Apollo

I watch as Aella and the girl Brooklyn walk out the door after their embrace. Their heartfelt reunion no doubt means they are very close. However, when the blonde called my mate 'sister' it threw me for a moment.

"I can't believe it's really her..."

Beta Ryan of North River says in disbelief, seeming just as stunned as his mate. He knows her too?

"How do both of you know my mate?"

He turns to me in surprise, looking first at me, then Alpha Darin, Beta Coran, and their mates in the room. A distant look in his eyes appears almost immediately, it strangely being the same look in Aella's.

"That is a very long, and very complicated story."

"I have all the time in the world to hear it."

A grim smile contorts his expression as he sits down along with his Alpha, we follow suit.

"I suppose I should start at the beginning, with the biggest threat to the supernatural...the SEP."

My eyes widen, Darin and Coran gasp. The Superhuman Experiment Project? As in, the laboratory whose main focus is discovering how supernatural creatures live and exist? How is my mate tied to that evil organization?

"The SEP functions under the facade that they run humane tests on willing individuals with superhuman abilities to discover how they have those abilities, and find way to use the knowledge to benefit the rest of the human population." He pauses, sighing.

"But the truth is, none of their test subjects are compliant, and their testing methods are far from humane. It's torture, I should know, considering I was one of their subjects."

I clench my hands into fists, my nails biting into my palms. I don't like where this is going, I can already feel my blood beginning to boil. Hera's words are suddenly making sense. How my mate had been through much suffering, has eyes of a weary soldier, and immense power inside of her.

"I first met Aella two weeks after I was captured. She had already been there a long time, at the time she was 17...anyway, she was the one who helped us survive inside that hell hole. Taught us the routine and how to get through the tests. And in exchange we shared stories of werewolves and our history, explaining how our pack functioned. It helped us all stay sane. But, she always had to pretend not to care about us when we were under supervision, showing attachment to others inside only caused more suffering."

"How so? And how did humans manage to control all of you?" Darin asks, and I watch Ryan flinch and run a hand around his neck reflexively.

"They used tranquilizers to sedate us initially, but they had these collars that blocked our abilities. Werewolves wore ones lined with silver and filled with liquified wolfsbane, witches had the equivalent of shock collars."

I growl angrily, me and my wolf enraged at the idea of such torture. Coran rests a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me, but I barely feel it through my fury.

"Aellas' was different, her abilities made her immune to the shocks, rendering them useless against her. So, instead they had to use heat..."

I barely keep Ronan under control, trying to fight the urge to shift and tear something apart. I don't want to imagine my mate suffering like that, knowing I wasn't there to protect her. But she lived through this, and I need to know the story.

"What did it do to her?" I word carefully, not truly prepared to hear the answer.

"It was like a branding iron around her neck, and it would tighten painfully if she refused to follow orders..."

Another sharp growl rips out of my throat, making my Darin grab my shoulders to keep me seated.

"What exactly are Aellas'  powers?" He asks, trying to step away from the subject of torture.

"She's what at they call a storm mage, her power focuses around the attributes of a Thunderstorm. Strong winds, blinding rain, and her most dangerous weapon, lightning. She's got immense control over electricity, she's the most lethal mage I've ever met."

I remember they way she arrived in my life, the large jolt of lightning...so much power in such a small body. Darin was right after all.

"Then how did they control her? With that much power? Are the collars able to manipulate the mind?" I ponder out loud, my control on a very thin ledge.

"I'm getting to that...the collars were powerful, not mind altering, but powerful none the less. I couldn't feel my wolf when the thing was active, like I didn't have one at all. They all could be remotely controlled by one person: Zercon, the man in charge of SEP." He takes a breath, seeming to brace himself.

"He initially wants to use us as a personal army that would always follow his orders, making us do his dirty work and do missions. Which is why there were always new people coming in. Two years after I was brought in, I met my mate Brooklyn." He smiles softly at her name, only to shake his head.

"She's an empathic healer, her abilities allow her to sense other people's emotions and heal wounds faster than they normally would. I met her when she was forced into her first mission, but Aella shared a cell with her."

He looks to the door that both girls went through a while ago, instinctively looking for her. Sighing, he turns back to me.

"She looked out for Brook, and when she found out we were mates, she did everything she possibly could to keep it secret and protect us both. I owe her my life..."

He looks up, his hands also clenched into tight fists.

"Zercon believes that the best way to control us is by using the people we love against us. Our mates, our parents, anyone we loved was in danger. It was either do what he said or they suffered, and we followed orders."

Both Darin and Coran keep a tight grip on me, feeling me nearly shift out of anger.

"A year later, the night we all escaped, was the night Aella lost control. She had planned an escape for everyone inside the lab, the only thing she had to do was find the person Zercon was using against her first. That's when everything went crazy-the cells opened up, the collars malfunctioned, and the sound of the guards screaming while being massacred by her is something I'll never forget."

He pauses, a distant look in his eyes.

