Moonless
~
Accalia
~
Accalia skidded around the corner, close enough to smash into the nearby wall but that didn't stop her. There was only anticipation in her steps.
Dashing down the hall, his towering frame came into view but just as she saw him, he took a right.
"Lycus, stop avoiding me." Accalia hissed like a viper.
Lycus retracted his steps, whipping around the corner and sneered, "What? What do you want?"
Ignoring the peeving frustration Accalia was developing toward him, she strode up to him and poked him in the chest. "Now who's avoiding who?"
A week had passed since Erisa met Cole, a week since everyone gathered the Alpha had developed a crush on the huntress and with coming up empty-handed, they only had the heartstrings of his emotions to use to their advantage.
Nothing but incessant training and preparation had been put into every passing day.
Accalia felt stronger, her back stronger and pain lessening like it was never there to begin with. She trained with Tala, then Cadence and even Erisa.
Only Lycus hadn't batted her an eye this entire week, completely and stubbornly ignoring her like she didn't exist.
It reminded Accalia of the days they were truly enemies and it cut deeper than a claw into her skin ever could.
"Go away, you smell funny."
Accalia's mind went blank and she giggled, covering her mouth. "Are you being serious right now? You sound like a five-year-old, Lycus."
Lycus stepped away from her, nose crinkling. "I'm being deadly serious. You smell cheap, too much perfume and it's washed out your natural scent. I don't like it."
Accalia rolled her eyes, wanting to say that was the whole point but the doubt on him, how pained he looked, she reigned herself in. "I'll have a shower when I get back. Will you want to be around me then?"
"No."
Accalia crossed her arms and glared. "If it will make you feel any better, Lycus, I can leave if you want me to."
She went to stalk away from him, knowing she was keeping her family members and Rexton waiting. They needed to get to the pack quickly, Erisa was already heading to the bar and time would soon run out.
"You want to know why I locked Rexton away all those years ago?"
The question caused Accalia to plant her feet to the floor.
She wasn't so sure she wanted to know, not right now, not with that look that transpired beyond his words. An eminent, dreading emotion that bled through his face as if he would be meeting death.
"I don't—"
"Because something was after my brother, Accalia. Ever since he was a baby, an oracle would find me and foresee my brother's life every year near his birthday. Different words, different prophecies she spoke, but all the same: something was after my brother and wanted to take him from me. That's why I locked him away, that's why I faked his death."
Accalia's body slumped against the wooden wall and she felt so heavy she could crumble.
Lycus's incessant need to control, his every desire to have everything his way and his controlling decision to keep Rexton hidden and isolated from the outside world.
Lycus did this to protect Rexton not only from himself, or the lycans and werewolves but because something was after him.
"And you didn't know what or who it was?" Accalia found her voice after a moment.
Lycus's head tilted, his lips pulling into a twisted smile as he glowered at her like she was poison to his sights. "No, I never figured it out. All I knew was once the person would rise and take my brother, hell would be upon us all. Damnation."
Damnation? Hellish flames, punishment and endless suffering — that would befall upon them all if someone that wanted Rexton had him?
It sounded too absurd to believe.
But once again, Accalia met that fear painted on Lycus like a sorrowful canvas. He believed this, every word the oracle had prophesied all those years ago and it drilled such a hole into his brain he found no other option but to lock his brother away.
"This thing that was after Rexton might not even exist, Lycus. You never met them, they never touched Rexton and you made sure of that. How can you be so sure they'd be around, if it's real, after all this time?"Accalia didn't want to brush him off like he meant nothing, but with the sayings of an oracle, what could you believe?
Lycus shrugged carelessly, ignoring her like she was a stranger to him. "By all means, Accalia, believe what you want to believe. Go be a hunter and I'll be an Alpha for our pack without my Luna."
"Lycus!"
He fled, his speed taking off like lighting striking down and stealing the air from Accalia's lungs. Leaving her breathless, leaving her moonless.
____
Cadence
~
"That's fucking tragic, Cadence," Tristan grumbled, shifting the gear stick and taking a sharp bend. He scratched his head in thought and peered over his shoulder to give a judgemental glower to the hybrid.
"To him? You're mated to him? That's gotta be messed up shit, there. Accalia mated Lycus and then you're mated to Lycus's brother — but you and Accalia are cousins, so that would—"
Cadence drummed her fingers across the dashboard and lifted her feet onto it, stretching as her combat boots pressed against the glass of the windshield. "We haven't even been in the car for an hour and you're already annoying me."
Tristan leaned over and clutched her ankle with a sharp pinch. "Get your feet off my fucking dashboard!"
Cadence rolled her eyes and kicked her feet back to the ground.
