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Hey everyone!

I first want to thank you all for your patience regarding my slow updates recently. I've been deep in exam season but I'm officially done and have my bachelor's degree in law! I am going back for my masters, though, which means I don't have to cut back on my writing (like I will when I start working full time as a lawyer). So thank you all for bearing with me; balancing writing with two degrees over these five years has been tough, but there's nothing more I love than writing stories for you all!

In saying that, I have a brand new story I've been working on called 'The Night I Met The Alpha."  It's officially out now on Wattpad! If you could check it out, that would be great (:

Word Count: 2494

~Onyx

I stalk back and forth, flexing my gloved fingers.

The air in this room is stale and edged with the coppery tang of blood. Grates near the walls and the grit of the floor are caked in the substance.

I haven't come down here in many years. Not since I hired people to take on this gruesome task.

But today, I'm looking forward to facing down the man tied down to a chair before me. I need to release some tension, and he's the perfect subject to inflict it upon.

He shifts, his eyes blinking open. His lip is already split, a bruise blooming on one half of his face from his apprehension. Once my private investigator alerted me to his location, my guards make quick and brutal work in bringing him here.

"Duke. You're awake," I greet coldly. "It's about time."

He looks up at me, his eyes widening before they take in the small room. It's dim and fully enclosed, underground and beneath my manor. Someone has to be incredibly special to end up here.

"Where am I?"

"It doesn't matter. I think you know why we are here together this evening, don't you?"

I pull my dagger from its sheath behind me, letting it's weight settle in my hands. Since Sienna has been gone I've kept it on my person permanently.

Duke swallows thickly at the sight, pulling against his binds.

"No—"

"I wouldn't suggest lying," I growl, approaching him slowly, passing the dagger between each hand. "I may consider having mercy if you start being honest with me."

"About what? I've done nothing wrong?" He pleads, yanking so hard on his chains I can see red welts already starting to gather on his hand.

Unfortunately for him, he has bigger things to worry about.

Clutching the handle of the dagger, I drive it through the top of his hands, enjoying gruesome sounds of bones crunching and flesh slushing.

His scream grinds at my ears as it echoes through the room. I step back, shifting my hands behind my back as I watch him writhe and pant pathetically, his hand now effectively pinned to the chair.

"Ah! Fuck...okay, okay, I'll talk," he concedes desperately, rivets of blood flow from his wound, tainting the precious silver surface of my daggers blade, trailing down his skin in small streams.

"I thought so," I mutter.

He lets out a few ragged breaths, bowing his head as he regains his composure. Not a single guilty thought passes across my mind as I watch him with relentless focus.

"This is about your mistress, isn't it?" He looks up at me, bloodshot eyes now resigned to their fate.

I angle my head. "You tried to kill her."

"My intention wasn't to kill her, but to scare her," he insists. "You have to believe me."

Endless, shadowy rage simmers below the surface of my skin as I maintain my calm demeanour. The man before me attacked Sienna at the Meeting of the Alpha's, and I need to know why.

"By putting a rope around her neck?" I seethe. "By striking her in the ribs?"

"She attacked me. The last part was self defense."

"Self defense?" I almost laugh bitterly at the absurdity. "You lost the right to defend yourself the moment you held her head under the water."

I realise I'm shouting, but down here, no one will hear me but him. He's cowering back now, trying to shrink further and further back into his chair.

"I didn't want to kill her, okay? I didn't even want to be there." He sounds on the verge of breaking down into tears, which would be an amusing sight if I weren't imagining his hands holding Sienna beneath the surface of the water.

"Yet you were."

He grimaces. "I had no other choice. I was paid."

Paid? No part of my exterior reveals my surprise at that revelation, but internally I'm reeling. I should have known it was someone powerful — someone with the resources who didn't want to get their own hands dirty.

"By who?" I question, although I suspect I already know the answer.

"I don't know. He didn't tell me his name." Duke turns his head to look away, trembling as he anticipates me striking him.

"Was it Alpha Zion?" I step closer, looming over him. "Tell me the truth now!"

He face contorts in confusion, shaking his head fervently. "Alpha Zion? No, of course not. It was some random guy."

I rub my jaw. Someone is taking serious precaution, likely anticipating me capturing their lackey. Duke really is just some man hired to hurt Sienna, to scare her...he wouldn't be capable of maintaining this front now.

"Did he mention Zion at all?"

"Not once. He didn't tell me why he wanted this done, he just instructed me to make sure Sienna was scared."

Duke risks a look down at his hand, which is now entirely covered in blood. He almost gags, squeezing his eyes shut.

Grabbing his collar, I yank him up as much as the chains allow before striking a punch to his face. His head whips to the side, blood cascading from his mouth and onto the wall.

"You almost killed her. You left her for dead," I growl, shaking him enough to get him to look back at me. "All because you were paid."

He groans, blood coating his teeth.

All I can see is Sienna curled up on the floor, entirely naked with markings on her neck, cradling her ribs where she had been kicked.

The rage is invigorating me, coursing potently through my veins. I need to avenge her. I need this man to suffer for what he did to my mate.

"My family desperately needed the money. This was the easiest option," he sobs, spit and blood eddying together on his chin as I step back to relish in his pain.

"Your easiest option was to torture a girl? My mistress, no less."

"I didn't want to hurt her. I respect you greatly, sir." His words are starting to slur together. "But I needed the money. It seemed a better option then working in the mines, or on a farm."

I shake my head, drawing in a slow breath. This man is a coward who failed his family, and Sienna paid the price.

"Listen, Duke. I've killed people over far less. People who have hurt Sienna," I tell him calmly. "You deserve a slow and painful death."

