Brothers
~
Lycus
~
Lycus despised silence. The way it carried itself in heavy and loud muteness.
The silent sound wasn't a tune he familiarised with. He never needed to, not when he was in a pack that revelled in the cries of others that begged for their lives. Not when they celebrated the battles they won in loud and prideful music that washed out any reason to be quiet.
Lycus wasn't used to silence, not when his father was around and more so when Rexton was born.
But at the moment, he preferred it.
The fallen leaves crunched beneath their boots and the bare trees showed the dark skies and moon that hung high like a mark. A constant reminder of the curse Lycus served.
His beast side may not be bound to the punishment the moon invokes, but it showed as a reminder of how he came to be and why he will always remain that way.
Lycus couldn't help but think, even in the pursuit of avoiding Accalia, an essence of his already fractured and forsaken soul, he had been mended by her.
How strong she appeared in the presence of her father, a cowardly and unworthy man that looked down at Accalia like she was nothing to him.
Lycus's fists clenched, hating the look he saw in William's bitter brown eyes and how it reflected so much of his own father, Roman.
Roman Fenris regarded Rexton in the same way, with resentment and frustration as if his own son didn't deserve the time and effort.
Once it was known Rexton wasn't like the others, with no black eyes, no beastly form or canines that were made to bite, Roman spat in his face that he was no son of his.
Banishment.
That was what Roman wanted, deemed the very thing Rexton deserved.
Lycus put his foot down and claimed he would take care of his brother from that day onwards.
The first Alpha couldn't go up against his two oldest sons and could no longer lay a hand on Rexton without meeting the wrath of Lycus and Gabriel. Roman had no choice but to yield to the arrangement.
It pleased their mother, Roman's mate, that finally after thirteen years, no harm could come to her youngest son despite not protecting him from any of it.
Lycus wondered what she would think now. What would she think of Rexton being locked away for a reason no one imagined?
"You must be wondering why I brought you out here," Lycus's voice echoed through the forest.
Rexton shook his head from side to side. "I wasn't. I'm content walking by your side, brother."
Lycus closed his eyes, wrapping his hand around a tree trunk and swinging around it to gather his thoughts.
"I didn't come to walk with you, Rexton." His voice trembled with annoyance, but he didn't mean for it to be directed at his brother. It was an arrow at himself.
Rexton paused, stopping in his tracks and awkwardly stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Did I do something wrong? If so, I did not mean—"
"You did nothing," Lycus said gently, trying to sound as kind as his feral voice could be. "You never did anything."
Rexton's head tilted, biting the inside of his cheek as his face changed, trying to understand the man before him.
He wouldn't get far, he would get nowhere in trying to decipher the man—lycan in front of him.
"You are here to kill me?" Rexton straightened up and his arms fell loosely by his sides, accepting whatever was to come his way. "Do what you must, but I am not going back to the coffin. I would rather die than be in darkness."
Lycus would hear the faintness of his brother's heartbeat in the coffin, a simple reminder that Rexton remained on this earth with him and he wasn't going anywhere.
Lycus visited him from time to time when he could make the travel and sit on the cold sand, hearing what he could find within the metal tomb that concealed his brother.
A few times, Lycus could hear pleas and feeble screams shrieking through the coffin as his brother's throat bled in pain.
Lycus would leave Kara forest then and wait a few days to come back.
He would have to shake off his brother's crying and begging for freedom.
"I could never kill you, Rexton, even after all I've done, I could never do that." Lycus proclaimed, numbness scorching through his throat.
A flaring rage graced Rexton's eyes and for a moment, Lycus thought it would be him to die in this forest.
"But you could confine me and allow me to rot for over a century."
A knife might as well stab through Lycus's skin and meet his heart, shattering it, because the agony in Rexton's voice was enough for him to want it to happen.
"Rexton," Lycus's voice cracked, losing his sense to talk as his tongue unravelled empty sentences.
Rexton wiped his nose, sniffling and asked, "Why did you do that to me, brother? Why did Gabriel? I understand I was different, I was abnormal compared to the rest — compared to you, but I thought I would always be safe with you, I thought you and Gabriel would always protect me."
