2 hours to the attack.
Azalea slumped to the wall of the shed right after shutting the door behind her harshly, almost with a bang, a bang that did no justice to the wrath in her body, immediately taking out the forbidden shirt she had to wear on the way over here.
She hated it to her core.
She stepped on the shirt until it was no more.
She was almost going to smell like that bastard.
She had been controlling the bile and the tears in her body for the past 2 hours, for the past fucking 2 hours while she tailed Tiras until he couldn't be followed anymore, giving her nothing. His car was roaming in circles, knowing someone might follow them. So she gave up.
Her werewolf speed never came to wizz through those miles in the forest due to the overwhelming burn. Her supernatural ability got suppressed because of the pain, because of the experience she inflicted on herself. Beda doesn't function when it burns.
It was like all those nightmares were coming back to her.
One by one.
Inch by inch.
"Fuck." She cursed to herself with a small cry, her body disoriented and almost falling to the ground, closing her eyes as her body automatically hugged herself and she leaned her against a big box, feeling her breathing not calming down.
Her body heated up, burning beyond comprehension until she was covered in sweat and a smell so bad.
Tiras' smell lingered on her for some time, making her body rebel even more. More than what she would expect, her mate bond punishing her to ever let herself be touched like that. Everything inside her was begging to be let out and lose control. She wanted to hurt somebody, she wanted to make this feeling go away from her fingers.
The control room saw her vitals.
She was suffering.
She was in pain, bad pain.
Zane abandoned the destroyed gun in his hands after Molly tried calming him down with her hold on his shirt.
Zane was saying nothing, but his silence was terrifying everybody in the control room. His parents, his cabinet, his uncles and aunts, all were as rageful as he was, but they came nowhere near the thoughts he was thinking in his mind. He had kept his gun handy to shoot somebody and relieve the anger he got from the hands that touched his woman, his mate, his person. Touched so horribly, those hands should be cut.
But the gun lost its purpose after he squeezed it too tight.
Deforming into nothing but metal.
He felt everything in her. More than the burn, he felt her violation. Her fear. her disorientation. Her everything.
She squinted, her eyes shut.
"It's over, it's over." She chanted to herself profusely, feeling her body move abnormally to shake off the touch and smell of Tiras on her, her hands shaking while she silently begged for the burn in her body to go away.
The cabinet looked at her slowly blinking with a pained mood. They were hurt for her. They were livid for her.
"Make it go away, make it... I can't be touched. I can't be touched. I am okay," She continued, rocking herself from side to side to regain her senses, to alert her body that she was no longer under anyone's hold, she was no longer being controlled by anyone.
Beda's headache never came due to this action, a headache that would always happen. Azalea knew how to never cry for this ever again.
She was no bitch. She was no pussy.
She couldn't be this strong when it happened before. She had to be strong now. She had to be strong for that little Azalea who couldn't defend herself years ago.
She had to be okay.
"I am okay, Zane. I promise I am okay," She whimpered under her breath, feeling her inhaling and exhaling become so forced and heavy, an action that needed to happen to let her blood get enough oxygen once the nail marks on her breasts had healed, leaving no scarring.
Zane watched her small, twitching hands on her lap. They looked so weak, they looked frail.
"I won't let anyone in. It's just you and me."
"It's just him and I," She reminisced, making herself remember the instance of her with Zane in his room to comfort Beda, to comfort herself. To be there for her, forgetting all the turmoil between them and just remembering him.
She remembered his face, his touch, his smell. Fuck, his presence. It was heaven. Being with him was heaven she never felt deserved to have. When she was in his bed with him. Back in the castle. Where no one would ever lay a hand on her but him, when he was there during her breakdown and kept her safe. Where he kept his promise to wait for her more.
Zane's eyes softened.
"I am no god without you."
"He's no god without me," She mumbled even softer, her voice almost gone, no longer coherent for the audience that she knew was watching. She clutched her bra tightly, her eyes still closed.
The control room's silence rolled after they heard her sounds, momentarily watching Zane's gaze never halter from the screen.
Zane's grip loosened on the chair he was sitting on. Molly heard his heartbeat slow down.
"You're a strong fucking woman, Azalea. My woman."
