Shattered Ambition

Andrew's POV

I knew something was off because Skylar told me I could not enter the spirit world unless I give up my wolf but Shenaya was there in her wolf form. I returned to the physical world and made my way back to the stench house of death. The stuffiness of the air and the chill that crept into my bone marrow made me a little shiver, I am now an ordinary man without his wolf so it's easy for me to be scared. My head started spinning, My body was still reeling from the lack of the wolf. This is what I was talking about, POWER! Power that could make the impossible possible, but instead of power coursing through me, I felt empty, I was an echo of the man I used to be. My wolf was gone, and in its stead, I was left feeling nothing. The little spirits of the ancestors that were inside me were raging and eager but without the soul of Zoey, they were powerless. Their power was incomplete.

I walked through the hallways and I struggled with the dizziness that seemed to be lingering around my head. Zoey, my daughter, my link to the ultimate dominance, remained the core focus of my thoughts. I had been so close. So close! And then Shenaya had ruined it all. She had taken Zoey and ripped her from my arms like a thief in the night.

But I had one last option. Skylar. She could help me since she is also a vessel. She had to because I knew she wanted this power as much as I did.

I know she wanted to rule the werewolf world just like me. She wanted to be the first Beta Werewolf Queen. Just like how I wanted to be the werewolf King. We would at least we can do it together.

When I entered, she was standing right in the middle of the room, looking away from me, her black hair falling around her back like a veil. There was very little light in the room, only a few candles brought a little faint light in the room. Skylar stood there frozen the moment I stepped closer to her, she did not turn to look at me, nor speak to me. But I knew she could feel me.

"Skylar," I managed to say, my voice turning red with rage and fear. "It didn't work. You said I couldn't go into the spirit world with my wolf but Shenaya came and picked up Zoey in her wolf form."

She shifted around very slowly and her gaze met my stare straight. The kind of smile that formed on her lips was anything but helpful and her smile was a reflection of her complete hatred.

"I know," she said softly.

I frowned, my heart pounding.

"You know?"

The smile on her face broadened and joy gleamed in her eyes.

"Oh, Andrew… you really thought it had to do with that trivial thing, didn't you?"

But, I held my breath as if my throat stopped working at that moment. Something was wrong. This was quite strange, there must be something very, very wrong.

"What are you talking about?" I demanded, my voice rising. "You told me-"

"I only told you what you wished to hear," Skylar countered abruptly, and sarcastically.

"Did you really think I would help you after everything you've done?"

"What?" I blinked, stunned.

She stepped forward and that's when her eyes changed with some kind of evil bright blackness.

"You betrayed me, Andrew. Over and over again. You killed me the moment I gave birth to Zoey, Your own child. You abandoned me for your selfish ambitions, for your precious Shenaya and now you want to give up your own daughter's life for power?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but the words wouldn't come. My mind was racing, trying to make sense of what she was saying.

"And now," Skylar continued, her voice dripping with venom, "you thought you could come back to me, that I would just… help you?" She laughed, the sound low and dangerous. "I trusted you to be smarter than this but it turns out you're more of a fool than I thought."

"No… no, you said we could do this together. You said we could rule together!" I shook my head, my chest tightening.

"We could have ruled together, Andrew. But you made your choice. You chose Shenaya. You chose power over loyalty. Over family." Skylar's eyes narrowed.

"This… this was all a lie?" I took a step back, my heart pounding in my chest.

"Not all of it," Skylar said, her voice calm and measured. "You did give up your wolf. That part was very real."

My blood ran cold.

"What?" I whispered, my voice barely audible.

"You gave up your wolf, Andrew. You threw him away for your greed. And that… was my revenge." Skylar's smile was wicked.

I stared at her, my mind reeling.

"Revenge? You tricked me?"

"For everything you did to me," she hissed, her eyes flashing with anger. "For killing me, for betraying me, for giving my child to another woman to raise, for abandoning Zoey, for choosing Shenaya over me, and most importantly for trying to give your daughter's soul." She took a step forward, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "This is my revenge."

I choked on the air, struggling to breathe as I tripped backward in shock.

"No… no, this can't be… You can't-"

"I can," Skylar replied her eyes narrowing and her voice tense. "And I did. Now, you're wolfless. Powerless and Useless. That's where you can do nothing about it. You can't fight me and very soon, the little power surging within you will disappear when you don't have anything to feed it up"

The blood seemed to rush out of my face. I was trembling all over my body from the inside as I tried to absorb all she had said. My wolf is gone. I would never get him back. I was… nothing.

"You are going to regret this," I rasped in the best attempt at threatening that I could muster. "You will surely regret your decision to betray me you know."

