The Silver Lycan Queen

Chapter 2 - Gutted

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One Year Ago In Silvera

Ares

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“He’s coming, brother,” my brother Nolan says, placing a hand on my shoulder as I glance down the corridor after pulling back from our hug, and I sigh.

“Take care of him,” I tell him, not responding to what he just said.

“You know I will,” he replies, and I nod before looking down at my wristwatch.

“We are ready, my prince,” the guard who will escort me to the airport says, and I nod before turning to look at my brother again.

“Goodbye, brother.” I bid him farewell and turn around, heading to the exit, my heart sinking lower with each step.

“Ares!” I take only a few steps before I finally hear the voice I’ve been waiting for all day calling my name. I turn around to see my father walking up to me.

“Father, you came.”

“Of course, I came. What kind of father would I be if I didn’t come to see my son off?” he says and I engulf him in a hug, feeling emotional suddenly.

My father and I had been fighting for months leading up to this day. He didn’t want me to join the army. He wanted me to stay here in the kingdom and start practicing for my role as king when I take over from him, but that’s not what I want.

I have no interest in the throne, but I know it’s my responsibility, and so I’ve accepted that I have to be king one day, and I will be. But that’s three years from now, and I want to do other things in my life before then. Once I become king, I will base everything I do on my position, not on how I feel or what I want. So, I applied to join the military and got accepted. I plan to serve until it’s time to sit on the throne.

My father and I pull back from the hug, and he places both hands firmly on my shoulders, his eyes gleaming with unshed tears.

“I love you, son. You are everything to me. And I’m sorry for always standing in front of your dreams and making your life impossible. It’s not that I enjoyed it or that I wanted to, but you were born with a great deal of responsibility on your shoulders, Ares. You have a responsibility to our people. Their lives depend on us, and we can never let them down.

The king in me has tried and failed to see reason, but the father does. May your days in the military be everything you hoped for. Don’t forget who you are and remember to keep our secret; no one must ever know what you are.” He pauses for a moment, his eyes holding strong emotion as he cups my face.

“Ares Anselm Silver, my one and only son, my life, my heir. I give you my blessing. Go and live your dreams, my son, but come back to us. We need you; I need you.”

“I will, Father. I promise,” I reply, leaning our foreheads together. “Thank you, and I love you. You are everything to me, too.” We let go of each other, a traitorous tear escaping my eye as I bow to my father.

“My King!” I salute, my voice quavering, before turning around and walking out.

•

•

A grueling fifteen hours later, we touch down and descend from the plane to find a black SUV already waiting to take me to the base. My security detail stays behind from this point on; from this point on, there are no more royal guards or treatments. No more Ares Silver the Prince, but Ares Silver the Man, the Soldier.

I take a deep breath, feeling free for the first time in my life. All my life, I’ve had people waiting on me hand and nail. And as nice as it might sound to someone on the outside looking in, it can be very suffocating when you’re the one living it. Especially when you can never be yourself, when you can only bring half of you to the light and the other must forever lurk in the shadows.

It’s one thing to keep our existence a secret from humans. That comes naturally. You can even say we were born with it. But having to keep a part of who you are from your own kind and family is something entirely different. I’d give anything to be a regular dude and be free to live my life the way I want, with no kingdom-threatening secrets.

The driver opens the door, and I turn to look at my guards one last time. They all bow, and I return it with a neck bow and get inside the car. But the moment the door closes and the car moves, a weird, uneasy feeling washes over me. Atticus, my Lycan, also starts getting agitated. Soon, I feel my eye color change from my natural silver to a shade darker, which is his eye color, as he tries to force himself out, and I clench my fist, fighting the transformation, not understanding what’s going on.

This has never happened before. I hiss, closing my eyes as my claws surface and start digging into my palms before feeling my canines elongate, and I hope the guy behind me doesn’t see the blood. I’ve already picked up that they are humans, and something like this would spook them.

I’m still trying to calm Atticus with my eyes still closed when I feel a sharp pain on my neck as something penetrates my skin, causing me to snap my eyes open, a growl escaping my lips. A syringe with green liquid in it falls on my lap as I rip the perpetrator’s arm out of the socket by reflex before his head follows suit. Atticus immediately takes over, tearing the car apart as we shift, causing it to overturn and spill us out like rag dolls.

We land on our feet and watch as the driver hits the ground hard before letting out a pained groan as his back makes contact with a tree just a few feet away from us.

Atticus lets out a vicious growl as we approach him, and he tries to crawl away, too disoriented to get up.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, please! Please!” he begs, now sliding on his back, but his pleas fall on deaf ears. I grab him by the neck and lift him off the ground, wanting to look him in the eye before ripping his head off. But just then, I’m hit with what feels like a lightning bolt in my head. A sharp pain causes me to stagger backward, dropping him on the ground as I clutch my head, my skull feeling like it’s splitting in half.

