The truth behind Livia's Fate

Ryder The Luna walked them through the packhouse and down a series of passageways, and then down a winding staircase to beneath the first floor of the packhouse where the dungeons were. She could smell many wolves in here. More than she thought would have been down there. Though it was not all the regular pack wolves in their cells under punishment for one thing or another that caught her attention, as she walked along, the sight of them was something she’d seen throughout her years of training, that was nothing unusual to her. What stopped her footsteps was the three children in one cell. All, from what she could see, looked to be under the age of 10. They all also scented of Alpha-blood. “His bastard children,” The Luna stated without stopping or missing a beat. So the Luna’s words to her own Mate outside, were in fact a reality, ‘you betrayed me first,’ she’d stated, and he clearly had been betraying her for years now. She knew here in the Wolfen Realm things were different to in the Human Realm. If a she-wolf was claimed by an Alpha, she could not issue a rejection, only he could. This Luna before her was bound to a Mate that likely cared nothing for her at all. May had once when they were first mated to each other, but over the years he’d strayed and often by what she was seeing. Those three little girls all had similar features to each other, likely all had the same mother. They had black hair and light brown eyes that lacked life. She’d seen that look on wolves before. She would come back to them. As she moved on to the next cell, she came to a halt once more at the sight of a 16 or 17-year-old girl. Ryder could tell she had a wolf. But she didn’t look to be fully realized, still had that soft teenage look about her, but it was the face that stared back at her that stopped her. Even though the girl was thin, and not yet completely hollowed out, she saw Livia in this girl before her. She just had a different hair color. She, too, smelled of alpha-blood. Livia had been in that hell in the realm for many years prior to Ryder turning up. This child was too young to be hers, but she was definitely Livia’s kin, she thought, as a nagging pain started to claw its way into her heart. She had to move on, to where she could see the Luna was now standing before a cell, “That’s her,” she stated simply, waving a hand in the direction of the cell. Inside that cell was a she-wolf, chained by one wrist to the back wall, and the other held an Alpha’s Oath. She was also heavily pregnant, but it was Livia’s eyes that stared up at her from her place on the small cot, as she looked from the Luna to Ryder and Waylon. Ryder’s heart clenched so painfully tight inside her chest as she took in this sad-looking creature before her, the same sadness at times Livia herself had in her own eyes. She also understood in this moment, as she struggled with breath, why Livia had fought so very hard to survive, and stay alive, she’d lasted the longest out of all the Mate-less. She was fighting to stay alive to see her sister once more. Not that she had ever said that. This woman before Ryder now, was probably more than just a sister, likely to be her twin, and as she stood there and smelled her she also understood all those children and that teenager were also all of this woman’s children. That bastard Alpha out there was breeding Livia’s own kin. He’d tossed her aside and gotten rid of her, likely because she didn’t have foresight, but Lyra did have. Had taken Livia’s own flesh and blood to torture and brutalize her in order to just breed her, to likely try and make more like her, and for what, to sell them to the highest bidder here in the realm, and she knew it. That’s how these sick bastard Alphas worked; they’d sell off their own daughters for an easy bit of coin. She felt a hand slip around hers as rage started to filter through her mind and her heart started to turn cold, at all she was coming to understand, the she-wolf in that cell moved her eyes back to Ryder. “Livia?” she half whispered with sad hopefulness in her eyes as she stood herself up. Ryder again felt her heart clench with pain, like someone had a hand inside her chest and was squeezing it with all they had, she wasn’t Livia and right now she wished she was her, so she didn’t have to tell her the horrid truth. She felt Waylon’s thumb sliding over the back of her hand gently. She reached up with the other and lifted her hood all the way back and dropped it behind her, and shook her head no, and she saw that hope just drain out of this she-wolf before her, and leave just sadness in her soft brown eyes, as despair etched across her face. Tears were falling from her eyes a moment later. “I can’t feel her anymore.” She sobbed softly. “Not for a long time.” Ryder didn’t have the heart to tell her here in this moment Livia had been dead for many years, that one word ‘dead’ seemed to be stuck in her throat, too harsh a word to be used, even for the truth of it, but what other words could she say, to this woman before her who had hoped it was her own sister coming to her rescue. “She is with our Goddess now, safe, protected by Selena herself.” Waylon’s deep voice spoke with a soft reverence tone, and Ryder watched as the she-wolf before her nodded slowly as more tears spilled down her face, in torrents as the pain and anguish of her sister's fate was before her. “I’m going to kill him.” Ryder bit out. “Do you want to watch?” She asked what more could she do for this woman and Livia. “I’ve already seen it,” Lyra stated softly through her tears. “Sister?” Ryder asked just one word to get the clarification she needed. “Twin.” Came the answer. Ryder's eyes moved