Wolves & Silver
~
Cadence
~
Fenris wolves scattered the lands in their own right. Some were already on all fours in their other form and others wore armour, their eyes plated orange like their werewolf makers before them.
Lycans dominated the territory, plated in armour to protect their furry chest. They towered everything around them as they stalked on their hind legs, their majestic physique built for war and didn't hide their brute strength as they revelled in their primal side.
It was unlike anything Cadence had ever seen. She was used to being on outlines, the person peering in, the hunter on the opposing side. Not the hunter siding with her natural enemy to take out more of their kind. It was unlike anything she had ever imagined for herself.
Lycus and Cadence stuck to the borders, watching as the wolves flocked the young ones, the children and pregnant she-wolves away into the underbelly of the earth, where they are safe.
If lycans and werewolves saw Lycus, they would bow, submitting their heads to the earth in acknowledgement of their Alpha, but resumed to their duties.
They paid no mind to Cadence or the boy in Lycus's arms, his people knew when to mind their own and Lycus was the enforcer of that. He was known for it, redecorating with the right shade of red if people didn't fall in line.
"We're close," Lycus announced.
Cadence didn't respond and followed loosely behind Lycus until he came to a dead halt, his boots sweeping across the ground where sticks and dead grass flew away.
They were isolated from everything around them, hidden away by a city of trees and bushes that hid their tracks.
"You made this?" Cadence questioned, leering at Lycus as he placed Rexton on the ground.
Lycus bent to his knees and wiped away at the remaining mirth and moss that tarnished the door embedded into the earth. With a swift pull, his hand snapped the lock and a door opened, revealing a mouth of darkness.
A heavy and earth-like odour suffocated Cadence's nostrils and it didn't take long to recognise this dungeon hadn't been used in years.
"This was for him," Lycus explained and picked the limp boy back in his grasp. "I took many precautions— he would occasionally hide here to escape my father."
They descended the staircase and Lycus pulled out a lighter, brandishing torches that stuck to the rocky walls into flames.
The underground spoke of its old age, a dark space emitted with intact structure but unwelcoming gloom.
This wasn't a hideout, it was a tomb.
"Rexton would hide here?" Cadence questioned, trying to envision the young hybrid running for escape in a place as bleak as this.
Lycus carried Rexton deeper into the cellar and stepped through an open door of a cage that took haven in the corner, the flames barely embracing the confinement.
Steadily, Lycus placed Rexton down on the harsh floor and clutched his hand briefly before releasing him, stepping back out of the cage.
Lycus wedged down the door and a bar of iron metal slammed into the creases of the pavement, solidifying into the ground.
"I created it centuries ago with Gabriel," Lycus began, staring at Rexton who made no move or sound. "When my father was Alpha, my pack travelled a lot — war-causing and thieving, once my mother was pregnant for the third time, we settled back here where we would return every few years. I haven't left since and I built this place for Rexton — in case he needed an escape. He was targeted a lot for being a late bloomer. No one could trace him here except us.
No one knows of this place, every other dungeon in my pack is a recent design made for the werewolves in my pack. The amount of decaying metal and how deep the dungeons descend into the earth will hide other scents. No one will sense him unless they try to find him. But, Cadence, this place isn't made to imprison him, once he wakes up, he'll be able to leave."
Cadence didn't want to confine him, she wanted a haven for him as the war stormed through the pack. This was only temporary and she fully intended in returning to this place, to free him.
She didn't settle for goodbye as they slipped back upstairs to the woods.
Lycus slammed the door shut and scattered dirt, muck and dead leaves across the rustic door to cover every square inch of it.
"Can you smell him down there?" Cadence questioned.
Lycus shook his head. "If I try, I can. But I mainly smell the soil around us and the faintest scent of him. Old books and cereal. He must've been reading recently." He mused distantly and rose back to his height, turning to Cadence.
His brows furrowed as he took Cadence in, he could probably smell the ever-growing fear that rolled off her in waves. But she could hardly feel it inside of her, there was too much energy forcing out any lingering emotion that dared hinder her.
"You're scared for him." Lycus reasoned.
Cadence scowled and turned on her heel, strolling back to where they came from. Lycus chuckled from behind her and stalked to her side.
"I don't know — I feel many emotions at once when I'm around the hybrid."
"I know what you mean," Lycus sighed. "A mate will mark you, Cadence, heart and soul."
Coming from an Alpha that never showed care in the world for another woman before Accalia, Cadence had to hand a fragment of belief to him.
