Chapter 4 WHEN THE HOWLS WENT SILENT

The crowd slowly scattered.

The excitement had ended.

The party was over. They would all go home to rest but my tale would not rest.

They would keep talking about the crazy girl who tried to seduce her sister's fiancé. The cursed daughter of a traitor.

Wrapping my arms around myself to ward the cold away, I took slow steps toward the back of the house.

I reached the back door, the one I always used. The servants' entrance.

Even before my parents died, even when my father was still Beta Councilman, Vivian had made sure I knew to use this door.

Not the front.

Never the front.

That one was for Celeste. I pushed the door open slowly and the hinges creaked. My heart started to race, expecting something bad to happen like always.

I hope and hope that maybe the Alpha King's warning would actually work. Maybe they'd be too scared to touch me now.

He'd made it clear that I was under his protection.

That anyone who hurt me would answer to him. Maybe things would finally get better. I took another step into the dark room to find the switch when the lights suddenly blazed on, blinding me.

I threw my hand up to shield my eyes and as my vision cleared, I saw them. Vivian and Celeste stood blocking the hallway.

Both of them stared at me with hatred in their eyes. Behind them, the house was empty. All the servants had been dismissed.

All the guests were gone. We were alone. "What do you think you're doing, mutt?" Vivian sneers at me as I tried to step around them.

My heart started to pound even harder. "I'm just going to my room,"

I said quietly.

I kept my hands around my body. "Your room?" Celebrate laughed, but it was a cold, bones chilling laugh.

"Mother, she really thinks she has a room here?" She said to her mother.

"The Alpha said-" I started.

"The Alpha isn't here now, is he?"

Vivian interrupted, stepping forward. "It's just us." And I started to back up until my back hit the wall. "Please. He warned you. He said if you hurt me-" "He'll never know,"

Vivian said simply. "No one will know.

You're going to have an accident tonight, Elara. A terrible, tragic accident. And by morning everyone we would mourn the death of the lying seductress"

"No." I shook my head, I had no idea what they planned but it scared me.

"Please, don't do this." Vivian's hand came out of nowhere. She slapped me so hard across the face that my head snapped to the side.

Pain exploded across my cheek. Before I could recover, Celeste grabbed my hair and yanked me forward.

I screamed as she dragged me down the hallway.

"Stop! Please!" I cried, trying to pry her fingers from my hair.

"Shut up!"

she screamed, throwing me to the ground. My body hit the floor hard and the air knocked out of my lungs.

Before I could move, Vivian's foot connected with my ribs. I curled into a ball, trying to protect myself.

But they wouldn't stop.

Celeste kicked my back. Vivian stomped on my arm. I heard something crack and raw pain shot through my whole body. "You thought you could embarrass us?" Vivian hissed, grabbing my hair and pulling my head back.

"You thought the Alpha King would save you?"

"Please," I sobbed. "Please stop."She let go of my hair and my head hit the floor again.

They dragged me through the house and out the back door. My body screamed in protest. Everything hurt. My arms. My ribs. My face. Blood dripped from my nose and mouth.

Outside, I saw a pile of my belongings in the middle of the yard. My clothes. My books. The few things I had left from my parents. Everything I owned. Celeste pulled out a match. "No!" I tried to crawl toward the pile but Vivian kicked me in the stomach, and pinned m to the floor with her feet.

I watch helplessly as Celeste lit the match and threw it onto the pile.

"No" I whisper as everything burned brightly under the night sky; my mother's journal. My father's watch. The blanket my mother had made for me when I was a baby.

All of it turned to ash. "Can you see what you are?," Vivian said, standing over me. "Nothing.

You have nothing.

You are nothing."

I stayed under her feet, watching the flame dance. I couldn't speak. Couldn't move. The pain was too much. Then Vivian reached into her coat and pulled something out. Even through my blurred vision, I recognized it.

A Moonblade.

The weapon was ancient, forged from moon silver. It glowed with a faint blue light. I'd only seen one once before, in a book about werewolf history.

"No," I whispered. "Please, no."

"This blade has a special purpose," Vivian said, examining it in the firelight, the blade reflected the orange of the fire. "It destroys the connection between a wolf and their human.

Permanently." she said, smiling gleefully. My eyes widened. "You can't- Please-""Let's see how special you really are," she said coldly as she raised the blade and then plunged it into my stomach.

A raw scream tipped through my throat. The pain was unlike anything I'd ever felt before. It wasn't just physical.

It was deeper.

Worse.

Like something inside me was being torn apart. It was the feeling of my wolf dying. The being that had been with me since I was eighteen. A important part of me. My other half. My strength when I had none...she is being ripped away from me.

"Arghhh" I screamed again as hot tears streamed out of my eyes. She was dying. Her howls inside my mind tore me apart. I could feel her trying to hold on, trying to stay with me. But the Moonblade's magic was too strong.

"NO"

I screamed so loud that I tasted blood at the back of my throat. I want to fight to keep her but she couldn't stay. The blade wouldn't let her. One final painful howl echoed through my mind and Vivian pulled the blade out of my stomach. "Say your goodbyes you piece of shit" Celeste said to my face. I felt her breath on my face.

I felt the way blood poured from the wound. I heard the cruel laughter but nothing made sense.

I was in too much pain. My wolf had been killed. The overwhelming pain made me scream one more time.

Vivian crouched down beside her daughter, her face close to mine, making sure I saw her victorious smile.

"So where's your Alpha King now?" she whispered.

"You thought you could have your way, didn't you? Thought someone would finally save you?" She grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at her.

"You're just a worthless...nothing" she said slowly.

Each word was deliberate. Meant to hurt as deeply as the blade that had killed my wolf. "And no one is coming to save you. No one ever will." She let go of my chin and my head fell back to the ground.

A gasp slipped past my lips as through fading vision, I watched them walk away. Back into the house. Back to their warm beds and comfortable lives.

The fire eating up the remnant of my life brightly, but everything remained dark as I laid there in the darkness, bleeding. My wolf was gone.

My identity as a werewolf had been stripped from me by my own family. Could I even dare to get up and fight for my life?