"You're a murderer!" She screamed as she fought against the steel chains that held her captive to one small area. "You destroyed my home! You destroyed my family! I hate you!"
"Now darling is that any way to talk to the man who rescued you from that village of sin and brought you to this wondrous castle?" Her captor smiled with fangs that glinted in the moonlight that shown through the bars of her dungeon cell.
"You didn't rescue me," She growled. "You took me away from everything! You kidnapped me and chained me in a dungeon! I would rather be dead than trapped here!"
"That can be arranged my dear, but I am gracious. I will give you three chances to redeem yourself and be released from this prison." His cold gaze drifted over her slender body and his arctic tone pierced the warmth of her flesh causing her to shiver from the cold. The vampire confidently strutted around her cage projecting a sense of authority and imperialism. She would never bow to such a low creature as a leech. He could not break her with his chains, his cold gaze, his icy tone, or even the most painful of tortures for she was a werewolf and an alpha at that. Her matriarchal society would never bend to such patriarchal insanity.
"Might as well kill me now. I don't need your chances. I am redeemed in refusing to bow to such a lowlife creature and a male one at that. I would sooner bow to your wife than bow to you or my own mate." She snarled at him her fangs and claws springing out in her natural show of dominance. She could care less that her brilliant grey-blue eyes were turning a vibrant crimson or that her wildly waving blonde hair was turning raven black. She could feel the wolf fighting to be released.
"Now my darling, let's not be rash. Think this through, love. You can submit yourself to me and serve my household as a guardian and a guest or rot here until your corpse can no longer be kept in this cell and must be burnt in the furnace. Of course I can always arrange for your mate to join us and either be put into servitude or burned at the stake in front of you. It's your choice, madam." With those final words he turned and marched out of the cell. The steel door scraped shut and she was left alone with the snakes slithering around the cells looking for the rats that since their arrival have been long gone, the droplets of water that fell from the leaky mildewed walls, and the horrid stench of the rotting corpses that are still trapped in the millions of other cells lingerd in her nostrils. Her chains were straining her arms from all the standing she had done, so with a sigh she collapsed on the cold rock. What was she going to do? It was one thing to threaten her but her mate was something entirely different.
She remembered her beloved Liam.
-------Flashback-------
His strong broad shoulders smoothly worked underneath his soft tan skin as he chopped wood for the bonfire that marked the changing of the new wolves. He was gorgeous.Liam was an oddity among werewolves. Very few wolves had brown hair and brown eyes but Liam did. He is the tallest of the males in her pack and he was also one of the strongest. He had been born the runt of his family but grew to overpower his all of his siblings. The Brandt family was known for its strong, pure bloodline and their talent as blacksmiths. Liam was the second youngest of his family and generally looked over until he changed. Changing is when a werewolf reaches the age of 14 and finally shifts into their wolf form. No one had expected that Liam would shift into a massive dark, gray wolf that towered over his eldest brothers and even his father. Ever since that night Liam was respected and sent to slave away in the smith shop. Whenever they had free time all the girls would slip away to watch him hammer on iron. Aria would wait until all the girls were gone to go see him. He was always smiling and waiting for her when she came. He would unlock the door and ler her come in and sit in a chair. They would spend the afternoon laughing and talking until the sun began to set.
One evening they were together and Aria didn't know how to tell Liam that after that night they wouldn't be able to do this anymore. That night was her 14th birthday so she would have to change, but her mother was alpha and that meant Aria would have to challenge her mother for the alpha position. At this time she didn't know that she could choose a mate and neither did Liam. He knew Aria had to go through the change but he didn't know her position in the pack because they had never been anywhere together but in the shop.
"Liam?" She began in a sad, small voice.
"What is it, Aria?" He asked looking up from his work concerned.
"You know I have to change tonight right?"
"Of course. You're 14. It is time to join the pack as a wolf," he said as he laid down his tools and took a seat in front of her, entirely serious.
"Well along with changing I must challenge the alpha."
"What?! Are you crazy?! She will kill you!" He screamed and abruptly stood to begin pacing.
"Liam, I have to. I am the alpha's daughter! It is my place to challenge and defeat her on the night of my change!" The tears began to fall as she hung her head. How could she fight her own mother? The same woman that trained her and loved her all these years? Knowing that her daughter would one day have to beat her and claim her place in society must have killed her.
"You're what?!" Liam stopped pacing and stared at her in shock. "You can't be! You're nothing like her! How could you not tell me?! Why did you let me think that I might actually be able to have you for myself once we got old enough?! What about all of the days we've spent together?! What am I supposed to do?!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't know how to tell you! I didn't want to. For once someone looked at me and didn't see the spoiled little princess but you saw me for me! I didn't know i would have to challenge her until yesterday and even then i couldn't tel you! I didn't know how!" Then Aria rose from her chair and started to the door with tears streaming down her face. She heard Liam sighed and felt his warm hand gently touch her arm. She looked at him with the door barely cracked open and saw his broken expression. This was something she had never seen in him and she felt horrible that she had caused it.
"Aria," he sighed, "don't go. Please. I'm sorry. It just hurts."
She shut the door and faced him. "I know it does. I'm hurting too."
He looked down at her with his chocolate brown eyes. She could feel the pain rolling off of him but there was also something else, something unknown. She almost asked what it was but she noticed that Liam had gotten closer to her and there was a tendril of suspense hanging between them. Slowly and gently he slipped his hand across her cheek taking the tears with it as he searched her expression. She couldn't take it anymore. She grabbed handfuls of his hair and dragged him to her lips for their first kiss.
----------------------------Present---------------
That was 6 years ago.
