Call of Shadows - Book 1

Chapter 35

Phoenix

My father was right in front of me. His smile taunted me, calling me to fight him. My paws began to move on their own accord toward where he was standing. While I walked I exhaled, slowing time to a stop. A few paw steps toward him and he began to move. Slowly at first and then faster he sped up back to real time.

What! No. This isn't possible. My eyes narrowed in surprise. My father smiled.

"My petit loup, your powers may work on everything else but I do not exist fully in this world. I exist between life and death. And thus, so do my wolves." I whipped my head around and sure enough his wolves were slowly beginning to move. Growling in frustration I let time resume and the wolves howls were once again heard through the night.

I will kill you tonight, father. His eyes taunted me back, "Are you sure about that? You've tried before." I lunged snapping my jaws closed only to find he had disappeared once more. A sharp pain stabbed my side before I could even turn. My eyes rolled trying to find where he had gone. Another stab to my side and still I could not find him. I could hear his laughter around the air, his laughter was one of victory. YOU HAVEN'T WON YET! I thought to myself lunging out of the way of another stab.

I continued to run, refusing to stay in one place. Mournful howls cut across the night but still I ran. I have to get him away from the battle. I thought, continuing to run. I could feel his presence around me hovering like a dark cloud. Just beyond my reach. I slowed trying to pinpoint where he was. My heart thundered in my chest threatening to erupt.

WHERE ARE YOU, COWARD. FIGHT ME LIKE A REAL WOLF. I shouted out. I smelled him before I saw him emerging from the shadows.

"Very well, my wolf, we will fight as we used to. Wolf on Wolf." Slowly he shifted. It wasn't the wolf I remember as my father, no this was something else. The wolf was pitch black. Not like Leto's shining coat, no this was like looking into a black void. His eyes glowed red behind the black shroud.

Do not forget, you could never beat me, child.

I'll beat you now, father.

Our gazes locked. And for just a second I saw my father staring back at me. My loving, doting father. As fast as it had appeared it disappeared into the void of darkness he had become. I waited for him to make the first move. His eyes searched me as mine did his waiting for someone to attack first. Neither of us did.

NO! I heard Jax through the mind link knowing Axel had just died. My heart ached with his loss but I couldn't mourn now. My father's muzzle twisted in a smile knowing one of mine had died.

You will lose, petit loup. You will always lose. I knew he was baiting me but I had had enough. I sprung landing on his back and pushing him to the ground. He heaved up unbalancing me and throwing me across the clearing. I jumped up on all fours and launched myself at the trees using one as a springboard to come back down on my father. My jaws snapped closed on his hind leg and he howled in pain.

He twisted his head around and caught my side ripping me from him. I could feel the wounds seeping blood down my side but I paid no mind. I had to kill him. I lunged again darting to the left side at the last moment and swiping my right forepaw down his chest drawing blood. I heard his breath leave his body for a moment before he recovered.

You've gotten better at fighting I see. But you're not good enough. His eyes glinted with malice. He rushed at me pinning me to the ground. I struggled underneath him but he was too heavy to throw off. His jaws wrapped around my throat.

Not today. I thought. My right hind leg pummeled his underside catching on his most sensitive part. Pain spasmed through his body giving me enough time to wriggle free from underneath. He growled in frustration; his gait swaying as he recovered. I narrowed my eyes following his movements. Distantly I could hear the fighting between the dark wolves and us but I paid no mind.

My father sprinted at me again but I caught his neck in my jaws biting down and throwing him to the ground. I pressed my paw into his shoulder ready to end the misery he had brought me for so many years.

"Amarqu, you don't want to kill him." I whipped around to see who had intruded on our battle, my eyes settling on the one person I never thought I would see.

Alice, what are you doing here? Where did you go? I thought, still pressing my father into the ground. My eyes followed warily as Alice walked into the moonlight.

"I've underestimated your talents, Phoenix. I assumed your father would easily defeat you, it seems I am wrong." I felt my father slack in shame. What is happening?

"You see, Phoenix this battle has been a long time coming. The day you were born was the day that I knew you had to die. So I came up with a plan. Your father, who doted on you so much, was to turn on you. Loss is a funny thing, Phoenix, especially when it's your mate. I knew your father would never hate you as long as your mother was alive, so I did what anyone would. I killed her." My brain raced trying to process what this meant.

"Once your mother was out of the picture, your father reacted just how I imagined. Of course a little whisper from my mouth helped put him on the track that I wanted him to follow. Oh yes, for a while he fought me trying to break free of my mind but he was too weak from the loss of the mate. Eventually he gave in bringing his pack with him. I thought that would be enough to kill you, but you survived and disappeared.

It was within those ten years you were nowhere to be found that I learned more of what your father was becoming and knew this was exactly what I needed. A Hellerash, one that had so much hatred toward the world that they would kill on any command. He had been an Alpha so his direction could be his own too. At some point I didn't have to suggest my ideas anymore he came up with them all on their own." I couldn't believe Alice would do something like this.

How could you kill my own mother? How could you do this to my father?

"Oh Phoenix, you have no clue what happened when you were born, do you? That lady was never your mother. No, your father had one unfaithful night with another woman which was the night you were conceived. In a desperate attempt to cover it up he hid that woman away and kept her in chains during her pregnancy. Your "Mother" Poppy was so ashamed of what her husband had done she helped him cover it up so no one in the pack would ever know.

I grew to hate Poppy in the months leading up to the birth of my pup. She would come down to the cellars and apologize for hours. But I didn't WANT her apologies. I wanted her to pay for letting me rot in a cell.

Then the time came for my child to be born. She was beautiful. I knew she would be special. But Poppy took her from me and left me to my silence and misery. Eventually when she knew I would keep my mouth shut, I was let out of my cell to be reintegrated into the pack.

Do you know how much shame I felt when I first walked back into the pack? No one wanted to look at me or speak with me. No one even cared that I existed. And my child grew up with a lying mother and a cheat of a father." My head spun with all that was being said. What she was implying, it was impossible, wasn't it? There was no way. She couldn't be...

"I am your mother Phoenix, not that imposter Poppy. She had no right to do what she did. They kept me from you, and only when you were a teenager was I allowed even a little time to bond with you. By then, I knew your father was ready to become the most powerful Hellerash on the planet and my plan was set in motion." She turned to my father once more.

"Finish this."