The woods offer no comfort to Rawn as she races through them. They merely speak through the whispering breeze, the crunching leaves, and the dreadfully near howls about the presence of an Alpha. An Alpha as lethal as Lyecan Rhotheli.
If only she listened to the warnings of her sisters. It's like a rule in the Horde of Firnes. 'Never tempt a Rhotheli, and above all, try not to lay with them.'
But Rawn never heeded to that rule, nor had she ever been one to rebel.
She always listened. Was often quiet even as they tormented her in her Horde. How ever did she get the boldness to strike the temper of an Alpha? And not just any Alpha for that matter.
Now she's running from him. And her Firne strength isn't as powerful as his werewolf rigor.
She's the only weak Firne in her Horde. It's the exact reason why she was being bullied in the first place. The blood ran in her family alone. The cursed blood, they called it.
Firnes' powers lie in their mentality. An unstable mind means severe weakness. And her family are known for a mental disorder.
Her mother ran mad long before Rawn was born. People said the woman roamed the street pregnant, then gave birth in the gutter.
No one knew her father. They only assumed he might have been a drunkard who raped her mother.
Rawn's own madness hasn't appeared yet. But they say it's destined to take root in her twenties. Her mother's was triggered in her twenties. She presumably died in the labor of Rawn's birth.
Being a weak Firne means being nearly human, which is why Rawn stumbles and falls when her foot brushes a protruding oak root. Thorns grasp her legs, tearing at her flesh to draw blood.
She whimpers at the pain. Even though her groans send a pleading signal to the Alpha, he doesn't stop hunting her.
He's watching her, yet won't capture her. Doing so would only bring Rawn's Horde leader across the boundary to his territory. Not that she'd do so if someone else captured the girl. She'd merely use it as an excuse to present herself in his court.
Alpha Lyecan isn't scared of her. He just doesn't want to go through the stress of having to crosscheck his things for what the cunning bitch must have caught to use against him. Which is why he'll chase Rawn to her home instead and claim her there.
After all, beyond these few trees is the Firne territory.
***
With much struggle and pain, Rawn reaches the boundary, where she meets Layla, the Firne leader's assistant.
She falls to her knees and grabs the woman's leg, unable to stop the tears that flood down her eyes.
"I know you hate me, Layla!" she rasps. "You never liked me. But, please, help a sister! Hide me!"
"Why would I do that?" Layla smirks.
"Because it'll be painful to have an Alpha as strong as Lyecan Rhotheli kill a Firne sister right in front of your eyes. That strikes the ego of a Horde."
Layla doesn't doubt that Rawn's gotten herself into some sort of trouble, seeing that she ran in from the Werewolf territory. But Alpha Lyecan? Nah, that's a reach. No Rhotheli would even notice Rawn's shadow. That's how meager she is.
However, the grin playing on Layla's face disappears when she sees the Alpha approaching. Panicking, she grabs Rawn's shoulders and hauls her up, shaking the latter violently. "What did you do, girl?"
Rawn's too scared to speak the truth. "Nothing! I did nothing."
"Alpha Lyecan don't just mark a prey if the prey didn't toss a rock at him."
"I did nothing. I swear!"
Rawn's heart is nearly beating out of her chest. It's evident in her swelling expression that she's in a lot of trouble. And despite Layla's unwillingness to help, she also can't accept defeat from the Alpha, as that'll make the Horde seem vulnerable to the man's fists.
"Run to my chambers. Hide and don't peek no matter what," she orders Rawn, who immediately obeys, before mind-linking with the Horde leader. {Alpha Lyecan is on our tail, Kyriar}
{Why? I have no deal with him}
{Rawn does}
{That wretched girl} the Horde leader scoffs. {What else would she drag this Horde into? A sinkhole, or extermination?}
Layla watches the Alpha draw near, hoping and wishing with all the cells in her body that the Horde leader would fucking appear here instead of asking questions.
She isn't supposed to be scared of the Alpha. Firnes aren't prone to fear. But that's only because they believed nothing could kill them. However, the existence of Lyecan Rhotheli is a threat to that very idea.
{Leave the gate up until I arrive} the Horde leader finally orders before shutting off the mind link.
Layla tries to remain calm as Lyecan pauses in front of the Firne territory, looking at the invisible boundary demarcating the two territories.
The Horde leader called it 'gate' the last time he visited. And she warned him of its nature. At that time, he tried not to cross it.
