Whispers of death
~
Accalia
~

Accalia never thought death would come so easily to her as it did now. As a hunter, your life always hung on a thread, threatening to fall or balancing for survival, never in between where one had an existence of safety and sureness.

Naturally, lycans wanted hunters dead but never had Accalia anticipated the calling of her life to end specifically. She knew this was the cost of being a Larren hunter, the taking of your life not by a contract or legality, but by duty and family.

And it stood as clear as day, Accalia's life was at stake, more threatened than ever before.

All she could do at the moment was try her very best not to be consumed by it.

The creatures she was made to kill are demanding her death, but not just because of her heritage and the natural hate lycans and hunters have for each other, but who Accalia was to their king.

They were only supposed to be enemies.

Fate is wicked sometimes, Accalia thought to herself at this very moment. Brilliant but wicked.

"We'll run," Accalia said and stepped up to the Fenris brothers. "You think you can give us a head start or is that asking for too much?"

Lycus towered over her, eyes withholding warning and irritation. "You are not going anywhere,"

Each word had hints of spite and threat.

Accalia hung her head low, growing tired of his commands and orders. He was an Alpha, one of the oldest and infamous, but that title rang no form of control over her.

"You better get out of her way right now," Cadence out and stepped in front of her cousin defensively.

Lycus snickered at Cadence's antics and lowered his height to hers, expression darkening into the being of a beast.

"Don't forget Cadence, I allowed you to be here, I can remove you right now if you don't stay in your place,"

"Then let Accalia hate you more than she already does," Cadence shot back, shifting her brows up with a smug look.

"I told you to let me go, but you didn't." Accalia voiced out, her lip trembling and eyes zeroing in on her mate, "Now after your recklessness, my life is on the line because I'm a hunter and you're a lycan. Lycus, you're going to put both of us in harm's way. You have to let me go."

Her face carried nothing but desperation, lips downturn and the bruises colouring her face in extremes of what could occur, how matters could worsen. She just wanted him to see sense, see the raw brutality of their bond and what it could lead to.

Because if he couldn't see it, not only was he blind, but foolish and doomed.

And Accalia wouldn't be taken down with him.

"You're going to be in harm's way anyway," Lycus bellowed, wildness etching in his voice and threw his arms in the air. "The lycan you were after, which led you into my pack is here. You're my mate and because you are, most of my kind will want you killed because of who you are to me. And soon enough, darling, hunters will be after you too."

Accalia went still. The lycan they were supposed to trace and kill. The lycan was supposed to steal the canines and return them to her father. He was here. In the pack.

"Lycus you should have told me this!" Gabriel barked but his voice spoke from a distance, barely reaching Accalia's ears.

"I have it under control, Gabriel. Accalia will be safe if she is with me." Lycus snapped. "He is Zenith's Beta. Tate."

Tate was his name. A Beta. Accalia blinked and swallowed, her throat going bone dry.

She stumbled forward, right into Lycus. "You need to let me go! That's why you need to let me—"

"Just stop—stop saying that!" Lycus growled out at Accalia, hands finding her arms and shaking her.

His eyes were ridden of anything humane, just pure and complete blackness.

Moment to moment, as time passed, the control Lycus possessed was slowly fading into darkness.

Gabriel came out of nowhere and gripped Lycus shoulder to tug him away from Accalia, but he still didn't release that unrelenting hold he had on her.

"Lycus you're going to hurt her if you don't let go," Gabriel murmured to his brother.

At those words, it looked as though a switch went off in his head and Lycus stepped back, forcefully having his arms to his sides, fists clenching and unclenching.

Accalia swallowed, rubbing at her forearms as the tight grip seemed to have imprinted her skin with redness.

He couldn't let her go. No matter the amount of hurt he dragged her through, Lycus wanted her to stay and remain where he wanted her.

Was it infatuation? Seeing Accalia as nothing but ownership? Or something more? Accalia didn't have time to ponder on those questions.

Gabriel spoke, "Lycus, Accalia is right. You have to let them run. We can lie, and kill Melina if we have to, even the Beta but either way, they'll be after her. For you be mated to Accalia it will ..."

Accalia threw her hands in the air. "We have to leave! If he just controlled his urges none of this would have happened!"

Lycus's eyes wandered before they found hers and all his attention pitted to Accalia. "I'm not letting you go,"

Accalia's vision swirled and she groaned in frustration, at his stubbornness and stupidity. He wouldn't see sense.

"Do you hear yourself? You're going to get me killed!" Accalia yelled at him and her words went unheard. He remained unfazed and stoic.

Accalia jumped when the back door slammed open and closed with a slam.

She shared wary looks with Cadence who squared her shoulders and analysed the incoming threat.

But who wandered in was Nina, dark curls unruly and bronze skin flushed with redness as she came to Gabriel's side.

Her attention was solely attached to him, her dull eyes widening fearfully and she snuck a glance at Accalia. It was pity that crossed her face.

"What happened, Nina?" Gabriel gently asked his mate.

"Melina told Zenith, he's outraged, claiming Lycus and you as unfit Alphas." Nina chanced a look to Lycus who stood prowling. "They're wanting a meeting of how to deal with this. It's already not looking good, Lycus, Melina's describing everything to them. The way Accalia looks, her scent, Cadence's features but they seem not to know of their names or exact hunter bloodline."

The information will spread like wildfire. Soon, they will know a Larren huntress was mated to Lycus Fenris.

"They don't know we're Larren hunters then?" Cadence questioned darkly.

Nina shook her head. "It would seem so, but the both of you are most likely distant Larren cousins, right? Not related to ..."

