"I'll ask you again, Olivia. Between your father and mother, who do want you alive?"
Olivia's grip on the dagger loosened at the bizzare choice placed before her. Wasn't it obvious? She wanted them both alive! She deflected her gaze from the tall, dark and dreary figure towering over her, to the people chained to the wall behind him.
Her parents.
"I…"
"You have to choose one of these traitors to show mercy on, although, the other one's life will be nothing short of a living hell." He announced with no reservation in his tone.
Olivia wanted to scream and tell him he was wrong, her parents weren't traitors, how could they have betrayed people they didn't even know?
The first time she had seen this man, was when he invaded their cabin on her tenth birthday with his allies and captured her family.
And it wasn't just this man, it was the lot of people in the other room, monitoring her, all eager to see which of her parents she would spare. When she was brought to this foreign place, they were the ones who threw all sorts of questions her way, and laid bitter accusations on her parents.
"Please, I'm begging you, let us go. My parents aren't bad people…" She tried to reason with him, something she had been doing for the past two days, since she was forcefully brought to this place.
"Not bad people? I beg to differ. But that's a tale for another time. Now, Choose!" He raised his stern voice, startling Olivia into dropping the dagger.
She shrank back and covered her mouth, her watery eyes raised from the dirty floor of what seemed to be a dungeon, to her parents, who had their hands spread over their heads to look like criminals.
She gasped at the nails driven into their palms, binding them to the walls. The heavy chains wrapped tightly around their necks, wrists and ankles, obstructing the flow of blood. And the most painful of all, her mother's tongue, lying motionlessly on the floor in it's dried pool of blood.
Earlier, her mother had tried to calm Olivia down and assure her things would be fine, but got her tongue cut off by their capturer's sharp claws. It was the first time Olivia had seen a human do that, and she didn't want to see it happen again.
The man next to her crouched down and picked the dagger off the floor. He circled over to Olivia and handed it to her.
"Take this and choose. I'm not going to repeat myself." He forced the dagger into her hand and pulled her towards her parents.
"They knew the penalty for treason and still committed it anyway!" He lecturered, placing her in the middle of her parents, with the sharp tip of the knife pointing forward.
He placed his large palms on her shaky shoulders and said into her ear, "The Alpha is kind enough to not allow you become completely orphaned. After this, you will go and pay your respects to him." He announced, and then snaked his hands to her wrists, strengthening her grip.
Olivia was frozen in fear, she had seen the man everyone called Alpha, and didn't want to face him again. The bandage on her wrist was proof of how ruthless that man was, even to children.
"Now, if I were you, I'd pick your father, after all he's liable to survive the dungeon. Aleric might've been a traitor, but he was one of the strongest warriors our pack had to offer. He was our Gamma, though that's all in the past." He whispered, forcing the dagger through her hand towards her mother.
He tipped the dagger onto her exposed belly, splattered with whip lines and claw marks. Olivia turned her head away, but her captor, forced her to watch and feel as her mother's stomach pulsated heavily against the cold blade.
"But Amelia here, she does have some merit to her name. After all, she was our pack's best healer." He said in a lulling tone, only for him to suddenly start pushing the dagger deeper into Amelia's stomach!
"No! Stop! Please!" Olivia screeched at the top of her lungs, choked in tears, but he was stronger and continued to slide the dagger effortlessly into her mother's stomach.
She could hear her father buck and struggle against his chains, as her mother breathing stiffened with every inch of the blade wedged into her.
"Little did we expect this scamp to try and use those abilities against the Alpha! Just thinking about it makes my blood boil." Her captor raised his angry tone.
Just as she thought he would finish the job, he abruptly stopped what he was doing and brought Olivia's frightened blue eyes to meet his cold demeanor.
"Don't you think she deserves death…" He asked with the blood of Amelia's mother trickling down the dagger.
A cold shiver cascaded down Olivia's spine, she didn't understand anything that was going on anymore. One moment, she was in the middle of blowing out her birthday candles, and the next, her family was attacked and brutally beaten right in front of her.
What was all this talk about dying and living why should a ten year old have to choose between her parents? Why couldn't she live with them like she always had?
"I'm begging you…I'm sorry…" Olivia's plea was cut off sharply by the sudden intrusion of two warrior, covered in blood and soot.
"Beta Phillip! There's bad news! The gates have been breached!"
Phillip took his hands off Olivia and sharply turned to them, "What was that?"
Olivia swiftly kicked the dagger away and placed her palm over her mother's stomach, trying to stop the bleeding.
"Don't worry momma, I won't let you both die." She whispered under her breath, and closed her eyes, focusing on the wound. With Phillip distracted with the report, he did not take notice of what transpired next.
The deep wound which was everything fatal, suddenly started to repair itself. Two loose strands of Olivia's raven black hair transfoemed into a snowy white hue.
Her father struggled against the gag on his mouth, trying to say something, but Olivia was far too involved with what she was doing to hear it.
"Alpha Lucian of Blood Moon Pack is attacking the center as we speak!"
"And the Alpha?" Phillip demanded, the messengers shook their heads, "We have no idea Beta, we came to retrieve you and ask that…" The messenger stopped talking, unable to finish his sentence.
"And ask what?" Phillip asked in a forceful voice.
Throwing caution to the wind, the second messenger voiced out. "We came to ask, that you let the traitor, Gamma Aleric lead the attack!"
On hearing the suggestion, Phillip bared his claws and struck the messenger, killing him with one attack. His subordinate widened his eyes in shock and tried to run away, but Phillip was fast and slit his throat in an instant. His corpse fell with a thud into his pool of blood, next to his dead friend.
Phillip spat at their corpses, "Traitors, every last one of them." He said, raising his sights from the corpses to Aleric, who looked to be struggling against his restraints.
He noticed the chains were nearly ripped off the wall, and with just a bit more push, Aleric would definitely set himself free. The image of his hated rival regaining his position lit a flame of anger in Phillip's heart.
"All traitors have to die, one way or another." He said to himself, as he marched over the corpses, crushing them under his black boots.
"Step aside!" Phillip said, and shoved Olivia away not caring where she landed. He reached for Aleric's face and yanked the gag off his mouth.
Aleric glared and spat blood at Phillip, "You bastard! I'm going to rip you to shreds!" He threatened, fighting against the chains.
Phillip calmly wiped the saliva off his face and caged Aleric's jaw, he forced his gaze to his wife and lifted the corners of his lips into a menacing grin.
"Try that and I'll kill your wife, and the child she's carrying in her womb." Phillip threatened in return, Aleric bit his lip and looked away, far too ashamed to face his mate.
He had failed to protect his family, back then and even now. He had been praying to the moon goddess while being tortured, for just one more chance to save them, a way to redeem himself.
Playing the devil's advocate, Phillip brought his lips to Aleric's ear and whispered. "I'll let them live, but in return, you'll have to do something for me."
Aleric responded sharply, "I'll never work for a monster who kills children—"
"You say that as though you weren't just as guilty. You can't run from what you are, so make your choice Aleric. Are you going to work for me? Or are you going to have the blood of yet another child on your hands?"
Aleric shook off Phillip's grip and fixed his gaze on Olivia who had scraped her knee and found it hard to stand. She looked so weak and innocent, he didn't want her to get swallowed by the cruel world he grew up in.
But he didn't want her to die either.
Hence, he took the burden all on himself and turned to Phillip.
"What do I have to do?"