a valid point that I let it go, what I couldn't understand was why she didn't tell me the other thing.

I then said, "Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?" She then says, 'Because if I died and didn't come back, I didn't want you to realize you lost another child. You have gone through so much,' I remember losing my sons and I remember losing my baby girls. I remember losing them, "I wouldn't have been able to stand losing you. I can't feel grief anymore," I say to her, "But I can feel anger and I know I would tear this whole world apart without you,"