"I'm... I'm strong, I'll be strong." She cooed to herself, wiping away possible tears that dared to escape her eyes, bringing in even inhales and exhales after a few seconds. Her body registered her words, his words, his memory. She planted her hand onto her tummy to let her warmth distract her from the burn.
Zane's eyes hardened on her temperature. It was still high.
He saw it, they all saw it.
Nyx handed over the control of the ring to Zane after pausing for his reaction, feeling no right to control it anymore.
Zane looked at the buttons.
He took it.
He pressed it 3 times.
Azalea felt her ring vibrate 3 times. Her cough escaped her throat after she fondled the ring on her fingers for desperate measures, glancing at it with hope in her eyes. With hope being born in her body again. She knew it was him doing this, telling her she was not alone, she'd never be alone.
And with her words, Beda subsided her pain. Her body stopped burning.
She exerted a relieved sigh.
"Good god, Veera," Azalea huffed with fatigue, finding her voice again and getting up from her seat to somewhat walk slowly to the broken mirror in the shed, retracting her arms from the hug. Her headache passed away, with her werewolf healing and strength coming back to her body after the episode of the burn.
She watched her reflection.
Her beautiful hair, all messy.
Her tight dress, practically gone.
Her white eyes, back to sky blue.
Her toned, sculpted stomach and chest went up and down from the even breathing she had managed to muster. Her visible abs were contracting from her breathing, but still tough enough to endure harder things than that. Her breasts, bleeding from the impact of Tiras' nails, had a sting to them. But it healed, right in front of her eyes.
She watched with a bitter feeling as the wounds disappeared immediately, only the blood remaining.
She rubbed it off, licking it to keep it clean.
Zane knew none of the pack members would watch her as she was half-naked, right as soon as she stepped out to look at herself in the mirror. Only after Azalea stood away from the mirror did he cue for him to look back. She was fine. She was gonna be okay.
She dressed herself into a fresh pair of leather.
"May these children find their place in your dark side, Luna," Azalea leered to herself, cracking her knuckles shortly afterwards. "May they find Lilith."
She scrutinised all the material she had. Her nades almost finished after she implanted almost every single one of them near those casinos and on every floor of them. Her gun still had 6 bullets, and she still had her knife.
Her vitals came back to normal.
She grabbed the tab from the pack's brief.
"Is he close to his father yet?" Azalea questioned quietly to herself, opening her tab to see no instructions and packing her weapons on her waist again.
The ring shook thrice.
"You got the location?" She asked again.
The coordinates popped up on the screen in front of her.
She took a sharp, deep breath.
"I am killing that man." Azalea made it clear.
The ring shook twice.
"Pity you're not here to stop me." She barked lethally, ignoring the 2 vibrations, dropping the tab on the ground and taking out the phone she had secured from Tiras' office.
The screen was broken, but it was lock-free.
The first thing that popped up was the news on the dark web,
'We've got your junior. He wants to go home. Care to pick him up?'
Azalea found no name or contact on this phone. Not even photos.
"This smartass." She spat angrily, destroying the phone with her crush herself after it was deemed to be useless, after knowing she couldn't get anything new from it.
She headed outside the shed after discarding the phone under the ground, digging and covering the space so it remained hidden, softly closing the door behind her without any of her items being easily seen.
It was 4 on the clock of hers.
Tiras would leave for Zane's pack in 2 hours. She was 10 minutes away from the location of seeing who would be his father. She prayed it would be someone she deeply hated. Killing him would be easier. If she'd led Beda to take control, she would shift to kill Tiras for touching her.
She glanced at the Luna Temple on the other side of the hill before thinking of leaving, the Temple that gave her enough goosebumps and enough ideas to NOT be near it. With the skies being cloudy, not revealing the sun, the Temple called to her due to its eccentric ambience. It looked creepy. It looked familiar to her.
It made her feel she'd been here before. It gave her a sense of nostalgia, which was not good at all.
Something in her moved when she saw the white marble of the temple.
The bells were not ringing this time.
Azalea thought about the things Beda growled in her head when she was haywire after seeing the temple.
She promised a bad thing before leaving.
"You'll get your blood, Lilith."
