My Most Precious Human

My world started spinning. Something heavy slammed into my chest, forcing the air out of my lungs and harassing my vocal cords with a painful growl. Hot, furious tears flooded my cheeks and burned my eyes while my heart ached for the mother I had hardly known. But from Ezra, I knew that she loved me even though she had to leave me. I hoped to see her again. I hoped to reconcile with her. I hoped to take her out of the Southern Woods Pack. Why even she had been taken away from me?!

"Oh... You didn't know she was dead?" Derek snorted viciously, rubbing salt in my wounds, "This is hilarious! All those years you didn't even know she was dead!" he burst out, nearly stumbling from laughter.

I gritted my teeth, desperately trying to hold my body in a fighting stance. Tears kept falling from my eyes, no matter how hard I tried to stop them. I needed to see clearly. I had to focus. I was already exhausted, and I had just received a huge mental blow, yet I forced myself not to fall apart.

"How did she die?" I squeezed out, clenching my fists to the point where my knuckles became white.

Derek looked at me with unhidden amusement and stepped towards me. "That Leber bitch dared to challenge Alpha to fight for leadership. She must have lost her mind to think she had any chance against him."

"How dare you insult my mother!" I snapped.

"She was never worthy to be an Alpha! Her pack meant nothing until it became absorbed by the Southern Woods! What kind of a Luna acts against her Alpha's will?!" he yelled.

"She was more than worthy!" I thundered, "It takes guts to go against your mate! She couldn't stand that the Alpha of her pack dirtied everything with the blood of others!"

Derek sneered, "You think she did it to save the pack?" He looked at me spitefully and spat beneath my feet. "She did it for you."

"W-what?" I muttered painfully.

Derek chuckled, deriving satisfaction from my agonizing heartache, "When that fucking traitor helped you escape, she begged Alpha not to chase after you. She was crawling on her knees and crying like a worthless mongrel. When he refused, she challenged him and died miserably at Alpha's hands."

Something cracked within me. How could he kill his own mate? What happened to their bond? I was certain that my mother had to suffer excruciating pain only because she chose to go against Randall D'Apolito, but he would have rather killed her than let me go...

Unknowingly, my hand went to the aching part of my chest, rubbing it to ease my suffering. Increasing rage helped to dry my tears. I looked at Derek as if he impersonated all the hatred I had for that bastard who happened to be my father.

Derek stepped closer and licked his lips while scanning me from head to toe. "You've changed, little bitch."

Everything about him made me sick: his disgustful gaze, his lecherous tongue, the sneering tone of his voice; it all made me want to see him bleeding, lying on the ground, and begging for mercy.

"I don't know how you managed to seduce the vampire king and Alpha of the north, but I applaud you for that." He stepped closer, clapping his hands, and then he leaned over my ear. "You must be a great fuck. I can't wait to dip my cock inside you."

I punched his jaw, pouring my anger into my hand muscles. "I'll cut off your dick if you even try to touch me!"

He stumbled a few steps back and laughed while rubbing the spot of the blow. "You've become fiercer... Good. I always enjoy it more when they try to struggle."

Hatred filled every cell in my body. The bloodstream rushed through my veins, feeding every inch of me with adrenaline and forcing me to ignore my tiredness. Fighting against my hectic heart rate, I inhaled deeply and locked my eyes on Derek. With a smirk on my face, I daringly gestured for him to come at me.

His pupils instantly matched the spiteful red of his hair. His disgusting grin revealed sharp teeth, ready to tear me apart. He swung his fisted hand low, aiming for my stomach, but I dodged it by jumping to the side. He snorted and tried again... and again... and again. I avoided his blows every time.

The mocking smirk slowly vanished from his face, giving way to first annoyance and then anger. He was losing his patience, more with every hit that failed. Finding out that I wasn't as weak as he thought I was made him disturbed and lose focus. It was just what I was hoping for.

I attacked him with everything I had. I squeezed out every ounce of power from my muscles, excessively pushing through my limits. I threw kick after kick, aiming at whatever weak point he might have had. My rage rose by the second. After so many years of running away from him, it was time to settle the score with Derek and punish him for the way he terrorized me.

