The Antagonist
~
Accalia
~

With silver and sword. With blood and silver, this can't be true.

With everyone that has died, the passed ones up in the sky, this can't be true.

I claim my lost ones with silver and sword and blood and silver for this to be a lie.

"Has my sword, two daggers and rings been at the table over there since we got here?" Cadence asked with a tilt of the head.

Accalia ceased her silent prayers and focused her attention on something else other than her damning hopes.

Her brows furrowed as she gazed through the silver bars and to the wooden table in the corner. She barely acknowledged it being stuck in a cell. But from what she could see, it was stationed with torture devices, ranging to a crossbow, axes and — her eyes squinted. There were ripped claws buried into the wood of the table.

Their weapons were amongst the sickened display.

If this was the Alpha's way of hanging their freedom over their heads with their weapons on full display, Accalia was hardly impressed.

"Looks like it," Accalia mumbled and hooked her arms under her legs as she rocked forward. "Not like we'll be able to get to it, though."

A glint of mischief danced in Cadence's black eyes. "We'll see about that."

Accalia slowly shook her head, more so at herself than her cousin. She didn't want to know what was going on in that mind of hers.

Movement creaked from above them and Accalia rested back. She hadn't slept a wink. She waited until that invisible timer ticked. Only a few hours left. She checked Cadence's pulse many times throughout the night and tore off her jacket to place under her cousin's head so her head wasn't cold, or on a bloodstain.

Cadence slept all through the night without trouble and had risen once the sun began to.

Accalia hadn't slept a singular hour and her explanation to her cousin of how they ended up here was faulty, embedded with brief explanations and white lies. She didn't have the heart to say she surrendered once Cadence was knocked out and she didn't have the stomach to confess whatever the Alpha was claiming what was ... between them.

She mentioned the Alpha in passing, who he was and he had fled back into the night without their sentence being served.

It struck a cord within Cadence and she swore to get them out of here.

Accalia had never felt more doubtful. Without their weapons, with Cadence's bruised face, they stood no chance.

Rust and metal wafted around Accalia and all she could inhale was blood on the floor, burnt torches and the sweeping wind that carried fur and flesh.

Like hell, this cellar of filth and bloodstains needed a guard dog. It didn't come as the bearer of death, the evil and hellish hellhound but a woman who wandered down with intention in her step.

And to Accalia, that about evened out the scales.

The woman took her final step and was levelled on the same stained, bloodied ground as them.

She looked better off with a beady pair of angular, set eyes. Her hair was pinned straight and pulled back to outline the sharpness of her cheekbones, straight nose and her lip that was curled into a scowl. 

She didn't want to be here.

They didn't want to be here.

Cadence cut to the chase.

"Top of the mornin' to ya." Cadence tipped her head forward with a sheer smile on her lips.

The woman paused and struck Cadence with a cautious, second-guessing expression. She would have no luck in deciphering Cadence's motives, even Accalia struggled to grasp her intentions most days.

"Good morning," the woman said slowly and straightened up, making a face.

Cadence leant back with a dramatic sigh and splayed her hands along the cold ground. "A fine morning. So fine and nice and sunny that I wish I could see it."

"Well, you can't."

Cadence shot back up and tried, with her every buried emotion, to pinch her thin brows together and scrunch up her eyes. "I know,"

Accalia side-eyed her in confusion.

"Is he going to torture us?" Cadence croaked out and clapped her hands over her eyes, covering her face. "'Cause I can't handle pain, aye. I have a low pain tolerance."

Accalia came close to scoffing.

"I don't know," the woman answered and turned to face Accalia. Her expression was unreadable. "I don't think the Alpha knows."

Cadence shook from side to side and peered through her hands at the woman. "Who are you to him?"

Accalia couldn't control the hope for her to just be a random guard. Just a regular pack member forced to follow her command of guarding them. If she held any meaning, any importance to the Alpha, Cadence would search for a weakness from within. Something to strike at.

"I'm his Beta. I'm here to ... supervise."

The second in command. The most loyal and fierce pack member was the Alpha's second.

She held importance.

Cadence's feigning sadness faded.

Accalia offered a distraction.

"Where is he, anyway?" Accalia asked the Beta.

Her jaw clenched. Her question would only imply she had an interest in his whereabouts, but she was only concerned about their surroundings.

If he was close by, they were in peril. If he was a distance away, like she craved, they were safe. For a time.

"Occupied," the Beta drawled out, zeroing in on her gaze on Accalia. "With a female." 

Accalia wrung her hands together in reassurance. If the Alpha was preoccupied, that could be a window of opportunity.

The Beta stepped forward with narrowing eyes and again, watched Accalia. "That doesn't upset you?"

Was the Beta testing and probing for a reaction?

Cadence's mouth fell open and looked at both Accalia and the Beta in bewilderment.

Accalia shrugged carelessly with a furrowed brow, trying to play it off. "I don't know what you mean."