𓂃 ֙
Azalea found a spot in a tree to hide. The tree was tall, thick enough to endure her weight and her claws grabbing it. The meetup location was a little more open than what she expected, being an open field, a dry field.
Concealing herself anywhere on the ground level would become dangerous. She found her favourite branch steady, keeping her alive and on the higher ground.
She kept an eye on the suitcase that was in the middle of nowhere.
She arrived after the delivering person left, leaving the suitcase behind.
In it was Smic.
The youngest son of the man she wanted to kill.
She never worried about whether he'd survive the claustrophobic space in there. She did not hear him panic. He was sedated and alive, his heartbeat slow and consistent.
She had been watching that suitcase for the past 10 minutes, ever since she arrived on the scene fairly quickly. She was happy she reached before anyone else, just early enough to see if the approaching men would come in what form, with what strength.
All her wounds were gone, and the burn had seized from her body as well. While she waited, she reminded herself of what was happening. She managed to secure all the information the cabinet could need, and by her awareness, all the perpetrators would have already been surrounded by the Shadow Moon Pack creeping on them.
It will be at 6 when all hell breaks loose. Tiras would find out he's no longer safe in Zane's trap, the Black Jack Alpha would be notified his most, precious son is about the die, and Azalea would go home to put an end to this, right after she kills the Jackass.
But before that could happen, she already had her gun aimed at the suitcase.
After a while, she saw many different cars of the Black Jack Alpha pass through from area to area. A storm of nightfall, sleek vehicles approached the designated area. Landing more ground once they drove roughly, expertly across the fields. They were circling the suitcase from a radius of 2 miles. They were not just securing the location but the surroundings as well.
She found her hiding spot viable.
Close enough for a perfect, clean shot.
Away enough to remain hidden.
And 2 cars stopped at the suitcase.
Azalea stopped her breathing to hear better.
She waited for the contents to get out.
The car door remained open, opening ever so slowly.
The contents in the car did nothing for the next minute or so.
And then she heard riffles loading out of the cars.
In came around 10 soldiers surrounding the suitcase cautiously, carrying tanks of machines with them to make sure there was no bomb inside it, probably picking up the scent of the child in it together and grouping strategically around it.
They looked everywhere around them to see if they were being watched. They were stupid enough not to check the trees.
Azalea couldn't make a sound. A single syllable she speaks, her location will be found.
And then she saw them.
They saw the 2 brothers of the child.
Tiras and Sheker Akoli.
The 2 men she never wishes to see again.
Control yourself, Beda. Azalea thought, feeling her claws itching to be stretched out.
'I will eat his heart.' Beda snarled, willing to give her person a migraine if she tried to defy.
Focus on the father. Azalea reprimanded in her head, feeling annoyed by her wolf. Beda can be heard cursing profanities quietly in her mind.
Sheker stood in front of the suitcase.
He kicked it.
The suitcase did not move.
"Open it," Tiras ordered, his voice loud and proud, making Sheker immediately comply and undo the zipper. The sound of it was even louder in the silence. He slowly lifted the cover and found a recognizable figure, finding a fast-asleep child in it, letting Smic get exposed to the natural lighting of a cloudy early evening.
Tiras looked neutral to his younger brother, being covered in his old blood and breathing softly.
Sheker lifted Smic out of the suitcase to place him on the ground, safe and sound. Without a scratch. They disposed of the suitcase.
Azalea's gaze hardened.
No one was coming out of the cars.
Where the fuck is he?
Azalea mentally grumbled to herself, having to wait in a humid climate. Her gun was ready to be shot, but she couldn't find her 35th Alpha.
The control room also waited, patient.
Not finding anyone on the radar who could approach the location.
No cars. No people. No wolf.
"Get him out," Tiras ordered again, this time holding a vigour-filled scowl on his face, making a soldier nod to him before opening the same car to pull out an unknown, tall man with a large build.
Azalea kept her aim in the car.
An older version of Sheker and Tiras was visible to her.
But to her dismay, he was crying.
He had a King of Hearts tattoo on his neck.
She held her fire.