Cadence looked to Accalia who stood frozen in place as Nina's voice drifted into nothingness, catching onto the silent exchange between the two cousins.

"My mother was Katerina Larren," Cadence admitted with prideful joy and gestured to Accalia, "Her father is William Larren."

Accalia almost felt like she had been slapped in the face again. Her lip tingled with disdain at the mention of her father.

Lycus's head snapped to hers and she dropped her gaze, hoping he wouldn't catch on.

"I knew you were hunters from the Larren family but not a direct link to the notorious ones," Lycus spoke solemnly and folded his arms.

Before Accalia's generation, Katerina and William Larren ruled the hunt with an iron fist and left a lasting effect wherever they went, with every chance they had. It wasn't a history Accalia prided herself in.

Accalia folded her arms, having had enough of this meaningless conversation. "Alright, so both our families aren't the best of our kinds, moving on — on getting out of here."

"First of all," Gabriel said, "Lycus and I hardly have issues with hunters, but packs such as Thrax, Roan, and Jacian hate hunters and most of all, the Larren family. If they find out ..."

"We get it! We're dead. They'll kill us the first chance they get, nothing new ..." Cadence sneered with a leer.

Lycus grunted, avoiding everyone but Accalia who wanted nothing to do with him. Positioning himself by her side, he made a point of brushing his arm with hers and looked down at her every couple few seconds.

Accalia nibbled at her lip and tried not to recoil in disgust, wanting to ram her elbow into his ribs.

"They can try, but your main worry is the Thrax pack — and they're little bitches anyway. They won't fight me unless they have a death wish," Lycus said tersely.

Cadence rolled her eyes at him. "You seem to have a lot of faith in yourself. I know you're the oldest Alpha, but they will see this as treachery, they will try and overthrow you."

The brothers exchanged subtle glances, not taking those words lightly because of how much truth they rang with.

"Then I'll do what I've done in the past," Lycus snapped with canines sharpening from his teeth, "I'll redecorate."

Accalia stepped away from him, wrapping her arms around herself as she mulled over his words, utterly stumped and whether he truly meant what he said.

This couldn't be all for me, could it? She thought to herself.

Surely not. Hopefully, it was the fact he had been double-crossed by his people. It was highly disrespectful to arrange a meeting without one of the oldest Alpha's present, seen as an act of challenge and disloyalty. And if they all know Accalia is his mate, they may deem him unfit as a leader and therefore should be knocked down from his throne.

"You're not slaughtering lycans and werewolves to protect Accalia when there's a smarter way of dealing with this. We let her run with Cadence." Gabriel strategised with his brother.

Lycus shook his head.

Accalia sighed and strolled over to the windows, mastering a cold look at the reflection glaring back at her. She tightened the straps over her shoulders and listened in on the banter shared between the Fenris brothers.

It was like Gabriel was talking to a brick wall. Curt responses, disagreements and no way to shake through the barrier of Lycus's relentlessness.

Nina had stuck to the corner with crossed arms, her dull eyes flicking back to back to Gabriel and Lycus.

Cadence had kicked back on the couch, legs stretched on the table in front of her and ankles crossed over. It didn't go unnoticed the smug smirk dancing across her lips.

"Brother, your stubbornness is clouding you," Accalia heard Gabriel say, almost desperately.

"Stop talking about this, Gabriel. Don't forget, you're in my territory and what I say goes ..."

Accalia heard silence when a sudden blanket of warmth encompassed her body and she shivered, looking up. A hand found hers, tying his fingers through hers and latching tightly together.

Lycus bent down to Accalia's ear and crept heat through her entire body. "If there's one thing I'll always do for you, is protect you. So let me, Accalia."

Accalia didn't know what to do with herself. She planted her feet on the ground and comforted herself with one arm around her waist, trying to dispose of those lurking thoughts that filled her head.

He spoke her name like it was his, a possession and something that belonged to him. His sentence shuddered through her form, tickling at the spine and raising goosebumps along her arms. Not even her knit cardigan could stop it.

His motives of being by her side almost seemed magnetic to him, like he couldn't control it but to be near her. A rising sensation belted across Accalia so quickly and fleetingly, but just as it occurred, it went.

Accalia slipped her hand out of Lycus's and tugged it behind her back, glaring at him.

"I'll make you a deal," Accalia fumbled with her words as his eyes bore into hers, anticipation in his features.

"What kind of deal?"

She didn't even know, but she stood positive about one thing. Freedom. Whatever way she would, Accalia would grasp it in her hands and never let it go. Even if that meant lying.

"I'll come back to you if you let me—"

Gabriel came up behind Lycus and in a swift and sudden move, collided his brother's head into the nearby wall and a crack filled the air.

Lycus's body met the ground and he didn't move again, no part of him stirred or twitched.

Cadence jumped to her feet and rushed over. "You knocked him out."

Gabriel's lips formed into a grim line, displeased with himself as he looked down at his brother with a look of sympathy haunting his face.

"I had to." He snapped his head up to the girls and then to his mate. "They'll take our car, Nina, we have to get moving. Grab your things, let's go."

Accalia remained, her eyes unmoving on Lycus and grimacing at the side of his head that had blood on it, dripping down to his cheek and touching his parted lips.

"Will he be okay?" Accalia couldn't believe she asked, but the sinking dread wouldn't ebb away, even with her obstacle out of the way.

Gabriel nodded hastily and moved Nina along his side to head to the door. "Once he wakes up he won't. He'll most likely turn."

Accalia froze at that. With parting thoughts, she tore her eyes away from Lycus and headed to the front door, tailing behind the lycans with Cadence lingering by her side with a taunting grin.

Accalia couldn't return it.