Dark delights
~
Cadence
~

"Did Erisa let you know?" Cadence asked, leaning the corner of her swelling head onto the icy window. It subsided the rising pain.

She couldn't say she regretted it. In the blinding moment, she did, knowing her human skin, easy to cut and gash could never go up against a wolf in sheep's clothing. But when she made him bleed, it made her stupid actions worth it.

Her lips painted into a smile against the glass.

Accalia dribbled her fingers along the buttons of Lycus's car again, tilting her head in concern of what would turn the air conditioner down and what would put the heater on.

"She was frantic, Cadence. It scared her ..."

Cadence angled away from the window with a coldness piercing through her and it wasn't because of the air conditioner. She reached for her back pocket and then slammed her hands onto her thighs with a yell.

"I left my phone back at Frankie's!"

"It's okay, just use my phone to message her. I got one when me and Lycus were on the road. I want all of us to keep in contact." Accalia assured and gave her the device from the console.

Accalia didn't have a password, not even a wallpaper and it was simple to navigate through her very short list of contacts.

"You don't even have a heart next to Lycus's name? Not even a nickname?" Cadence muttered with a short-lived laugh.

Accalia's lip twitched and she whacked her hand at Cadence's legs that were reaching up to the dashboard. "Don't you dare, get your feet off that dashboard. What have I told you?"

Cadence rolled her eyes with a curled lip.

Accalia: Erisa it's Cadence I'm using Accalia's phone. Wanted to let you know that I'm alright and I got away from the freak.

A ding chimed through and Erisa's name popped up.

Erisa: Holy shit Cadence. I got so scared. I thought the worst. What happened? And your phone is here I'll try and bring it by when I can. Is he still alive?

Accalia: sadly. He took me to Kara Forest and wanted to apologise but Accalia and Lycus found me with Alexene. Stay where you are. When I can I'll come by and get my stuff. Sorry for freaking you out.

Erisa: I thought the absolute worst. I'll have nightmares over this.

Cadence bit the inside of her cheek, breathing through her teeth at how she could respond to something like that. Erisa had been prone to nightmares for years, the strangest of things could set her off and her dreams could be lost in the shadows.

Accalia: do you need me to come over?

Erisa: It's fine. I'm fine and I'm glad you are too. It's not the first time I've had to deal with nightmares and it won't be the last. I'll talk to you soon Larren. X

Accalia: Night Jaeger.

"Thanks for letting me use your phone," Cadence said and placed it back in the console.

"I'm so sorry, Cadence," Accalia mumbled and took a right, leading into the Fenris territory. "I shouldn't have pitied him. I could have lost you, again, because of him. I thought he was going to kill you tonight. He should be back in that coffin. If it protects all of us and even himself, it should happen."

Cadence hadn't the faintest clue on how that would happen. Gabriel wanted him here as did Alexene — his loyalist companions. Gabriel would go against Lycus, he would fight for their younger brother and there was no telling of who's blood would be shed.

"I don't think I'll be able to kill him," Cadence admitted thickly, lowering her head between her knees.

"What do you mean? I thought that's what you wanted."

"It is. But I'm not ... strong enough. I'm not like my mother. She could've had this done with by now. She killed many lycans and werewolves. I'm not like her, Accalia."

And nothing would have stood in Katerina's way. No companions, no treaties and connections to others. She would be cutthroat and do what needed to be done. Cadence wanted that, she needed to be that with a silver sword in her hand, but how could she?

The hybrid overpowered her without effort, wrestled her to the ground, caged her and made her weaker with little strength.

Cadence wanted to be cutthroat and ruthless, with no hesitation. She wanted to go out like her mother, through a bloody battle with silver at her side.

"Rexton is naturally going to be stronger than you, Cadence. He's stronger than Lycus and that's going up against the strongest lycan to ever exist. Let's not forget, Aunty Katerina made you, me and Tristan read anything we could on lycans. Every single thing we could find. We don't know about hybrids, we don't know much about vampires either. Rexton is unnatural and that's something we can't control. Relentless, quick to fight and always protecting your own — Aunty Katerina was like that and so are you."

Water twinkled Cadence's eyes and she wiped it away before Accalia could see.

They pulled into the long driveway leading up to the Fenris manor and Accalia killed the engine, turning in her seat to face Cadence.

"I want you to sleep in my room for now, okay?" Accalia murmured to her cousin.

Cadence cringed, nose scrunching. "Ew, no. You already have a sleeping buddy."

A jab was thrown into her arm and Cadence winced. "That hurt, you dumb—"

"Not true! Lycus and I hardly sleep—lay in the same bed together." Accalia clarified with a curt nod.

Cadence waved her hand in Accalia's face to annoy her. "Sleep, huh? Are you two fornicating? Doing the love-making, yeah? The devil's tango?"

Accalia covered her face with shaking hands as her cheeks reddened a deep red. "Shut up. We're—we're not doing that stuff."

Cadence laughed, unbuckling her seatbelt with a crooked smile. "Soon though, huh?"

Accalia punched Cadence in the arm again. "Not like that! You're very immature."

Before another punch swung her away, Cadence opened the door and stumbled out of the car, laughing at Accalia with a smug expression. "Aw, Lycus is waiting for you, isn't he? So sweet."

Accalia slammed the door and jogged around the car. "I'll let this nonsense slide once, only because you've gone through a lot today."

Cadence followed after Accalia and tugged a lock of her wayward hair. "Don't spare me, I'm only joking. I don't like Lycus, but he doesn't treat you badly."

Accalia opened the door and clicked the light on. "He doesn't. I do care for him, Cadence."

