Chapter 6
1194 Words
Dax called out, behind his wolf’s eyes, “Submit Marian! Submit!” He commanded her, “Think, Minnie. You are not the only one who will die here!” Dax continued forcefully, speaking through his wolf.
And that was it, at that warning, at that reminder, that was the exact point she and her father had lost.
She gazed at her father, his claw remained where they were as they stared at each other. The mind link remained broken, her father would not let her in, but his eyes were easy to read – if she were killed at that moment, he was ready to die as well.
He was ready to die.
And that was when the rift between them formed. The moment her father left the choice of whether they both live or die in her hands.
Her eyes filled as she stared at her father’s unmoving face. If she made the wrong move, she would be lost, and her father would be collateral damage.
If she died, if THEY died, who would avenge her mother and brother?
“Alpha...” she pleaded, addressing her father, but only a moan escaped her lips and his defeated expression did not change as he stared mutely, blankly back at her. She groaned, biting back the scream in her heart.
How can this be happening?
Why is this happening to me? To my family? To my father?
If we let it all go, right now, all the pain will be over.
But…this bastard! This traitor…would win!
He can’t win. I can’t let him win!
I won’t let him win!
As she fought the tears and her blinding rage in her weakened state, these thoughts passed through her mind in seconds.
She clawed at the ground again, her eyes on her father.
With gritted teeth, she bowed her head to Bentax, the large brown-furred wolf with black eyes. Her bloodied palm with broken nails opened to him as she lay on the ground in a growing pool of her own blood.
Bentax sat on his hind legs and turned his nose toward Corien. The wolf growled contentedly as he sniffed at the former Alpha of the pack.
Corien slowly retracted his claws and shifted to his wolf form, a large black wolf, larger than Bentax, with eyes so black they seemed almost to be a void, a black space.
Her father’s wolf, Nikal, showed his throat, and Bentax nipped at it with his teeth. Nikal immediately turned away and padded to his dead wife and son.
He howled for his mate, long and loud. Seven times. And Marian wept silently. Nikal nuzzled his dead son and howled again, longer this time.
The fight officially over, other pack members began to draw near their fallen Alpha, pulled by his cry as their link to him still remained.
The pack had a new Alpha now, but this one, the defeated one, had been a good man, a good wolf, a good husband and father, and a good pack leader.
But good had not been enough.
Several wounded wolves who had been on her father’s side in the war dragged themselves forward, circling her mother and brother. Two came to her and helped her hobble to her father’s side.
Marian was in human form. She had been so since her wolf had been too badly injured to sustain their wolf form. She had shifted back where Dinka had fallen, her wolf’s wounds reflecting on Marian’s human body.
As more wolves gathered, Alpha Dax and his supporters gave them way.
Nikal nuzzled his dead son and howled again, long, loud, and with such sorrow that even those on Dax’s side, Dax himself included, shivered. They were all still connected to Alpha Corien, but that connection was fading fast.
With every howl, he released wolf after wolf until his mind was empty. Exhausted, he passed out and Marian rushed forward to catch his wolf as he shifted back to her father’s human form.
Dax had moved as well but there was a large crowd between them and Marian glared at him through the crowd, her eyes burning into his human eyes as he was now in human form.
Tall, shredded with every muscle on his body carved out like he was made of sculptured stone, he stared steadily back at her with his blue eyes.
A warrior draped a large cloth around his shoulders and he wrapped himself with it as he gazed at her with what could only be described as disdain.
He had wanted her dead. She knew it.
She had heard what he said. He knew that.
Any pretense at reconciliation that could have happened was dead. As dead as her mother and brother.
She glared at him with her father in her arms, and they both knew this.
She was sixteen then. It was three days after Christmas.
==========
Marian blinked, bringing herself back to the present as her wolf nipped at her.
She would kill Dax before her own life was through. She would kill him for what he had done to her family.
Her whole being swore this oath, and her father’s wolf sighed silently.
==========
Corien had been waiting for his daughter’s return. When she left at the beginning of the year, he believed she would be back, and he had been right.
For many moons, he waited for her to reach out to him, to talk to him after she had cut their link, but she never did, until she returned to the pack grounds earlier today…no…yesterday afternoon.
He had been in Dax’s office when he sensed her.
==========
“Is she close?” Dax growled at Corien, who was seated opposite him at the large table in Dax’s home office.
Corien gave a light smile, lifting his eyes to the window behind Dax. “Yes,” he replied softly without looking at Dax.
Bentax snarled at Corien and his lips twitched, preventing a wider smile as he gazed down at the file he had been reading before Dax spoke.
“You enjoy this, don’t you?” Bentax’s voice chaffed at Corien.
Corien did not respond. He had long since stopped responding to Bentax. That was Nikal’s job, and Nikal was in no mood at the time. His pup was coming, and this usurper would not affect him today. Not today.
“You enjoy this, don’t you?” This time, Dax asked the question. Corien glanced at him briefly.
“Why are you always afraid of her? She loved you once. Deeply. Your fear led you to attack me, to destroy the peace in our home, our pack.” Corien replied steadily, not answering Dax’s question.
“All you have done, because of your greed –” Corien continued evenly but stopped abruptly.
Dax lunged across the desk and grabbed Corien by the throat, his claws extended, his wolf canines bared. “You abuse my favor time and time again,” Dax growled, his blue eyes flashing.
“Then kill me,” Corien growled back. “Kill me and free me, Dax!” He spat, his green eyes fixed on Dax’s sky-blue ones.
- Writer