Atticus lets out a painful growl as I fall on my knees, feeling whatever they have injected me with making its way into my bloodstream and my body feels like it’s going to burst into flames. I involuntarily shift back to my human form, strength draining from my body before my limbs go limp.

“What... have you done... to me?” I slur, trying to get up but choke as blood spews out of my mouth.

“Night-night, Your Majesty,” is the last thing I hear before a boot makes contact with my face.

•

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I open my eyes, looking around, disoriented, and it’s dark. My eyes won’t adjust. I groan, feeling that something is wrong, and try to feel Atticus, but I can’t. It’s like he’s gone, leaving me with nothing but a terrifying void in my head, and for the first time, I’m cold. I try to raise my head but choke as something sinks into the skin of my neck, restricting my movements, and I realize I’m strapped to a metal table.

“It’s no use. The chains are bonded with magic. You are only hurting yourself more trying to move,” a voice says from the corner of the room, and I squint my eyes, looking in its direction, the voice sounding familiar.

“Hello, Ares,” the owner of the voice, steps into the light, holding a bucket and a big knife in the other hand.

“Cora?”

“Yes, my love,” she says, her voice laced with bitterness as she says the last part.

“What is this, Cora?” I ask, trying to move but groan as the wire sinks deeper into my skin.

“I told you, you’re only making it worse.”

“What have you done to me?! What am I doing here?! Why can’t I feel Atticus?!” I growl, feeling a surge of rage, but she remains unfazed. She places the bucket down on the table, all the while clicking her tongue.

“Mind your tone, my prince. This isn’t Silvera. You don’t call the shots here. I do,” she warns, now waving her finger in my face, enraging me even more.

“Get these f*****g things off me now, Cora!”

“Or what?!” she screams back in my face, butting our foreheads. “What, Ares? You’re going to hurt me? We both know you already did that.”

“So that’s what all this is about? I’m pumped full of voodoo and tied to a table because I broke your stupid heart. Get me out of these f*****g things, you crazy b***h!”

“Stupid heart,” she repeats her voice just above a whisper, before letting out a chuckle as she stands upright.

“Cor—” I try to speak again, but the words die in my throat as she punches me hard in the nose before shaking her hand, her face contorting in pain.

“Don’t you dare say that to me! Do not say that to me, Ares! That’s what they said. That’s what they all said to me as they spat on me after I confessed my feelings for you! They said I was wasting precious time trying to spare your life, but I groveled and begged for your miserable life. Only for you to prove them right. I didn’t want to do this to you, Ares. I wanted us to rule side by side as king and queen. I wanted to give you beautiful silver babies, but you broke my heart, Ares, and cast me out like I was nothing.”

“I was drunk, Cora. I apologized to you in the morning. I didn’t even know how you ended up in my bed in the first place. What did you want me to do? Pretend I was in love with you. Are you that desperate?” I tell her, raising my head and ignoring the metal that’s cutting into my skin, and her expression immediately changes into a hurt one, a lone tear escaping her eye as she stands rooted, looking at me.

“I’m sorry, Cora. I never meant to hurt you, I swear. If I could take it back, I would. Now, if you get these things off me now, I promise I won’t take any action against you. No one will ever know, okay? But you need to release me now.”

“I believe you. Your kind heart was the thing that made me stray from my mission in the first place. You’re nothing like the other princes and kings. You’re gentle and kind. I’ve abducted you and used magic on you, and yet you’re still willing to let me go. Even though what I’ve done is punishable by death, another prince would have me hanged, but not you. You’re one of a kind, Ares Anselm Silver. That’s why I believed in you and why I believed I could talk you into ending all this nonsense between our people. But now... that bridge has already burned.”

“Nonsense? Your people? What the hell are you talking about?!” I ask, having no idea what she’s raving about, but she just starts laughing, tears streaming from her face.

“You have no idea, do you?”

“Of what?”

“You—” she starts to say, walking up to me again, but a text comes through on her phone. “Look at that, it’s time,” she says, glancing at me with a sad smile on her face as she takes the lid off the bucket and picks up the knife.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

“Sshh... it’ll all be over soon,” she says as she goes under the table, and I let out a loud groan as she plunges the knife deep into my back before pulling it out and thrusting it in again, stabbing me repeatedly. I immediately feel the blood draining from my body.

“I’m sorry, Ares. I truly am. I wanted to save you. I tried to ask you nicely for your heart so I could protect it, but you refused. So now I have no choice but to take it. But I won’t break it. I promise,” she says, gently placing a kiss on my forehead.

“Cora,” I whisper, feeling droopy, but she shushes me. “Shh... hush now, my love. Don’t fight it; you’ll only make it worse for both of us,” she says, lifting the knife before burying it deep in my chest as she guts me open, causing me to scream and writhe in agony. Nolan, my brother’s name, is the last thing I hear as she chants in a foreign language.