"We were protecting you."
Firsthand, Accalia didn't believe the words coming out of Lycus's mouth when he finally broke and told her his reason for locking Rexton up. Would Rexton see through it all? Would he see what Lycus saw?
"Yes — yes," Rexton shouted, his cry bleeding into a desperate shriek and pointed at his chest, slamming his fist against himself. "From myself! From everyone around me!"
"No," Lycus corrected and took a step toward his brother, surprising the both of them when his hands found Rexton's shoulders. "Something was after you, Rexton, and I had to protect you from it."
Rexton slumped against Lycus's hold and his chest raised and fell at a rapid rate, at a loss.
"Wha—what do you mean?" Rexton mumbled, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down with pronounced fear.
Lycus sighed, turning Rexton and tucking him into his side. He couldn't find it in himself to look into the eyes of someone that mirrored him so greatly.
Rexton fell in stride with him, weaving through the trees and logs as they strode back to the pack, awaiting for Lycus's revelation.
"You were a baby the first time the oracle came to see me," Lycus began, remembering the old oracle who curled over with a crane in her hand and a hood covering her face. He saw her silver eyes from time to time if she wished to gift Lycus the moonlight sight. "And from then on, every year around your birthday she would give me a visit and claim that something was after you. She could never tell what, I don't know why, but she said they were powerful and wanted you for themselves."
Rexton asked many questions Lycus couldn't answer and had many demands Lycus couldn't meet.
"I don't know what or who it was, Rexton. The oracle could only give what she had and it wasn't much. We followed through with that she told us to do to protect you; tuck you away and protect you from what wanted you."
Rexton stood stunned and softly shook his head in disbelief. "I do not accept that."
Lycus sighed breathlessly, losing all sense of words to talk.
"Not with you. Not with my brother, Lycus Fenris. You would have fought back and hunted down whatever you claimed was after me. Father was brutal, but you were fierce — unyielding to anyone that dare challenge you. And yet, you fall for this? Why?" Rexton demanded ferociously.
If there was anyone on this earth that shouldn't be supernatural, it was Rexton. He had pureness embedded in his very heart that struck into his soul. He wasn't met for this world, much like Accalia, and yet they were forced into it, made from the claw and silvers of it.
Rexton Fenris wasn't supposed to be bound to his lycanthropy as well as his vampiric side. He wasn't made for it, but he was a king in his own making. Something made that shouldn't be.
Lycus is of this world, he had the scars and stories to prove it. It was all he had known and all he will ever want to know. Not Rexton ...
"Hell on earth, Rex," Lycus confessed, straying his face away from him, unable to see the ache on Rexton. "The oracle said there would be damnation on this earth if this thing got their hands onto you. I received that message since you were a baby, up until you were nineteen and I couldn't deal with the messages she had for you. After I locked you up, she never returned and neither did the thing that was after you. It stayed gone."
The prophecies of the oracle dispersed as did her lingering threats of hell and pain. All that was left was the screams of Rexton crying to be let out of his cage to drill through Lycus's waking and slumbering life.
"I knew there was a reason for you to still isolate me when I was freed. At least I am aware it wasn't only because of the vampiric side, as I always thought it was. It was because I am bound to something worse than the lycanthropy and vampiric curse." Rexton stated numbly, not waiting for Lycus's insufferable reasonings that wouldn't hold up the way they once did.
There was no good reason and Lycus couldn't find a bad one either.
Lycus should have told Rexton. Gabriel should have told Rexton.
Lycus was in a meadow of meaningless motives with unforgivable actions.
"I would like to go home. I don't want to discuss this anymore." Rexton stated and turned away, taking his silent strides with him.
"Rexton, I thought it would be painless."
His words captured Rexton's attention the way they did when Lycus was putting him away all those years ago. Utterly unassuming to the world around him and all that it entailed.
"But it wasn't." Rexton said, that kindness coating his tone once again.
Lycus didn't hesitate and strode up to him, levelling his head to Rexton's, even if he had to look up at his tall, gangly little brother. "I thought it would be. Without blood, your vampire side would have suffered for some time, but drifted off into sleep. I was counting on that, I went to Kara forest constantly to see, but it was your lycan that kept you conscious in the slumber."
