Cassius' P.O.V
I grimace at the wounds that are trickling down my sides with pain. The wounds on my body is sprinkled with gashes and cuts still yet to be treated. A majority of them is from that wretched wolf over there. However, I do not care. All that I am worried about is...Goddess...Pierce.
Pierce.
I struggle with the metal rope binding me to the floor. Every time I try to rise, it only seems to dig deeper, but I do not mind the pain. The pain coursing through my heart is far much worse.
Why hadn't you answered my prayer Goddess? All I asked, all I wanted was for him to stay far away from here. I never wanted him here!
A burning sensation begins to surface to my eyes making me shake my head at the terrible thoughts running through my mind.
"Pierce," I whine trying to stifle another cry. Please be okay.
"Whining and whimpering is not going to save him, little King," I hear Isaac say. It only makes me ball my hands up into fists.
"This is all of your doing! Isn't it?"
"Look around us. Let's not play the blame game, shall we? It will not solve an inch of our problems we are facing right now."
I scoff and shake my head. "Piece of shit."
He tries to lunge at me and I reciprocate the action even though I know I won't be able to reach him. He killed so many of my kin all for what? For a thousand year grudge?
"Enough! Both of you."
We both turn our heads facing a blood covered were. His brown hair is caked in blood, dirt, and grime. All I can truly make out it the color of his strange grey-green eyes.
"Bickering and arguing is not going to bring back the dead and dying! It sure as hell is not going to bring back Pierce."
My eyes widen.
"He's not..." I shake my head back and forth. My eyebrows furrow together at the deplorable thought. He could never...
"Cassius, Pierce, was a great friend of mine. A true best friend and an even greater Beta... but he isn't..."
"You lie!" Isaac cuts in as I sit there still, motionless.
"You and I both saw that arrow drenched and made of silver go through his chest!" the man cries unable to hold back his tears any longer.
"...He can't possibly be...I would have felt it..."
"AH yes, because being his 'chosen' mate automatically makes you form an 'unbreakable bond' that can transcend both time and space." Isaac goes on to drawl condescendingly causing me to glower.
"Yes, that is exactly it. A bond that you will never be able to have with anyone else. You heathen," I hiss.
"See all the good it done him," he mocks, but there is nothing but sadness coming from his voice. "Illogical, dim-witted wolves you are... You killed my Beta! My best-friend!" He yells at me with tears streaming down his face causing my heart to fall straight into the pits of my stomach.
"You did this! You did all of this! For what? Petty revenge? He meant...He means everything to me and you-! You..." I turn my head away and bite down against my lip resisting the urge to shake from all this pent up rage and emotions.
"Alphas! Enough! We must focus. Our livlihoods are at stake. Our packs, our territories have crumbled." I look at him with watery eyes threatening to come spilling out at any moment.
"In our division, they conquered. Humans," he snarls. "Meager, little, insignificant beings has conquered us." One good look and I notice almost instantly who he is. An Eastern wolf named Tristan.
"Look at us now! Chained, bloody, beaten. Yet, you still argue amongst yourselves when the humans are out there ravaging our lands, killing our leaderless people!"
I look at Isaac and he gives me the same look of knowing. The wolf is right. We truly made a mockery of ourselves and now we're paying a grave price for it.
The door swings open and my eyes quickly turn into daggers as I see who had entered. "Cecil," I growl with the intention to kill.
"Well now, look at all the mighty Alphas plus one. The Ebullient Easterners. The Nacreous Northerners. Not so great anymore now are you?" His voice is thick with disdain and malice.
"All chained up, bloodied, and still you squabble. Truly, you all are quite foolish." I pull at my restraints as well as Isaac, but Tristan keeps his cool.
"You wretched Westerner, I swear by the Moon Goddess, Avatea, I will hang you by your neck and rip your innards out while your heart still beats!" I growl, but it only causes him to laugh.
"Yes, yes indeed. However, coming from someone who cannot even manage his own kingdom and even caused a civil war between yourselves is rather laughable if I might add." I bite down on my lip until I draw blood.
"The Humans are much more civil beings to be around than the likes of you and your mangy, brutish people." Isaac makes it the farthest from his confines and lunges at him before he is pulled back to the floor.
"And you. The most foolish of them all. You wanted this war, all because of love. Isn't that it? Love. It had nothing to do with Pierce's father at all did it? You just wanted to be rid of him." He looks at me causing my mood to go from bad to worse.