"Are you ... angry with me?" Cadence asked slowly, trying to trust her words that led them both here in the first place.
"I wanted to kill you,"
Cadence wasn't surprised by that, a laugh peeling out of her at his brutal honesty.
"But I didn't want to deal with my mate's wrath ... and I didn't want this to be a burden on you. You did this to ensure his safety, I know that."
"But will he?" Cadence couldn't stop her voice from trembling with wonder.
"With you, there's no measure of what Rexton will know. He adores you, Cadence, no matter what." Lycus muttered.
Cadence didn't know adoration, love, or affection from another — someone that wanted to bond through emotions she could not return.
How could Cadence feel an emotion she wasn't acquainted with?
She did not want it, not now, not ever.
The Beta flanked by their sides and her face was stricken with seriousness. Her eyes were gold and she was shackled in armour even with sprouted claws and canines. Half wolf and half woman.
"What's the news?" Alpha demanded.
"The Jacian pack have made it over to your brother's pack, Lycus, there were no reports other than that," Tala informed, her voice deeper than usual — animalistic.
Lycus's closed his eyes, breathing through his mouth as his face battled with worry.
"Anything else?" Lycus cooed in question.
"There are Roan fighters on their way here now and Alpha, some patrollers could smell other scents on the other side of the border. They're coming."
"They're already here," Lycus growled and sent a deliberate look to Tala. "Hunters are coming, let them in without question and Tala, tell the wolves vampires walk among us — they should know exactly what our enemies are."
Tala disappeared behind the trees and Lycus and Cadence crept back into the manor.
Erisa was the first to greet them, her hair out of her face in a secured ponytail and brandished in weaponry. A bow was stationed behind her back with a stack of arrows in one hand and a silver sword in the other.
Instantly, she passed Cadence the sword who secured her fingers around the handle, familiarising herself with its sturdy weight.
"You're gonna fight with us?" Cadence raked her gaze along Erisa's poised and unyielding form and she didn't know why she asked.
Erisa punched Cadence in the shoulder, a grin on her lips. "Of course I'll fight with you, Larren."
Lycus took his leave and left in search of Accalia.
Erisa breathed a sigh of relief once he was gone. "I'm freaking the hell out. Did everything go over well with the hybrid?"
Cadence couldn't think about Rexton right now. The thought of him, limp and unconscious to the chaos around him seemed to ... weaken her, weaken her in the chest.
"Erisa, you don't have to be here. Don't force yourself to do something you don't want to do." Cadence exclaimed and strolled through the house, heading upstairs.
Erisa followed after her. "Did you feel forced to shoot Rexton and lock him away?"
Cadence paused at the top of the stairs and cast Erisa an irate look. "I did what had to be done. To—to—"
"Protect him." Erisa finished for her and looped an arm through Cadence's to lead them to her bedroom. "I know, what do you think I'm trying to do? I know I'm not strong like you, but I got a good aim. I can try and if I die, I know I died trying."
A train could have hit Cadence then and there and it still wouldn't have seeped into her thought process. Erisa's existence was on the fence between death and life, as was everyone else.
"We could die today," Cadence realised, her senses hitting overdrive even as she felt her body feed into numbness.
"We could."
"But we won't." Cadence snapped and stalked into her room, rounding up all the weapons and protective gear she could.
"We'll try not to." Erisa clucked her tongue.
From underneath the bed, Cadence pulled out a duffel bag and explained to Erisa, "I've been collecting things — whenever I can. Here, wear this. It's a breastplate, pure silver. I don't have much when it comes to protection, only weaponry."
They both stuck the steel metal over their sleeved tops and around their front, the metal defining their frames.
Cadence hooked silver rings onto her fingers, stashed two daggers at her sides and gripped her silver sword tighter than before.
Erisa saddled the recurve bow behind her back, counting all her arrows repeatedly, trying to ignore the fear stabbing through her head and heart.
Before any monument exchanges could be shared, Accalia and Lycus stepped into the room, announcing their presence.
Accalia's dark mane was in a long plait, draping over her shoulder and her face seemed harsher than before. All shred of warmth had been hardened into molten wildness and it didn't suit her. It didn't align with the warmth she held, the humility and kindness Cadence had recognised her for.
This wasn't her, from the hard-hitting armour she wore to the long metal iron sword she wielded, this spoke no bounds to her soul.
Lycus looked ready to bathe in blood. He knew mass destruction, being the creator of it and being the victim of it. He didn't need armour, his lycan skin was his protection and he looked to shift, eyes black and ridden of anything to connect him to humanity.