And Lycus counted on that the night he cocooned Rexton in iron and silver metals. Wishing him brief pain, but endless sleep where no harm could come to him.
Rexton cleared his throat, his fringe framing over his eyes and he gently grabbed Lycus's wrist, finger over his pulse to feel the thumping of a heart. "You see then, if that was the case, then I truly am the epitome of evil. I cannot find it in myself to forgive you or Gabriel for I can hardly forgive myself for what I am. A hybrid never accepted by his kind, a hybrid hunted by the unknown and a hybrid whose mate doesn't want him."
Rexton dropped Lycus's hand and stepped back, his body feeding into the woodsy blackness.
"Cadence protected you, Rexton. That's gotta mean something."
Will she want him? Lycus doubted it. Would she ever develop anything for him? There were no signs to display such emotions in the huntress.
But Cadence was tethered to him, whether she liked it or not, and that meant she would have one primal need. To protect him. Keep him afloat even if they were both drowning. She would protect him, even if she craved his death.
"Cadence hates me," Rexton's voice drifted around Lycus in wispy smoke. "I believe she likes the idea of taking others' lives."
Lycus followed Rexton's voice and soon enough, they fell into a rhyme of strolls as they wove through the woods at a distance.
"Cadence is rough around the edges. She's no human girl I've ever met. Have you grown fond of her, Rex?" Lycus asked, a sly grin playing at his lips.
A huff rumbled through the woods and Rexton murmured, "I've cared about her ever since I met her. I do not care that she's a hunter or where she comes from, I want the best for her. I want to be her friend, Lycus, how do I—"
"You don't," Lycus answered and Rexton was in front of him, staring down at him like he committed blasphemy.
"What are you suggesting?" Rexton pried, eyes fractioning in on him with suspicion.
Lycus picked up the pace, not liking the idea of being parted with Accalia for too long and gestured they continue on. "I'm suggesting you do what you've been doing. You've kept your distance when she wanted it, but do not be used by her, brother. You are more than that."
"I don't mind being used by her as long as I am near her."
Lycus nearly choked on laughter and clapped Rexton on the shoulder, connecting his declarations to his innocence.
"I am being truthful," Rexton said after a moment and shook off Lycus's arm, his chest puffing out. "Whatever she wants me to do, I will do it. I'm here for her, in whatever way that may be and after all I have done, I'm indebted to her."
They exited the tree line and came to a wide field of grass. Beyond that, led to Fenris pack — their pack. The grass came up to their knees, their boots wedging into the soiled ground that was cold and frosty from the chilly weather.
Lycus could hardly feel the cold, but it didn't stop him from brushing his arms together, seeking something he couldn't claim. "You care about her."
Lycus had grown used to being annoyed by Cadence's existence that he often forgot that she was a young girl worthy of the same things Accalia deserved.
"You care about Accalia, do you not?"
Lycus didn't miss a moment. "It's beyond caring with Accalia, she's everything I've never asked for and she's more than I could ever want. I love her. With everything I have."
Even though I'm a bastard and a shameless fool when it comes to her, Lycus needed to make amends with her. Tethering their hands as one and proclaiming words to each other that strayed off what needed to be spoken about wouldn't help their bond.
Lycus had to stop hiding in Alpha duties and hallways she didn't walk down to avoid her.
"I hope one day, Cadence will find it in herself to forgive me," Rexton whispered into the nightly air.
The brothers spent the remainder of their walk in silence, weaving through the grass and bounded over the fence that crossed over to the Fenris pack. The moonlight disappeared from up above, the trees concealing the skies.
The handsome old manor came into view, the architecture not as appealing from a distance and the lamps illuminated the long and narrow driveway that had two cars parked ahead.
Rexton spared Lycus a curious look. "Are you expecting visitors?"
Lycus rubbed his stubble in thought. "That's Gabriel's car."
Rexton combed a hand through his hair and scanned the area pensively. "Everything is so ... different. Cars, phones and television — another world. I don't mind cartoons and cereal."
