Two hours had passed, but for Victor, it felt like an eternity. He had been pacing for what felt like forever, his mind a battlefield of conflicting thoughts and emotions. He glanced at the sky, his heart clenching with a fresh wave of fear as he saw the moon reaching its zenith. He knew Digna's shift was imminent, perhaps in less than fifteen minutes. The realization sent a jolt of panic through him. He couldn't stay calm any longer. He needed to be with her.
His mind raced with questions, his thoughts spiraling into a chaotic whirlwind of worry and anticipation. He wondered what kind of creature Digna would become. Would she be a normal wolf like her father? A Lycan like her mother? Or, more profoundly, would she be an unknown mixture, a creature of a power so unique and rare, it had never been seen before? He knew of the incredible power her parents had, a power that made them a formidable force. They were an unbreakable duo, so loved by their pack that no enemy could have ever succeeded against them. But their greatest strength had also been their greatest weakness: their unwavering trust.
As he ran toward Digna's room, a vivid and painful memory, a truth he had carried in his heart for decades, flooded his mind.
The night was dark and still, a stark contrast to the storm that was about to unfold. Digna's mother, a Lycan Beta's daughter, and her father, the wolf Alpha, were a vision of strength and harmony. They had gathered a small group of trusted individuals for a meeting, including Mike, the Alpha's own brother. They had just finished their discussions when Mike approached them, a vial in each hand. The smell of silver was faint, but it was there, an insidious undertone to his scent, yet they did not react. They trusted him implicitly.
"I have something to make you stronger for your travels," Mike had told them, his eyes gleaming with a malicious intent they couldn't see past their bond of family. "This is a new concoction. It will make you stronger, but you'll be weak for thirty minutes first. It's to make you stronger if you find trouble." The words, a poisonous lie, were laced with a false sincerity they accepted without question.
As he moved to inject them, they sensed a sudden, sharp spike of danger, but their bodies, weighed down by the betrayal, were not fast enough to dodge. They were stunned, not just by the poison, but by the shock of who had done it.
"Mike, what have you done?" Digna's father had gasped, his body already beginning to grow uncontrollably weak. His wife, the Lycan Beta's daughter, was fighting the effects of the poison, her body trembling with a mixture of rage and betrayal.
"I am doing what I should have done a long time ago," Mike sneered, a cruel smirk on his face. "This pack, this throne, should have been mine. I am the one with true power."
As the poison and silver coursed through their veins, their wolf and Lycan instincts screamed at them. This wasn't to make them stronger; this was to kill them. A desperate, final fight for their lives began. Despite the rapid onset of weakness, they fought with everything they had, a final, desperate attempt to save their child, to give her a chance to live.
Mike's men, who had been hiding in the shadows, came in dozens as the fight began. Mike was injured, a few scratches and bruises, but his men were instructed to fight to kill. They overwhelmed the weakening Alpha and Lycan, their bodies finally giving way to the poison.
As Digna's parents lay dying, a warrior, one of Mike's men, who had been on the outskirts of the fight, approached the Alpha. The Alpha looked at him, his mind flashing back to a memory. This was the man who had warned him about Mike. He hadn't listened. He had trusted his brother more than anyone in the pack. He had believed the man was just jealous of their special sibling bond.
The man knelt beside the Alpha, his eyes filled with a profound sorrow. He put a hand on the Alpha's chest and whispered, "I will protect your daughter with my life. I will raise her better than your brother. I will find a way to get her away from this madness."
The Alpha's dying eyes softened, a faint smile touching his lips. He passed out, his spirit leaving his body. Mike, seeing this, wasn't satisfied. He wanted to ensure that they would never wake, that their souls would never return. With a final, brutal act of pure evil, he drew his dagger and cut off their heads, a gruesome and final desecration of their bodies.
The memory shattered in Victor's mind, leaving him gasping for air as if he were the one fighting for his life. The image of the severed heads, the finality of the act, had haunted him for decades. The face of the warrior, who had protected Digna, was a constant reminder of his promise.
He reached Digna's door, his hand trembling as he pushed it open. The smell lavender was stronger from inside, that's Dignas scent, it was with them. He knew the Lycan Beta was near, but his heart was with his daughter. He rushed to her bedroom, fear and heart pain enveloping him. He couldn't stay calm. Digna's shift was about to start, and he had to be there for her, no matter what.
As Victor burst through the door, he found Digna already awake, her face etched with a fear that mirrored his own. Her eyes, wide and panicked, found his. "Dad," she whispered, her voice a fragile plea as she started walking toward him. Before she could take another step, a sudden, searing pain shot through her, starting deep in her bones. She gasped, a cry catching in her throat, her body convulsing with the first tremor of the shift.
Seeing her agony, Victor rushed forward, scooping her into his arms. He carried her back to the bed, gently laying her down. Beside her, his wife, who had been there all along, took Digna's hand in hers and held it tight, offering a silent strength.
Just as the first, powerful contraction of her muscles began, Victor's cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and knew instantly what it meant. It was a call from his Beta, Kevin. The Lycan Beta, John, was here.