MALRIC
"Then you must also know that the crimes of the Stones Pack have nothing to do with your bond with her." Grandmother said easily, dredging up a topic that had been much avoided that night.
His eyes snapped open, his vision turning golden as his Alpha powers reared to the surface. He could shut his sisters up easily, but his grandmother, the once Alpha Queen Scarlett NorthSteed was another thing.
"I do not wish to speak of her." He warned regardless.
"Fine. We will not speak of the fact that you went behind me to reject Eclipse Stones, that is her name, right?"
He scoffed at how audaciously she was pushing it. "Grandmother…." He gritted because the woman who had personally raised him with his all was now driving him crazy.
"If we will not speak of Eclipse Stones, then we will speak of your incompetent father." She thundered, "Especially the wicked woman that is your mother. Perhaps, a little dive into history is what we need to set our minds straight."
A vein ticked in his jaw, but his grandmother continued regardless, voice dropped, no longer that of a ruler but that of a survivor.
"Five centuries ago," she said coldly, "our ancestor Daemon NorthSteed crushed the Deformed Wolves and carved the United North from blood and bone. The land obeyed him. The packs feared him. And for a brief, dangerous moment, the North was untouchable."
Her eyes sharpened as she recited a strained history of theirs.
"That was when the cowards from other regions gathered."
Malric rolled the coin across his knuckles, uninterested. "You mean the cult."
"They did not call themselves a cult," she snapped. "They called themselves balance. Justice. Salvation. People always give their hatred prettier names."
She turned toward the coffins.
"They swore the North would never rise again. They poisoned bloodlines. Whispered into mating bonds. Sent their daughters into royal beds and their sons into our councils."
Her jaw tightened.
"And one of them became your mother; your father's fated mate."
The coin paused mid-motion.
"They did not defeat us with war," she continued bitterly. "They rotted us from the inside. Your father did not fall because he was weak—he fell because he loved the wrong woman. A woman bred to ruin us."
A sharp, humorless laugh escaped her.
"I raised you because your parents were too busy betraying their own blood. You were abandoned at my doorstep like a consequence I could not outrun. Five years later,your sisters were abandoned the same way."
She faced Malric fully now.
"So tell me, grandson—if the disease infects the blood, do you curse the disease… or cut out the infected vein? Tell me, between your father and mother, who was the greater vermin?!"
The coin fell squarely on the tail. He chuckled darkly at the ominous answer that faced him. "I suppose it was my mother."
She burst into laughter. "Your mother?! Ah! No, it was never her. On second thought, perhaps it was not your father either! Perhaps it was I! The mother who could not bear the thought of hunting her son down and taking his life!"
Malric tossed the coin into the air again, and when he caught it this time, he didn't look to see what it landed on. "The ruthlessness you could not afford, I shall now afford for you, grandmother." He promised in a low voice.
She faced him, nodding. "I shall not ask why you had to reject her, nor shall I ask about their death. But your vow to me tonight, you must keep it. You must never waver on this path."
He smiled slowly. Waver? That was a word he was not familiar with. From rejecting that woman with a rabbit mask, to her family's massacre, he had never wavered.
"I will not," he promised again.
"And the Lupine Pack? Your Luna Queen, how will you deal with them?"
Something cold settled within his bones. Realistically speaking, he had no less than a hundred means to torture and hunt the Lupine Pack. But granting a quick death was not his style.
All his life, he had mastered the art of playing the long game. Just like he did with his parents.
"Five years," he answered, "In five years, I will be done with the Lupine Pack."
His second promise for that night lingered between them. She might not show it much, but Malric knew that she had been shocked when he decided to marry Aria Lupine.
His sisters thought there ought to have been a grand reason for his decision, but he begged to differ.
It was just marriage, an act that as far as he was concerned ended at the altar. Not to mention, for the past three years now, Alpha Lupine had been literally grovelling for the marriage to happen. And now, he had fulfilled the man's wish.
"It's not like you to decide something so unusual." She observed, searching his face for a truth that didn't exist.
He opened his palm, observing that the coin was flipped to the head this time around. "Then consider this my utmost first move against this cult that thinks they could possibly bring down the North."
She squinted at him, but didn't say anymore. "I am tired." She said, staring at the coffins one last time, "I shall leave you to take care of the rest."
Malric nodded curtly as she took her leave.
He stepped out to the balcony, eyes drawn to the full moon that hung in the sky.
He twiddled with the coin, and when he subconsciously shut his eyes, the sight of a woman wearing a rabbit mask filled his vision.
His eyes flew open just as noise behind him interrupted his thoughts.
Violet stood there, her grip on her doll as tight as ever while her thumb brushed the worn out seam again and again; once, twice, three times. It was an entire routine with her, one that she never tired of.
Malric chuckled. "Don't worry. I shall warn Scarlett to stay off your toy. She will not dare touch it."
She shook her head vigorously, eyes trained on the ground. "That is not why I am here. I know… my brother is hurt."
He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Am I?"
She fiddled more with the toy. "I erected a memorial tombstone for your fated mate. Rest assured… it is somewhere no one will ever find out."
He drew a blank expression. "Have it destroyed," he commanded coldly.
Violet raised her head up, expression distraught. "How then will you mourn her?" she questioned, confused, "without a proper tombstone, how will you even remember her? Just thinking about it feels like Scarlett ripping my toy apart without keeping the remains. It hurts."
For a moment, he stared at Violet in wonder.
Many thought she was weird.
An anomaly.
They said she was sixteen, and yet acted no more than a six year old.
And yet….
He allowed himself a smile while he patted her on the head. "People who mourn don't ever move forward, Violet. They remain stuck in what would have been just like father did."
Her lips wobbled, and for the first time that night, she actually released her hold on the toy, her hands falling to her sides. "Malric," she called to him with a tear stained voice, " don't ever be like father." she begged him,
He grinned sardonically. "I will never be like him, Violet. I promise."
And that third promise sealed that night for him.