Lycus chuckled and clapped Rexton on the shoulder, trying to suppress the guilt wanting to eat away at him. Another regret that would follow him, his brother's mind was over one hundred years behind, in a realm where lycans were ferocious and they slept on the earth's soil.
"This isn't a ploy to earn your trust, Rexton, I don't deserve the slightest piece of it and neither does Gabriel. But seeing as the prophecies stopped, you ... could be safe. I reckon you should have more freedom." Lycus said, trying to smile when Rexton shoved him with a magnetic grin on his face.
"Truly?"
"With conditions, Rexton." Lycus stated tersely.
Rexton's smile didn't falter and his eyes beamed with interest. "What conditions?"
Lycus's footing came to a halt as they reached the front door and he turned to face Rexton, making sure he had his full attention. "Only a handful of people know you're a hybrid, that being all the people you have seen these recent weeks and I want to keep it that way. No one can know you're a hybrid and this is for your safety, not because you're different."
Ever since Lycus attempted to wipe out the vampire race, many things came along with it. Killing any lycans and werewolves that knew of them and destroying any information divulged about them.
As Rexton's life was erased away, the vampires had to be as well.
"You're a lycan, they'll smell it on you, but they'll sense something else as well — you can't shift and your abilities are different, you cannot show that to our people. Most of the time, the wolves mind their own, but they may ask questions about you. If so, tell them to ask the Alpha. Some males will try and size you up, the she-wolves might —"
"Lycus, I know how a pack functions," Rexton recalled, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
"Right. Well, in that case, stick close to someone you know. Like me or Accalia and Cadence. They're hunters, so they don't socialise much in a pack full of lycans and werewolves. Tala oversees the patrolling and training, you can hang out with her. Alexene can fuck off and you can watch all the cartoons you want. Sound good?"
Rexton scratched the side of his head in thought but offered Lycus a crooked smile. "Thank you, brother. But Alexene is my friend, always has been and you can't stop that."
Staking her would, Lycus wanted to say, but he forced a nod, biting his tongue. Nothing stopped them from being friends when they first met, even as Lycus and Gabriel attempted to hinder their interactions.
Opening the front door that lead into the living room, Lycus and Rexton came to a dead halt, taking in the sight around them.
The two Lunas of the Fenris packs sat on the couch side by side, only there was a newfound difference to one.
Nina's brown hands were swept around her swollen belly and wonderment stained her green eyes with such bliss no one could ruin it.
Lycus could hear it, the faint pattering heartbeats of wait laid within Nina's womb.
The Alpha of Alpha's own heart skipped a beat and his eyes landed on Gabriel, nodding at him in recognition.
"Nina," Lycus greeted and she smiled fondly at him, her brown curls bouncing as she attempted to get up. "You're with child."
Nina groaned and placed a hand on Accalia's shoulder to get up. Swaying ever so slightly, everyone came to her side, making sure she was grounded solidly to the floor.
"I'm nearly six months," Nina explained and laced her arm through Gabriel to lean on him. "I found out just before you met Accalia ... there wasn't exactly a right time to tell anyone."
Accalia looked pointedly at Lycus and stalked over to him, bumping her shoulder with his.
Lycus rolled his eyes at her, but laced his fingers through hers, her scent filling his world.
"There really wasn't a right time." Lycus agreed.
Gabriel left Nina's side and came to Rexton, scanning him head to toe with spiking concern.
"He's fine, Gabriel. I wanted to talk to him and explain myself." Lycus growled after a moment, not appreciating Gabriel's side-eye judgements and assumptions.
Gabriel pivoted to face Lycus and gave him a pointed look, searching for something no one else could find. "Explain yourself?"
"How much of a dick I've been," Lycus stated.
The brothers watched each other with mirroring stares, a knowing shift passing between them and Lycus hoped Gabriel knew what he was referring to.
Gabriel eventually smiled a tight slip smile, dimples showing and turned his attention back to Rexton.
"You ready to be an uncle?" Gabriel asked him and Rexton smiled brightly, his cheeks denting with dimples.
Rexton turned to face Lycus and that smile didn't waver, even in the presence of someone that has done more damage than good to him. "Are you, Lycus?"
Lycus was ready for deliverance in whatever way it came.