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.

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

"Toran! Toran!"

running faster until he reaches a small cottage

"I’m coming!"

entering the cottage, he

turns to

were supposed to be

Cyrus chuckles to himself.

spell wore

escape by sonic scream, leaving Toran to face his dying wife

cradling her head and smoothing down her

her stomach, a river

eyes suddenly widen in shock and Breanna smiles up at him as a little blood trickles from

out, wiping the blood on

"We're mates."

"Don’t speak,"

hushes, attempting to lift her in her arms, but Breanna

to get you to the hospital.They'll fix

"N-No," Breanna protests.

stay here with me.Just hold my hand," she says through

"Please.”

they can fix

shaking her

let them fix

"I love you, Toran,"

coughing

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

"Bre-"

his head, Breanna’s eyes slowly fading

you," he murmurs, lifting her up so he can

rocking back and

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

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

his cheeks but there is anger in his

Anger and hatred.

"No,"

head in disbelief, disrupting

it cannot be! Toran killed Breanna.It

brother took

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

head, unwilling to believe what

"No, no.He’s lying!"

cries, looking around at his wolves who stare at

"My-My father said-"

that man after everything he’s

been afraid your son would tarnish your reputation, when the only one

what was

Sebastian snarls back.

what you

Toran snaps.

andAlexander can’t help you.Face it, White, the only

created with terror and cruelty crumbling around him.He looks so pathetic as he kneels before the one person he was always

boy," Sebastian snickers,

can’t face me like an Alpha.An Alpha would have killed me without hesitation!

mind with memories of my childhood, one by one, showing him the

of my book.I show him all the times I watched him beat my mother to teach me a lesson, how she cried

and belts on my back from every beating I

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 bring her back.I show him the fear

not deserve to see

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

he stammers, his eyes flickering as memories flood his

"Oh Gods!"

who I-l am," I whisper , towering over the coward I once feared as he

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 be like y-you...because I-I am stronger than y-you

in his hands, curling up on the floor as I fill his

"S-shut up!"

the veins on his temples bulging

him even 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 that her beloved pup was

"M-make it stop!"

at his own eyes, his nails tearing through his

way to the surface, and through gritted teeth, snarls at the deplorable Alpha, "Be aman, Sebastian and face what you

begs, screaming in

"Did I stutter?"

giving me back control to face

not hold

Because he never did.

I open connections with Tylen and Toran, selecting memories to show Sebastian how much life improved for my mother without

up from her coma and slowly fall in love with Toran and

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

dock in hopes of ending his misery, but the

forehead, blood spilling from the wound and trickling down his nose and temples but it does not stop him from hitting himself again

revealing