the Luna “Release her now or die.” She grated out. “I… I don’t have the key, only the Alpha and…” she trailed off. “And?” Ryder turned on her and roared in her face. She felt Waylon’s hand touch her face. “Settle my little wolf, I can release her, vengeance will be yours, I will not stand in the way of your harming those that have harmed your own family.” Her eyes turned upon him, filled with rage and pain, and she didn’t even realize there were tears of her own streaming down her face until he brushed them away. “Now,” she snarled up at him as she tried to blink away the tears filling her eyes. She wouldn’t have Livia’s twin in this cell for even one minute more. Waylon nodded, and moved her away from the cell. “Breathe for me.” He murmured and let go of her hand finally, stepped to the cell door and laid his hands on it, took a breath in, and she felt it his Aura kind of roll off him, and she stared at him as she realized he wasn’t just any dragon, he had the same feeling as Christian did. Waylon was of royal blood in his realm, he had the strength to just yank that door right from its hinges and set it aside. The most powerful of all creatures in the realm, he walked inside and took the shackle in his hand, looked at it and apologized to Lyra, “I mean you know harm, but this might hurt.” “It won’t be the worst thing I’ve felt,” Lyra stated softly, and she watched as Waylon snapped the lock and released her. “Thank you, young Dragon.” Lyra bowed her head to him and then looked right up at him for a long moment, and she watched as Waylon lifted his hood for her to really see him. Lyra nodded after a moment. “I’ll be… we’ll be, safe with you.” He nodded and led her out of the cell. Ryder stood staring at her, knowing this was how Livia would have looked if she was healthy. She’d never been able to imagine it, what she would actually look like, and now she knew; she was beautiful. She reached out and touched Lyra’s face. “She was more than my friend, my sister,” Ryder whispered. “I loved her and I miss her everyday still.” Lyra nodded. “Thank you for coming, I didn’t know if you ever would, I could never see your path clearly.” “I was always coming, to avenge her. It was just a matter of time and knowing where she came from,” Ryder assured her. “She never gave up, not once, fought every single day right to the very bitter end.” She told her of her sister's courageous battle. “You’re new family is outside, we will never allow anyone to ever harm you again. You are more than precious to us.” She whispered as tears spilled. “May I hug you.” At Lyra’s nod, Ryder stepped over and held that she-wolf to her, and made a vow to always protect her, to never let Livia down. She watched Waylon break the doors to every cell down here and release all the prisoners, watched as those four girls raced over in tears, hugging their own mother, their kin bond still fully intact. All of them were standing there sobbing almost uncontrollably, and she pulled herself together. It was time to deal with this pack and the bloodline that ran it. “Waylon, I have to break our blood debt, take it out on me, not my family.” She told him, she was going to rid the bloodline from the world, and she knew he had a debt to be paid to him as well. But she couldn’t allow them to live. “A new blood debt is acceptable in this moment.” He stated simply, “If you agree to that, I’m certain new terms to my liking can be made.” “Name your terms,” she stated without hesitation. “Leave that scale on you for now, and I’ll come up with terms later,” Waylon answered. “Accepted.” She muttered. She knew she shouldn’t sign her life away to this Dragon, but none were going to survive her or her troops' fury when they saw who Lyra was, saw that she had four daughters and was with pup once more. Livia’s own twin had suffered the same fate, only her hell in the realm, had never been to leave this horrid pack, but to suffer at the hands of her own Alpha or his Son. They had both suffered and for what? “Flame, burn it to the ground if you want, there will be no pack here when I and the Eyes, are done.” She latched onto the Luna’s wrist in a deathly tight grip and shot off down the hallway, forcing the Luna to trail her. She thrust that Luna into the King’s Eyes camp rough and uncaring. “You’re all going to die by the hand of the King’s Eyes, I, as King Christian’s right hand and sword declare, death is the only fitting punishment. This pack is abolished.” She grated out with the full authority granted to her by their Wolfen King. She pulled a blade out and sliced her hand all the way across and let her own blood flow freely to the ground. “Dissolve by the King’s authority, I declare this pack no more,” she stated and felt it a moment later as the ground beneath her feet dissipated into rogue territory. She turned as she saw all of her troop shift their attention behind her, and she knew Waylon was leading Lyra and her daughters down here, she’d come out before he had and only now did her troop see the truth of all that was before them. “Lyra, is Livia’s twin sister, that bastard harmed them both.” Ryder and Thorn snarled together “Death by Belladonna Lilly Toxin, and flayed alive is my formal judgment. What say you all?” she asked. “De-claw them all.” Isla snarled. “De-fang them all.” Luca snarled. “I will take my own pound of flesh,” Max stated, and she heard the pain and fury edging his words. “For my lost sister, I will treat him as inhuman.” He turned and looked at Garald. “You will lose your manhood today, along with anyone of you that dared to take her against her will.” his hand pointed at Lyra “Will lose his manhood, before everyone here. Because you are not a man.” He roared.