Make sure to read the most recent ONYX chapter before this one or it won't make sense.

Thane's POV:

Two Years Earlier

I watch the wolf from afar, unable to believe that this is the person wreaking havoc on the rogues all over the continent.

I had sent spies in the area to scout the wolf killing all of the rogues and slay him. Only he wasn't a he at all.

It was a female. No, it was a girl. Based on her slight frame, she couldn't be any more than sixteen years of age, if that.

I use my magic to conceal me, taking me closer to the Reaper herself, who is leaning over a rogue that is pleading for his life. She doesn't say anything, which surprises me. I would have thought she would have some grand vigilante speech.

I'm a few feet away from her when she rips the heart brutally from the rogue, and carelessly tosses it over her shoulder, as if it were a used Kleenex. She is savage by all accounts, and not just for a female.

For a brief moment, I'm reminded of my cousin and his brutality. Though I had a feeling that if the two should ever cross, they would try killing each other within the minute.

I wasn't even sure if Cain would survive her.

She stares at the dead rogue, and now, I'm close enough to her to see her face. Well, the part of her face that isn't concealed by a mask, which isn't a lot. One of her eyes is a bright silver, like a coin. But the other eye is far more interesting. It's completely white and based on the scar that runs right through her eyebrow to her cheek, someone had slashed her good. Whitish-blonde hair peaks out from the cloak, and I'm momentarily stunned when I realize that under her mask, she's probably stunning.

This wasn't what I expected to Reaper to look like- not at all.

I had come here to kill the Reaper- he was getting far too close to my territory for comfort- but something about the she-wolf makes me hesitate. And I never hesitate.

I have the insane, fleeting thought that she may be my mate. But that makes no sense, because my wolf would have known if she was. But there is something about her that draws me to her like a moth to a flame. I tell myself it's because she may be the only female on the continent as merciless as I.

Her head suddenly snaps up, looking directly at me. I check my magic, and I am still concealed, but it unnerves me that she seems to sense my presence. She must be unnerved too, because after kicking the rogue's dead body once- which nearly makes me laugh aloud- she begins to walk back the way I saw her come.

I follow her, not fully sure why I haven't killed her yet. That was the whole reason I dragged my ass out of bed at the crack of dawn, because I heard she strikes before the sun is high. But there is something that holds me back.

I tell myself that when I see wherever she is hiding out, upon confirming that there is nobody else with her (and I'm not sure why the idea bothers me), I will rip her heart out myself, but not before taking off her mask.

She walks for a long while, but there is not a single ounce of fear that drips from her, even though she is walking through uncharted territory. It's almost like she is hoping she will run across someone, and I realize that she probably is.

Based on how I just saw her savagely tear out a man three times her size's heart, I suspected she had little reason to be afraid.

Her fearlessness only intrigued me further. I had never been interested in any woman outside of the bedroom, nor had I ever been so curious about any person in general.

My confusion amplifies when I realize she's heading for the Red Crescent boundary line. Perhaps she doesn't know that she's about to cross into a claimed territory.

But her confidence doesn't falter as she walks across the territory like she owns the place.

I should turn back. After all, she just went into my enemy's territory. Wilson.

Perhaps she will kill Wilson, and I won't have to get my hands dirty myself. There is no doubt that we will be going to war, and soon. All of that may be avoided if the little assassin just kills him herself.

And so I follow her into the enemy's territory, fascinated with how little she seems to care. Surely for someone who has gotten away with so many murders, she would be smart enough to know when she was about to walk right in the middle of a pack of wolves who would easily outnumber her.

But she just continues to go deeper in the pack, and I wonder if by following her, I have signed up for more than I bargained for when I first began to watch her.

And then I see a guard.

I wonder how savagely she will kill him, if she will savor the kill as much as she did with the rogue. But upon seeing the girl, the guard tilts his head slightly, and it takes me a moment to realize that he is submitting to her.

"Gamma," The guard says, and I look around to see who he is talking to, but there are only two of us, and he cannot see me.

And I realize that the Reaper that haunts the forests is the Gamma of Red Crescent, the notorious Ares Alstott.

I had heard many rumors of the girl, but I chalked most of them up to wolves spinning tales for entertainment.

It seems they were not rumors at all, and she is every bit as savage as they claim.

I'm not sure whether that excites or angers me.

The Reaper, the Gamma, Ares, the Savage- whatever you want to call her, merely nodded at the guard and went on her way, not bothering to say anything. I find myself wishing I had heard her voice.

I watch her figure retreat until I see nothing at all and turn around to go back to my own territory. The whole way back, I think about the silver-haired girl. In my quest to find answers about the Reaper, I discovered more questions.

When I return back to my house, Leo is waiting for me. "Did you find him?" He asks, looking at me in curiosity. He wanted to come with me, but I told him that my magic would drain faster if I had to conceal the both of us.

For some reason, I lie. "No," I answer shortly.

