The Silent Alpha

***Zane*** 

"Awar killed my son," Sebastian replies, a numbness in his voice as if he had recited these words until they became his truth.

"A war started by the man you now align yourself with."

"Y-you lied...Y-you lied all these y-years!" I say, shaking my head in disbelief.

"Y-you said i-it was Ravenstone!"

Around me, the wolves on either side stare at the old Alpha in shock, unable to comprehend how he could ever harm his own child.

"You will never understand this,"

Sebastian snarls.

"You’ve been kept away from all the war, all the blood, all the death your entire life.You will never understand the sacrifices an Alpha has to make for their pack but I do!"

"H-he was innocent!"

I cry, unable to believe his justification.

"There are no innocents in war!"

Sebastian growls.

"Only blood, be it the blood of your enemies or the blood of your family.War does not know right from wrong, it only knows strength and being strong enough to do what needs to be done and take what is yours!"

"Yy-you’re a monster," I whisper.

"lam not the only monster here,"

Sebastian sneers, his eyes narrowing to slits as he glares at Toran.

"This war began because a mate bond was not honored between my brother and his wife.That man," he snarls, pointing at Toran.

"That man destroyed my family but it was not enough to take my brother," he laughs cruelly.

"No, he went and had my wife killed...He made me feel her death.I felt the pain shattering through me, burning my lungs, my flesh, my soul! I felt her slip away until all that was left was this cold, emptiness.I felt everything that night, but it was not enough for him.No, he then took her from me.He took her and kept her hidden from me all these years, mocking me...He bought her love, no doubt...tricked her into thinking he actually cared for her...But Ravenstones...they are incapable of love."

Beside me, Tylen looks like he might tear Sebastian to shreds but Toran has a satisfied grin on his lips.

"My, my.How little you know, Seba,"

Toran sighs, shifting into his human form.

"But no matter, you will eat your words soon enough,"

Toran teases.

"I love my wife.I have for the past 20 years and despite knowing that it was I who hurt her, Elenore loves me too, freely and willingly.We are not fated, but every day she wakes up, she chooses me, over and over again.She has raised my son and my pack alongside me like a true Luna, and she has never once lived in fear that I may hurt her like you did.In all our years of marriage, the only time I have ever touched her, was because she begged me to.Not once have I ever forced myself upon her, because unlike you, I actually cherish my wife.After what we just witnessed, can you say the same? Did you ever truly love that woman or were you just satisfying your wolf?"

He snarls.

"Elenore was the only good in my life!"

Sebastian snaps.

"And yet, you destroyed her,"

Toran growls.

"But by the grace of my Goddess, she does not know who you are or what you did to her.Moon Goddess gave her a clean slate to start over with and I thank her every day for that because she will never remember that it was you who took her pup, that it was you who broke her son, and that it was you who shattered her heart every day with your cruelty."

"Do not act so righteous, Toran! There is blood on your hands as there is blood on mine!"

Sebastian bellows, trembling with rage.

"We are no different!"

"You are wrong, my dear Seba," Toran replies.

"There is no innocent blood on my hands.I did not kill those children at the daycare.I did not kill my own son for the benefit of war.I did not hurt my own family.AND I DID NOT KILL BRE!"

"LIAR!"

Sebastian screams and I realize he has been fighting this war based on lies and deceit.

"Y-ou don’t know abou-about Bre," I murmur softly, Sebastian’s face hardening.

"Of course I know about Bre.That bastard killed her when he found out she was mated to my brother," Sebastian scoffs.

"And then he killed my brother."

Acruel smile lingers on Toran’s face and with one look, he asks me to show Sebastian the truth of that day.I look around at the Scarlett wolves, their faith in their Alpha already faltering.

Do not pity them, Grayson snaps.

They deserve to know the truth behind the war they have been fighting for almost 30 years.

Closing my eyes and putting down my walls, I let Toran’s memories flood my head, sifting through them until I find the memory of that fateful day.

my eyes again, a beam of light flows through my irises, projecting the memory for all to

"Toran! Toran!"

until he

"I’m coming!"

and racing inside.His breath hitches when upon entering the cottage, he sees Cyrus

softly as Cyrus turns

were supposed to be

Cyrus chuckles to himself.

spell wore

scream, leaving Toran to face his dying wife

her

gaping wound on her stomach, a river of

touching her, Toran’s eyes suddenly widen in shock and Breanna smiles up at him as a little blood trickles from her nose, reaching a hand to caress

she coughs out, wiping

"We're mates."

"Don’t speak,"

lift her in her arms, but

to get you to the hospital.They'll fix you

"N-No," Breanna protests.

hold my hand," she

"Please.”

can

shaking her

let them

"I love you, Toran,"

whispers, coughing up

"P-please be strong...without me..."

"Bre-"

his head, Breanna’s eyes slowly fading

up so he can

adds, rocking back and forth long after she

going to be okay.You’re just tired.You just go to sleep and in the

on that couch for what seems to be an eternity, holding his mate and brushing her hair with

but there

Anger and hatred.

"No,"

his head in disbelief, disrupting the

be! Toran

brother took my mate,"Toran

was his mate but it was just a spell.A spell to make her

unwilling to

"No, no.He’s lying!"

cries, looking around at his wolves who stare

"My-My father said-"

believe that man after everything

afraid your son would tarnish your reputation, when the only one hurting your pack is

what was

Sebastian snarls back.

what you were told without

Toran snaps.

a lost pup looking for approval.Now when it matters, you’re all alone, Sebastian.Cyrus is dead andAlexander can’t help you.Face it, White, the only one responsible for your crimes here is you and you will pay dearly for them all!"

short of death! I stare at the Scarlett Alpha, the world he created with terror and cruelty crumbling around him.He looks so pathetic as

snickers, a challenge

face me like an Alpha.An Alpha would have killed me without hesitation! And yet you won’t.You just stand

sits up as I fill his mind with memories of my

words to make them perfect, my fingers trembling with every flip of the page of my book.I show him all the times I watched him beat my mother to teach me a lesson, how she cried and begged him for mercy and how I tried so hard to make

on my back from every beating I got for the mistakes I made

all without screaming.I make him feel the pain of his rejections and the humiliation of losing my pack to a boy now buried six feet under.I show him what I did to the heir he chose, how Caine pissed himself in fear before he shot himself in the

deserve to

remove them from his mind, but I hold him hostage, wanting him to see for himself everything he did to

his eyes flickering

"Oh Gods!"

, towering over the coward I once feared as he

the son of A-Agnes Thorne and the son of R-Rionna Ravenstone.I-l am mated to Ta-Talia Ramos and the f-father of our son, Da-Dakota Ramos.I-I am an Alpha with a st-stutter and the b-boy y-you were so ashamed to call a s-son.Y-your blood runs through m-my veins....But I will n-never

the floor as I fill his mind with my screams and those of my

"S-shut up!"

temples bulging and his face flushing

further, I force him to watch Jonathan’s murder over and over again, making him relive with vivid detail, the memory of him telling my mother

"M-make it stop!"

his fingers clawing at his own eyes, his nails tearing through

his way to the surface, and through gritted teeth, snarls at the deplorable

begs, screaming in agony on the

"Did I stutter?"

sneers, giving me back control to

not hold back, Grayson

Because he never did.

Toran, selecting memories to show

up from her coma and slowly fall in love

do’ to another man and smiling happily as her new adopted

of the dock in hopes of ending his

down his nose and temples but it does not

him, revealing to