"Do not yell at her like that!" A voice hissed from the back.
The Larren family rounded on the hybrid, gawking at him to make it clear if he had the nerve.
Accalia smacked her hand onto Tristan's face, raising her unruly brows at him with apprehension. "Pay attention to the road, please."
Tristan turned back around and glared at the road ahead of them.
"I'm sorry, Rexton," Cadence heard Accalia say to the hybrid. "My family are quite aggressive with each other. Just because Tristan swears at Cadence doesn't mean she takes it seriously."
"But I do," Rexton said to Accalia and Cadence could feel a hole being drilled into the back of her head with the look he was giving her. "No one should yell at her like that or you, for that matter."
Cadence slapped her thighs and spun around on them, giving the two equal-fitting dark glares. "What are you two talking about?"
"Nothing—" Accalia muttered with a flat smile.
"You," Rexton confirmed without a beat.
Cadence smiled at him forcefully, teeth set crookedly. Her eyes were circled wide and inspecting. His hair was fluffy like you could run your hand through it and feel feathers. His attire was nothing compared to the hunters. Where they wore dark and fitted clothes they could move in, Rexton settled for a long dark green sweater and wide-leg trousers.
Tristan was right, this was fucking tragic.
"Oi, you," Cadence didn't want to get used to her tongue saying his name but she caught his attention all the same as he was already looking at her.
"Yes?"
Cadence looked to Accalia who sat unsettled, hugging her middle as if to protect herself from ache.
"Can you smell my normal scent?" Cadence pried, needing to know if they were in the all-clear when crossing through the bounds of the Canus pack.
All week, every single day, night and morning, Cadence, Accalia and Erisa all spent time wearing different scents throughout the day, washing out their normal odours.
Tristan was told to do the same and he opted for a flowery scent.
Rexton didn't even inhale or move to get a whiff. "I can."
Cadence's face went blank.
"But," Rexton added and sent an encouraging smile her way. "I can smell the other scent you have on you more so. My senses are much more heightened than others. It also happens to be because you are my—"
"Got it!" Cadence turned back around and slumped down in her chair so he wouldn't see her.
Cole's territory was a citadel of trees that sanctioned around the entire pack and hid what lurked within.
Canus wolves were the monster that hid under your bed and in your closet. You knew they were there, you knew what they could do but you tread edlightly in disturbing them.
The moon barely peeled through the parted trees, the patchy road barely visibly as the car took every bump and bend. As they came closer to the pack bounds, Tristan parked between two tree trunks and immediately switched the car off, not wanting to draw unwanted attention.
"How are we getting in?" Accalia questioned in a scarce whisper.
"It's a Friday night," Tristan gave Cadence a tricky grin and continued, "Werewolves will be out and others will go to the far east of the pack — we're gonna go through the gaps of the trees on the west. And Cole doesn't exactly have patrollers watching the borders or any form of security. They don't give a fuck about that stuff."
Accalia prompted her elbow on the console, sparing her brother a doubtful look. "That sounds like an awful plan."
Tristan rounded on his sister, patting her on the head and she shooed him away. "Lilybelle, these brainless fuckheads will have nothing on their minds but sex, alcohol and having a good old time. They'll be distracted and we'll slip past them."
Accalia frowned in thought and pushed back against her seat. "The good old days."
Cadence laughed and looked ahead, remembering the nightly drives they would take to set up camp in the woods. They were young, and thoughtless, even if they knew what they were doing and were prepared for anything. It was simpler back then, setting traps, tracking and tailing after the enemy.
Cadence's eyes narrowed on suspicion, searching into the darkness as a figure moved along the bushes in a graceful movement that looked like floating.
A just and rational rage flared up inside Cadence's chest on impact.
The figure revealed itself like black smoke, draped in a travelling coat and showing a delicate and youthful face.
"Can we run her over?" Cadence asked Tristan and he immediately leaned forward to see what she was pointing to.
"As long as I'm not burying the body," Tristan muttered icily and relaxed back into his chair, closing his eyes so he wouldn't see a thing. "By all means."
Cadence rounded on Rexton and restrained her hands from punching him. "What is she doing here?" Cadence seethed in demand.
Rexton scratched the back of his neck and dashed out of the car before Cadence could find the door handle.
"He's so dead!" Cadence yelled and punched her fist into the dashboard.
Tristan kept his eyes closed but grumbled, "keep your fucking hands off—"
"Did he bring Alexene?" Accalia questioned in surprise and peered between the two to see.
Rage refuelled in her chest and Cadence pointed at them as they spoke to each other like old friends. "Well, you see the blood-sucking bitch, don't you?"
