Retribution

by B C Morgan

  It was a tribute to Malachi’s eyes, I hoped his eyes would sparkle like the jewels. But I couldn’t get rid of the guilt, I made him go back to the monster he had tried to overcome, why would he marry me out of choice.

  And then we had the crux of the issues that had been plaguing my mind since I realised that I loved the guy. Would he choose to marry me if Hades gave us a choice and would he choose me if he had the chance to be with the kind of girl I used to be? Whatever and whoever that even was.

  Once the dressmaker had finished stabbing me with her pins and the alterations had been made, I was finally allowed to see what I would be wearing on our wedding day.

  First Yana insisted I covered my eyes with my hands, while something was placed in my hair and on top of my head.

  I then heard a rustling, which I presumed to be caused by the fabric being stripped off the mirrors, before she excitedly told me to remove my hands and look.

  I had no idea what I’d been expecting, just another bone crushing, figure showing dress like all the others, but they had nothing on the dress I was wearing.

  The bodice flowed into a light layer of satin cascading over my hips and down to the floor. It was then topped with a shimmering lace that sparkled every time the light caught it.

  The flowers were revealed to be forget-me-nots and open roses and the blue jewels matched Malachi’s eyes perfectly.

  I also had a shimmering sheer veil that fell just below my chin, with diamonds and rubies running through my ebony hair.

  I didn’t know what to say to this, was I supposed to thank Yana or act nonchalant.

  “Well, do you like it? Oh please say you do, it was so fun to design and so much better than that garish black dress I had them make,” she said, clapping her hands with glee.

  “I prefer this over all those dresses Hades insists I wear whenever in his company, you have outdone yourself Yana,” I replied, which awarded me with a bright smile and I almost forgot she wasn’t just a regular child.

  She jumped up and down but stopped when she noticed a tiny red spot just above my hip on the dress. It had been barely visible and easily remedied, but Yana didn’t care about any of that.

  She grabbed hold of the dressmaker, making her cringe as she tried to pull away.

  “You made the bride bleed and ruined my beautiful creation, you evil hag. Now it’s your time to bleed,” she stated, as sparks began to jump across her body, making my hair stand on end just from being in the vicinity.

  The woman was cowering as Yana released her grip and then slammed her hands down upon her head, sending electricity jolting through her. She kept making it happen as the lady’s nose, eyes and ears began to bleed. Her eyes were no longer visible, as they had rolled to far back and then she slumped to the floor.

  She was still convulsing even after Yana let go, before she went too still. Her chest refused to move and apart from the odd arm jolt, caused by the electricity that was still flowing through her, she was well and truly dead.

  “Oh no, I am so sorry Unya, I should have left her to you. I do get carried away sometimes, I hope you can forgive me,” she said, as she looked upon me with the most angelic look I had ever seen.

  “Don’t mention it, I can’t have all the fun now can I,” I replied, wishing I could go and kill someone to distract me from all my issues and worries.

  Yana snapped her fingers and a replacement for the other lady soon hurried over and got to work removing the minimal red spot and I was finally permitted to wear my top and jeans.

  It was hard to appreciate the quarters I had been given, especially after all the lies Hades had fed me. The voices had well and truly gone and I could only hope it was permanent. I was lost in my own thoughts when a noise made me turn my head towards the door. Seeing the handle begin to slowly turn and then the door creaked open.

  I strained my eyes to see who had come to pay me a visit, when I noticed the inky colour haloing their head. Why would a shade be paying me a visit, but disbelievingly so, that wasn’t the most shocking thing about that scenario.

  “You were the one who tried to warn me about Troy. What are you doing here?”

  She shuffled into the room, her eyes still displaying that empty void I noticed the first time I found her down here.

  She held her arms behind her back, as she made her way over to me.

  She didn’t utter a word, and I wasn’t even sure if she could speak.

  Once she had approached my bed, she bought her arms out to the front and dropped a large bundle down beside me.

  “What’s this? I don’t understand!”

  She remained silent and with her task completed, she turned back around and left.

  37

  Unya

  It was the day before my wedding, when Malachi sent a strange little creature to get me. Why he didn’t just come himself was beyond my understanding and I couldn’t help but feel a little insulted. Especially as he just used Hades favourite method of summoning whoever he wished to bore with his speeches at the time.

  The little creature cowered before me, clearly having heard how I chose to spend my free time. I knew it was expected of me to end his life, but I wasn’t going to do it, not yet anyway.

  “Take me to Malachi and I may let you keep your life.”

  He looked at me in shock, before scurrying away, as fast as he could.

  “I do not appreciate being summoned, like I am nothing more than your servant,” I stated, as I shot him the dirtiest look I could muster, before dragging his messenger into his room.

  “I’m sorry it was a shitty move, but every time I leave my room I have a never ending number of creatures coming up to me. Wanting to know what it’s like killing again, how it feels to be marrying the Ebony Child and how it’s against my will and I don’t have a voice inside my own damn head” he shouted that last part as his fist disappeared inside a wall.

