ALPHA RAY
Year 2002
(Summer, The U.R.T, Aresmore Estate)
The burning is violent. A bitter rage to reduce everything to ashes.
It's not the Goddess' private BBQ pit—the heat that pulled him back from death is from that burning house.
His heart is still beating firmly against the ropes that bound him. So this can't be the human version of hell. Then, where is he?
More importantly, where's the snow?
The trees aren't tall and conical anymore, and there are flowers everywhere. This is a garden—like the ones from his mother's paintings about the human world.
But how did he get here?
Ray looks down. He's still bound, still in wolf form.
And panic attacks him. Mozzo. His mind jumps at the worst: that mutt found a few speckles of dark whims and has finally decided to use it. What else besides dark sorcery could pluck a tree like weed and move Ray around with it—?
A bone-chilling laughter pierced in.
Ray jerks towards it in full caution—and a woman, around his mother's age, wearing one of her striking human dresses is gazing at the burning house like it's the fireworks.
Which is strange and terrifying.
When one of the fruit stalls in the market caught fire, Ray's father, the Alpha King, went berserk like everyone and rushed to put the fire out. Fires kill humans too, don't they? So why isn't she doing something?
Maybe she's in shock, Ray thought and then squirms in urgency. "Hey, lady!" he cries out, "Get help! Get water! Do something!"
The woman moved—but only to shift her weight onto her left leg, her face arriving nicely under the moonlight.
And a familiar chill crawls in.
Mozzo had that exact same look on his face just as the cage imprisoning Ray went underwater—the cheer of accomplishment.
Ray jolts back to the burning mansion—its top entirely gone—and realises what it was: the cage that had locked him in for death.
But instead of Ray, someone else is inside.
But who?
"I may be a monster."
Ray turns back.
The woman continued talking. "But you're the real monster, Frank. Everyone liked you because you were nice. Me? I loved you right from the start. Yet, you were cruel to me."
Snow. On roasted wood.
His focus snaps. Ray frowns in curiosity. The woman's voice came on again. So he hastily brushes it off. He can't tell why, he just knows that he needs to hear this.
"... fifteen fucking years," she vented, "I sacrificed everything I have. My time, my youth, my body. FOR YOU. I'm your wife! The mother of your child! And you don't think I deserve everything you have? What use do I have for this old house? You, monster!"
The freshest snow on roasted wood.
The scent has dived into his lungs, filling every corner, tugging harder, and Ray is finally pulled away, the woman's voice dissolving into the background. His gaze trails to an unconscious figure lying crumpled on the grass, at the woman's feet.
The freshest snow on roasted wood. It comes from her. A girl. About Rox's age. Even in the ember hues, her white dress spills around her like the purest cloud on a bright, cheerful blue sky.
Ray's windpipes knots with his stomach.
His eyes search madly. He can't tell why. He needs her to be alive. To be well. He's only seen her for the first time, yet something about her feels… close. Like his skin.
Thud. Thud. Is that… her heart? But how? Never mind. That's not important. What's most important is that she's not dead. Her chest is rising lightly with the breeze… her flawless skin seems to glow under the moonlight… her face—.
Ray forgets to breathe.
That face grips him like the ocean of sparkles in the night sky. Every night, as he gazes up from his favourite window of his quarters, he imagines plowing through that vastness of stars.
An angel. She must be one. His mother is wrong: angels are real. He's looking at one right now—.
A hysterical laughter yanked Ray away from that sleeping girl back to the woman.
"You married the perfect woman, Frank, that's your biggest achievement. Without me, you'll never become one with the house that you loved." The woman smirked. "Your precious girl helped, of course. Like those rainbow sprinkles on your pancakes."
To Ray's horror, she turned and looked down at the girl at her feet. "A little trick with the toaster was all it took." Her hand reached out.
Ray wriggles furiously, a strong urge to pounce and protect the girl from that sinister creature. "Don't touch her!" he snarls.
Ray didn't think he could snarl.
That hand brushed the soft black curls off the girl's face, revealing more of her flawless beauty.
Ray is stunned, forgetting to move.
Until the woman spoke again. "As for you, my sweetie pie, I'm sending you to your beloved daddy. Don't worry about mummy. It's all self-defense. Because you took away what's mine." The same hand slid down to the girl's neck, its slender fingers curling.
Ray screams his heart out, "Wake up! She's going to kill you, wake up!"
The girl didn't respond.
And the Alpha goes berserk. He sinks his fangs into the ropes and wrenches hard. "Grrr! Grrr! Blast it!" The ropes aren't giving way!
"Mmph…!" The girl's gentle brows knitted in pain.
The woman's fingers squeezed harder.
And Ray jams his fangs into another spot and pulls the ropes. "Grr! Grr! Come on, come on! She's gonna die!"
Cold air rushes in.
The pierce of freezing seizes him once more. His energy starts draining rapidly again.
Ray lets go of the ropes and blinks furiously at the white surroundings.
The snow is back. The icy winds are back. The trees are tall and conical again, wrapped in white.
The girl!
Ray ignores his chuckling wolf who's drinking away like his father during the festivals, his eyes search frantically.
But there's no burning house. No flowers. No woman. No girl.
A dream?
Exhaustion hits him like one of Mozzo's punches, and Ray falls limp once more. The blackness of death slips in, closing his eyes—.
The python squeeze loosens. Ray is too weak to feel relieved. He's finally saved. Who is it this time? Rex? Raymond? Rox? No, it can't be Rox—Ray's got nothing more to offer, and she knows it.
The ropes finally come off and Ray slides off, into a cocoon of warmth. Smiling, he opens his mouth, ready to thank the sibling who's found him, when the freshest snow on roasted wood fills his lungs once more.
Ray freezes at the face of his saviour.
The girl is smiling brightly at him. The girl who was unconscious just now and about to be killed.
What's she doing here? What was that all about then? Did that really happen? But then why is she here now? How did she get from there… to here?
What in deity's name is going on? Ray stares into the most beautiful pair of emerald green eyes he's ever seen. Soon, he's lost in their sparkling swirls.
"Oh, you poor puppy!" Her voice chimes gently, but extremely worried. "You're shaking terribly. Here. It's much warmer in this coat. Fang Zhang's place is well-heated. And there's a nice fire in my room. Stay with me, little one."
Ray very much wants to tell her that he's not a blasted puppy, but, like a sponge, his body is soaking in all the heat as rapidly as his stupid wolf would drink his life force, and the cocoon is turning into one of his mother's hugs.
Nothing else matters.
He finally stops fighting. He's done fighting. Everything's getting heavy. And he's extremely tired.
The wolf has won.