War is coming
~
Accalia
~
Accalia saw predator within beast and man. The stalkers bred to hunt and kill, the individual that took the lives of others without a touch of regret.
Accalia saw that within her family and heaven forbid, it was inside her cousin. Her heart still hammered against her chest, reminding her of what played out minutes ago — Cadence completely losing herself and not wanting to come back from it. She wanted to hurt the people around her.
The blood on Accalia's mate proved it.
"The sun is nearly out," Accalia uttered, wanting Alexene gone and as far away from Cadence as could be bridged. "You need to leave. Now."
Alexene beamed at Accalia, baring her teeth in a spiteful smile, but that was all her intentions could extend to with a stake in the hunter's hand.
"Of course ... Luna Accalia. I only came to see Rexton."
Accalia pondered on how deeply their connection ran. Rexton is part vampire, perhaps that was what bonded the two together, their vampiric blood.
Rexton's face puckered into a disappointing and doe-eyed expression when giving Alexene a goodbye. They exchanged hushed whispers, hugged and Alexene dashed away at a pace Accalia swore she vanished into thin air.
"Hopefully, the pestering bitch burns alive." Lycus growled and turned to Accalia with a reassuring grin.
Accalia flinched, the dry blood around his nose and face not at all appealing. Cupping his face so he couldn't move, she frowned up at him.
"You could have easily blocked Cadence's punches, why didn't you?" Accalia wondered aloud.
"Because she's scary." Lycus pouted.
Accalia punched him lightly on the shoulder. "I'm being serious."
Lycus sighed roguishly and tapped Accalia on the nose. "She's angry, Accalia, hateful even, and the only time I've seen anger like that has been within myself. Trust me, it can fucking control you."
Accalia let him go and stepped back, trying to mull over his words for what they truly were. "Some days, I really don't understand you."
Lycus cupped her shoulders and dragged her into his chest. "I shouldn't have strangled Cadence. She's just a kid. A pain in the ass, but a kid."
Accalia told herself to pull away, not relish in his touch, but she found her head falling into his chest, his warmth feeding onto her skin.
"I don't regret stabbing you for it, Lycus."
Cadence comes first.
His laughter vibrated through his bare skin and Accalia wrapped her arms around him, not wanting to let go just yet. He offered her a source of comfort no one else could.
She tried to control her thoughts that dug themselves into the pit of threats and battles. Three wolves, Canus pack members, were stalking the pack. They saw Rexton, the hunters and Cadence — who was still on the Thrax and Canus packs radar. They saw Accalia, wanting her dead and wanting to take her body back to their pack.
"Erm, Accalia," Rexton shifted by them and Accalia adjusted her head to see Rexton.
"Yes, Rexton?"
Rexton looked briefly at Lycus with sunlit eyes and then offered Accalia the brightest of smiles. "May I please have cereal?"
For someone so unnatural and powerful, a creature unknown too many, Rexton came across so humane, that it startled Accalia.
"Sure. It's in the kitchen, do you want my—"
"No, thank you!" Rexton beamed and strolled around the couple.
"Rex!" Lycus said over Accalia's head and his brother halted, twirling around. "Wake Gabriel up and give him the rundown of everything, alright? Then go have cereal."
Rexton shuffled on his bare feet against the autumn leaves and gave a jerky nod, running back to the house.
"I don't understand how he could have bitten Cadence. He seems so ... sweet." Accalia murmured, pressing her cheek into Lycus's chest.
"I thought if he was ever freed, he'd turn feral and uncontrollable, but he's still the same." Lycus breathed, dropping his chin on Accalia's head and she felt his restraint stopping him from wrapping his arms around her back. He opted to place them around her hips.
They stayed like that for a long time, as the sun peaked through the trees and winds drew warmer and crisp.
Accalia hoped Cadence found sleep, not wrapped up in revenge and bloodletting. By the looks of her cousin, sunken eyes, a face gaunt and overshadowed in paleness, she needed to rest.
"Hello, Vaela," Lycus drawled.
Accalia moved away from Lycus and turned to the otherworldly woman donning a plum-coloured maxi dress with dainty jewellery wrapped all around her in shining golds. Her locs were tied up and out of her face, revealing her silver moon eyes like the stars in the sky.