I hit his nose, and he started bleeding. He took a few abrupt steps back, and I saw his entire face painted in red. The skin on my knuckles was torn, and my hands were shaking. The only way I could stay on my feet was through forceful tensing of my muscles fueled by hatred, but I was winning. I hurt him. All I had to do was to keep attacking...

He laughed. He burst out into devilish laughter while brushing the blood off his face. As he grinned ominously, he snapped back his broken nose and locked his demonic eyes on me.

"Do you know what your mother's last words were?" He licked the blood off his lips. "She begged Alpha not to kill the traitor who helped you escape..." he paused, torturing me with another stab in the heart. I clenched my teeth, restless. I hesitated before attacking him. I had to know what had happened to Ezra.

"Alpha agreed to spare him," he snorted disdainfully, "and gave him to me so I could play with this filthy dog every day until he died."

"No!" I cried in agony, the pain more intense than any word he had said before.

At that moment, I found out that the hateful creature standing in front of me not only poisoned my life but also took away the person I had ever considered family. I would rather Ezra die quickly, or die fighting, but hearing that he was tortured to death and died as a slave shuttered my heart to tiny pieces. I looked at Derek and wanted him to suffer. I wanted him to taste the same pain he caused. I wanted him dead. I took out the knife and swung the blade across his chest. As he howled from the deep cut I gave him, he jumped back, putting distance between us. I stayed persistent and charged at him, ignoring the scratches on my arm and chest he gave me, cutting his shoulder and stabbing his thigh. He roared, enraged, and threw a blow at my chest that pushed me away from him. Then he turned into a red-furred wolf I gasped and retreated in abrupt steps. The beast before me was fuming in fury and growling spitefully. Its wide and blazing eyes observed my tiniest move before lurching forward with its teeth sharpened for my flesh.

I could barely hold myself together. I was off-balanced and needed a break to regenerate. Yet Derek seemed as if he had just begun to fight. He ran at full speed towards me, and I barely ducked before his jaws snapped.

His claws tore into the flesh of my stomach, forcing me to run backward while screaming in pain. As my head started to spin from blood loss and exhaustion, a horrifying awareness grew... I had no strength left to cut the beast several times; I could have had one chance for one precise attack. I exhaled and then let the air into my lungs again. I closed my eyes, hearing Derek's beast getting closer in a vicious charge to take my life away. The question was: could I take away his?

Once the wolf stretched his neck forward, opening his jaws, I bounced off the floor and flipped forward onto its back. He bellowed, trying to shake me off, but I already had that move trained. I shifted, grabbing the fur on the nape of its neck and holding it with my left hand like a leash. My other hand was holding a knife. I was trembling, I was feverish, and I was fighting for my life. I exhaled, trying to gather my courage, but at the same time, Derek's jaws closed on my right arm, each tooth sinking into my skin deep. I moaned, trying to grasp small bits of air. My vision became blurry. The choice was simple: kill or die. I grabbed the knife with my left hand and stabbed the beast's carotid artery. Roaring painfully, Derek's wolf pushed up onto his back feet, struggling to shake me off. I took the knife out while falling onto the ground. A horrifying howl escaped its throat while the gushing blood painted everything around it. I crawled backward to escape the flesh before it collapsed on the floor before me. I stared petrified while its eyes became lifeless, and the beast turned into a human corpse. I sat still on the floor, shivering and shedding restless tears until I heard a voice calling me.

"Lilith! Lilith!" I saw lan running towards me. "Lilith, thank God you are alive!"

He was back in his human form, wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants. He crouched beside me and cupped my face with his hands, turning it towards him.

"I killed him, lan..." I mumbled, "I took his life..."

"This is a war, Lilith," he said, almost indifferently, "and I'd rather see this fucker dead than you."

I looked at his composed expression and wished I could think of it the way he did, but I was light years away from it.

"Come on, Lilith." He grabbed my hands and pulled me up from the floor. "We almost won. It's just Alpha Draven against Alpha Marcus now, and the show is about to begin..."