The Alpha's Mark

Eryx threw the bloodied clump of hair to the dirt, his expression shifting from sadness to pure fury. "You stole that from me, Odesse! That was supposed to be my life! That was supposed to be me beside him!"

He launched himself at her again, his large hands locking onto both of her arms, shaking her violently as she struggled against him in immense pain. "It was meant to be me! You stole my place by suddenly appearing in our love story! His highness loved me!"

A creepy, distorted smile grew across his blood-stained face as Odesse saw a faint, black smoky essence begin to ripple and hover directly above his shoulders. His eyes grew darker still, the blood from his scalp dripping down his forehead, but he refused to let her go.

"Let me go!" Odesse fought with everything she had, trying to twist out of his iron grip. "Let me go!"

"But then you got pregnant for him, Odesse!" his voice grew louder, booming through the silent forest clearing. "And then you dismissed me! I wanted to stay. I wanted to get to know you, to understand how you talked, how you walked, to discover exactly why he loved a fragile thing like you. But you cast me out! I had no other way to get back into the palace... except through Eryx. That naive, sweet, foolish little boy."

He let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "He really loved you, Odesse. He was genuinely planning to run away from me. But I couldn’t let him do that. I had to use his body to bring you here. A place you will never, ever be able to leave. You may think your precious Moon Spirit will descend to save you, but do not bother." He looked up at the barren, cloud-covered sky. "As you can see, the moon is nowhere to be found. Your Spirit cannot hear you here."

Odesse gathered all her remaining strength, twisting her body with a violent wrench to free herself from his hands. But with sheer, unbridled force, Eryx shoved her backward.

Her foot caught on a protruding root, and she fell heavily to the ground, her body hitting the rough dirt side-first, jarring her belly. A sharp cry of pain and pure agony tore from her throat as she curled inward, her hands immediately shielding her stomach.

Azure threw his head back, laughing hysterically through Eryx’s throat as he watched her writhe in the dirt. "Do you truly think you will stay with him forever? No, you won’t, Odesse. He will be mine. I shall return to the palace in my body, and no other, and I shall make him mine. The only name he will ever call for the rest of his life will be Azure!"

"No... never!" Odesse shouted, her voice trembling but fierce as she gripped the earth beneath her.

Eryx’s eyes narrowed slightly, his laughter cutting off as he glared down at her.

Odesse groaned, the physical pain in her side burning, but she forced her knees beneath her. Slowly, deliberately, she stood up from the dirt. As she rose to her full height, a sudden, terrifying shift occurred—thin streaks of dark, black blood began to stream slowly down from the corners of her own eyes, a manifestation of the raw, dormant wolf power surging through her veins under extreme duress.

"No matter what you do, his highness will never love you, Azure," Odesse said, her voice dropping into a cold, lethal register that made the ambient temperature of the clearing drop. She stood straight, wiping the dirt from her gown. "His highness will only ever love me. He is mine, and I am his alone."

A sudden wave of courage, ancient and powerful, surged through her heart. She locked her gaze directly onto Azure’s stolen eyes. "Our destiny is tied to one another. If I die in this place, his highness will die too. The bond will break him. And no matter what wicked spells you try to force upon him after I am gone, remember this: he will always call my name. Because I am not going to die here, Azure."

Odesse began walking toward him, her strides slow, purposeful, and entirely devoid of her previous fear. Eryx’s posture wavered for the first time, his smirk faltering as he instinctively took a half-step back from her glowing aura.

"You may have your moment to enjoy this little game," Odesse continued, her voice echoing with an unnatural authority. "But I promise you, Azure... I shall find my way back. And when I do, I shall kill you with my own two hands. Because monsters like you do not deserve to live in his world."

Eryx stared at her for a long, silent moment before he suddenly began to laugh again, though the sound was frantic, defensive. "What false confidence do you give yourself, Odesse? This place is completely sealed by my own blood and witchery. You will never be able to leave. This is the exact spot where you find out that your destiny is over."

Odesse stopped walking, a small, cold smile touching her lips despite the black tears tracking down her cheeks. "No, Azure. This is where you find out that I can bend my own destiny to be whatever I want it to be. I control it. And whatever I want my destiny to be, I shall certainly attain it."