"Morning, Alpha," Vaela strolled barefoot through the leaves and she inclined her head to Accalia in greeting, "And Accalia."
"Hey, Vaela." Accalia briefly waved with the stake in her hand and inwardly cringed. She tucked it away and out of sight, not wanting to concern the oracle.
But the oracle's eyes narrowed and a slight smile graced her lips. "Did you receive visitors?"
Lycus threw an arm around Accalia's shoulders. "You could say that. It was Alexene wanting to see my brother."
No reaction, no fickle response was on her face and Vaela said, "Ah, I see. She would be gone now, are you not going to do anything about her, Alpha?"
"With Rexton around, I wasn't going to risk it. She helped him with his vampiric side years ago and Rexton sees her as a sister."
That was their relationship, a bonding of similar circumstances and they stuck by each other up until Rexton was caged. No wonder Alexene was so persistent in releasing him, hellbent on revenge, Lycus took her big brother away from her.
It almost made sense to Accalia.
"I was going to check out the bodies Alexene killed, do you want to go inside and I'll see you in there?" Lycus asked Accalia.
Accalia weighed her options on a scale and wondered what would be the tipping point of the endless possibilities. "I'll come with you. What if more wolves are there now?"
Cole was cunning and horrid in the moves he will make. Everyone around him was a pawn in his game, wanting them to move when he says and if wolves die around him, they will be replaced.
"Then there are more wolves. Just more bodies to dispose of. I think you should stay," Lycus murmured and Accalia ignored him.
"Do you want to come with us, Vaela?" Accalia asked the oracle, curious if she could offer insight that others could not.
Vaela immediately became squeamish with a shaky head. "No—no, thank you. I was just going on my morning walk, is all."
Accalia's shoulders sagged but nodded understandably. Vaela's expertise dabbled in the spirits, the unknown, not rotting corpses. And Accalia wouldn't be shocked if the oracle had a slight twinge of disliking toward her now, with what happened with Cadence.
Accalia intertwined her hand through Lycus's and pulled him toward her. "Let's go now."
The pairing stopped as Vaela's silvery voice drummed through the clearing, "Alpha, may I recommend that you make alliances. I'm aware you already have allies, but strengthen them. Make certain your treaties are in place, as well as your alliances and ruling. We do not know how many humans have been turned in the recent months, perhaps thousands and they'd only know chaos, not control. Canus values disorder, Thrax needs control — those ways of ruling are not compatible. Use that to your advantage."
Vaela's shimmering eyes slanted to the Fenris manor and a knowing sight played into those orbs. "Protect Rexton, even from himself if you must."
The oracle's feet crackled against the leaves as she drifted away, disappearing between the trees.
Lycus threw his arms in the air with a resigned groan. "She's basically hinting at shit getting worse."
Accalia pulled her lip into her mouth and tugged Lycus along. "Do you think we should take her advice?"
Accalia wasn't as critical as Cadence, but she remained unnerved by the tellings of a prophetic being that ensnared sharp wisdom and insights on the future. But if war was to happen, it would be smart to have allies rather than bystanders that watched from the sidelines.
"She's an oracle," Lycus explained, "you'd be a fool if you didn't."
—
Accalia and Lycus made the trip to the outskirts of the Fenris territory, their trails leading them to wherever the Alpha's senses took him.
"Around ... here." Lycus skirted the car to a stop and hopped out, Accalia following after him.
And it hit her with full force and she stumbled back to the car, her hand smacking over her nose to ignore the repulsive stench.
Lycus looked back with a crooked smile. "I told you not to come."
Accalia shook her hand away and stiffened it to her side, shaking her head. "I've smelt death before, Lycus. It can just be overwhelming at times."
Not for him, Accalia imagined, fighting back the sickness rising in her throat and stalked over to Lycus.
They were still in the clothing they slept in. Lycus looked sublime with his bronze skin gleaming against the lightened skies and his muscles flexing on instinct with every sound that followed.
"The nutcase would have tortured them, they've been dead for hours." Lycus observed, moving a branch out of Accalia's way as they trod through the forest.
