Chapter 1 My Raven Hair

Olivia's Pov:

I barely had time to brace for it before his fist nearly snapped my neck in two with a gut-wrenching blow as I fell hard to the ground, tears welling on my face.

"You stupid bitch!", he yelled, his face contorted with rage. He was in one of his moods again, the occasional periods where his wolf starts to lose control and he tears up anything in his way, more than often, I'm usually the one in the way of his tantrums.

My hands shook violently as the porcelain cup in my hands hit the ground, shattering to pieces in an echoing screech.

At the sound, Lucien lunged for me, his foot stamping hard at my ribs knocking the air out of me. I gasped as I struggled to breathe, my small hands tightening around my chest, but he wasn't done.

He grabbed me from the marble floor, throwing me on top of the dining table, his fists balled, eyebrows scrunched in seething anger. Each blow punctuated his lupine rage; he wasn't going to stop; he just kept hitting me across the face as panic suddenly hit me.

He was going to kill me right here, right now; he wasn't himself anymore.

"Stop." I whimpered silently, but he wasn't even listening.

Suddenly, adrenaline coursed all over me; I wasn't going to die in this pathetic manner; I wasn't going to die when I had more important things to be done.

My hands found a fork lying around on the table. Just as he raised his fists to hit my face again, I lashed out in fury, slashing across his left eye in a bolt of raw defiance, blood splotching across my face.

He stumbled back in shock, cradling his wounded eye, a deep bleeding gash running from across his eyebrows to his cheekbones.

I yelled back at him in a mixture of fury and fear as his mind back to normalcy, his face contorting in grief as he realized what he had done.

"I'm sorry Olivia", he winced, " I didn't mean to hurt you "

Just as I sighed in relief, my face aching, his spine snapped without a dreadful sound, his muscles rippling beneath his skin as if alive and being drawn by an unseen force. He dropped to his knees, his bones cracking and stretching as a primal growl resounded through my bones.

Oh God, he was going to lose control again. I didn't wait for it; I bolted as fast as I could out of the room, a howl behind me made the hair at the back of my neck rise.

I winced as Nana gently wiped the blood off my battered face, her frowns deepening as she handed me a small mirror, her gnarled fingers trembling slightly.

The kitchen was dimly lit, the air filled with a thick silence punctuated only by my wincing and the old woman mumbling about how damaged my face was

My raven hair had small splotches of blood and my face was a canvas of bruises, swollen and discolored, not only from today's surge of beatings but from two years of regular beatings. Blood seeped from a cut above my brow, dripping onto the floor beneath me.

"I still wonder why you haven't left," Nana groaned as she wiped the wound clean, "you have a family."

" No, I don't, "I muttered, wriggling my fingers nervously," My mother is dead, you know that; my father probably doesn't care, and my stepmother doesn't even hide her hate for me, I would be leaving to nothing."

" Still, you could just leave; you don't have anyone to for you to have a life, "she snorted as she leaned against the door, staring at me like I was a wounded animal.

" I don't want to leave New Orleans, and I can't get divorced since you know how shameful getting divorced is for werewolves, I would be the shame of my clan. "

" So you would rather die at his hands? ", she asked sternly.

"It's not his fault; all Lycans are like that".

"That doesn't mean shit," she snapped. "He's going to lose control and snap your neck one of these days; pathetically, you are just a .. ".

" Average rate omega," I smiled slightly," yeah, I know that. "

" Bonding season is in just two months; you could find someone else," concern started to cloud her voice.

I laughed," What if I end up bonding with someone worse than him, another Lycan".

" A bond is stronger than you think; it's stronger than love itself; you would be happy, "she said," like I was." she raised her skirt, showing me a faded tattoo of a giant black wolf, her bond mark.

I tried for three years to find a mate before my father got tired of my presence and married me off to Lucien, an unbounded Lycan adopted into one of the nine aristocraté families.

I sighed," I don't think the result would change; my mate probably doesn't exist or hasn't been born yet."

Lucien suddenly appeared in front of the kitchen, Nana flinched at the sound of him clearing his voice. We hadn't noticed him at all.

The gash I inflicted on him was surprisingly still there, no longer bleeding but the scar remained there, ruining his face. My wolf growled upon sensing his presence, Aria hated his guts.

He glanced nervously at me before muttering, "Your father's here, and he wants to see you."

My father.

My heart jumped, if my father is here, it's not anything good. He had refused to see me since my marriage with Lucien, since the first time Lucien had lost control, he needed the connections my marriage gave to him, but he was too cowardly to even see me.

If he was here, it was something either very bad or very good.

I nodded briskly at Nana before following Lucien out of the kitchen, the passage walls adorned with faded portraits.

Just as we were about to walk into his study room, he turned back sharply toward me, his gaze masked with grief.

"I am sorry for hurting you yet again," he said quietly, his hands nervously fiddling with his cuff links.

"Always the same pleading", I sighed as I stepped into the study.

"There you are", he sighed as he looked me over. Lucien slinked to a corner of the room, his burly arms folded.

" Your husband informed me that he lost control yet again ", he rasped as he turned his back, continuing to browse the shelves.

"Since when did you care? "I muttered, glancing at Lucien, who looked away for some weird reason. I was beginning to wonder what the hell was going on.

I swallowed nervously.

"You attacked him even though you know the Lycan laws," my father continued, "Attacking an Aristocraté is forbidden no matter what," he said, "Your husband decided to use this excuse for both of you to separate ."

I couldn't believe what I heard: divorce. Ordinarily, it would have been very good news. I endured all these years without leaving in the hope that he would eventually warm up to me, but that had been just a fantasy.

And now, the bastard wants to reject me?

"You can't be serious!", I growled at Lucien.

He sighed," It's for your safety; I can't keep hurting you, not after what happened today; you are better off without me."

" What would people say! ", I shot back angrily.

" Better that than being dead," he groaned," you don't get it; there's a reason we Lycans rarely mate; we are not the husband type."

"You would participate in this year's bonding season," my father interrupted, "hopefully you get lucky and find a mate this time around."

But I wasn't listening anymore; a huge wave of fury washed over me, and pent-up anger bubbled and rose in a rush as I snarled at Lucien.

My stomach churned; I had been rejected and now had to find a mate; having failed thrice, my chances were quite low, I thought.