Cadence rolled her shoulders back, face passive as she grappled for the correct wording from a confession like that. "That's ... comforting?" Cadence nibbled at her nail with a careless shrug.

Accalia's face filled with warmth and Cadence ignored her, a slither of discomfort knotting in her stomach.

"Did you make alliances?" Cadence didn't figure she would settle on the politics within Packs and Alphas, but if she were to fight by her cousin's side, she wanted to know all she needed.

Accalia sighed tiredly, "We have alliances, Roan and Jacian are willing to fight. We aren't bothering with the Hala pack. Lacuna is not taking part."

Cadence scoffed. "Such pansies. War is coming and there's nothing we can do to stop it."

Accalia smiled briefly and countered, "I like Calla and her pack. You should've seen their territory, it was like heaven."

"The closest I'll get to heaven," Cadence mumbled to herself and leaned against the wooden wall. "Listen, I don't want to be here Accalia but I know you aren't going anywhere from your mate. But I want to be by your side when everything goes to hell, so I'll stick around, I just don't want the hybrid near me."

Accalia nodded understandably and said, "Hopefully, Rexton goes with Gabriel and you don't have to see him ever again. Go have a shower and rest. I'm going to wait for them to get home."

Cadence turned on her heel and trod upstairs. Heading to her old room, Cadence felt her knees finally buckle and she stumbled into the shower, aches rippling up and down her body.

She knew what to expect when she came to the mirror that remained fractured with the hole she punched through before freeing the hybrid.

The shards of glass disfigured and distorted her face, with parts of her somewhere and nowhere. Her black eyes staring back at her were a bottomless pit of continuous mirrors that glared gloomily at her.

Tearing off her clothes, the bruises on her grew prominent, painted black and blue. Her forehead trickled with dried blood, her knuckles bloodied and her knees scabbed with dirt mingled with shredded skin.

Cadence faced away from the mirror and turned the shower on, the water prospering in ice water.

She couldn't blame the hybrid for her injuries, they were her own infliction, but she still pitted all the blame on him. Cadence wouldn't forgive him, whatever he wanted from her. Her blood, her forgiveness, he would never have it.

~

Accalia
~

Accalia paced up and down the living room halls, heart quaking with anxiousness and biting at her chipped fingernail until she no longer could.

She repeatedly checked on Cadence throughout the night, ruling out any issues that could haunt her young cousin, and it helped that she had cocooned herself in Accalia's blanket.

It had been two hours and Lycus had yet to make an entrance, along with his tormented brother and his unhinged friend, Alexene.

It seemed the constant playing of thoughts manifested itself as a door opened and closed, numerous footsteps padding through the manor and Accalia swept around the corner.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Accalia wanted to go to Lycus, but a person knitted closely to his side stopped her from doing so. Rexton's striped sweater and wide-leg jeans were dirty and his face was splattered with muck.

It didn't help that his soft eyes hovered on Accalia, that boyish charm feeding through his dirty exterior and she detested him for it. It was a similar glamour that Alexene had, a feigning innocence that no one could help but be enamoured by, besides the people who saw straight through it.

Someone like Cadence.

"Where's Alexene?" Accalia asked.

Gabriel was amongst them, shirtless and gleaming in sweat. He managed to keep his cool even as his deep blue eyes settled with seething daggers at both Lycus and Rexton.

He swayed his tired face at Accalia and said, "It will be daylight soon, she had to go."

"I suggested she burn alive, but she opposed that idea," Lycus added and jutted his chin at his youngest brother, Rexton. "He protested too."

Silence filtered through, a stinging and imposing silence Accalia couldn't help but notice. Rexton, all things considered, looked even more defeated than when they found him at Kara forest. Hugging himself with those long arms, adjusting the ends of his sleeves and finally, those amber eyes lowering, submitting to the floor.

"Why did you guys take so long?" Accalia asked, wanting the silence to end the way Lycus would.

Lycus shrugged a half-shrug and bumped his shoulder into Gabriel's. "Ended up finding him on the way and just trying to figure things out."

Accalia bobbed her head, observing Gabriel who had a face made of stone and no reaction to Lycus's antics.

"Will Rexton be going with Gabriel back to his pack?" Accalia asked stiffly.

From all that Accalia had seen, the best influence on the hybrid was Gabriel. He was gentle and patient with him, whereas Lycus was nothing short of bossy and commanding. It didn't help that Cadence was here for the time being and Accalia didn't want to imagine what could go down with each other the more they were in one another's presence.

"We don't know, Accalia," Gabriel stated and side-eyed Lycus with a frustrated glance.

Once again, that numbing muteness pooled over them and Accalia felt more at a loss than before. Overly quiet, hardly arguing with each other as the Fenris brothers typically did ...

"What happened?" Accalia demanded, voice controlled and sharp.

Had there been more wolves at the border? Did they bury a body on their way back? Did Vaela prophesied an ordeal no one could expect?

Lycus swept around his brothers and that face of his drank Accalia in like it was his last elixir. Promising and permanent. But at the same token, daunting — the bearer of bad news as he fiddled with his words. He didn't know what to say and for the first time, Accalia saw fear in his face. Fear that prompted the Alpha of Alphas to not even look at her.

Accalia's eyes narrowed and her heart fretted with worry. What occurred during these recent hours? What turned this night bleaker?

"Lycus," Accalia pressed, a wobble in her voice. She couldn't help it. Something amongst the brother was being contained — withheld, and Accalia wanted them out with it.

Lycus released a ragged, unhinged sigh and the room became cold — like the cold caress of a vampire.

"Rexton is mated," Lycus admitted and he lifted his head, to the second story of the house, where someone slumbered. "To Cadence."