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.

again, a beam of light flows through my irises, projecting the memory

"Toran! Toran!"

Toran running faster until

"I’m coming!"

the front door and racing inside.His breath hitches when upon entering the cottage, he sees Cyrus towering over Breanna

turns to face his best

supposed to

Cyrus chuckles to himself.

the spell

sonic scream, leaving Toran to

crawls to her, cradling her head

is a large gaping wound on her stomach, a river of blood pouring

up at him as a little blood trickles from her nose, reaching a hand to caress

wiping

"We're mates."

"Don’t speak,"

lift her in her

to get you to the hospital.They'll fix you there, come

"N-No," Breanna protests.

me.Just hold my hand," she

"Please.”

can

shaking her head

please let them

"I love you, Toran,"

whispers, coughing up more

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

"Bre-"

Breanna’s eyes slowly fading

he murmurs, lifting her up so he can sit down and cradle

adds, rocking back and forth long after she

just go to

an eternity, holding

but there is

Anger and hatred.

"No,"

in disbelief, disrupting the

be! Toran

brother took my mate,"Toran

tricked you, he tricked you all into believing Breanna was his mate but it was just a spell.A spell to make her believe she was his mate when in reality, she was mine.You’ve killed innocent people, all in the name of a

head, unwilling to believe what

"No, no.He’s lying!"

at his wolves

"My-My father said-"

after everything he’s done?"

such a coward, Sebastian.All this time you’ve been afraid your son would

did what

Sebastian snarls back.

you were told

Toran snaps.

it, White, the only

at the Scarlett Alpha, the world he created with terror and cruelty crumbling around

Sebastian snickers, a challenge in his

Alpha.An Alpha would have killed me without hesitation! And yet

up as I fill his mind with memories of my childhood, one by one, showing him the fear I

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

from every beating I got for

and how I learned to survive without ever uttering a word.I show him the day Caine whipped me until ribbons of flesh hung from my back and how I took it 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 head for hurting my mate.I show him the aftermath as Talia was wheeled into a hospital room and force him to feel the anguish I felt as they fought to

not deserve to

his head as if to remove them from his mind, but I hold him hostage,

flickering as memories flood his every

"Oh Gods!"

, towering over the coward I once feared

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

up on the floor as I fill

"S-shut up!"

the veins on his temples bulging and his face flushing

murder over and over again, making him relive with vivid detail, the memory of him telling my mother that her beloved pup was now dead, never to grow up

"M-make it stop!"

own eyes, his nails tearing

to the surface, and through gritted teeth, snarls at the

screaming in agony on the dock

"Did I stutter?"

sneers, giving me back control

not hold

Because he never did.

Tylen and Toran, selecting memories to show Sebastian how

him watch my mother wake up from her coma and slowly fall in love with

growls with rage, unable to stop the memories of her saying ‘I do’ to another man and smiling happily as her

concrete of the dock in hopes of ending his misery, but the memories keep flooding Sebastian’s

forms across his forehead, blood spilling from the wound and trickling down his nose

leading a happy life without Sebastian torment him, revealing to him