Claiming His Love {manxman}

Prologue.

I had a lot on my plate.

That was very much so. I kept having vivid dreams of an old lady swirling out liquids in a vial as she chanted from an old and worn brown book tied by strings. I was tied down to a bed in a makeshift hut and it was burning hot for some reason.

"Trace Kedyanin," She spoke in an ominous voice as she hovered over me. "What are you doing?!" I screeched but for some reason, I couldn't move. I was frozen in fear. "You will change soon. Whatever you do, do not fight it." Her voice drifted off and it brought me back to the present moment. "Дерьмо!" I cursed, hitting a wall (Shit). I could feel my eyes merging as they shifted through colors. Last week, I didn't even know that a person could have one pink eye and one purple eye. 

Now, I could feel my wolf growing bigger and bigger, something that was odd as I was done shifting three years ago, but something was happening. I could feel myself becoming dangerous, and there were some unforeseen developments that took place. For starters, I had spikes along my tail, very sharp spikes.

That was never supposed to happen.

"I need to talk to Lyev..." I exited the kitchen of the pack house, unsure of why there was no one in or why there was no sound of kids screaming. This was an everyday occurrence in the Blazing Rage pack. Where was he? I furrowed my brow as I made my way outside of the house, the dark night echoing with nothing but promises of sorrow. There were no stars out, no sounds of crickets.

Just the sound of death.

I looked around in the gated area, noticing clumps of members gathered near my house. I tilted my head, my feet moving without thought. The smell of burning flesh killed my nostrils as I got closer and closer. The sound of grass crunched beneath my Doc Martens as I listened to them speak. "Trace is gonna be fucking pissed." One woman said and I for the life of me, could not figure out what was going on. The sound of crackling filled my ears and I could see fire building up and I hoped that it was a campfire.

"Hello?" I called out once I was within the vicinity. All of the members snapped their heads towards me like they were caught doing something they shouldn't have. "What's wrong? Why are you outside my house?" It was odd or maybe it was just too dark, but I couldn't see my house or the usual light on the porch. Did my mother turn it off?

Everyone looked at me in sorrow, eyes filled with tears as sobbing sounds cracked the air. "What's going on? Why's everyone looking at me like that, huh?" I furrowed my brows and one of my good friends, Drew Costella, pointed to a finger in the opposite direction. "Him!" He seethed in exasperation and I followed the finger to land my eyes on the ever-shorter-than-me Nikolai Baranov. He was holding himself and there were blood and soot all over his clothes. His face was wet, his nose dripping and he looked utterly horrible.  "What?" Why did he smell like my parents? Why did he smell like my house?

My house.

My head snapped to the crispy noise. My house was crumbling to shambles, nothing left to remain. There was a faint screaming and I would have moved to go help whoever it was, but the sound quickly died out. My room on the second level was burned to pieces now, the wall of all of my pictures of my childhood vanished. What happened here? Was it what I thought it was? Nah, it couldn't have been. Nikolai would never.

Would he?

"Trace, it's not what you think!" I took in my best friend's pleading voice, his face stained with tears as I turned to look at the familiar house, burning to ashes, the air greased with pungent smoke. "Huh?" I whispered as I smelled the air, two familiar scents belonging to my parents, the smells merging in with the smoke. "What?" Suddenly, pain racked through my body, like I was cut back and forth with a machete. I couldn't breathe, felt like I was choking on nothing. People stood around me, watching me die inside as they couldn't do anything. What were they supposed to do?

It burned.

Was this what it felt like when a familial linkage was cut off? Was this what Sevastian was talking about when he said that when a family member dies, the rest feel it? It felt like agony and I hoped to fuck that this was just some terrible nightmare. My own best friend would never do me that. It hurt, it felt like my heart was being ripped into two.

It had to be a fucking nightmare.

"You did this." I growled lowly as I stood, a tear running my face. Everything pointed to him. The person I had by my side my whole life. He did this. There was nothing that Nikolai could say to me that could fix everything. I was mad, angry, furious. Livid, even, but because he was someone that I trusted for so long, I found it hard to look at him. I couldn't even say that I wanted to kill him, because the urge wasn't there. I felt betrayed and I wanted to go and save my parents, but I was too late.

Too god damn late.

"Please Trace!" I clenched my fists and turned around, vowing that this bond between us would never get restored. How could I forgive someone who did the one thing that destroyed me? "You," My voice cracked and I shuddered, willing myself to stay strong. There was nothing that I could do at this point. "Will do well to never fucking talk to me again." I roared out in wrath along with my wolf, Hades, feeling murderous and in that moonlight, that was the change that would come. My parents were fucking dead, murdered. There was not a single god damn thing that could fix that.  I ignored his pleas, my claws sinking in my paws as to not reach out and slash his throat open. Someone that I trusted with my life, I couldn't believe it.

"Trace..."