"This gate is silver-made, Alpha Lyecan, so is the Firne territory," Layla tells him. "One more step, and you roast."
Lyecan cocks his head to the side, scrutinizing the Firne for a while before growling, "Then roast, we shall."
He thrusts his arm past the boundary and pulls Layla to his side in a split second. His forearm burns, but it begins to heal immediately, while Layla struggles in his hold, defeated by the blade pressed to her throat.
The Horde leader shows up between trees with a charming smile on her face, skin glowing underneath the sun's glare. "Alpha Lyecan… Rhotheli," she drawls. "What a pleasure to have you here."
"Or displeasure," Lyecan scoffs.
"Oh, come on, now. Let the girl go. This is between you and I."
"None of you will be in the picture if you are smart. I only want the weak one."
"He wants Rawn, Kyriar," Layla croaks out, earning a snappy response from the Kyriar.
"Oh, I know who's weak. It's just… why?"
"She crossed a line," Lyecan mumbles while piercing Layla's neck with the blade. Blood seeps out of the wound. "Tried to use me."
"Use you?" the Horde leader chuckles. "A girl feeble as Rawn, who couldn't even wrestle a decade old, nor crack a toddler's puzzle. She'd use you, how?"
"You know how." Lyecan throws Layla aside before stepping feet on the boundary, saying, "The same thing every Firne wish badly that they could do." He shrugs. "Somehow, only she managed to get an inch close. Now, bring me the girl."
"There are rules, Alpha." The Kyriar pushes her chin forward to show her defiance more clearly. "And we won't give away one of our own like that."
"Oh, yeah?" Lyecan moves into the Firne territory. That scares the crap out of the Kyriar even though she tries to hide it.
The silver air burns his skin hair by hair, sizzling painfully. But he's known worse pain.
"In case you don't know, I have a tolerance for silver," he begins while approaching the Horde leader. "You see, on the skin, it's like being dipped into a raging larva. Underneath the flesh, it feels as if needles crawl through cells and veins. Imagine what it'd be like if your blood freezes, mingled with silver, making if feel like the concrete blockade in the veins would cause the latter to explode."
Lyecan stands in front of the woman. She's just a little bit below his chest, but Rawn's smaller.
"In the lung, it's like drawing breath in a wrathful dessert, where dusts and sands would knock you off no longer than you can imagine. But on the heart…aah…" The Alpha takes in huge air, giving off a blunt, short chuckle. "On the heart, my dearest, there's absolutely nothing. For me, at least." He shrugs. "Only those who have a heart would feel the effect. But my heart have long been scorched to aches. Even the aches blown away by harsh wind."
Those words echo in the Horde leader's head as she devices several ways to take down Lyecan while also keeping her cool.
Her fists tighten at her sides. She should attack him. Yes, she certainly should. The Alpha mustn't intimidate her this way. And not on her own land.
Her fingers move on her accord, in a slow dance of strong compelling that urges roots out of the ground.
The roots crawl behind the Alpha, ready to bound him in their grasp. But the man's smarter, and faster than the Kyriar imagined.
He quickly morphs into a wolf and pounces on her, bringing her to the ground. His huge paw gets her face first. It kneads the latter into the soil, crushing her nose and cracking her skin along the way.
Layla rushes to her leader's rescue. However, what halts her in her tracks is the choir of howls echoing from the Werewolf territory, followed by a slight earthquake.
Alpha Lyecan turns back to his human form, rising to his feet, naked, glowering at Layla who can't hide her fright any longer.
"You're slow for a Firne, a leader for that matter," the Alpha says before diverting his gaze to the still Kyriar. "Or maybe Firnes aren't as powerful as they are believed to be."
Laughter rolls out of the woman's lungs, muffled by sand. It dies down seconds before she makes the Alpha's blood boil, literally.
The man doesn't move from his position, grunting as he spurts out blood and words, "Do not try. I've killed one of your own before. What stops me from bleeding another?" The pain in his veins soon become unbearable. "Give me... the girl. Now."
"She's not yours," the Kyriar hisses.
"But she is," Lyecan insists. "The moment she nibbled my claws, I pawed her head—marked her as my property. And whatever a Rhotheli claim as theirs, theirs it is."
The wolves show up at the boundary, thousands of them snarling at the two Firnes. The Horde leader digs her head from under the sand to look at the pack.
Then she takes in a huge breath as the Alpha urges, "Be wise, Kyriar. What's one weak sister for your entire Horde? Or even your life."