What was Lost

Trouble in Paradise

I had made it down the stairs and was half way to the front door, when I collided with someone. The impact didn't floor me as I balanced myself in time, but it did send me staggering backwards.

"Watch where your go-Oh God it’s you," said the nasally voice which belonged to Stacy Simmons.

Simmons was a Delta in the pack, meaning she was just an average Were. Despite that, she somehow had an overgrown sense on entitlement. Apparently, somewhere down her family line, she had a long-dead grandfather who had been an Alpha. To her, that small connection meant that she was destined to be mated with an Alpha herself. Or more specifically, to my mates. In fact, she had it out for me since the day I had arrived.

I narrowed my eyes at her, and regarded her slim form clad in a mini skirt and crop top, complete with "it-hurts-to-walk-in-these" six inch stilettos. Her hair, which was blond (artificially so) was the opposite of my red locks, and was as perfect as ever. It was about the only thing of hers that I was actually jealous of. Not the colour, but how sleek it was. Mine rarely cooperated with me.

She too, looked me up and down, smirking at my baggy top and trousers. When she reached my face, her eyebrows raised and she laughed at my tear-stained face.

"Looks like there's trouble in Paradise," she commented off-handedly, observing her blood red nails.

"Don't worry, it won't stay that way for long," she said, and breezed past me. Her words made my Wolf, Celeste, stir, but I ignored her and carried on my way outside.

The Den was surrounded on three sides by the forest, and I made my way towards it, stripping off my clothes in the process. As soon as I crossed the tree line, I shifted, and flew off in a sprint.

My Wolf was upset. But not because of what Requiem had said, but of how I had reacted. As soon as I calmed down, an hour or so later, at a waterfall near the Pack boundary, she tore into me.

"How could you?"

"How could I what?" I demanded.

"Be like that. Say that to him. Ari, you should have given him a chance, he's our mate for goodness sakes, he at least deserves a chance," she said, ever the voice of reason.

I remained quiet. Now that I had calmed down, I could see the error of my ways. I had been too quick to jump the gun. It wasn't like he had ever done it before. Besides, it wasn't a good time for him, for any of us right now. With six pack members dead, the Pack was restless, and a restless Pack meant more work for the Alpha.

I slouched, the tension in my shoulder blades releasing. We were still in Wolf form, so the actions made muscles ripple down my back.

"Okay," I said "okay, I get it. I was wrong. I'll go back, and apologise. Okay?"

"Okay," she replied, then went silent.

I got up onto my legs from my lying position, and bent to the waterfall basin to lap at the water.

Once I had drunk my fill, I got up and turned so I was facing the direction the Den was in. I hadn't even taken five steps towards it, when a sharp pain ripped through my heart and brain.

It felt like someone had lit a fire inside me, and was at the same time, poking the fire with a sharp stick.

I stumbled forward a step or two, blinded by my pain, then collapsed. Darkness soon came over me, and I welcomed it as it meant release.

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Stacy made her way past the crying Arianna, laughing at her luck. Here she was trying to break Arianna from her mates, and Arianna was already separating herself. She was still chuckling as she began to recite the spell that she had been taught. Normally, a Were could only preform a little magic, never as much as this, but the Witch blood she had running inside of her made it possible.

The ancient words of magic swirled inside her, begging to be released, and she complied. Soon, the very air around her was hazy, almost palpable, due to the dark magic she was conjuring. She had begun the spell in a low voice, merely a whisper, but now it thundered out in a roar. The magic soared inside of her, and began to envelope her mind.

Dark magic required a big sacrifice, and Stacy was ready to give up a part of her soul. But that was okay. Because the place where her soul had once been, was now a hollow. A hollow that had begun to fill up with a warmth she had not felt in a very long time. This was the mate bond she had stolen from Arianna. The warmth of the love she felt from the bond was too much for her, and she succumbed to the darkness behind her eyelids, only this time, she welcomed it.