Her confusion didn't faze the Beta nor did it deter her.

"You're mated with him. He told you,"

Accalia's mouth could have hit the floor.

The Beta was the Alpha's confidant. Their second in command. Their friend. Their roles naturally crossed over and weaved. They could go to each other for anything. Person issues, vendettas and ... gossiping about mates.

"We—we aren't," Accalia stuttered and a streak of sweat gathered on her back.

Growing annoyance festered beneath Accalia's skin. How could she just come out with that?

The Beta carried on, as though this was a regular conversation between friends, not foes. "It happens through eye contact and it's normal for you humans not to feel it. It's more intense for lycans and werewolves."

Accalia shook her head, not wanting to know the most minor details. Whatever this Beta's intentions were, to dig for a quiver of fear, a reaction that could set this pack on fire, there would be nothing to show for it.

"I don't see what he sees," Accalia muttered faintly, her breathing shallow and heart harbouring a new kind of ache.

His hell.

"I know and I don't expect you to—"

Cadence intercepted the Beta by charging forward.

"I don't know what runs through the head of mutts, but let this sink in: you're talking bullshit!" Cadence shouted and slammed her palms against the bars before stepping back.

These crossovers — lycans and hunters, it never happened. All she knew, all Cadence and their family could ever know, was this could never be. It was unnatural, unlawful and inhuman.

This was against the belief system of hunters:

Kill the bitten before they kill you.  

Break the curse before you become one.

Kill with silver and sword. And return in blood and silver.

Cadence spun around on Accalia with crazed eyes and cocked her head to the side, smiling crookedly. "Just came to drop by, huh?"

Accalia inhaled sharply. She slowly came forward and didn't attempt to console her cousin by touch.

"It's not like that, Cadence," Accalia ushered out and wiped her forehead nervously. "He's mad — delusional! Hell, maybe this is an attempt at a sick joke."

"Alpha Lycus wouldn't joke about finding his mate."

Accalia and Cadence shot the Beta glowers.

"I gotta get out of here," Cadence grumbled and stalked around, pacing up and down, side to side. "I'm not staying here. I won't die here. I won't die by the hands of a mutt like him!"

Cadence stared at the Beta as she said this.

The Beta closed her mouth and straightened up, staring straight ahead like a soldier.

A sick grin tore across Cadence's lips and her will to liberate them was far from over.

"You know, we have a curfew for when we have to return home. So can we just kill one of your lycans — preferably your Alpha, take his canines, go home and then come back for our execution?"

The Beta answered with cold, steel silence.

Cadence's mouth tipped downward in a clownish smile and clapped her hands together. "No? Alrighty. How about this: you can come close enough to me, I steal your keys, kill you and you don't even have to face the consequences of the Alpha for letting us escape?"

Accalia didn't think she could watch this.

Again, the Beta gave no verbal response, but her nostrils flared, eyes glowing.

Cadence stepped up and toward the cellar door, making her next move. "Or I could—"

"Shut the fuck up!" The Beta snarled and drew closer, foot falling after the next. "You will not utter another word of him."

"Why?" Cadence taunted, tilting her head. "What's he gonna do?"

"He'll rip you apart," the Beta growled and drew even closer.

Cadence shrugged dismissively. "He seems occupied at the moment. Bring him here and get him to do it then,"

"You're going up against the wrong one," the Beta stated confidently.

"Which one?" Cadence asked cluelessly and raised two fingers. "There's two Fenris brothers, aren't there?"

Two fingers shot down into one and Cadence tossed her the middle finger before continuing, "There's the good-hearted, doting one ruling in the mountains and then, the fuckhead. The one that deserves to have his head on a—"

The Beta roared and lunged forward with outstretched hands. She was reaching out for Cadence, to kill her, to punish her, Accalia knew she wanted to do both.

In her cloud of haze that rained down in bloody droplets, the Beta shot her arms through the silver bars to reach Cadence.

Cadence grinned and locked her hands on the Beta's arms, smashing her against the bars.

The Beta was no lycan, but a werewolf, and silver did no good for a wolf like her.

These cages were made of silver, the very toxin designed to kill werewolves. They would have been made so no imprisoned could resist or attempt an escape.

Cadence used the very weakness and twisted it to her liking.

The metal sizzled at the contact of wolf flesh and burned its way through the skin.

The Beta shrieked but Cadence didn't relent, even as the werewolf fought for freedom, beginning for release.

She may be a creature of the moon with strength and power, but she held nothing against silver.

"Get the keys!" Cadence bellowed at Accalia. "They're in her front pocket! Hurry up, Accalia! She won't hold any longer and then we're both dead."

Dead. Dead. Dead.

That tore Accalia out of her befuddlement and she charged forward, staring carefully at the Beta.

Cadence was torturing her for their freedom. She was going the lengths Accalia couldn't.

