It had been three days since Astoria, or...Amelia, I wasn't really sure who she was or what to call her anymore, had vanished into the woodland.

Ozymandias and I had spent the long nights scanning the vast darkness. Every night we came up empty.

The alpha had been.. different since that night, softer, gentler.. kinder.

I wasn't sure how to feel about him, my heart called to him, it told me to trust him, that his intentions were pure. My head however, screamed to run. Something about the darkness in his eyes cried out to me that something was wrong, but my body betrayed me, every time he was near I felt weak.. I hated it.

He didn't even have to say anything for the weakness to set in, his scent was purely enough. Strong and dark and rich,
something distinctly male.

Still every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was his staring back at me, stunningly gold. Like two suns caught in a blinding explosion of fire and ash.

The moon hung full in the night sky, so dark it seemed almost purple. The only sounds that echoed through the forest being our footsteps.

"Why did he kill her?" I turned to Ozymandias, not thinking he would actually answer. He had always told me it wasn't his story to tell and left it at that, but now.. everything was different.

I held a finger to my lip, remembering the Alpha's taste. Like fire and whiskey.

-And I loved the way it burned.

I had returned to his office every night since for another taste. I was addicted to the thought of him, to his touch, the way his fingers brushed my neck, the way his strong arms held me. With him I felt the safe, yet somehow unsafe at the same time.

With him the only danger I had to his was him himself.

"He had to. He had no choice." Ozymandias's grey locks seemed as though they were forged from silver under the moons icy glow.

I laughed dryly. "No one forced him to do anything. No one held a gun to his head and made him tie the rope that she hung from."

Nothing could dull the horrid feeling that are away inside of me. I was falling for my sisters murderer, and I hated it. I should run away, like Astoria. Except she wasn't Astoria anymore, the sharp yet fiercely loyal Oracle I had been thrown to... Now she was a cold blooded killer, a psychotic murderer.

"If he didn't the entire pack would've been wiped out. So yes, he was forced."

I clenched my jaw, "You're wrong. Mare would never have harmed her pack. I don't even believe she started the fire, accident or not."

"They found her with the damned matches in her hand, receipts showed the gasoline was paid by on her card." He snapped.

"That doesn't make her a murderer!" I cried, refusing to walk any further. I planted myself to the earth, causing him to stop and turn. "It makes no sense for her to murder her own family!"

"Her family wasn't her target." He growled. "The Flick's was." The whites of his eyes contrast to his dark skin as they widened. "She was driven mad by jealousy that Flick had been the Alpha's first choice for Luna before he met her, she couldn't cope with knowing that they had been together. It drove her insane, she thought they were still having relations behind her back."

"And were they?"

"No! Of course not, the Alpha was head over heels for the girl!" He snarled. "But she could never get over her jealousy towards Flick, in the end she thought the only way to get her out of the picture was to kill her. So she decided to burn them to the ground."

In my heart of hearts I knew something wasn't right. I didn't remember much of life before the White Coats but I just had a gut feeling that there was more to it. Mare was confident, hard headed and sometimes and sometimes too stubborn for her own good, but she was never a killer. That much I knew.

"She didn't mean for the fire to spread as far as it did, she thought they were safe from the flames." He grimaced.

I had no defence left, nothing I could think of to say to defend my dead sister, the sister that they had killed. "If the Alpha was so in love with her, then why didn't he have her pardoned?"

It felt odd knowing that my sister had been the Alphas mate, Marus and I had spent many nights awake, just talking. Him telling me stories of our childhood, of the three of us growing up together, of mom and dad. Anything to try to jog my memory from the rut that it was stuck in.

Marus said that when she died the Alpha had shut himself away for a very long time. Many thought he was dead, that he had left this world to be with her. He said that the pack had practically been ran by Lotan, the Alpha's second in command during that time.

Behind closed doors Theos drowned his pain beneath his whiskey and cigarettes. He would often rampage and destroy anything he could, he wouldn't sleep either. Staying up for days on end, hallucinating visions of her.

Marus said that the day the Alpha finally emerge from his den of self pity was the day The Kingdom gained its reputation.

He was back, harder and stronger than ever.
Determined never to feel again.

Ozymandias began to walk again, towards the sound of a stream.
"If he had pardoned her crimes there would've been a rebellion, fighting on the streets. The entire pack hated her guts after what she did. Even her closest friends turned on her and wanted to see her hang from the end of a rope."

I swallowed the bitter taste in my mouth, following him. Words could not describe the torment that screamed inside my chest, catching on my throat, like a burning rage that I couldn't release. Sentenced to claw inside me until my sister was revenged.

"There she is." The old man whispered, stopping to point somewhere between the pines.

Alone sat Astoria, her legs dangling over the side of the stream, her head staring to the sky. "I think you should be the one to talk to her." He said with pursed lips.

I nodded, leaving him to approach her slowly, I didn't know if she would be dangerous of not... after all if she did all the things they said, was she really ever my friend?

She could've just been pretending so that she could turn and stab me in the back, just like she did to her mate.

"Hey." I said softly, braving it enough to sit down next to her, swinging my legs iver the edge so that the tips of my toes grazed the warm water. "Want to talk?"

"I loved him." She said, her eyes trained on the flowing water. "I really did. It took me a long time to realise."

I chewed my lip. "If you loved him then why-"

"Then why did I kill him?" She almost laughed. "I know. Seems stupid right? There was a lot more to it then that."

The empty silence stretched out for a long while, blanketing the forest safe for the few birds brave enough to call.

When she spoke again her voice was strained, her jaw clenched painfully. "I loved him, but I thought I loved someone else more. I was stupid and naive."

***
If you want to find out Astorias/Amelia's full story make sure to read my other book AMELIA (not available on dreame.com) 😁
There has been an increase in votes/ comments on PAPER CROWNS and TFOA in the recent weeks, so does anyone know if it's been added to some sort of list? Like last time AMELIA had blown up it was because it was like #1 or #3 in one of the tags (don't remember which)
Anyways...
Don't forget to vote and comment!
-🍟