"So you called forth a war. Impeccable timing."
"Where is Pierce?" I yell ignoring everything else. My heart is hammering out of my chest and my wolf is going frantic inside of me not knowing.
"That should be the least of your worries. As of right now we are in the midst of rounding up the lot of the mutts still lingering around and..." He grins.
"God only knows where that 'and' may lead towards. Slaves...maybe? Meat? Fur. The humans have to survive down in the South where you kept them for all these years. It's cold and food grows scarce," he states with an even bigger grin.
"You would do this to your own kind? You would sell us off to be butchered and used as animals!" Tristan yells till his voice grows hoarse.
"If they have such innate hatred of our kind what makes you and your people an exception? We are all werewolves."
"The Goddess shall strike you dead," I glower.
"Unlike you heathens, I believe in one, true, powerful God, The God of Light. I had long since discarded beliefs of there being a 'Moon God'," he mocks.
"I do hope you enjoy your new homes oh Great King and Alpha. Maybe then you will learn not to disregard anyone who seems 'lesser' and 'worthless'. It shall be a lesson well learned." A bellowing laugh escapes his throat causing all of us to hiss and seethe under our breaths until he leaves.
"We have to escape. One of us. We cannot leave them leaderless..." I say unsure of my words. "My Beta...my Beta...is dead. Killed by one of my own." I mutter with tears blurring my vision.
"My advisor is dead and Stevens...Goddess...Stevens... I have no one left but my mother and Pierce, both unfit to rule. So, it's better if you go." It comes out as a murmur as I recall every moment of that battle.
"My beta may be dead. A good amount of my kin is either, dead, dying, or being sold off! Yet, my people are warriors. They are fighters and they will not relent. Leaderless or not. We are strong divided. We are strong conquered. I will not leave without Pierce." His voice is hard and determined causing me to scoff.
Before Tristan can say anything a couple humans and a Western wolf walk in with the same crossbows they had pointed us into submission making me growl.
"Up. Up. Up. Beasts." I watch Tristan's eyes narrow at the word and Isaac glare.
"Get 'em up, Armand." The Western wolf looks at us with some fear, but he smothers it down under a tight smile. The large, silver caged door swings open once one of the humans unlocks it.
He unties Tristan first still keeping the silver rope tightly confined to his wrists and pushes him out the cage. Next is Isaac, who, surprisingly, goes willingly. Just by his personality alone, I know he has something planned. Finally, Armand comes and unties me. I get up without a hassle and walk out the cage.
Blood comes seeping out of my open wounds causing the floor to be splattered and decorated in my blood making the humans hiss. "Vile things."
Oh I will show you vile. When your heads are no longer a part of your body. The least of your worries will be seeing blood oozing out of another person's body, I thought maliciously.
Four more Western wolves come and grab each of us by our arms and escorts us into the East Wing of my kingdom. My Kingdom, I admonish. Christophe, Cecil, The Humans...I will make them all pay for what they had done.
"Bring 'em up here!" We walk up the stairs to the Ceremonial Center where I had lost two of my closest friends. It causes my heart rate to soar and pent up rage to come bubbling out of me. I will not lose Pierce as well. I will die. I will give up everything before I allow that to happen.
A familiar scent hits my nose causing me to struggle against my confines and the weres holding me. If only this mark... if only I had marked him. "Sit them down."
I see Stevens making my heart to drum out of my chest in both relief and heartache. Thank the Goddess he is alive and well...
"Stevens!" His head rises and soon his eyes widen before he starts shaking his head.
"Oh so you do know one another hm? Close friends?" A human voice travels to my ear causing me to turn my head away from Stevens and onto the man with brown hair coming down to his shoulders. It's tied up in a bow and the rest of his hair is pulled back along with it. I scoff at the nonsense.
His hazel eyes pierce into mine at the action. "Already thinking lesser of me are you, King of the North?" His voice is slick with animosity, but I go on to ignore it.
My mind is panicking. My wolf is becoming irratic causing my body to tense. To think something as low and meager as them would ever pose a threat to us.
"You need people. You need subordinates and, overall, you need land which you no longer have. Not so much of a king now, now are you?" He laughs at my forced silence and continues on.