The Beta stared back, her lip quivering and her face stained in lines of bright red from the scorch marks of silver. "Plea—please let me—"

Accalia ignored her, swallowing that writhing guilt that threatened to defile their plans and stole the keys from her front pocket.

Her hands shook as she pierced the cellar key into the hole and heard the door unlock.

Cadence kicked the door open with her boot and the she-wolf fell back on impact from the force.

Accalia loomed distantly over the Beta, ensuring she made not the slightest move to the staircase that would ruin all of them. The hunters, for their freedom. And the Beta, for her incompetence.

The Beta began to reach back to her feet, raising her hand with fearsome claws showing.

Cadence laughed at her attempts and skipped over to the wooden table where the weapons were stationed. She reached for her sword, coming back toward the Beta and swung it around a few times.

Accalia hadn't realised she was facing black, remorseless eyes and not the Beta she turned her back on to speak to her cousin. She didn't know which was her worst and faulty move. Turning away from her enemy or turning on her cousin.

"I don't think we should kill her,"

Cadence groaned and rolled her eyes. "Now's not the time to get all–"

"Just think!" Accalia belted out and raised her hand to hinder another word from her cousin's mouth. "The pack will act against us if we kill the Beta. We have to think this through."

"Look, they did something to us, I'm just giving back by retaliating."

"Cadence, you stabbed one of them before they even did anything to us."

Cadence made a face of annoyance. "Right. But screw that! We let her live, then you and me are dead. She will tell her Alpha – I'm killing her." Cadence spat and rounded past her cousin with her sword raised.

Accalia's thoughts ran wild and she shoved Cadence into a wall to slow her down. The sword clattered to the ground and Cadence's knees met the floor in a thud.

"You're a pain in my—" Cadence trailed off, her threats and swearing dwelling into deadly whispers.

The Beta began to rise, reaching to her feet and she was back on the ground from the punch Accalia landed on her nose.

The Beta was worse off than when she first set foot down here with blood seeping from her nose and the red lines across her face fleshy and blistering.

Accalia flung her fist side to side with a wince, breathing through the infliction battering her knuckles.

She faced her cousin with a cold and hardened exterior. On the inside, she was screaming.

"There!" Accalia bellowed and gestured to the sight around them. She didn't know how they would get out of this. "If it makes you feel any better she will wake up in pain. Now leave her be and let's go."

Cadence's brows shot up and she grabbed her sword before clambering back to her feet.

"You might be a Larren hunter, after all." Cadence teased.

Accalia rubbed her knuckles, no longer feeling the pain, but the aftermath of what pain did to someone.

What it inflicted upon others.

Accalia couldn't quench her guilt of what she did to the Beta and she couldn't contain her sickness about the Alpha.

"He says I'm mated to him, Cadence," Accalia uttered numbly.

Cadence shook her head defiantly and readied her weapons and rings. "You're not."

A seed of doubt buried its way into her chest. "The Beta was right. Why would a lycan, an Alpha lycan, make a joke like that?"

Cadence shrugged. "He's trying to get under your skin."

He already was under my skin, Accalia felt sick at the thought. But he was there, present but deathly. His face, his unforgiving black eyes and the admittance of what she was to him stained.

"What if he hunts us?" Accalia asked and looked at the Beta once more. Her remorse had her looking back at Cadence.

Cadence was already heading to the stairs and didn't look back to see if Accalia was following.

Only her voice echoed in the cellars, "He won't if he knows what's good for him."

The Alpha of Alphas knew only disaster and power. He knew no in-between – there was a reason he was a threat more to his people than hunters. He had more enemies amongst his kind than hunters. Hunters were nothing to him. Accalia hoped that nothingness applied to her too.

Accalia watched her surroundings as she made her way out. They were enveloped in nothing but towering and foreboding trees that eclipsed the sun from peeking through. But there was no one in sight. No wandering moon-bound creatures and not a sight of the Alpha.

Cadence weaved her way in and out of bushes, heading to a dirt track. The cellars wouldn't be anywhere close to the pack house or cabins where the moon-bound creations resided. They wandered by the bushes, where wild berries and flowers could throw off their scent. They walked until they found a car equipped for their travels

Accalia followed, watching behind, left and right and if anything hovered from above.

"Where are we headed?" Accalia whispered sharply.

"I reckon we should steal someone's canines and take it back to Uncle," Cadence suggested with a crooked smile.

Accalia's face flooded red from irritation and she whacked Cadence on the arm. "In a pack full of lycans and werewolves? Aren't you a genius?"

A flock of birds took flight and Accalia's heart went into overdrive.

Cadence's cocky smile faded and she scanned around. They came up empty-handed. No werewolves, no lycans to be seen.

"Screw it. It will take hours for us to get back. We lost the hunt." Cadence uttered in defeat.

They did.

But Accalia had a feeling, an uncontrollable and consuming fear that for the Alpha, the hunt had just begun.