Zane | ✔︎

Chapter Forty-One | Valdi.

It all happened so fast.

One minute, Priestess Sofia is carrying her offerings in a warm basket, silked with a thin lace over them, ready for the new waxing season of the moon.

The next minute, her offerings fall to the ground and break, as her piercing scream echoes around the whole Luna temple and the surrounding forest.

A scream so horrified.

A voice so astounded.

For she was not greeted by Luna's oracle and rose quartz engravings once she entered the sacred shrine.

She was greeted by an offering made by someone else.

An offering of a few decayed and cut bodies at the feet of her Goddess.

And all of them were mutilated.

Every single part of their bodies.

Bled to death.

Bitten to death.

Bodies of neighbouring Alphas.

Bodies of Alphas from the King's Clan.

Bodies that had showered the Luna temple with deplorable blood and a poisoning stench.

Sofia's potent scream was enough to alert the entire Shadow Moon Pack, as a roar of a shudder ran down everyone's spine.

Those millions of wolves, thousands of families, anticipating the aftermath of their young Alpha's wrath through their former Luna's screams.

With the pack now distraught, Zander ran.

Zander ran faster to his home.

Zander's knuckles crushed beneath his skin, hardening more than stone, beckoning to end a country, his anger pooling in his eyes and his fangs.

The scream of his wife was enough for him to lose his patience.

The scream of his wife was enough for him to lose his good side.

And yet, nothing could be taken back.

Because despite his wrath, he was frozen on the spot.

Only to be met with yet another offering made by the same person as before.

The difference was, that some bodies were in the temple.

And now there were bodies in his castle kitchen.

Countless bodies.

Zander's throat tightened at the sight of a freshly showered son, his body void of any marks and bruises as one would expect.

And it happened so fast.

Zander's dominant eyes met his domineering ones.

The eyes of his progeny.

The eyes of a blood-thirsty monster.

The eyes of a boy who became Alpha so quickly.

As young as 15.

As young as a cocoon.

The only thing that differed him from every other boy, was that he wasn't a butterfly. He was a parasite.

A parasite to the entire species.

Zander could only stare, as his son quickly grabbed a cup of early coffee to soothe his lack of slumber. Zander could only stare as he leaned against the fridge, letting the steam be the only thing visible in the dark beside the silhouette of something he created.