There was anger in Skylar's eyes and a cold clinical smile on her lips.

"No, Andrew. The only one who will ever regret something that has happened… will be you and I am sure you are already regretting ever betraying me, ever deceiving the woman you claimed to love, and trying to give your daughter's soul up for mere power"

She slipped around and let her body walk towards the door with such leisure, as though there was no great hurry for her. I realized my heart was beating and my brain was yelling at me to do something but I just sat there paralyzed. I was unable to get up, unable to find my wits.

"Wait!" I shouted, my voice cracking. "Skylar, wait! Don't leave me like this!"

Yet still, she didn't even glance behind her. She was able to walk out of the house without a second look and I was left standing alone.

The quiet of the room closed in on me like a vice. My thinking was chaotic, I felt my body trembling with rage, and the emotions of the unknown fear and hopelessness took hold of me. I had nothing. No wolf, no power, no allies. Only the debris of an attempted process and the jeering of the ancestral spirits still echo in the room.

I screamed and screeched fighting the frustration and anger that gripped me fiercely. I raised my arms up and beckoned the spirits of the witches who attacked me at the beginning of the spell.

"Come to me!" I bellowed. "Give me your power! I deserve it! I am your vessel!"

But cold air came in and the whispers of the witches came louder. They weren't welcoming me. They weren't coming to help. They were pushing me away.

I fall back as some ethereal spring pushes me out of the door of the ancient house. There were heavy thumps as the doors closed behind me which left me standing alone on the lonely streets of Paris. The witches had rejected me. Not even they would accept a broken, wolfless man.

I dropped to my knees and had my head on my hands. The feeling was very overwhelming when I realized I had failed and the feeling which broke my morale was the heavy weight I felt on my shoulders. At last, I was an empty piss pot, with no wolf, no family, no soul, and all for nothing.

I didn't know how long I knelt there besides the road but I still had this sense of purpose so I rose. Finally, there was no other option where I could go. The only person who may still have answers is my godmother.

Elara.

---

It was a blur getting to Elara's place. My brain was full of broken ideas and sour remorse. By the time I got there, she was already inside waiting for me, the door was open.

Elara sat at the table, her eyes cold and distant. She didn't need to say anything. She knew.

"You've done it," she said quietly as I stepped inside. "You gave up your wolf." I didn't respond.

I couldn't. The shame burned too deeply inside me.

"I warned you, Andrew. I told you this was a dangerous path." She sighed, shaking her head

"I didn't have a choice," I murmured as gently as I could to calm my raw throat.

"There's always a choice", Elara snapped. "Well, you just made the wrong one."

"I needed the power. I needed to be more than what I am." I folded my fists and the anger rose from my bowels again.

"A second is lost, two are forgiven, but twenty? You're now less than you were," Elara sneered. "You're wolfless, Andrew. You'll never get him back."

Those were the words she said to me, they struck me like a bolt from the blue.

"No," I whispered. "There has to be a way. There has to be something that can be done."

"There isn't," Elara said flatly. "Your wolf is gone. You let him go and he will never return, and that's it. It goes without saying that he is angry with you, Andrew, and angry that you left him for silly and selfish purposes."

As panic started setting in I began to experience the familiar tightening of the abdomen. My wolf… he was gone, and I had driven him away.

"I…" I looked at her "I didn't mean to. I just… I needed more."

Elara stood up and walked towards me. She touched my shoulder lightly and looked into my eyes.

"Sometimes you don't get what you want, which means power is not exactly what you might expect it to be. You believed that you were in command of it, that it would give you all authorities, but power without measure… Without restrain… it will kill you."

Her words were like a jab that hurt, but at the same time, these words contained the whole truth. I had nothing now; my wolf, my daughter, my friends, even my enemy were gone – for a power that I could never master.

"What do I do now?" I whispered, my voice was shaking.

Elara shut her eyes, letting her hand fall from my shoulder, where it rested proprietarily until now.

"Andrew, You have nothing to do anymore. You've been deprived of all your supernatural connections. The witches shall not help you, your wolf is permanently eliminated and anyone you deceived shall never accept you again."

I choked on her words, the oppressive feeling of what she said pressing on me. There was no way back. No redemption. No power. Nothing.

"Then what's left?" I asked, my voice hollow.

Elara looked at me for a long moment, her expression unreadable.

"That's something you'll have to figure out on your own."

I stood there staring at the ground, feeling the crushing emptiness inside me. There was nothing left. No power, no future. Just the cold hard truth that I had destroyed everything I had ever loved.

And now, I was all alone.