He shakes his head, hair clinging to the sweat on his forehead. ."Please no...what about my family?"

"You put them at risk by taking this job instead of a more sustainable, ethical job," I hiss. "Your cowardice has destroyed your family."

I'm not sure if I would spare him, even if he was truly destitute and had tried every option to save his family. I'm not sure I'm a good enough man to see through my rage.

"No! I'm sorry. Please." His feet scramble against the floor, but the chair is nailed to the ground, unmoving.

I pace back and forth before him, noting his blood dotting my knuckles. "Any other day I may have considered making this quick. But my mate is miles away from me in enemy hands I really feeling like making someone hurt."

"You're a monster." The horror in his eyes is palpable as I stand before him, readying myself for what I have planned.

"Only when I need to be," I murmur, pausing briefly. "I'll ensure your family is taken care of."

I mean it too. I'll lift them from poverty and free them from a man who would rather be a mercenary than a humble farmer.

I'm not sure how long I spend in the depths of my manor, torturing a man until his final breath. Time moves strangely underground, with no windows and only a single light.

When I finally work my way upstairs, my body heavy with fatigue, I realise it's night.

As I head toward the stairs, my mother appears at the top of them. Her eyes widen and her hand comes to her mouth as she takes in the state of me.

"Onyx! What the—"

She rushes down the stairs to meet me, but pauses a few steps away. I understand her apprehension to get close as I peer down at myself.

My clothing is stained with splatters of dark blood. It layers my skin, all up my arms and probably on my face too.

"Tell the staff to avoid the basement cells. I'll deal to it so they don't have to see what I just did," I tell her blandly, starting up the stairs.

She follows me. "And what did you do?"

"I killed Sienna's attacker. He was paid," I inform her, a fresh wave of anger overcoming me. I stamp it down tiredly.

I have to remember my mate. If she saw what I just did...I don't think she would look at me the same again.

"You're becoming your father with every day that passes," mother snaps, shuddering at the sight of me. "Gah! That blood is repulsive."

"I do what I must. I needed to make sure he didn't know who paid him to hurt her," I explain calmly. "He wasn't going to survive the injuries I left him with, so I ended it."

The man he described as having paid him has no distinguishable features and doesn't sound familiar to me in the slightest. I'm assuming he's yet another middle man, and the true culprit remains in the shadows.

I'll find him.

"This isn't you."

"It's exactly who I am," I tell her coldly, striding down the corridor. I need to bathe off this terrible night.

"Your father got into your head far too much as a child. He manipulated your sense of morality." She sounds desperate, even a little frightened.

I pause so she doesn't trip over her absurdly tall heels. She still barely reaches my collarbone as she looks up at me, her eyes narrowed.

"I will cross every line possible to keep Sienna safe," I remind her softly.

"And how long will it be until Sienna decides she doesn't want murders on her hands?" She quirks a brow.

"They aren't. They are on mine." I glance down at my hands, at the blood physically staining them. I'm doing this not because of Sienna, but for her. She should not harbour an ounce of guilt for the decisions I choose to make.

"They are inspired by her," mother notes. "Does she know for certain Kayn is dead?"

I rub my jaw. "No."

"Onyx...son." She lets out a breath, her shoulders deflating. "You're going to scare her away."

The urge to remind her that Sienna isn't here to be scared away overcomes me, but I force it back. Ruminating in that reality isn't helping either of us.

"Let's just get her back here before anything else," I murmur. "I can't think with her gone."

That much is true. My head is a mess of tangled thoughts that aren't worth sorting through. I can't focus on anything, and the hours are slouching by at this point.

She grimaces, pulling a pale envelope from her pocket. "Well, this isn't an ideal time, but you should read this."

I take it from her, seeing it's addressed to me. "What is it?"

"A letter from Alston. He sent this while you were in Alpha Imogen's Pack," she states, her eyes darting between me and the letter apprehensively. "Zion has arranged for him to be married to Sienna. The two packs will merge, becoming far larger than your own."

My gaze snaps up to hers. "What?"

"I know, this isn't ideal. Until Zion dies, he will maintain control over that large territory that will be a distinct threat to this one—"

"Sienna is marrying Alston?" I hiss, blood thumping against my temples, so loud it almost drowns out my thoughts.

She huffs out a sigh. "That's a secondary detail..."

"Secondary? My mate is marrying Alston?" I growl. "I'm going to kill him."

Just like that my body is bound with violent tension. That arrogant bastard thinks he's going to get his hands on my mate...the moment I see him he's dead.

Looking down at the letter, I see it's short and written quickly.

Dear Onyx,

I understand our relationship is tense, however I believe I owe it to you to bid you a warning. I have been offered a lucrative deal that I am going to take, but you should know your mistress is a key part of it.

I am to marry her and produce an heir that can rule over my pack and Zion's combined.

Although I cannot say I like you very much, I am aware she is your mistress and there are feelings involved. I know what it is like to be in love, so I want to warn you.

If Sienna is in Zion's custody by next week, I'll be marrying her.

Alston.

The letter reveals almost nothing beyond its most essential element — Alston intends to marry Sienna, and at this point, there is nothing that can be done about it.

"You need to remain calm," mother insists. "Alston has also requested your presence in his pack in a few days. He claims Sienna will be there, so the three of you can talk. However, this may be a trap—"

"I'm leaving now." I start off down the hallway towas <Mrd my room.

"Onyx! This could be another of Zion's ploy's. He could be luring you into enemy territory before he strikes!"

"Let him," I snap, not looking back at her. "I'm not stopping until I bring Sienna home."

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~Midika 💜🐼