Scarlet's POV
"Hiya Chris!" I greet his sloppy appearance, strapped to a chair...some decorations placed along his body like a garden sprinkler and well some other stuff removed that he most definitely didn't need. "How about a story time? This book ya got here seems interesting" I stroke the wolf pelted book, the lavish texture of fresh silk as each hair falls between my fingers. "Now I've never really been fond of books unlike our boy Percy, but this time I'll make an exception".
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Narrator's POV
"The Hero...The Beast. What even am I anymore. My body landed deep in a forest, an excruciating pain bursting throughout my body. Bones folding in on themselves in unnatural positions, pain. Pain. Pain. All I felt was pain. An electrical pulse through every muscle fibre like someone trying to bring me back from the dead, I might of passed out at least 3 times but it wouldn't stop. The sensation of his blood pouring into me like acid, burning away the previous human cells that I have. Replaced by one that better suited his liking. That monstrous wolf I now know as Fenrir, a jealous beast that wanted nothing but his throne back, his destruction causing everyone a precious loss. I went back to the place I called home...people saw me...rejected me. I saved them time and time again, all they had to show was nothing but rejection towards me. But I got to see her, the person I called my wife. The lone person who didn't reject me. The person who chose to bear my children despite my new appearance. My precious Freya. We met in secrecy each New Moon, a place surrounded by trees. A dimmed place hidden from the light, but it was our place. Each meeting she seemed to shrink smaller and smaller to me, an unsettling realisation but that didn't stop her. The undeniable bond between us that went past the boundaries of form and species...until that night he peered through my eyes. "You're part of my blood. I will not accept this sacrilegious act." A voice carrying so much authority it seared itself into the very flesh of my head. I blink, she runs. I blink, she's further from me...I blink...we're at a lake. Images flashing like a ripple in the water, wave by wave it changes. My form only getting closer to her tear filled eyes. I blink once more...-
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Scarlet's POV
"Damn just as it was getting to the good part too huh? But I've gotta go greet our guests now Chrissy, don't wait up for me!" I slam the book shut in response to the pack doors opening. "Hey hey don't you think it's just a little...fucked up that you won't talk to me?" I question the blood drained Beta...it wasn't my fault he spoke just a little too much when getting down here. "C'mon we're pals! I'll promise to finish the story once we're back and all reunited as a family, tell ya what. Since you're a Lycan I'll even let you join us!" I spin on my heels, flashing my glistening eyes into a mirror. "Did you know that Lycans have a natural gift to see the works of otherworldly matter? It shows itself as-"
"Scarlet hurry up and retrieve Percy, we're just about done here." Minerva practically spits towards me. "Fineeeeee, I'll be right back Chris. Miss ya already bud!" I blow a kiss to him...oh how I do love my family, who wouldn't love their family. I do what's best for them, they won't understand it. But I do.
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Percy's POV
We run through the pack halls, Thomas guiding us through the repeating rooms and carpeting that seem like a maze to me, sight of the endless fires that spread throughout the outside gleam through the windows. Heat blasting through some open ones and causing me to fall on the floor in surprise. Leaving Athena to sweep me up in her arms without a moment of falter and continuing to follow Thomas' guide. "Just up here!" He announces.
"Chris is here!" Scarlet peeks from out the corner of the basement, startling us and making Athena guard, "Who's she?"
"My cousin, we grew up together" I quickly inform her
"If you say so" He sounds almost dissatisfied by the answer I give her. But I'm happy Scarlet's unharmed and fine.
"Quickly! I heard him screaming just now but I was too scared to enter it on my own. Please Percy help him." She admits, making me unnerved for what we're about to see. "It's okay, we'll get him out. Just stay with us" Athena puts me down to let me open the door, grabbing the handle and twisting it to show a dark room.
"Someone's in here...I hear them breathing" Athena comments, noticing a light switch and snapping it on instantly. My eyes taking in the appearance of Chris, his body carved up like a fresh piece of prey. Obvious body parts removed. His eye and an arm. Tubes extending out into jars of blood which I assume to be his, an unwavering picture painted in my mind of this kind hearted person playing with children, defending us and helping us. Reduced to just being harvest like an everyday crop field. "CHRIS!" I scream while running towards his body, his head weakly lifting up and staring me in my face. A tear falling down his eye and mimicking my own, "Percy there's someone else, come back here" I hear Athena's words but my body refuses to move off him, fearing anything that touches him next will just shatter his fragile frame.
"Scar-" Thomas' fading voice calls out in pain and betrayal, my eyes falling on a small glimmer of red hair hiding behind him. His body falling to his stomach and revealing her snickering face.