"Are we killing Cole before everything goes down?" Cadence muttered. They might as well go out with a bang.
Accalia and Lycus flickered knowing looks to each other.
"No," Lycus exclaimed and stepped deeper into the room. "His wolves will sniff him out, will want to free him first chance they get. You two are going to stop that from happening by watching over the dungeon when all hell breaks loose."
Cadence mulled over that explanation and was met with annoyance nipping at her skin. "Why can't we just kill him? We've got him, no point letting him live."
"We can't kill him yet. Cole is loyal to Adriana which means there's something between them—there could be more information we need to know. We have to know everything we can about Adriana." Lycus implored her.
Cadence slanted Erisa a peeved look, wishing this once, an enemy could die without anything else to it. No motives, no reasons to sustain their lives just a plain and drawn-out death. Nothing to come back from.
"You wanna play watchdog?" Cadence asked Erisa, her smirk enriched with sarcasm.
Erisa shrugged carelessly, but a reluctant leer swayed within those icy eyes. She would have to see Cole again and not only that, in the strangest of terms, guard him.
"Fine," Cadence grunted and jutted the tip of her sword at the couple, knowing the chances of them being apart for a second was slim to none. "What are you lot going to be doing?"
"Roan pack members are near, they'll take out the wolves that are on the other side of the border, we'll do the same on the other side," Lycus explained and pulled his phone out, eyes flickering over the screen.
"Tristan has arrived — car loads of hunters with him, mind you," Lycus informed them and tucked his phone away.
Wails of roars and growls hounded around them.
Accalia dashed up to both Cadence and Erisa and embraced them like it would be their last, losing all sense of strength and her weight falling against them.
Cadence buried her head into Accalia's neck, stamping this into her very soul so it could never be lost.
"With silver and sword," Accalia whispered by their ears, voice trembling with fear.
In union, Cadence and Erisa responded, "With blood and silver."
Accalia pulled away and wiped at her clouded vision, steering back to Lycus.
Lycus nodded curtly at the girls in farewell, giving a longer and lasting exchange to Cadence before they left without another word.
Cadence and Erisa did the same, following after the steps they left behind but their course of direction led them elsewhere.
Their combat boots crunched and crackled beneath the dead leaves and soiled earth. The moon hung lower tonight and the stars clustered the skies in a disastrous array of profound beauty Cadence couldn't find herself looking at.
She wanted no silver lining, no redeeming light from the moon that invoked a curse that made her what she was.
Cadence wanted an end.
They come to the top of the staircase and wallowing tunes of song flowed from the dungeons, coming out of Cole's mouth and into the woods.
"We're at war and he welcomes us with singing?" Erisa muttered, her nostrils flaring.
"We'll welcome the fucker with death then,"
They whipped around and Tristan came into view, a line of hunters, no less than twenty behind him with silver weapons brandished on them.
"We can't kill him yet," Cadence croaked out and breathed a little easier when Tristan cupped her shoulders, pulling her into his chest. "We were given orders."
Tristan choked on a laugh and released Cadence, giving her a once over look. "I know, I just saw Lycus and Accalia — power couple!"
Cadence and Erisa laughed unexpectedly, causing a toothy grin to show on Tristan's hard features. His brown skin was already bloodied and his tied-up bun showed a chiselled jaw.
"I want ten of you to surround the outside of this dungeon," Tristan called out to the men and women behind him. "The rest of you are coming down here to make sure no Canus wolves free their Alpha."
They stalked downstairs, back into the dreariness and dimly lit dungeon that offered no hope.
Cole's singing fled into silence and he offered the incomers a chilling smile in greeting.
Tristan scoffed at the restrained Alpha and clanged his sword along the bars Cole sat behind, a different type of tune singing along the dungeons.
"Man, he looks dead," Tristan noted with a scowl.
"Well, I don't usually wear sheep fur, do I?" Cole bit out and bade his attention to Erisa, not dropping his gaze from her.
Tristan spat through the bars, the spit landing on Cole's face. "That's for my sister, fuckhead."
Cole's lips stretched into an even wider and provoking grin.
Erisa readied an arrow, drawing her target by the staircase because once his smile greeted them, so did howls — sounds torn from the throats of werewolves and lycans.
The wolves had their Alpha's scent trapped in their senses and they followed his tracks like a high, needing more and more.
Cadence levelled her sword and everyone followed through, the howls growing closer and closer.
"Let the hounds descend." Cole howled into the night.