Prologue
Kira
I wasn’t always like this.
There was a time, long ago, when I was happy and very much what anyone would consider sane. But, things changed. I was damned to the underground, punished into what I knew how to do best: hide.
My family, my race, all of us were slowly being destroyed. We were being driven to extinction—absolute annihilation.
And, he….he had a say in all of it.
I wasn’t always like this.
There was a place, long ago, where I could run freely. But, things changed.
And, somehow, the tables turned. The tables turned and turned and turned until I broke them. Then, they stopped turning. Now, they lay on the floor—broken—because the game is over.
I would’ve won.
Had I played my cards a little carefully, I’d have won.
Fifteen Years Prior
My arms wrap around my knees, hugging them as I sit at the corner of my parent’s wardrobe. The only thing giving me reassurance is being able to see my parents through the small creak from the door being left slightly open.
Though my parents asked me not to be afraid and demanded I stay hidden till their commander, Jacob, came to get me, I can’t calm the fear shocking my every nerve.
I do not understand what is going on—my parents did not explain anything to me. However, one thing I am sure of is that my parents are hopeful that I’ll be safe, but by the look on their faces, I catch myself questioning whether they’ll be safe.
At the sound of a loud thud, my body involuntarily jolts, my hand immediately coming up and pressing over my mouth in my attempt to be as quiet as I possibly can. My heart beats erratically in my chest, my breathing unsteady.
I try to calm myself as best as I can, but it only becomes that much harder to do so when my eyes catch sight of the tall man entering my parent’s bedroom. His dirty blonde hair hangs just above his shoulders, his well trimmed beard suiting his facial structure. From the mere way that he stands before my frightened mother and father, I can tell that he is a very powerful man—far more powerful than both of them.
I wish I had forced my eyes to stray away, because if I had put that much effort into something so small, I wouldn’t be as afraid as I am now. Had I put that much effort into something so little, I’d have never seen the dark look in his deep blue eyes that imprinted on my mind like a searing brand.
I feel my heart stop in my chest as I apprehensively watch his movements. His sinister chuckle calls for a string of chills to shoot up my spine, the hair on the back of my next standing.
This man...he is no friend. No, the way my parents hiss at him and pose to attack is enough to say...he stands against us.
The moment my parents lunge at him, two others suddenly appear beside the intimidating man. It is in that split second that my parents stop on their tracks. They stand merely a foot away from the three men when I see blood trickle down the back of their necks.
My heart drops to my stomach, my stomach turning as I watch their heads roll off of their shoulders and break against the marble floors, their bodies following only a second after.
My breath catches in my throat for only a moment before I scream at the top of my lungs and push out of what is supposed to be my haven. I scramble to the puddle of my parents’ blood and their corpses lying lifelessly. Uncontrollable tears stream down my face as I feel my heart evermore breaking in my chest.
“Momma! Poppa!” I cry.
I feel hopeless and broken. And as I kneel in their sickening remains, all I can do is look up at their murderers and the man that I know lead them here and allowed my parents to be taken away from me.
The sinister chuckles that continue to fill atmosphere make me tremble, but the more I watch their god-evil faces, the more I am driven to feel nothing but anger until the blood that once ran cold in my veins begin to boil.
“Sir...It is time to go.” I hear one of them say, and the sound of those words, the man that I first laid eyes on simply nods before taking a single step towards me and crouching down to my eye level.
In doing so, I am able to feel the power that waves off of his being, clarifying that he was, indeed, stronger than what used to be my parents.
An Alpha lycan…
As a smirk breaks on his lips, his hand reaches out to my face, caressing my cheek. Had I not been so drenched in my own pool of anger, the second the back of his hand had made contact with my skin, I would’ve flinched away. However, I never so much as move and this only stirs up his amusement even more.
“Oh?” he chuckles. “You’re next, Princess.” He continues to laugh away, straightening on his feet and only pausing to give me one last long look before turning on his heels and taking a pair of long stride to the doorway.
“W—”
He ceases at the door, turning to look at me as I mutter. “W-Who are you?”
He clicks his tongue, shaking his head in what seems to be honest disappointment. A sigh passes his lips, his eyes fixating on me once more before he breathes out. “Kemen.”
Kemen… The Lycan King…
He doesn’t say another word, and as I watch him walk away, neither do I. The men who I assume to be lycans as well follow quietly and obediently behind him, never so much as glancing back at me or the crime that they committed.
In that moment, every bone in my body desired revenge. Hatred consumed my heart.
They are all dead to me...
