The Wicked Wolf

Book 2: Two

“Lio,” I mused, walking up to him and kissing him on the forehead in greeting.

He continues to hum his wordless song, leaning onto me slightly, but continues to keep his straight posture. “I’m glad you are here. I’m glad you are finally home. It’s been too long.”

I ignored his usual quiet berating of my absence and focused on the melody. “Is this a new song?”

Lio nods, his head bopping to the soft tune. “Yes. It’s a new composition I’ve been working on.”

“It’s good.” I didn’t have the heart to tell him it was a little gloomy for his usual taste. “What’s it called?”

He makes a sound from the back of his throat. “It’s called ‘my doom cannot come soon enough.’”

“And here I thought it was sunshine and roses. It’s amazing either way.” I forced my voice to be as cheery as possible, feeling the temperature in the music room suddenly drop despite the burning fireplace near us.

He tilts his head up to look at me all while his fingers glided across the piano keys. “I’m glad my wedding day finally forced you back home.”

I tried to ignore the sharpness in his normally warm golden eyes. “It didn’t force me. I want to be here.”

“You hate her.” At this point he was hammering his fingers down the piano keys. “You said so to her face.”

“Don't be offended. I don’t like a lot of people.” I defended myself with a laugh, pulling away from his back to sit beside him instead.

Lio didn’t bother to look at me. He knew I was guilty enough. “I believe you said to me that she has teeth like a middle aged horse, but the horse has a better personality.”

“I can’t believe you remember that.” I blew out a breath, leaning against his side. “Word for word too.”

He wraps one arm around me. “We’re lucky, you know? Mother and father never forced us on anyone. Not for power. Not for blood. Not for anything but our happiness and our choice.”

“Then how come…” I trailed off, thinking about his future bride.

His golden eyes flickered to me. “You know why.”

“I know your choice isn’t for love.” I pressed, my hand touching the piano softly, feeling the wood underneath my fingers. “You had all the options presented to you; women more beautiful than the last, nice women that would take care of you, strong women that would support you in your reign. And then, at the end of it all, when everyone least expected it, you choose her? It’s not love. It’s not anything.”

He took a deep breath before answering. “That’s not what I meant.”

I couldn’t help it anymore. I had to say it. “No. You choose someone with dark hair and dark eyes. You’re so angry at how you look you’re—“

“I look like a Rhys.” Helios snapped, the hand he used to hug me gestured to his perfectly handsome face with a growl.

I stop him from accidentally swapping himself. “Mom is a Rhys. Our aunts and cousins are Rhys’. That doesn't make us any less.“

The melody he’s playing is starting to sound a lot like its title. Doom. “And you see how they hate it.”

It was my turn to hug him from the side, squeezing him affectionately. “Have some pride, brother. You're amazing. You're nothing like what they say you are.”

He looks at me, critical eyes honing in on my hair and eyes. “That’s easy to say when you don’t look like the monsters that nearly killed our father.”

“Stop it.” I didn’t tell him how I felt very alone in the fortress because of how I looked. And I didn’t know why. My parents showered me with attention and love, but among them, I just felt truly lost.

Out of place even.

But I wasn’t going to burden my brother with that.

Not when he was fighting his own battles.

“It’s the truth.” He says under his breath. “These are the features of snakes and I inherited them. I am a snake and no one will forget it.”

"Enough. You're not." I decided to change the subject before we got too emotional. “And it doesn't change the fact that she’s not your mate.”

He sucked in a deep breath. “Damienne.”

“No one was rushing you to get married.” I told him flatly. “I don’t understand. Why do you settle? We're young. We have time.“

He hummed for a few seconds, the melody he was playing reaching its crescendo. “I have traveled all over the world, searching every corner. I do not have a mate. She is nowhere. Settling was the only choice.”

I know he tried to find his mate and I know she wasn’t out there for him, but still… “So you settle with her? Of all the options out there? You picked her?”

Lio couldn’t hide the smile playing at his lips. “What’s so bad about it? Apart from being a horse?”

I stared into his golden eyes. Seeing him like this, playing the piano and enjoying his complicated compositions that made him smile so broadly, it made my chest squeeze. “You deserve more. I want you, my big brother, to have more because you deserve more.”

He stops playing the piano and turns to face me. Again, he smiles, but it isn’t playful like before. It’s genuine and bright and just like him. “You have always been overprotective of me.”

My throat tightens. “Of course.”

“You don’t have to be.” He assured me like he always does when he knows I’m worried about him. “After all, I’m your big brother. I’m supposed to be the one that looks out for you.”

My eyes rolled and I pushed him. “You're not much older. Only by like five minutes.”

"Still five minutes." He tilts backward from the force of my push but merely holds on to the piano to keep himself steady. “Why don’t you focus on yourself? After I get married, you should try to look for your mate too.”

I pretended to be sick. “Bleh.”

“Is it so hard for you to meet boys while being polite and nice?” Lio teased, facing his piano once more to continue his composition.

“Mocking people— especially boys, is one of my primary joys in life,” I told him, very solemnly, though my eyes were glittering with humor. “You wouldn’t want to deprive me of my joy, would you?”

“I suppose I can’t complain.” He sighs defeatedly. “You do make my job of protecting you from bad men easier in that regard.”

Our eyes meet briefly and we both burst out laughing, unable to hold it anymore.

We only stopped when a knock on the door came.

Lio immediately straightens and tries to hide how he stiffens at the intrusion of his broken peace. Taking a deep breath, he sort of steels himself, a stone wall ready to endure storms before forcing a smile, a polite enough smile— handsome and regal, but no one else would notice how it is so rigid that he almost looks in pain.

“Come in,” He called out when he was finally ready.

Aphrodite appeared through the open door, smiling at us, her eyes filled with warmth. “I hate to break up the reunion, but your father is looking for both of you. He's in the throne room.”

We stand up from the piano bench in sync and make our way towards Aphrodite when my eyes catch sight of it.

A painting.

In the far corner.

My feet stop walking to stare.

It’s him.

And just like every other time, I fell into a trance, lost in the sight of him.

The sight of him is not new. I dream of him almost every night.

Green eyes. Long dark hair, often windswept from his adventures. His military clothes are crisp and well ironed, decorated in much too many awards.

He doesn’t smile.

He never smiles.

In any of his paintings.

There are portraits of him in the fortress. In the library, particularly where I visit him often.

They should look alike. But they don’t. They share similar features but are so vastly different. Twins yet so different. Like my brother and I. Night and day. That’s what they were… that’s what we are.

The sun, the golden, the perfect.

And the shadow behind him.

My father and his twin brother.

The man I was named after. Damien.

The Crown Prince of the Werewolves.

Sometimes I feel like he’s still around, haunting me. A ghost. Sometimes I feel like I’m being watched, carefully watched— like right now. And sometimes I feel like the wind blows differently, and I think it might be him.

Maybe it is him.

Lio takes my arm suddenly and frowns. “Everything okay?”

“Hmmm,” I said, but there was a world of meaning in that sound.