  “Okay, well sorry Malachi but I don’t have all day. So just get on with whatever it is you wanted to say, so I can leave and find some much more desirable company.”

  “Unya I’m sorry, I really am. It’s hard though, I know you have questions and I’m afraid to answer them so I avoided you. It feels like we shouldn’t even be getting married tomorrow.”

  I stepped back, his words were like a dagger to my chest, which is exactly what I did to the pathetic messenger as I tossed his corpse out the door and slammed it shut.

  “You don’t want to marry me, I knew it. I’ve been wracking my brain, trying to figure out when all of this would come to an end. I thought you would have done it in a nicer fashion, but sure why not just pull the rug out from under me,” I was screaming as well by that point, as stupid tears strolled down my damn face.

  “Unya no it’s not like that, you think I don’t want to be with you, it’s the opposite. It’s more like, I don’t think you’ll want to once I answer the questions that are rattling around inside your head.”

  Well he did bring it up, why not take the opportunity that presented itself.

  “Did you know about Mihaela? Were we ever together before I came down here? Did we love each other? Who is Addy, other than an old best friend?”

  “Sure okay, sit down this may take a while,” he replied, he then told me what he could. He didn’t know a lot about Mihaela, except from what he heard from the Underworld. Seemed I would need to gain information from Marcus on her.

  Addy made me sad, she sounded like she had been a great friend. And to have her sister murdered right in front of her because of said friendship, no wonder she turned her back on me. I just wished I could recall our history.

  “I can’t say if you loved me, you didn’t choose me. It hurt and I stayed away because I did love you Unya and I still do. I’ve told you our past, I guess the ball is in your court now.”

  “Malachi I love you, I realised it when you nearly died. I don’t want to be in a world if you’re not in it with me. But there’s one more thing I need to ask. When Adiran pulled me int
o my mind Mihaela saved me, but she didn’t do it on her own. Did I ever know someone called Lawson? Or was my mind a master at conjuring up allies.”

  He looked shocked, his face had gone pale and he was shaking. I moved to sit next to him and took his hands into my own.

  “Malachi its okay, you don’t have to answer, I only asked because you’re the only one I can truly trust down here. Ever since Adiran was evicted all the voices went quiet, it’s horrible because now I can hear myself think. I hate it, my thoughts plague me, all this guilt and confusion I can’t take it anymore Malachi, I just can’t.”

  “I don’t know why, but you chose Lawson over me. I don’t know if it was innocent or if you had an ulterior motive. I’d like it to be the latter but what can I say, I worry that you wouldn’t have chosen me if he was still alive. But why would you choose me now, when you wouldn’t choose me then.”

  “Hey, don’t do that, I’m the one filled with doubts, you shouldn’t be as well. I love you Malachi and I don’t even know who this Lawson guy was. I can’t tell you how I felt, but I can’t imagine any part of me not being attracted to you, wanting you. Does it matter how I felt back then, when I know what I want and feel now.”

  He looked at me and asked why I felt guilty, so I told him and he laughed.

  “Don’t get me wrong pet, I didn’t want to revert to my old ways, I even contemplated saying no and losing you. The thing is I couldn’t do it. The minute I took that first life I forgot the reason I ever stopped. But I enjoy it even more now, because I get to do it with you,” he caressed my face and bought his mouth down upon mine.

  “I want to try something, will you humour me Baby?” I asked, and his eyes sparked when I told him what it was I wanted to do.

  38

  Malachi

  I’d found myself tied to my 4-post bed, with my arms and legs spread. My wrists and ankles were tied to each post with rope, that was rough and scratched at my skin whenever I moved. It was thrilling and I couldn’t wait for Unya to begin.

  I felt her hands caressing my chest, did I mention I was also blindfolded. All my other senses were growing stronger and I could feel her breath against my skin as her tongue travelled up my abdomen. She bit my nipple and the groan that escaped from my lips was one of pleasure.

  She continued to use her tongue to travel up my upper body, when she made it to my neck and bit down hard enough to make me bleed I almost tried to rip the ropes off of me.

  “Patience my love, just enjoy the experience,” she said as she started to make her descent until her mouth reached my hard, throbbing cock.

  Her lips suctioned around me as she licked with her tongue and scraped me with her teeth. She was swallowing me whole as she took me all the way down, I was going to explode any second but I wanted to hold off. I was desperate to shoot my load deep inside her tight pussy.

  I knew she wouldn’t stop so I tried to snap my binds, I felt her raise herself up and could only guess that she was smiling.

  She climbed up my body drenching my throbbing cock with her juices, I needed to be inside her but, she wanted to tease me.

  She rested me between the lips of her clit, as she rubbed herself up and down, she was moaning with pleasure and that sound was driving me crazy.

  “Unya please, I’m willing to beg if that will get me inside you any quicker.”

  She removed my blindfold and her eyes met mine just as she rammed me deep inside her, we both groaned in delight and then she used my cock to fuck herself hard and fast.