"Scarlet...why"
"He can't be part of my family, sorry Perc-"
"YOU BITCH! I KNEW IT!" Athena leaves her no chance of explanation, kicking her to the ground and stomping her leg till the bone snaps through her clothing. One last forceful kick sending her towards the back of the room. Another shattering sound of bones clanking through my ears. "Please...stop" I mutter to the room but my words falling into nothing. "Mhmh" I turn to Chris' face, he's trying to say something...but he can't, his singular eye looking towards the body of Scarlet. My tears uncontrollable as I reach to pull his mouth apart, noticing something on the table beside me. Something red and small, it's...his tongue. The realisation proving to be too much for my last strand of sanity, my eyes breaking with blurriness, stumbling back and falling into a fetal position.
"My my, how the little Percy cries for his friend. How the little boy grew so much, only to grow into nothing." Minerva comes from the darkness in the corner, her scent hidden from the smell of Chris' blood filling the air. "And this little girl" She picks Scarlet up by the neck, "The little girl who was so so useful to me...I admit that much. You called me ungifted didn't you?" She pulls her by the hair, dragging her to the centre of the room and holding her up by her throat. "Your mind was never your own, it was a playpark for me...and you just let me in" Her eyes glistening into Scarlet's reflecting the same hue.
"Athena please, stop her" I cry
"But she stabbed Thomas!"
"Athena please she's all I have left!" She bolts towards Minerva with aggravation in her eyes in response to my plea, only halted by the petrifying gaze of Minerva.
"You thought I was powerless...but he gave me power. In exchange all I had to do was make him an army, an army that needed the blood of the ones he called Megalo. So I had this little one find the perfect candidate for me" She celebrates to herself, spinning her arms in the air while still holding Scarlet far above her. "Oh oops sorry darling" She pauses to remind herself of us around her almost as if our lives are just an inconvenience. Scarlet's tears and pleads followed by a nauseating echo of her neck breaking. The lifeless body now just a husk, "As I said. Sorry, but you really thought he wanted you? He loves me, his perfect mate" Minerva slides her hands along her body as if in awe at her own figure, hurling a spit towards Scarlet. "Things like you shouldn't try so hard to be pretty, just admit you're worthless in my divine light" She circles around Athena's paused body, knocking her to the floor with a minor push from the lack of resistance.
I crawl on the floor like a helpless lamb shaken with fear, 'You need me, let me out Percy'. Fenrir's beckoning only weighing on my mind more. 'Percy I can kill her, I can slaughter them. Just take it off...' My vision zooms into the bracelet Persephone gave me, finding my other hand slowly beginning to slide it off. "SHUT UP!" I bawl out through the echoed voices, "My you truly are a useless one aren't you?" Minerva wanders over to me, kicking me in the ribs until I cough up blood. A final ram that slides me across the hard wooden floor, meeting eyes with my dimmed eyed cousin. Her soulless face making me shriek out in agony for what I've lost, an irreplaceable part I called family. Someone who took care of me day after day, the person I called a friend but now broken to this.
"Percy...stop her" Thomas reaches for me, moving his hand to point at Minerva picking up a glass of Chris' blood. "Now this. This is power. The power he sought and I righteously deserve, the blood of a Lycan. I'll be able to be one with him, the perfect most unstoppable mate duo. Just us two..."
"NO!" Me and Athena yell out in fear, her body slowly gaining back it's normality as she kicks the table the blood sat on. Our efforts wasted as she drinks the near bucket full of Chris' blood like it's a divine wine.
"It's mine...I'm.." She tries to laugh, nothing but a cough of blood shooting out of her mouth and onto her hands. Eyes widening with fear "WHAT!" Her body flops back and forth, knocking over the other vials and bottles of Chris' fluids. Shattering glass raining down as natural as rain, his blood covering the wood and replacing the floor with a deep red crimson. "B-b-but...he's a Lycan...she-said...she...saw it" Minerva mutters in astonishment, bewildered by her own actions.
The room filled with nothing but her gasping cries for air like there's holes being burned through her flesh, the scratching of her throat leaking more blood onto the floor with the rustling sound of her nails digging into her throat. More vials dropping with her indecisive movements, distracting me from the change in space around me.
"Percy...I couldn't hear her thoughts" Athena murmurs to me.
"What do you mean?" I pull myself back to reality, the bodies of my friends glued to the tainted floor.
"The only other person I couldn't hear...was you Percy." A chill freezing up my spine as I notice the difference in the room.
...where's Scarlet's body.