Suddenly, Eryx’s eyes began to flutter fast—too fast, unnaturally fast, the eyelids twitching as if his brain were short-circuiting. His head twitched violently to the side, a low, agonizing groan escaping his throat.

"Odesse... I am sorry..."

The voice was faint, raspy, and completely stripped of Azure’s malicious lilt. It was the voice of the real Eryx.

Odesse’s breath hitched, her anger instantly melting back into deep concern. "Eryx? Are you there? Is it really you?"

He looked up at her, his hands trembling as he touched the bleeding wound on his scalp. He stared at the dark blood on his fingers, his chest heaving as tears of genuine sorrow rolled down his cheeks. "Odesse... forgive me... please..."

He began to walk backward slowly, his steps uncoordinated and heavy. Odesse followed him, her hands extended out in a calm, non-threatening gesture, trying desperately to ground him. "It is alright, Eryx. Listen to me, it’s going to be okay. I can find a way to get us both out of here. Just walk toward me."

The tears flowed freely down his face, washing through the blood on his cheeks. "No, Odesse... none of this can be fixed. It is all my fault. Every single bit of it. I don’t deserve to live anymore. I deserve to be dead. I committed a grave mistake... a terrible, unforgivable mistake..."

Odesse’s eyes darted to his feet, and her heart skipped a beat. He was only a few inches away from the crumbling edge of the sheer, pitch-black cliff face.

She threw her arm forward, her voice rising in a panicked but deliberate tone. "Relax, Eryx. Please, just look at me. We can talk about it. We can fix this together. Just stop moving."

He made it to the absolute edge, his heels hanging slightly over the drop. He stood there, silhouetted against the dark abyss.

Odesse stopped dead in her tracks, pure, unadulterated fear etched across her face. "Eryx, please. We can talk about everything. Just take a step away from there. Step toward me, please."

He turned his head slightly, looking down into the deep, bottomless darkness beneath him, his breath catching in his throat. Then, he turned his face back to her one last time. He gave her a small, broken, but incredibly peaceful smile.

"I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me one day, Odesse," he whispered, his voice cracking with emotion. "All I ever wanted... all I ever truly wanted... was for you to be happy."

Odesse shook her head continuously, her voice screaming out into the empty forest. "No, Eryx! Don’t do this! Please, step back!"

He smiled warmly, spreading his arms out wide sideways to the sky, letting the cold wind catch his linen tunic. The tears rolled down his face, sparkling faintly in the dark as he looked at her with absolute clarity.

"I want you to know," he said softly, his voice carrying clearly over the wind. "I really love you, Odesse."

Immediately, he falls backwards into the dark void. Odesse widens her eyes as she shouts, "Eryx!" She moves forward and falls to her knees, looking down, but he is nowhere to be found. She shakes her head and steps back from the cliff’s edge, saying, "No, no, no, no," tears flowing down her cheeks as her mind struggles to process the situation.

She holds her face and repeats, "No, no, no, no. He... he..." She screams at the top of her lungs, making her voice echo into the emptiness. Bending down, crying uncontrollably, she suddenly notices something crawling down her legs. Looking closer, she sees blood trickling down.

Panic rises within her as she stands up, raising her dress to see the blood marking her legs. "No, no, my baby, no!" she cries, holding her hair in despair. "Why is this happening? What have I done?" She collapses onto the ground, tearing at her clothes and rolling in the dirt as she wails, "I can’t do this! I can’t! I don’t want to do this! No, no, please, no!" She remains on the dirt, crying her heart out, lying face down, alone in the quiet forest under the absence of moonlight.

...

Hours pass, and Odesse is still lying there, but this time it is silent. Then, she suddenly stands up, her eyes swollen, hair disheveled, body covered in dirt, and blood still staining her legs and black streaks on her cheeks. She looks like a lifeless figure walking without spirit. Odesse walks toward the cliff’s edge and stands there, gazing at the sky. The moon appears momentarily, and she looks down into the endless abyss. Softly and weakly, she whispers, "I love you, my king, forever," as tears stream down her cheeks. With that, she throws herself into the void and falls into the endless abyss.