"S-Smic." The man cried, his voice broken from the constant tears, running to his unconscious child on the ground who could've been hurt, and he profusely sobbed. Tiras and Sheker towered over them both, keeping an eye.
"Oh my son, thank you, Tiras." The man spoke in a French accent, feeling relieved from seeing the child alive, from what Azalea could hear.
She raised an eyebrow.
"Don't fucking talk to me like that." Tiras spat ruthlessly, grabbing his gun from his belt and ticking it.
The man paled, holding Smic in his arms.
Is that not his father? Azalea panicked.
"I-I'm sorry, mijo. Please keep the gun away. I beg you." The father spoke in a Spanish accent this time, weeping at Tiras' feet as if he saw a phantom, widening Azalea's eyes.
She recognized the voice.
It was the voice she was talking to during those kills in between her murders.
"Zane, 4 million dollars just got transferred to Azalea's King account," Nyx announced in the control room.
Zane's knuckles cracked.
Azalea's ring shook twice.
Where the fuck is the father? Did the Joker not show up? Azalea second-guessed her plan.
Her adrenaline was taking over with Beda panicking internally.
"Mijo? Me? Don't be such a saint now," Tiras chuckled to himself. The man felt his heartbeat fasten too much once he was cornered on the floor, almost having to drag himself away once the son of Lust approached him with the same dire gun. He desperately clutched onto Smic, who was still passed out.
"If you want to be a good father, go and tell Riot I am killing Zane tonight."
Azalea lost her cool.
Tiras was working for Riot.
𓂃 ֙
"Shit, we're losing her." Ares panicked, the sirens of the vitals machines echoing in the control room for everyone to fear in despair, while Zane's body refuted any attempts of calming down.
"O-Oh...my...fuck," Azalea panted while running away very quickly from the whole place, running away so quickly, just as fast as the day she ran away from the Golden Moon Pack, being reminded of it with every inch she went away from there. She kept running, going away from all the city roads and the city buildings.
The control room checked her vitals, and she seemed to be scared of something. Her heartbeat exceeded 150, and she was in flight mode instead of fighting. Her adrenaline made her count the seconds, seconds that she couldn't afford to spend near any of the men she had just seen.
Beda's vitals were becoming abnormal to study. She was not okay, Zane felt it in his wolf, clutching onto his shirt after his chest started heaving hell.
"B-Beda...calm down," Azalea groaned to herself after running some more before her knees gave up and landed on the ground, bruising her knees once they met the harsh dirt beneath her.
She was sweating, feeling utterly exposed to something she didn't want to, and especially hearing Riot's name from someone else's mouth.
Beda wanted control.
"He's not here, Beda, c-calm down. Riot is not here," Azalea gasped, almost begging her body to breathe properly and be allowed to relax.
Her mind was completely red.
Her body was trying to shift.
Azalea became livid.
Zane's mouth parted from her heat reaching his body, causing him to hiss and swear under his breath. A part of him triggered, making him groan and make a noise from his mouth that his little sister noticed. Molly clutched on his shirt, trying to navigate what he was doing.
"Fucking Christ, I ran away! Control yourself, Riot is not here!" Azalea scolded herself loudly, letting her voice echo in the forest she reached, clutching onto her clothes for support, seeing her surroundings of white as opposed to mud in the location.
Her body went beyond her control, making decisions on its own and making her arrive in the exact location she didn't want to come. Seeing marble. Seeing light.
She looked up to see she was at the Temple of Luna beside her shed, and she kept panting for air.
Beda wanted control, badly.
"No... Lea," Zane muttered to himself.
"Zane?" Molly panicked, getting up from his lap to shake him.
"Fuck, Azalea," He sneered, his eyes blinking rapidly as he tried to get up from his seat.
"Zane?!" Molly shouted in a whisper, trying to get his attention.
"Talk to me, Beda. You're fine, we're fine. Calm down, c-calm down," Azalea puffed after becoming red, landing her hand on her chest which was almost beating faster than music, faster than a crescendo.
Zane felt his chest ache after a few moments. The ache, so raw and pure, hitting right at the middle of his heart until it stretched into his nerves and his mind, stimulating him to grow his fangs and change his eyes to red until his smell became thicker, stronger, diabolical enough to make the hair on his pack's bodies arise.