Accalia look down with a drawn-out sigh. "Well, none of us exactly refused him when he brought up the suggestion of bringing her last week."
Cadence didn't want to hear it. "I want her gone. How did he even get in contact with her?"
"The landline back at the house?" Accalia suggested.
"How would he know how to use it?" Cadence snapped and was met with a deadpan look by Accalia.
"That's insulting, Cadence. You hardly speak to the guy, he has to figure out how things work eventually." Accalia explained coldly and geared up, clasping two silver daggers.
Accalia was right, Cadence didn't want to know the twists and turns of Rexton's pathetic existence. His only use was his abilities that extended beyond any other creature she had met.
He had one purpose and if he was not utilising that, his life had no other meaning to her.
"Better get your man, Cadence." Tristan teased.
Rexton smiled fondly at Alexene with such brightness it was overwhelming and Cadence punched Tristan in the arm. "Shut up, Tristan!"
She grabbed the crossbow from the back, making sure it had the exact number of silver arrows and got out, slinging it over her shoulder. She might let loose an arrow in the next few minutes.
Slamming the door, Cadence twirled her dagger between her fingers and waited for her cousins as she leant against the door.
It seemed as if a spotlight beamed down on Cadence tonight as Tristan and Accalia took their time getting out of the car and Rexton and Alexene sent looks her way.
She hadn't seen or heard from Alexene since Rexton kidnapped her. If Cadence couldn't kill her, she made a point of wiping her out of her phone and mindset. The vampire that threatened to kill her family and strangled her to do her bidding just couldn't stay away.
Now it dug up the anguishing need for revenge.
"She's here for Rexton, Cadence," Accalia said to her. "I know what she is and what she's done, but she cares about him."
Cadence shrugged her off with a hiss. "And why should I care about the people that care about Rexton?"
"I have grown to care about him," Accalia admitted to Cadence.
A slither of disgust travelled along Cadence's skin like something downed her in ice-cold water. "Then why should I care about someone that cares about a monster that feeds off people like blood bags and kidnaps them?"
Cadence stalked off and whipped her danger around in a sturdy grip, lifting it toward Alexene as if she cursed her. "Bother me tonight and I'll make use of you by having these dogs eat you until you're really dead."
Alexene gleamed with amusement and Cadence fixed Rexton the same look, but her threat to him didn't need to be said, he knew where he stood with her.
Tristan led the way and Cadence stuck by him, leaving the others to follow along.
The wind whipping through the trees overlapped the snapping of twigs beneath many feet and dead leaves crackling in their wake. As they draw closer to the tree gates of the pack, rotten and potent odours waffled around them like a dome encompassing them in the foul stench.
"Nasty fuckers." Tristan commented and covered his nose as his eyes crossed over in horror. "I'm gonna puke."
Cadence kicked aside a bone and frowned at the many bodies rotting beneath the night skies. Decaying carcasses scattered along the forest on the outskirts of Cole's pack, leaving nothing inviting but an evident display of the dead. A boneyard, with no burial ground or crosses to claim the deceased.
They were wasted corpses, rotting as maggots and flies fed into the dark delight of flesh and bone.
Cadence looked behind her, confirming Accalia hadn't become one of those corpses since ignoring her and her lip curled once she saw her cousin strolling beside Rexton.
They spoke kindly to each other from what Cadence could see and it only filled her with disdain.
Her sight followed Alexene who tagged loosely behind, her long travelling coat splaying behind her as she took everything in with an upturned nose.
Cadence was surprised she looked so disgusted.
Tristan used his spear as a walking cane, kicking aside limbs and bones. Shortly enough, they came to the towering trees that gated around the pack and they stopped in their tracks.
"Just going in, seeing what we can find and pissing off. Got it?" Tristan scanned everyone's face individually with an inspecting glare. "And no killing. We can't leave tracks or anything that could trace back to us."
"What if they come at us first?" Alexene questioned coldly.
Tristan's dark eyes narrowed at her and looked ready to bury her head in the ground. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that, but with your dead ass being here..."
Alexene hissed. "Rexton suggested I come here. You are entering one of the worst packs imaginable and it might take more than the strength of a hunter."
"We don't need you," Cadence seethed and gripped her dagger against her palm.
Alexene pouted, her red eyes gleaming and clutched Rexton's forearm, falling into his side. "But you need him?"
I don't need anyone, Cadence claimed to her thoughts and spat to Alexene, "It looks like you need him, wasting over one hundred years on lycan filth."
"Cadence!" Accalia said sharply and Cadence laughed, throwing her hands up in mock surrender.
"Sorry, didn't mean to offend you or your family, Luna." Cadence gleamed and faced the entrance of the pack, creeping through the many gaps of trees in the lands of Canus.