Vices
Lone Wolf
Night of the Council Gala
To stand and watch your world spiral into a fiery abyss is devastating.
To know that there is nothing you can do to soften the blow is even worse.
To watch your family fall apart because your father is a hard-headed bastard is a different type of pain entirely.
I had been the bane of existence for Julian Ambrose since the day I was born. I had been the son that almost killed his wife in childbirth and he had abhorred me ever since.
Every move I made was the wrong one. Every step I took was a trap.
I had never felt like a winner until I finally realized that winning was a concept that was independent of my father's approval. My company flourished away from him and I grew into someone that didn't fall so deep into the shadow of his fame.
My brother, Amiras, won his war and he had chosen to take a blind eye to the one that was about to be waged and he had chosen to take a blind eye to the opportunities that it proposed. I stood far from my family and watched them mingle and laugh with the crowd.
The name- My name, Roman Ambrose, was always followed closely by the insult of Lone Wolf.
I never fit in anywhere. I was indeed a lone wolf. I stalked the edges of the herd of sheep and waited for my chance to take them down.
The lycan families were never going to rise from their pettiness. It was evident from the actions of even their children.
I sipped at my liquor and watched the Ibris family's sole heiress converse nervously with the Argent boys and the Rotham heirs. They were like rats that had escaped the alley and had wandered into the ball.
Ibris's heiress was a conniving bitch, she had manipulated and daggered her way to the top of the ladder and she had her daddy's support the whole damn way.
Pampered little lap dog she was.
The Argent boys were no better. They shared a single brain cell amongst the three of them. Morons, idiots, and brutes the whole lot of them. They lacked finesse and class yet they were still regarded with higher standards than I was.
I stayed silent from my perch on the balcony, far from the crowds and the sight of the others. I watched the Rotham head's son and daughter turn whiter and whiter as the others spoke to them. They were probably still nervous about the events that had transpired in the catacombs below.
Julian Ambrose had stained my family name by trading in his reputation for Amiras' wife. There were other ways to obtain a rejection for my chosen sister than let the Rotham and Ibris Family use our bank as a drug mule for black money.
Julian had decided to dishonor his name and take the black money through the veins of his bank and essentially his life. I wouldn't stand for the insult to my name. I may not like being an Ambrose but I wouldn't tarnish my history regardless.
I watched quietly as Amir and Raiza danced slowly on the open floor amongst the other couples. They were brilliant even in a crowd. The way Amir smiled for her made the room light up but she still had that cold distant glare pointed at everything else in the room except for Amir. I guess she was a lot more immune to his charm than the rest of the female population.
I liked her. She was like me. Cold and calloused. She understood isolation like I did. She understood it and embraced it wholeheartedly. My chosen sister was more to my liking than any one of my nine brothers. A chosen was the equivalent to a life partner for lycans. We desired the connection that we lacked as only wolves had mates and only wolves lived in packs. They were regarded as lesser species to lycans but truthfully we aren't any better than them.
Instead of packs we had our families. Instead of given mates we had chosen ones. But the one thing we had exactly in common was greed.
I let my eyes wander over the ballroom and yet they still found themselves on Amiras and Raiza.
They moved slowly across the gleaming marble. Her deep green dress made her ghost grey eyes shine from even where I stood, high above the rest. She had eyes like the oracles from the myths. Eyes that could see through your soul and even your deepest, darkest secrets.
I sighed as I finally turned back into the droning conversations of the people around me.
People liked talking. Always talking and filling the air with white noise. They always assumed that I liked to talk, I just needed to be poked and prodded.
It took my mother years of lecturing and cajoling to realize that I liked my social altercations to be few and far between. But Raiza figured that out with as little as a conversation.
I watched the eyes of the other lycans, wolves, and humans look at them with such starved depravity. Raiza was lucky that she picked someone frightening enough to keep the masses at bay.
Amiras and Raiza were a stunning couple. Even more so than my brother, Micah, and his chosen, Nora, or even my mother and Julian when they were in their prime.
"I hope you've learned your lesson." Mother spoke softly from behind me. I didn't look at her but instead I kept my eyes over the railing and on the crowd.
"Your father will not spare you from his wrath a second time." She continued and I could hear the soft clicks of her heels over the violins felt her stand next to me.
"Do you know what he did? Do you know what he promised them?" I demanded of her with the heavy growls dripping from my every word, "He's tainting our- your family, mom. All your work at keeping us together and he's ruining it. He's letting Rotham and Ibris use us as a dumping ground for their money."
I felt her grab my hand and lean her head on my shoulder. "I was the one who told him to do that Roman. I suggested it."
I scoffed at her and tried to pull away. My hand unraveled from her maternal touch and I turned to leave her on that balcony. "The two of you are as dense together as you are apart." I gruffed under my breath as I walked away, adjusting my suit.
"Is this how you speak to your mother, son? The one that protected you and loved you?" She asked me quietly and I paused at the top of the stairs. Deep pangs of guilt riddled my body at her forlorn expression. I turned my head and met her eyes full of disappointment and frustration. "I may not be welcome in this family but I still care, mom. I'm not going to just watch while Julian screws it up." I said with a heavy voice and left as quickly as I could. It was suffocating being with my family for long periods of time.
The lycan was aching to be let out and have his turn at our body. I snarled on my way out of the suffocating gala and was met with my waiting car and Martin standing stoic in front of it.
"How did you know I was coming?" I asked harshly while I ripped the tie away from my body. He shrugged and kept watching the doors of the state building. "You always leave parties first, boss. Not much of a conversationalist, I presume?" He said smugly as I ripped open the drivers side door and waited for him to get it.
"I don't pay you enough to run your mouth, smartass. Get in the car, we're leaving for the airport. I want to be out of country by daybreak." The Ferrari roared to life under my hands and I pulled as quickly out of the state building as I could.
"Mind telling me where we're going?" He asked while getting the pilot on the phone.
"Philadelphia."
I am a lone wolf through and through. I am the devil in the dark. I have no patience to wait for Julian to give me my fair share of the kill so I'll just take it. I will take what is mine.
I will take a seat on the council and I will take my power and I will take my fortune. I am far from the fuck up that I have been labeled as. I will be the dark horse that comes through victorious regardless of whether or not my family follows in suit.
If they want to sink with Julian then they can but I will reign when the dust has settled. I will be king of what is mine no matter what I have to do to get there. No matter how many lives I have to ruin. No matter how many throats I slit or backs I stab.