Leo doesn't pick up on my bad mood, but why would he? I have no reason to feel anger towards the girl, but I do. She's a part of my enemy's pack, even worse, my enemy's inner circle, and that makes her my enemy as well.

I could have killed her easily.

I should have.

"Do you want us to continue searching for him?" He asks, and for some reason, it annoys me that he didn't consider that she was a female. I didn't either, but that didn't mean we shouldn't have.

"Yes," I answer, after thinking about it. "But don't kill the Reaper. Bring them to me. Alive, or not at all."

**

Present Day

I finish the bottle of alcohol, not even quite knowing or caring what I just drank, only that it burns my throat. But it does little to keep my thoughts at bay.

Onyx's words cloud my head worse than the alcohol, and no matter how much I drink, they don't go away.

Yes. I'm happy with him.

And why wouldn't she be? I was a terrible mate, even I could admit that. You reap what you sow, and I had been sowing the fruits of her discontent since we first met.

I made many mistakes, starting with Brenna, ending with killing the rogue, though I'm still not sure I would have changed that. It was inevitable.

I pushed her away first out of fear that I would lose her to the Challenge, and after the Challenge was over, once I began getting the dreams, I pushed her away even more, feeling far too guilty about having dreams about my cousin's mate.

Onyx deserves better. And I am incapable of being a better man.

I can at least find solace in knowing that she is better off with whatever male she let Mark her. If I had not been so emotionally drained, I might have found it in myself to be mad that my mate was with another. But no amount of anger can overshadow the hatred I have for myself.

Onyx was right when she told me that I deserved to die. If she had a weaker heart, she would have killed me herself. She should have killed me herself, I had practically begged for it.

Perhaps her last act of vengeance was to deny me death.

And I would continue to suffer from my dreams. Those fucking dreams.

The dreams, apparently, that I suffer from alone. Though I wasn't quite sure if Ares was to be believed. If I know Ares as well as I think I do, she is just as deceitful as I, and would not hesitate to deny it.

She had mentioned my grandfather teaching me to use weapons, something she could have only known if she was also having the dreams. She was on the balcony that night, the same night I woke up from my dream about our pup. I saw her face when I mentioned the dreams. She was just as surprised as I was when I discovered she was having them as well. I heard the terror in her voice when she called me to make sure I hadn't told Cain anything.

I had no intentions of telling Cain anything. For one, he would kill me. Secondly, if he didn't, Ares would. Finally, I have no desire to destroy another mating bond as I had done between myself and Onyx.

And there's always the possibility that I could be wrong about her having the dreams. She did point out that it's a manifestation of my issues with Onyx, which could always be true. It could be my brain trying to make up for the guilt I feel over Onyx, projecting my feelings on the only person in the world who has seen the real me and hasn't cowered away in fear.

But if I admit that, then it would be admitting that I have feelings for Ares.

Which I do not.

Ares is worse than a nightmare. She's a plague, an infestation that is roaches and flies that swarm in my head and rot my brain, picking at the carcass.

She is worse than death. For me, she is death.

Ever since that first goddamn nightmare, I haven't been able to get her out of my fucking rotting brain.

The dreams replay in my mind against my will on a constant loop that won't turn off. The times I had touched her and felt her skin spark against mine. Could I really have imagined that? Surely not, since she had recoiled immediately the first time, as had I.

The worst thoughts that plague me are the true ones- the actual memories we did share. The mornings we spent killing rogues, when I should have been in bed with my actual mate. Onyx, who may have actually killed me right then and there if she knew that we were doing.

How Ares wouldn't flinch when any of the rogues would take a swing at her, how she wouldn't hesitate to stab them with the knife I gave her, or to put her hand through their chest until she conquered their heart.

It certainly felt like she had conquered mine, ripping it right out of my chest and throwing it aside without another thought, just as I had seen her do to the rogue all those years ago, before I knew her name, before I knew that she belonged to Cain.

I laugh aloud at the irony of all of it.

Cain, who was very nearly a brother to me, oblivious to the fact that I have dreams about his mate. Perhaps I should tell him, and I could die once and for all. Although that would leave quite the mess for Leo to clean up.

The memories stop slaughtering me momentarily when I hear the phone in my office ring. Fucking Alpha hearing. I should jab pens in my ears just for a goddamn moment of peace.

"What?" I snap, too annoyed and too drunk to bother checking the Caller ID. Perhaps I am indeed looking for the fight Onyx did not give me.

"It's Cain."

I haven't heard his voice in months. I intentionally avoided him and his mate at the Gathering so I wouldn't have to.

"If this is about the rogue, I already killed the fucker," I laugh, annoyed that this was even still an issue. I should have just mailed him the head and saved him the call.

"It's not about the rogue," He pauses, and I frown, definitely too drunk and too unstable to be taking this call. "It's about our alliance."

For reasons stated in my authors note on ONYX, I doubt I'll be able to update Monday so this counts for that.

Rest of book on patreon.

vviticus