  It was out of this world, it was crazy the skills this woman had, believe me.

  After we finished we laid together, with her body covering mine. We were hot, sweaty and reeked of sex, and we didn’t give a royal fuck.

  “That was fucking awesome baby, feel free to return the favour whenever you like,” she said grinning from ear to ear.

  What’s next on the agenda pet, I’ll do whatever you want, just name it.”

  Let’s go cause some trouble my love, I want to make the bitches scream.”

  I smiled and as we walked hand in hand to the training area, we knew we were the only ones who would walk out alive.

  39

  Marcus

  We knew the other wolves would soon be closing in around us, but thanks to myself and the other sorcerers we came up with a ward that would stop non-friendlies from entering our domain.

  Janelle was still trying to convince everyone the best thing she could do was to just disappear, but no one would accept that.

  She seemed confused by everyone’s reaction, but she hid it well.

  The sun had just begun to set, when a howl rode to us on the wind. Janelle was pacing the floor in her wolf form, when her head shot up and stared straight at the entrance to our base.

  She started to walk toward the sound, with myself, David and Ishira following close behind.

  Instead of finding another wolf behind our invisible barrier, we found a large, muscular man standing mere inches away from the barrier.

  “Such a pitiful little pup, you should have made it easier on yourself, by remaining in hiding like the coward you are. Fleeing instead of fighting me, for what your father thought was rightfully yours. It just proved how unworthy you were to wear the title of Alpha.”

  Janelle shifted back to her normal pose and shoved on a leather jacket.

  “You killed my father and mother, but even worse than that, you killed my daughter and she wasn’t even one years old. But you couldn’t just stop at ripping out my heart, you also had to ground it down into dust by killing my mate. You couldn’t leave me one person, you just had to take them all away from me. You only had to ask for the position and my father would have given it to you. But you plotted against him and then took his life, your own fucking brother.”

  David placed a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged him off.

  “Come out here Janelle, I can put an end to all of your misery.”

  I stepped forward and ignored the glare coming from Janelle.

  “You are not welcome here, and she won’t walk straight out into an ambush.”

  “Even when you ran away, you still became somebody else’s little side kick. I’m sure your father would be so proud of what you made of your life,” he stated smirking.

  “Go home Alexander, and I will come to you tomorrow evening. We will settle this like real Alphas, we will fight for leadership and you will realise how misguided it was to underestimate me.”

  “Ok dear niece, I can agree to those terms. But as standing Alpha, I choose for this match to be to the death. If you do not show tomorrow, by the time the last rays of sunlight have kissed the ground, I will assume you have come to accept you could never best me.”

  He turned around and strolled away, to his fellow weres. Some stared at Janelle for a moment longer than they should, but none tried to speak to her.

  “Janelle, why did you do that?” I asked, surprised by what had just been arranged.

  “I can’t keep living in the shadow of my failure, Alexander was right about one thing, I did run away. But I am done with running and hiding in the shadows. Either I win this and take my inherited place as Alpha or I die and can be reunited with my little girl.”

  “I don’t want to lose you Janelle,” stated David, who was finding this a difficult subject to come around to.

  “I know David, but I need to do this. It’s time for me to return to my pack and if I have to do that alone then so be it, just know I care about every one of you.”

  We began to go our separate ways when the ground began to shake, the sudden movement shocked us all. It went on longer than a natural earthquake would have, but the thought did not register in that moment.

  Janelle shifted back to her wolf form to aid her balance, and she was supporting David who had fallen at the start and cut his head on a jagged rock.

  I tried to make it over to them but came up short when a fissure appeared on the ground. Smoke was rising from it, stealing all of our
attention, which ensured we would be distracted when our home caught fire.

  It wasn’t just the building, but every tent, log cabin and other dwellings that we had secured for our people to sleep in.

  Ishira tried to call the fire into herself, but she was too far away to make a big difference. All we could hope, was that everyone had managed to get to safety.

  By the time everything had settled down, the entire place had been destroyed. David was suffering with his head, but it wouldn’t stop him from lending a hand in searching the demolished homes.

  He was swaying on his feet and staggering after each step, but he refused to listen to reason.

  The other rebels came to stand with us, and I began allocating teams to search the damaged areas.

  Janelle stuck close to David’s side, but they didn’t say a single word. Every one of us was stuck in a state of shock, we had no idea what had caused this but an educated guess would point to magic.

  The only ones I could think of that would want to do this to us was Nyakesh and her band of followers or the Gods of Olympus.

  The latter seemed a little far-fetched, but I knew we couldn’t rule out any of the options until we knew for sure.

  After what must have been a couple of hours, we all stood around a giant Pyre and prepared to say goodbye to all of those that we lost. We were all dealing with our anger and pain, but that did not stop us from leaning on one another, and offering comfort where we could.

  David was healed by one of our healers, and even though he felt weaker he would make a full recovery.

  It turned out that we had lost fifty of our people, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. It was a mixture of creatures, including our strongest healer, four of our sorcerers, two of our mind readers and many, many more.