Chapter 103

The world seemed to be falling apart all around her as she walked through the chaotic corridors of the castle. This was the downfall of the Half Moon pack and she was right in the middle of the bedlam that was about to befall them.

The workers who ran towards her in a panic would recognize her when they got close and then they would give her a wide berth as they tried to avoid her. As she made her way down the halls, she felt like she was a rock parting the river of people who tried to get past her as they searched for a way to escape the castle.

What surprised her was that it wasn’t just the workers that were running for their lives. There were also pack guards that were mixed in with the fleeing workers and they also avoided Amelia as they ran past her in the hallways.

Seeing the fleeing guards, Amelia chuckled to herself as she remembered what she had said to her father earlier that day. He had gathered all these wolves to his side, but none of them would ever be loyal to him. And she couldn't help feeling justified at her accusations of his character.

She was immediately shaken from her thoughts by the sound of a Lycan roaring somewhere close. And she frowned when she realized that the roar was coming from within the castle. Looking down the corridor she was in, she saw a young man in a suit stumble out of an office and fall to the ground in front of her. The moment he looked up and saw her standing there, he hurriedly picked himself up and rushed away in the opposite direction.

Amelia wondered what he might have seen to make him run away in such abject terror. So she walked down the corridor until she came to the office he had stumbled out of and saw a pair of double doors that had been left wide open. She stepped into the office and her eyes were immediately drawn to a large figure standing in front of an office desk.

After taking a few steps into the office, Amelia saw that the figure was a large Lycan standing with his back to her. Taking a quick sniff, she realized that the Lycan was indeed her father.

“You figured it out…” Amelia mumbled in surprise and horror.

Hearing her voice, Thornbury let out a sinister cackle as he raised his hands and studied their transformation. He then touched his face and let out an even louder laugh that made her shudder where she stood.

“So this is the power you kept from me, Daughter”, Thornbury growled out as he continued to chuckle.

She was horrified to see that he had managed to discover what all the other Lycans thought was impossible. And she was gripped with the fear that others might figure out the secret as well. If anyone else knew how to create Lycans, it would throw their whole world into chaos that they would never be able to recover from.

“How?” she asked in the hopes that she might learn the secret before anyone else did.

Without looking back at her, Thornbury raised his hand and pointed at the monitors displaying the surveillance footage of the invading Silver Lake warriors. Looking closely, she saw on one monitor the footage of a large black Lycan fighting back the Half Moon warriors. And on the monitor next to it, was a video recording of her trying to pour her blood into Jason’s open wound. Looking at the screens, she still couldn’t understand why he was looking at the two videos simultaneously.

“Your mate”, Thornbury said. “He’s alive and he is now a Lycan.”

The revelation that Jason was still alive hit her like a punch to the face. She looked back at the footage in a panic and saw the black Lycan shift back into Jason’s human form as he continued to give orders to his warriors.

Knowing that he was still alive, Amelia wanted nothing more than to run out the door and go to her mate’s side. As she watched him through the feed, she was gripped with immense gratitude and longing when she realized that he had stormed into her father’s pack for her sake.

Looking back at her father, she realized that she couldn't sit around and do nothing while waiting to be rescued. She needed to keep him there until backup arrived and they could deal with Thornbury. The thought of him escaping the attack and having to do all of this all over again was more than she could bear.

They also needed to make sure that the secret to creating more Lycans did not get out to the outside world.

“You got what you wanted then. So tell me, what are you going to do with your newly found power?”, she asked, hoping to delay him as much as she could.

Thornbury raised both of his arms to the air as he cackled once again, making Amelia think that he had well and truly lost his mind. It would seem that the power had brought out the madness she already knew was there.

“I will finally be able to reclaim my destiny!”, he exclaimed.

“That’s going to be a little difficult”, Amelia sneered at her father. “You may not have noticed, but your pack has fallen. You have no warriors or rogues left. Silver Lake will sweep through this pack until nothing remains.”

Taking a sideways glance at the monitors, Thornbury lowered his arms and scoffed at the feed showing the Silver Lake warriors taking out another wave of his warriors. Realizing that he did not care about his warriors, Amelia frowned at the man unable to comprehend his lack of empathy.

“There is no destiny to reclaim”, Amelia finally said. “You’ve failed.”

Thornbury finally turned around to look at his daughter with a hateful look on his face. Amelia thought to herself that he was finally looking at her the way he had done when she was a child and she wondered why he had bothered to put on the act of being a father in the first place.

“Not yet, Daughter. Not if I have you”, Thornbury sneered at her. “I will rebuild. I will gather my warriors again. I will build my Lycan army and I will unify our world.”

“And I will stop you, no matter what it takes”, Amelia said with a scowl.

Taking a step towards her, she could see the rage building up within him as he no longer kept his true feelings for her hidden.

“You should have come to me willingly, Daughter”, He sneered. “You could have ruled by my side. But now, I will drain every last drop of blood from your body as slowly and as painfully as I can. You should have been loyal to me like a good child would. If you had, then none of this would have happened.”

The more she spoke to her father, the more she understood how he had been molded into the monster that he had become. She however realized that he had every opportunity to stop and change his fate, but he never took it and continued with what he had been taught.

And it was not difficult to see the parallels between her father and her mate. Jason had fought against his upbringing to become the great Alpha that he was, and Thornbury had doubled down on his upbringing because he believed it would give him purpose.

“That may have been what your parents told you”, Amelia said with pity in her eyes. “But it is not what I believe. I am sorry that you have lived your life this way. Because I will make sure that you do not survive this night.”

Unable to hold back his rage any longer, Thornbury roared at Amelia. In response, Amelia shifted immediately into her Lycan form and roared back at him.

They immediately charged at each other and clasped their hands as they tried to overpower each other. Being the stronger wolf, Thornbury managed to push her back as he forced her to fall to one knee. He then raised a leg and used his knee to hit her in the chest before kicking her a second time, making her fly backward into some furniture.

Scrambling to her feet, Amelia charged at him a second time. When he tried to swipe at her with his claws, she dodged his blow while swiping into his chest with her claws, leaving open bloody wounds in their place. She then stepped to the side and tried to swipe at his neck this time. Unfortunately, he caught her hand before she made contact with his neck. He then spun her around and threw her against one of the walls in the office. She hit the wall with enough force to knock the wind out of her as she fell to her knees on the floor.

“Give it up, Daughter!”, Thornbury exclaimed. “You can’t win this fight.”

Taking a few deep breaths to steady her breathing, Amelia looked back at the monster before her. He was a strong Alpha, but now that he was a Lycan he had become quite the force to be reckoned with. And Amelia on the other hand had been beaten, drugged, and burned with silver the last two days and she was nowhere near her normal strength.

But she knew that she could not fail. Not when her family was so close to taking down Half Moon. So she pulled herself up from the floor and walked closer to her father, determined to do whatever it took to either bring him down or hold him back until her backup arrived.

“You are forgetting one thing, Father”, Amelia said as she raised her hands in an open-palm fighting stance. “I am the daughter of Lycans.”

She charged at her father, ready to show him the fruit of her mother’s training.