It was alarming. It was reaching his back, the pain, right where his spine was.
His cold face turned into a look of fright.
'I want to go, I want to go!' Beda screamed in her mind.
"We're okay, Beda. Stop... stop trying to shift—"
'Run away Azalea. Let us leave. We should leave everythi—"
"We're not gonna get hurt, I promise—"
'Do not fucking fight me right now Lea. Give me the goddamn contr—'
"You're hurting me Beda—"
'Let me escape this plac—'
"Trust me a little—"
"LET ME SHIFT—"
"FUCKING STOP BEDA." Azalea finally boomed into the temple, her voice hoarse and deep, so powerful, making all the voices in her head quiet.
The control room flinched.
Even he did.
"SHUT UP. JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Azalea roared to herself after exerting all her power to prevent Beda from forcefully taking control. Her mind fell silent even more, hollow as a hole, empty as a chasm of space.
Azalea collapsed in front of the lanterns of the temple, coughing hard, breathing hard.
Zane's head hurt.
His eyes not opening.
His body pulsated with the feelings of Azalea reaching him. A cut so deep in his chest, it made his systems go off, alarming his wolf and his blood of danger, containing his body to move on its own and destroy the chair he was sitting on by gripping the handles so tightly, it crumbled in his palms. It crushed down into specs of dust.
His breathing shallow, and his mind as triggered as hers, he kept his eyes closed with the image of her face, trying to calm down, trying to stop himself from scaring others even more after they gasped to see him act violently.
"What happened, Zane? Can you hear me?" Molly worried, making his parents turn to his twitching self.
"Zane?" Sofia panicked, heading towards Zane immediately, catching everyone's attention.
"Shut the... fuck... oh god." Azalea winced, losing control over her weight after almost laying down under the bells of the temple, hearing only her heartbeat around her without anything else, her heart rushing to her senses with its beating.
She was hyperventilating.
She was losing air.
Her chest rose up and down harshly.
She couldn't smell anything around her. Her head hurt. It felt like it was about to explode.
"What's happening to her?" Nyx implored after her hands shook after seeing her sweat land on the Temple grounds painfully.
"What the... her veins are turning black." Ro snarled after seeing her wrists, the darkening pipes of blood reaching into her hand until her fingers started to rot, alongside making her scared to see herself, while Zane's veins darkened around his neck.
He coughed.
He coughed badly.
"Luna...what is happe...Veera," Azalea heaved, staring into the dark, cloudy sky that was slowly becoming black in a matter of a few seconds, circling spirals around the Temple once the wind picked up, and she flipped her body around with whatever strength she had left.
"Mother, help me," She begged the statue of Luna in front of her, her hands gripping the marble beneath her for support, feeling the wind dance into her body as the clouds darkened further.
The bells started to ring. The rung once the wind clashed with them, forcing them to make the terrifying sounds of Luna erupt in front of the Dark Storm Luna.
Azalea cried, feeling Zane in her mind also suffer. She felt him also feel the pain Luna was giving them. Their wolves collided together in spirit, integrating their bodies from afar up until they understood that besides themselves, no one could touch them. Besides themselves, no one can lay a finger on them.
This was punishment.
Luna was punishing Azalea for letting another man touch her.
Zane felt her punishment in his body as well, the same burn she felt some time ago now coming to him, his darkening veins reaching his veins.
Zane's father immediately reached his side.
"Son," Zander called out, trying to touch him, seeing Zane shake violently to avoid all hands on him, to stop anyone from nearing him.
"Help my wolf." Azalea prayed, trying to muster the strength to stay on her knees, but her body failed her.
Her body was slowly failing her more.
"Make... the pain... stop."
"I'll help you, darling,"
Azalea suddenly felt dying pain in her back, a rush of venom entering her body after the burn doubled its impact, and she screamed in agony as her hair got violently pulled from the ground, her head hung by a merciless hand.
"I'll help you a lot," Tiras laughed demonically after getting a hold of her weak state, reaching her before she could run away or struggle, and Azalea immediately felt her body becoming red in panic.
She flashed tears into his half-shifted state.
Zane's fangs grew.
"I won't keep you waiting."