Alpha Axton made his way through the blood ridden village, the witch Selina's necklace dangling from the hilt of his small knife.
The other wolves walked behind him slowly, their teeth stained with blood of the fallen witches. No one dared carry remorse on their face, or in their heart, for the alpha will sniff it and remove it. However he had to do it.
"Triumph," he said, raising the small knife.
The other wolves supported with howls of their own, their nose pointing up to the sky, one that was adorned by the crimson red moon.
They continued to walk, making everywhere fall silent under their trudging feet, the darkness they carried around them causing the dark night to become even gloomier.
Just after leaving the outskirts, far away from their pack and the witches' settlement, the necklace fell off the knife, and the Alpha didn't bother stopping for it.
His shadow cast on it as he walked forward, forgetting the necklace, its owner, and her formidable curse.
The room was dark and lonely when he got in, and he went to his bed once he did. He loved the allure of war, and the dye of blood, so he wasn't quite sure why he felt like he'd lost something back then.
He turned down the lights and sat on the edge of the bed, his hood still covering his face.
He always covered his face because his face was far different from what he actually was. When he watched his face in the mirror, he sometimes hated it. It was flawless, almost always unstained, despite the rigors of war. Perfect skin that made him look like the pampered prince rather than the brutal aloha he actually was. His hair was a light brown that cascaded down his shoulders when they were not in a bunch, and he made a point to put it in a loose bun. He was manly, on the sharpness of his jaws and the tan of his skin. The broadness of his shoulders, and the sculptured perfect body. And even though not vain, he loved that part of him. Body that was so chiseled, it caused dents in whatever he wore. He loved his strength, his ability, everything that made him both Alpha male and Alpha wolf. He had everything.
He stood again, and turned the light up, then threw the hood over his shoulder. This time when he stopped in front of the mirror, he didn't see a beautiful face. He didn't see a perfect chiseled body. He saw different things, things that, for once in his life, ever, caused a chill to go down his spine.
Half of his beautiful face looked like he had been burnt by acid, the skin sagging ungracefully.
His blood red eye looked intact on the right, yet was completely white on the left side.
He lifted a hand and covered the other, and found that he could not see with the other.
He removed his clothes from the waist upward and looked again.
Half of his body was sagging, just like his face.
He didn't like so much beauty that he carried, yet he knew he wouldn't be able to live with such hideousness.
"You will carry disdain on your face.."
He closed his eyes, his chest heaving with sheets horror. Her curse..her curse had really taken effect? The part of him that he felt like he had left behind...was his perfection?
He suddenly lost grip and fell to the floor, his functioning eye wide. He couldn't stand too.
"Beta."
He sat on the floor, watching himself in the long mirror.
What has this woman done to him?
"Beta!" he called again, his voice cracking.
A knock came on the door soon, and he nodded. "Turn down the lights."
The lights turned down, and he managed to drag himself back to his bed.
"Beta, I need to ask you of something."
"Go on, Alpha."
"How do I know my mate?" he asked. “How do I know the woman that is meant for me?”
"By their smell, Alpha. There is no surefire way, but when you see them, you'll know."
He nodded, reaching his silent resolve. He wouldn't die this way. He wouldn't watch himself just fade away like this. He would find her and force her to come with him, to heal him and to stay by his side. He didn't care how he had to do it.
"I am going in search of my mate, then. You, take care of the pack while I am gone."
The beta looked up momentarily, then nodded. "I will not fail you."
He stood up and left the room, leaving the Alpha to face his pain all on his own.
By the next morning, he knew the decision to find his mate wasn't possible. He couldn't walk and was blind on the right eye. He didn't have a chance.
For months he didn't leave his room, and got used to walking on his own around it, trying to live as a handicap.
In short moments, he experienced ecstasy, an emotion he didn't know how to feel before, but now felt surging in the deepest parts of his heart when he stood by the mirror in the first hour of the first full moon, and he could see his body become the way it used to be.
But once those moments were gone, he would sink back into his shell, knowing no one would want him now, if no one wanted him then. He was still the deadly Alpha of whispers, and he would never be wanted by a sane woman.