"When me and Brook found Aella, she had Zercon in her control but not her powers. The bloodlust in her eyes, it made my wolf cower in fear...I knew right then what happened, where it all went wrong, so I didn't even try to take her vengeance away."

"Who was the person Aella cared for?" I ask hesitantly, and he swallows hard.

"Her baby brother..."

Her words echo inside my head once again.

"Not even you can bring back the dead."

My rage is replaced with an empty feeling for a moment, and I can't help but think about my own brothers. To have a younger sibling used against you, threatened to be harmed if you didn't obey.

"When I met her, she was 17, but she had been there since she was seven and her brother was three years old. Everything she did was for him, because he was all she had. So that night, when she found his file...was the night she found out he had died over 13 years ago. He had no powers, and his body couldn't handle the pain. He...he died three months after they were captured."

The rage returns full force, and I feel myself shaking on the point of shifting.

"Zercon kept it a closely guarded secret, because he knew damn well that if she ever found out the truth, she would kill him. She was his favorite, but he was more terrified of her than anyone else, so he knew she would snap if she discovered what really happened. And he was right, she lost control of her powers, and she destroyed any soldier who got in her way to find Zercon. However, before she could get her vengeance, the building started to collapse, and the only way she could hold it up was by letting him go..."

He sighs, wringing his hands.

"After everyone got out, she ordered us to leave. Not even a second after I dragged Brook out the door, the whole building collapsed. We thought she died that night, saving us..."

His face pulls into a distraught expression, and at this point I'm about to lose it. The words he utters next are what finally send me flying out the door and into the forest, shifted and looking for something to destroy.

"Zercon is still alive...and he wants Aella back."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I finally returned from my run my skin was cold and jeans slightly wet from the melting snow, exhausted from the hours I spent tearing apart anything I could get my teeth on, I came home.

It's dark now, and assuming that my mate is asleep, I stride through the hall to enter my room without paying attention. So when I open the door, the sight of Aella sitting on my bed makes me skid to a halt in complete and utter shock.

I stand at the doorway for what feels like a lifetime. Gazing over every inch of her as her intoxicating scent nearly swallows me whole.

Her jet black hair has grown longer since the day she arrived, now hanging down past her shoulders instead of ending close to her nape. Her figure has filled out to a much more healthy look, having a more steady diet and healthier food, but her muscle tone remains. Her skin glows with life and her blue eyes glow even brighter, like orbs of blue lightning swirling around black pearls. Her scent of marshmallows and chocolate hangs on everything in my room now, no amount of cleaning could remove its existence, nor would I want it to.

She's exquisite, breathtaking, gorgeous...

She continues to stare at me as I gaze upon her, and I can't help but shiver under her glowing eyes.

"Apollo..."

I nearly groan at the sound of her voice, its effect on me is absolutely primitive. In the weeks she has been here, this is the first time she has ever said my name, and the way her voice curls around it stirs me in a way I never thought a name could. I quickly stride towards her, not wanting to make her wait. I crouch down on my knees at her feet, looking up at her in awe and expectation, ready to give her anything she asks for.

"Yes my love?"

I rest my hands on her knees as I watch her, her eyes swimming with pent up emotions long since bottled inside her tormented heart. Her cheeks turn the slightest bit pink, and I take a small victory in its appearance.

"Do you-do you know the truth about me?"

Her voice shakes with a trace of fear, and I quickly cup her cheeks in comfort. The sparks erupt like wildfire across my skin, and I can tell she feels it too.

"Yes, I do."

Her eyes fill with surprise and confusion, a slight bitterness to it.

"So why haven't you rejected me?"

My heart clenches painfully at her question, and Ronan whimpers. She thought I would turn her away if I knew the truth? She honestly holds that much disdain for herself?

"I would never reject you, never. I love you too much to ever do so."

Bafflement and surprise fill her expression, and her lip quivers.

"How could you love me? I'm a monster."

I immediately stand up, pulling her up with me. I hold her gaze in mine as I trace along her cheeks and jaw, down her neck and back up again.

"You are not a monster, you never were. If anything you are a soldier Aella, a soldier who has fought for too long."

She stares up at me in silence, her eyes brimming with tears. I hate the sight of them, but I know that she needs to shed them, she's held them in for too long.

"You are one of the strongest people I have ever known my love. But please, when you feel like the world is going to crumble beneath your feet, let me be the one who holds you."

Her body begins to fall, her legs buckling underneath her. I hold her limp form to my chest as the first of her heartbreaking sobs rattles out, her hot tears spilling over her cheeks and onto my chest. I pull her into my lap as I sit down on the mattress.

I never want to let her go.

I hold her all night long, keeping up a steady stream of comforting words and soft kisses to her face and hands until sleep finally halts her tears. I help her under the covers, keeping her securely pressed against me, I have no intention of letting her go. Tucking her head under my chin, I run my fingers through her hair and inhale her scent until I feel the same pull of sleep drag me under as well.