Chapter 50

Lucien

“What the fuck is happening?” Penny’s annoyed shriek bordered on deafening.

I couldn’t blame her, as I was still trying to wrap my head around what my eyes were seeing. I’d only seen Olivia’s wolf once, the night I’d found her in an underground basement and she had transformed. It had only lasted for a few minutes before she’d transformed back into her human form and then passed out. I’d barely had time to appreciate her wolf with its fur as white as snow and eyes as yellow as the sun.

For some reason, she hadn’t transformed again since that night in the basement.

So why had she transformed now? How on earth had she done it? Was she full-blooded and didn’t know?

Nevertheless, the wolf in front of me was absolutely breathtaking. With speed like lightning, the white wolf went after the men. Even the ones who had transformed into their wolf forms for a fighting chance against her got picked off one by one with a fury that shocked even me. They dropped to the floor like flies, unmoving.

Pride filled me and, slowly, I felt the effects of the wolfsbane leave and my strength return. She was giving me strength. I didn't think I could possibly love her any more than I already did, yet I knew I still would.

“Why isn’t anybody saying anything? How is it possible that an Impure transformed at will?!” Penny shrieked again, backing away.

Nobody noticed that she was almost at the door until she spoke up. Confident that I could stand on my own without his help, I took back my arm from Xavier’s grip. I didn’t have to bother. Sydney was in front of Penny with her hands in flames, stretched out at her.

“Where are you going?” Sydney, now in her element, scowled at her. It occurred to me that the scowl was directed at Elena standing behind Penny. “Running away? The show’s just hit the road.”

The words were mocking and didn’t fail to elicit the intended emotion. Penny’s nostrils flared. “Get out of my way.”

“Make me, you bitch,”

It took me some effort but I eventually got to where they stood. I still wanted to wring her neck for making me feel and look weak, yet I restrained myself. Death was too good a punishment for her.

“Aunt,” I spat the word at her and almost smiled in satisfaction when she rewarded my taunt with a low growl. After all, she was still a wolf and she had the blood of an Alpha flowing through her. I had absolutely no doubt that she was powerful when in her wolf form. “You’re not leaving yet, are you?”

****

Sydney

For as long as I could remember, Elena had been with me. She and Lucien were the closet things I had to a family. The both of us were sisters, inseparable and in sync. We knew each other, in and out—or so I thought. Imagine finding out your own sister had been stabbing you in the back for years with you being none the wiser.

Elena, the sister I had loved.

Elena, the woman I now hated.

I met Lucien’s eyes and a silence of understanding pass between us. I nodded, hoping he recognized the look of gratitude I gave him. Xavier reached past Lucien and grabbed Penny’s arm, dragging her behind him.

“Let me go!” she yelled, forcefully trying to pry Xavier’s finger’s off her arm with no luck. “I said let me go or I’ll—”

“You’ll do nothing, you crazy bitch. Shut up and walk or I’ll show the different ways in which I’m different from Lucien,” Xavier said to her coolly, and damn it if it didn’t work. She stayed quiet after that.

Once they were out of earshot, I faced the woman I’d considered my best friend for the past few years. I could barely remember how we’d met, only that there had been a connection from the onset. A connection that I’d fooled myself into thinking had blossomed throughout the years into something more.

More so, it baffled me that she was able to look me in the eye without so much as remorse in her eyes, with her chin permanently raised in the air. Did she not understand the damage she’d done to our family? Could she not see how her actions had hurt me?

Wetting my lips, I let down my hands. “I wanted to believe you had a viable reason for joining hands with Penny. I wanted to believe she forced you somehow, that maybe she was threatening you or something.”

She remained quiet while I ran through the motions. I tried to focus on the Elena I’d always known, the one who had smiled through her tears because she knew it was best for everyone to forget certain things; the one who side by side with me, had defended Lucien, ready to strike should there be any threat of danger. This one in front of me was foreign. With that hard look in her eyes and locked jaw, I began to think that maybe, just maybe I’d imagined the old Elena.

Not of my own volition, I let out a breathy chuckle. “What a waste of time. All this and he still didn’t as much as blink in your direction.”

“Shut your mouth.” Her eyes were hard and cold.

I wasn’t about to relent. “Even without Olivia in the picture, he still would never have given you a second glance. I was trying to spare your feelings in the past but it’s a good thing that I don’t have to do that anymore.”

“Sydney,” it was a warning if I ever heard one.

“—an elephant had a better chance of catching his attention than you did.”

I felt it before I saw it. The force of the wind blew past me, pushing me several meters away from where I was standing and knocking the breath out of me.

As a seer, Elena could manipulate visions, thoughts, and imaginations. Basically, she was what one would call an illusionist. I knew that because I knew her, just like I knew none of it was real. She just wanted me to believe it was.

“Petty tricks?” I sneered, liking how frequently her nostrils flared. Good. If she was angry, then it would make me angry too because she had no right to be anything but penitent. “How typical of you, hiding because your stupid pathetic illusions. Fight me like a real woman.”

She shifted into a fighting stance, pushing the weight of her balance on her heels. The corners of her lips lifted into a wicked grin. “Now where’s the fun in that?”

Suddenly, we were in total darkness. It wasn’t just darkness; it was nothingness. I couldn’t see, couldn’t feel. There was no gravity. The ground didn’t feel solid, rather it felt like I was floating through the air.

“Let’s see you wiggle your way out of here,” she laughed.

A blow landed on my abdomen and I groaned at the impact, coughing. Pain rocketed through my entire body and pooled at my stomach.

Okay, so that was how we were going to play? Dirty? Fine by me. Reminding myself that it was not real, I willed fire to shoot out the tips of my fingers so that there was lightning. Elena and I came face to face and then the illusion broke and we were back in the warehouse.

I realized the trick; all I had to do was counter every single illusion she put me in. If there was light, create darkness. If there was darkness, then all I needed to do was light up the goddamn place.

I smiled to myself. I’d been itching for a fight for a very long time and this was turning out to be exactly what I wanted.

It was showtime.