Shortly after their stroll, they came across the three werewolves, hearts ripped out and eyes lifeless. Maggots and flies welcomed the rotting carcasses in dark delight and one wolf had its eyes torn out while the others was torn up.
Alexene certainly made sure their deaths were painful as can be.
"Why torture them? What does she have against werewolves?" Accalia asked Lycus who crouched down to examine the gritty display.
"She said they mentioned Rexton, she would have killed them for that ... to protect him. The torturing — fucking hell, I don't even want to try and understand her mind." Lycus swore under his breath and stood back up.
"There's no one else here right?" Accalia questioned, scanning her surroundings.
Lycus lifted his head slightly and his nostrils flared. "Just them. Well, what's left of them. You think we should send them back to Cole as a gift?"
That cocky and brazen smile did wonders to him, but Accalia stubbornly disagreed with his tricks of revenge for today.
"I think we should focus on what Vaela said, remember? Building and strengthening alliances." Accalia pointed out, looking away from the bodies when Lycus picked an arm up.
Letting it fall to the ground with a thud, Lycus shrugged and strolled back over to her.
Accalia jerked back, pointing sharply at him, "Don't you dare touch me, Lycus Fenris. Not with that hand."
Lycus wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, but laced his arms behind his back, nodding at her. "You're right."
"I know I am." Accalia said, but still, her thoughts weighed unsteadily with the currents. "But what about your pack? You have one of the largest packs that can fend for yourselves, do you think Vaela knows something we don't?"
"Vaela always knows something we don't, it's part of her duty as an oracle, but she also may not know something until it decides to reveal itself." Lycus whipped his phone out and began typing away.
"So we shouldn't take any chances?"
Lycus looked up, raising his brows at her. "Cole Canus isn't taking any chances and Zenith would be working from the inside out. No, my beloved, we can't afford any chances."
How oddly that aligned with her life as a hunter family. They ran with those codes as well: shoot to kill, aim first, can't afford to lose. The difference was that Accalia wasn't on the outs, but thrusted in the middle with lycans against lycans. Packs against packs. No longer hunters against lycans.
"Who are you texting?" Accalia recoiled, realising she probably sounded intrusive and didn't mean it at all.
But Lycus didn't seem annoyed by it, tucking his phone away and gesturing her back to the car. "Messaged pack members to dispose of the bodies. Can't have a human seeing this."
Even now, after drawing herself out of the haze of rotting corpses, Accalia could hear cars flying by on the highway. It was as if a dome was over the Fenris pack, ignoring the outside world and what lurked on the outskirts.
"Will your brother and cousin be by your side if anything happens?"
Accalia's family already pledged their loyalty to her long ago, long before being webbed into the world of lycans and werewolves. Their loyalty was founded on being a family that lost others and not wanting that for each other.
"Cadence will go wherever I go and I'll do the same for her. Tristan will do whatever he needs to do for us." Accalia didn't elaborate further than that and opened the passenger door.
Hopping in, she turned and bit back a gasp. Lycus was so close, their noses touched and heated breaths mingled.
"It used to be like with my brothers too, you know?" Lycus brushed the tip of his nose along hers and looked to the highway distantly. "Before ... everything got fucked up."
Accalia leaned forward and pulled his head so he was facing her. "It was more than Rexton being a hybrid, wasn't it? Locking him up?"
If there was one trait Accalia knew Lycus carried, perhaps with pride or obsession, was control. He needed things his way, even if it went south, even if it worsened, he needed it his way.
It didn't help that Alpha lycans are naturally controlling and territorial, even worse when Lycus had to carry the title after being the oldest and strongest of them all.
Lycus nudged forward, his lips thinning. "I had to protect him any way I could, Accalia. And now with him free, I don't know what's going to happen."
Uncertainty laced into his words, into his face and those war-like eyes that seared and flamed.
"Just protect him, Lycus. That's all you can do. Protect him, guide him and ... love him." Accalia threaded her fingers through his black hair and fought the urge to kiss him. "Because I know you do."
That uncertainty on Lycus deepened into something Accalia couldn't describe
"How can I do that when I can't even protect you? How can I do that when war is coming, Accalia?"