No voices. No pain. No emotions. Nothing.
Just me and my heartbeat in the silence. Slowly, it steadied, returning to normal. Even my wolf no longer raged in my ears. I had turned it off. I could feel nothing anymore. The only thing left in my head was one word.
Revenge.
The memory of my parents' deaths replayed over and over in my mind. Their screams. Their blood. The Alpha's merciless strike. My hand tightened around the High House plaque. The same person who killed off their Luna at a public event will do the same for the rest.
One down… hundreds to go.
"Good girl," my wolf growled darkly. "Now go. Take your revenge. Go to the High House. Murder every last one of them. Kill the Alpha, his Luna, his children, his entire cursed bloodline! They slaughtered your parents because your father loved a witch. Unforgivable. Burn them all in hell."
"Versa," I whispered.
My sword flew into my hands, gleaming under the night sky. As the daughter of a wolf and a witch, I was both spellcaster and predator. Stronger than hundreds of wolves combined. I pulled my mask over my face, the same mask I wore when I killed their Luna, Lucien's mother.
"Run." And I did.
The road to the High House was engraved in my memory, every step calculated from years of planning. Soon, I stood before the towering walls that kept intruders out. I raised the stolen plaque, pressing it to the barrier. It glowed brilliantly, and the gates parted for me.
I stepped inside, gripping my sword. The guard wolves snapped to attention, but before they could howl.
"Versa!"
I thrust my hand forward. Their bodies flew across the courtyard, slamming into stone with bone-shattering force. The crash awakened the entire High House.
Howls filled the air. Soon, I was surrounded, hundreds of wolves, their Beta leading them.
"She's here! The Masked Assassin!" one shouted.
"Take off your mask, you bloody coward!" the Beta snarled.
I tilted my head, smirking beneath the shadows. Slowly, I pulled my mask away.
Gasps erupted. The Beta's eyes widened. "Moons… It's Azazel!"
"It's true! It's her! Lord Lucien's maid!"
"You bastard," the Beta spat. "So you've been hiding as his maid to steal his plaque and attack us? Bad for you…you die tonight."
I smirked, my voice sharp as a blade.
"I'm honored you know my name. Azazel. Wherever I go, heads roll. Blood splashes. Death is inevitable."
I unsheathed my sword. They lunged, shifting into wolves mid-air.
"Kill her!"
"Versa…"
My whisper cracked like thunder. A deafening voice roared inside their skulls, making them drop to their knees, clutching their heads. I walked through them like shadows on a battlefield, stabbing one after the other. Blood sprayed. Bodies collapsed.
The Beta lunged at me. I severed his hands in one swift strike. His agonized screams echoed as I watched him writhe, before his life drained into silence.
I turned and was quite shocked.
More wolves. Dozens. Hundreds. The entire pack encircled me now. At their center, eyes burning with betrayal, stood the new Alpha.
Damien….Lucien's elder brother.
He didn't raise his sword. He didn't even move. He just stared at me amidst the sea of his dead pack. His lips parted, and I read them with ease.
"Azazel…?" The disbelief cut sharper than any blade.
The look of betrayal in his eyes pierced me like fire…burning, questioning, refusing to accept that it was me who had just slaughtered his wolves.
I didn't feel as strongly for Damien as I did for Lucien, but I knew Damien felt something for me. I had always noticed how he and Lucien argued over whose room I should clean first, or who I should spend more time with. After my secret training with Lucien, Damien would sometimes come looking for me, and together we would stroll through the streets of the Riverdale Pack in California.
But none of that mattered now.
I flicked the blood from my sword, smirking at the new Alpha.
"Hello, Alpha," I said with mockery in my voice. "Is it your turn to die?"
Then I laughed. The loudest, most ridiculous laugh that tore through the night.
Damien's eyes widened, shock flashing across his face, slowly hardening into rage.
"So it was you all this time," he hissed. "You lied to us. You lied to me!"
I tilted my head, my smirk widening.
