“You gave me to him,” I managed to say between labored breaths, my voice strained. “You were my uncle and you willingly gave me away to that monster as though I were a property!”
Silviu slowly crouched down to my level, his eyes devoid of any emotion, ice-cold. “You should have stayed with him. Do you have any idea what I've sacrificed? You're just a small pawn in my games, and yet you managed to ruin everything."
Despite the pain that rocked my body, I struggled to sit upright, blood trickling down the side of my face. “What was the plan? Did you think you’d kill him and gain control of his pack? Do you delude yourself into thinking—”
A smack cut me short once again. The striking sound of his palm connecting my flesh caused an echoing in my ears.
Tears stung my eyes as I turned to face my uncle once more. “You are a sickening bastard!” I spat. “You'll never measure up to my father. The Goddess made him Alpha for a reason, she didn't even deem you fit for a Beta.”
This time it was a blow he sent my way, one that hurled me away. I landed facedown on the ground, and pain consumed me, crushing my insides.
Silviu’s leg slammed into my ribs, forcing me to roll over, writhing in agony, my cries piercing the air.
“What did you say?” he asked, his face a twisted mask of fury.
I must have struck a nerve, as I’d never seen him this enraged before. I had managed to say the things I knew he feared.
All his life, Silviu must have harbored a feeling of envy towards my father. He must have been plagued by hate and insecurity over how my father got to be Alpha and he didn't even get the Beta position.
This festering bitterness must have eaten him inside over the years, consumed him until there was nothing left of his heart except a black, decaying organ filled with contempt.
I fought to get up again and I smiled through bloodied teeth at my uncle. “I called you a worthless piece of shit, I said you would never compare to my father!”
He pivoted, his heavy boots striking me in the face with such force, I felt my teeth go loose in my mouth.
Suddenly an arrow whizzed past Silviu’s ear, narrowly missing it by a hair’s breadth.
Silviu froze, his jaw tightening before he slowly turned to face the source of the attack. This time a blade came flying at him, slicing through the sleeves of his shirt and cutting through flesh.
A hiss escaped him as he crouched down, pressing his palm to the injured arm.
Natalie came flying, her blade glinting in the light, and her blonde hair as usual was pulled tightly back in a ponytail. She swung her blade at Silviu, but he dodged, averting her attack in time, and escaping having his head severed.
She threw me a quick glance. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding.
Silviu looked from me to Natalie, a sickening grin on his lips. “It is unfortunate that it was Sephora instead of you”
“Unfortunately for you,” Natalie retorted.
And with that, she lunged at him. Silviu dodged,while swiftly unsheathing his own blade in response. Natalie swung her blade but Silviu’s reflexes were fast. He countered her attack, ramming his fist into her stomach and driving the other directly in her face.
A gasp escaped me and I struggled to get up despite the blinding hurt that exploded in my body at that action.
Every part of me throbbed with pain—the ache in my jaw, the pain in my side. My body screamed in protest, yet I managed to get into an upright position.
Natalie wasn't deterred, I could see the anger and hate for Silviu in her expression. She swung her blade again but my uncle was a master at predicting her movements because he continued to dodge every single move she made. It was as if he knew to anticipate them before she made them and I realized in horror, remembering that just before I’d been taken to Alexander’s pack, Silviu had been in charge of training Natalie and Sephora.
He was the one who first taught Natalie how to fight and Natalie must be using the techniques he’d taught her and so he knew to expect every move she made.
Frustration furrowed Natalie’s brow as she launched another attack on him and missed yet again. Silviu caught her by the legs, smashing his elbow into her face, tackling her to the ground, and causing her blade to fly out from her grasp.
He raised his blade, ready to strike her with it, a strike I knew would be the final blow.
I lunged at him with all my might, a cry escaping me. My body slammed into Silviu, hurling us both away from Natalie. We landed forcefully on the ground and I felt the excruciating pain that devoured my body.
Silviu and I rolled in the dirt and angrily, he shoved me off him.
I remained on the ground when Silviu struggled to stand up, a look of resentment crossed his features.
“You've proven to be more of an irritant than I’d ever imagined,” he said, anger etched in his voice.
Clutching my sides, I tried to get up but failed miserably, collapsing on the ground yet again.
Silviu glanced back at Natalie who was approaching him again, limping, her blade pointed at him.
“Get away from her… Get away from her, you coward!” she managed in between breaths.
She was badly wounded; Silviu’s blade had injured her in multiple places and she was bleeding, her hand pressed into the upper part of her thighs, blood streaming between her fingers.
A cruel laugh escaped Silviu. “Look at both of you, the foolish sisters—one silly, the other even sillier. Who is going to be first?”
“I'm going to kill you!” Natalie swore, but her words had no effect, not when she looked so beaten.
Silviu smiled at me, a sinister gleam in his eyes. “I suppose we have our answer.”
And he turned to Natalie.
“No!” a guttural cry escaped me yet again, this time tearing out from a place of fear and pain and that was when I felt it —my wolf’s presence.
I collapsed to my knees, and the sound of my bones snapping filled my ears as my body reshaped itself to accommodate the new form of my wolf.
Silviu instinctively stepped back, his face betraying a look of surprise as my wolf emerged.
She took a step closer to him and let out a blood-curdling snarl.