Smoke and Mirrors
Chapter Twenty-One: Gold and Red

Sapphire Ragna Nightborne

The dam that I had been trying to keep up for so long disintegrated the moment I felt my strength ebb away. It was as if part of my soul was being ripped away from me, and knowing that it was all going to him, that was what broke me.

The first tear broke through the dam before the rest follow suit, streaming freely in a single file down my face before collecting at the point of my chin and hitting the ground below. The taste of salt slowly spread on my tongue as some of their droplets pass through the cracks of my blood red lips. If the dam had a crack in it before, he fully destroyed it with his next actions.

He grabbed the back of my neck with force before he crashed his lips against mine, he moved his lips while I remained as still as stone, it was not a sweet kiss, not a loving kiss, but a possessive kiss, he was stating to everyone here in this room that I was his, that he owned me. This was my first kiss and he was the one who took it away from me, he took away the magic of it, the innocence of a first kiss.

The ugly roars and cheers of his pack filled the room, the triumphant looks on their faces did not go unnoticed by me, they were happy that their Alpha had humiliated the girl who defied them, who disgraced them.

They ruined this ceremony, they robbed it if its sanctity, this ceremony was created to join two souls to make whole, to be a display of pure love and yet they violated it and had the audacity to talk about tradition. I let Damien drag me off the altar and walk down the centre aisle, I turned away and winced as his pack showered us with rose petals, the soft brush of those petals against my skin might as well have been acid thrown on me as I shuddered away from those flowers. Roses, the symbol of love, for centuries they have been given to and fro between lovers, so special that a few of them could even rectify the most grievous mistakes committed.

“I can’t believe he did it!”

“Not so tough now, is she?”

These whispers fell on my ears as loud as drums, they were a slap in my face and a blow to my pride. Here I was, the Great Head Commander and Warrior of the Blackwater Pack, being led down the aisle like a common mare for a show, but what choice did I have anymore. The whispers began to increase in volume as well as in numbers, mounting up and ready to engulf me, I wanted to tune each and every one of them out when one caught my attention.

“How can we expect such a gullible female to lead us? Any Alpha Female worth her salt would have known that our Alpha lied.”

I stood where I was, unmovable, Damien slightly jerked back when he realised I was not letting myself be led forward. I would have ignored this whisper as common gossip if it had not come from one of the soldiers who bared the intricate two lines on his arm that marked him a scout.

I had been played for a fool.

I should have known better, I should have known that Damien was lying through his very teeth, he would never have left my pack alive. He had planned all this since the start and like a gullible rodent, I walked right after the dangled and into his trap. These thoughts ran through my mind before one hit me like a wall of bricks.

What have I done?

I had bound myself to him and there was no way of going back, our bound had been set in stone. The ceremony was a ruse to get what he wanted, what he truly wanted: Power.

He wanted more than just my body, he wanted something that I could readily supply him, he wanted my blood, the blood of Lycans, and I had been the fool to give it up to him. He took advantage of the fact that we were mates and strategically planned the ceremony so that he could take my blood.

Yes, he may have given me some of his strength but that was nothing compared to what I had given him, he may not have the full strength of a Pure Lycan, but he did have half of mine and that in itself is more power than he will ever have in his entire life.

It would have been the best decision for me to have escaped right this second and run off to some far off place where he would never replace me, this might have been the best and wisest choice but to me, it was not the right one. He had to pay dearly for what he has done, for what he did to not only my family but to all the other families he had ripped apart, and for all the lives he so recklessly took away, I could not leave till I made him pay.

A scream pierced through the hall as Damien cradled his now bloody hand, it had been sliced open and blood gushed from it, staining my dress red.

I ran out of the hall into the clearing that laid right in front of the main building and if the bride running away and leaving her ‘husband’ at the altar was not cliché enough for you, it was also raining, and not just any light drizzle, it was as if the floodgates of Heaven had opened. Each raindrop that fell onto my skin felt like a stone but that did not bother me now, I turned around to face the main building, I wanted them to run out of that building to try and catch me so that I could pick them off one by one without any distractions.

Let them come to me, and come to me they did, men and women swarmed out of the main building charging towards me. It felt as though I had become a totally different person as I tore into them , I felt more rage than I had ever felt before, it even surpassed the rage I felt when Damien showed me the heads of my family. I had been in countless battles but had never felt a bloodlust so strong, in my head I did not even think of just incapacitating them all I could think was to kill, and I would slaughter the whole pack if I had to.

"Get the chains!"

"Surround her!"

I could feel my bones crack as I started to shift.

This was the beast that the human’s feared, an uncontrollable killing machine with more strength and power than fifty men, I was letting my wolf, the Lycan, take over. My vision was hazed by red and everything was a blur to me, one moment I was grappling with a pack member and the next, I was ripping the throat out of another. I flinched as I felt an excruciating pain in my shoulder and looked down to see an arrowhead sticking out of my shoulder with its end sticking out from the back. I growled as I saw the pack member who held the crossbow that fired the projectile, he froze as I walked right up to him before ripping the arrow out of shoulder and plunging it into his neck.

My head jerked back as a rope coiled around my neck, I snarled as I grabbed the rope with one hand, ignoring the burning pain it was causing me, before pulling on it causing the pack member to come flying in my direction, I held my hand out and a small snap was heard as my fist came into contact with her throat. Again and again I was hit with various projectiles, some made with silver, some tinged with wolfsbane, some both, but for the first time in my life the silver did not hurt, it did not burn like it did when I fought with Karen, in fact I would only describe it as mildly annoying if anything.

Amidst the fighting the pack members started to part, revealing the Son of the Devil himself in the centre smiling at me, I made a move to go forward when I felt a sharp prick at my neck, I pulled it out to see a dart with a small capsule inside, great, they are trying to knock me out with silver again. Dart after dart was shot at me but that did not seem to slow me down, it just made me feel as though I had been hitting my head against a brick wall. I had just managed Damien by the collar before a looped rope was thrown around neck, jerking me backwards, the last thing I remembered was Damien walking up to me with a syringe filled with iridescent silver liquid.