"You sound like I should care, Damien. Didn't I warn you? Be careful who you trust."
"You betrayal…" His words cracked with fury. He snatched a bow and arrow from the wolf beside him and let it fly straight at my heart.
But before the arrow could strike, someone knocked it away and pulled me against a chest as solid as stone. My breath caught, my face pressed into the familiar warmth.
Lucien.
His arms wrapped around me protectively, shielding me from every arrow that rained through the night.
I broke free, staring up at him. His golden eyes traced the blood covering my body, the sword in my hand, the corpses of his pack scattered around us.
"Azazel?" His voice was soft, trembling, almost fragile. "What are you doing?" Behind him, Damien roared. "Don't you see, brother? She's the assassin! She killed Mother! She's been attacking us all along!"
"Lies!" Lucien's voice broke as he shouted back. "Azazel would never she's with us. She's part of…"
The words never finished as my blade pierced his chest. His golden eyes widened, shock, pain, betrayal, confusion flickering all at once.
"LUCIEN!" Damien's scream split the air. He fired arrow after arrow, but Lucien clung to me even with steel buried in his chest. He pulled me close, pressing me into his embrace. The sword drove deeper into his body as more arrows pierced his back. Blood gushed from his lips, warm and wet against my hair.
"Azazel… run."
Those were his last words before his heart went still.
"No!" My emotions crashed back into me, a tidal wave I couldn't contain. The feelings I had turned off came roaring back, searing me alive. I clutched his body, sobbing, screaming.
"Lucien! Wake up! Wake up! You said you would always obey me, so wake up!"
But he didn't.
Another arrow struck..this time into my chest. I coughed blood, the metallic taste flooding my mouth. I turned slowly to face Damien, his bow steady, his eyes burning with grief and rage.
Something inside me snapped.
I staggered to my feet, blood dripping down my chin, and charged at him. His wolves swarmed forward to protect him, but I tore through them, blade flashing crimson under the moon.
"Versa!"
The word cracked like thunder. Wolves dropped to their knees, howling in agony as the sound tore through their minds. Still, Damien advanced. His eyes, once golden, burned with a darker, almost feral yellow. His wolf was breaking free.
We clashed, swords striking, sparks raining around us. Blow after blow, my blade met his. He was strong, but grief made him reckless. I cut him again and again, blood drenching his body.
But I was weakening….The arrow in my chest burned with wolf's bane, its poison searing through me. I coughed blood with every strike, my body trembling, my vision blurring.
Another arrow whistled through the air, sinking into my leg and my chest. I gasped, stumbling. I turned my head to see the shooter
The former Alpha…. Lucien's father..The one who murdered my mother with his own hands. The one who ordered my father's death.
Now, I was his victim too.
I collapsed to my knees, blood pouring from my chest and leg. Damien lunged forward, his sword piercing my arm. Pain exploded, but I forced myself to summon smoke, thick and choking, swirling around us until their eyes lost me in the chaos.
And I ran.
But my body betrayed me. The wolf's bane burned too deeply, and the wounds were too many. Each step was agony. My strength slipped away, and soon I crashed to the ground, my body sprawled at the water's edge, the same place I once came with my parents, a little far from the high house.
My vision darkened. My breath hitched.
"Is this the end?" I asked myself the one question I couldn't answer.
I was dying.
My enemies were still celebrating victory while I bled into the soil. This couldn't be my end. I had vowed to kill them all to avenge my parents, to drench their hands in the blood they had spilled from my family. I had promised to take my revenge in cold blood.
But here I was, defeated and dying.
All because I let myself fall in love. All because I let Lucien…my enemy….distract me.
"Death… please, don't take me," I whispered into the night, praying foolishly that it might listen, that it might give me another chance. But it didn't.
I lay there, bloodied, fading. The water beside me shimmered, reflecting my broken face.
"Mum… Dad… I'm sorry I failed." Light consumed me…And then…nothing but hell.