"For centuries, your kind has treated us like dirt beneath your feet. You had denied us lands. You had denied us opportunity, but no longer. Today we are the hunters and you are the prey."
Isaac laughs and shakes his head. "Do not be silly, little human. You are foolish to believe you had conquered us just because you hold us here. We adopt new leaders. We adapt. Stupid, repugnant, little piece of filth. Humans are nothing to us."
The human gives Isaac a wry smile before signaling for one of the were's to launch a blow to his face.
"Any more dissenting opinions?"
The air is beginning to thicken with malice as time goes on. It's so poignant you can cut it with a knife.
"I thought so," he goes on to say.
"Today beasts, is your time to say goodbye to your old homes and hello to your new ones." A devilish grin splays across his face. He counts us off one by one until he stops at me.
"Ah, it seems like one is missing."
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Pierce's P.O.V
As soon as my eyes open I jump up and feel the burns of the silver coursing through both my hands and veins. I still wringle and wrestle until a small voice deep into the corner of the room.
"...It's best if you do not move. You are already badly injured. Anymore injury to your body can result in death." I stop moving and do as she instructs with disdain. The blood comes leaking out of my side in pools from the exerted efforts I had done.
She's right.
I watch her get up from the chair she sat in and walk over to me before bending down to get a good look at my face. My eyes widen as I notice the similar features she shares with Cassius. It makes my heart beat out of my chest at the thought of him.
"You're...Cassius' mother?" I question. A light smile goes across her face before she nods.
"And you must be his infamous mate, Pierce. I would have expected to meet you much sooner than now," She says teasingly making me smile through the pain. Her smile instantly reminded me of him bringing so much comfort to my wolf.
"Forgive me, I should have...introduced myself...much earlier than now." I wince through my words as I try to sit up.
"It is all irrelevant now, sweet boy. I knew you would accept him on your own terms, at your own pace. All I ask of you is to take care of him. All he ever had was me... but I know I am not enough. I cannot protect him, though I am his mother, and it saddens me greatly."
I watch her eyes fill with tears before she shakes her hair out of the loose bun it was in. It cascades down her back and onto the floor making her look younger by decades.
"Christophe, his cousin, his brother, had caused a civil war within our Kingdom as Cassius was away with you. When he came back..." Her eyes fall away from mine as tears runs down her face.
"My son has suffered a grave misdoing, Pierce. He is in pain...and since he was a boy...he has never done well with it."
"I swear to you on my life I will see him to safety." She shakes her head at this.
"I know my son like the sky knows the moon. He does not want safety. He does not want his kingdom returned back to its greatness. He wants you, Pierce. See yourself to safety."
"And you?"
"I will be sold with the rest." My eyes widen at her statement devoid of emotion.
"Sold?" I exclaim. "By who? To who?"
"Humans..."
I slump against the wall as the events from the battle come raging back to the forefront of mind. My worries for Cassius increases significantly.
"There are some things about our family you must know before you leave me or I leave you." My eyes gaze into her light amber ones.
"What The Packs of Amel had done to those beings so many, many, years ago. . ."
Before she can finish humans come crashing into the lavish room they have us in.
"Pick them up and take them where the rest of the other ones are. He should be announcing it soon enough," a male human voice says.
Four Western weres come splitting into pairs as they hoist us up by the arms.
"Pierce, you must listen. The his-"
"Silence!" the humans beckon causing her to stop abruptly and look longingly at me.
"Take the woman to the other gathering. This one needs to go with the rest." I turn my head around as I watch her struggle with the Western were before they subdue her and get her walking again.
As soon as we finish walking down the long hallway and out the door. We enter into a circle filled with dead and dying kinsmen and kind causing my eyes to fill with water full of hatred. The smell of death is so strong I barely had time notice me being shoved to the floor.
"Pierce!"
His voice rings through my ears causing me to look around for him until my eyes land on a set of dark amber eyes. A big smile of relief splays across my face. Yet, I was stricken to see him here as well. I wanted him to leave, Goddess knew I did. Nothing good ever happens to a king captured by an enemy. History has taught me that time and time again.
"Cassius..." I murmur before I see water populating his own eyes. You must leave. Whether with me or without me... You are a king.
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[A/N] SO GUYS! Don't go quiet on me now! Tell me your thoughts~(Angry or sad)
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Another chapter will be posted Friday! OH and do I have a surprise for you all then!
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