The sounds of arguing were like a drill in his skull.

The chair was too small – an intentional slight – and his long legs were folded for far too long under the oaken table. He didn't dare let them see his discomfort, offering them a banal smile as they pottered on about land disputes and humans who ventured too far and demanded too much.

Humans.

Always a bone of contention at these meetings. He had only come to discuss their next move against the Ravi. He didn't bring such conversations within the walls of Lunar. He didn't like to invite trouble onto his doorstep, even though it loved to knock.

Easton Young drew a weary gaze around the meeting room, ignoring the urge to rub his brow. Touching his face brought attention onto him. His inner circle had always told him to embrace the scars and how they intimidated people, but he hated that. He didn't need the help. He had always been a little too big, a little too rough. He had broken daisy chains as a child and toys that friends had leant him. Always by accident.

"An attack so close to Lunar?" A nasally voice cut. Easton bit down a sigh, looking to Carada Elan. A midland High Alpha who had retained his title even when Easton had dismantled the monarchy. Easton didn't like him – but he was a fine Alpha and had conformed to the new rules quicker than the rest of those who had managed to retain their titles.

The older male sat back in his chair, observing Easton under a silver-blond brow.

"I imagine they are trying to get to you...?" Carada quirked a sardonic smile. "Or are the whispers true, Supreme Alpha. Is a little moon-bound locked away in your house."

Easton flared at the insinuation, taking a second to reply. "If you want an answer, Carada, ask. I am not hiding anything."

Lycans leaned forward in their chairs. Leather squeaked. The non-Lycans in the room, still wary of their allies, kept still. Waiting.

Carada asked. "Your mate – we heard she was alive."

"That's not a question."

Carada sighed, flexing powerful hands before he crossed his arms. "Your mate, Nova Linden...is she back?"

The name only conjured the urge to check his phone. She had sent him an emoji – a dancing pizza when he had asked her if she was doing alright back in Lunar. He didn't want to be overbearing, but the seconds seemed like hours when she didn't reply and he could only imagine Lunar in flames and her in the hands of the Ravi again. Never again. He would rather be subject to their torture than to let them within a hairsbreadth of her again.

The pizza probably meant she was alright.

He had sent a text to Blav just in case. His friend had only told him to feck off and stop acting like a creep.

Which probably meant she was alright.

"She is."

Whispers broke out across the room – whispers of human girl and the Ravi. Easton knew there would be rumours and knew they would be impossible to curtail. He had been made into something he could never live up to when he tore down the monarchy. Some papers had painted him as a grief-stricken rebel, a man fighting for the wrongs of the world. Others had painted him as a mad-man, a traitor who was driven crazy by a severed bond and a dead moon-bound. His scars meant that he could never hide and the ghost of their pain meant that he could never forget. He had thought once the skin knitted, he would be healed.

A lie.

To stop the insuing questions, Easton clicked the remote. At the opposite end of the room, a screen flickered to life. Silence fell, sombre now, as the rooms occupants beheld the pictures. There was High Alphas and human mayors invited. Those who knew the workings of the Ravi and had lost people to their madness.

"This facility, the Tube, was gutted by my soldiers a number of months ago. You would have received briefs on this. We now believe that this is only one of a multitude of similar experiment labs across the country. Here, kidnapped citizens are experimented on and killed without mercy. We have been receiving word that the Ravi are attempting to recreate their success with a subject known as 'The Omega'- and while the attempts have been unsuccessful so far, that doesn't mean they won't find a way to mass reproduce this creature soon."

Easton clicked on. The next picture only deepened the silence. The giant bipedal creature stood bathed in blood, narrowed eyes gleaming with malice. It could have been mistaken for a Lycan, with the fur and the teeth, but the snout was too sleek, the fur too short. Wicked talons were flashing, the chains that held them down broken.

Underneath the other claw, the body of a doctor lay mutilated. Blood smeared the white floors.

White. White.

"This is the creature who attacked the farmer near Lunar?" A voice squeaked. Easton didn't blame them – fear was natural. Fear was smart.

The Omega was leaner than him in animal form, but just as tall. It wasn't the claws that worried them – it was the eyes. The gaze that promised pain. That relished in it. Maybe he was just looking for things that weren't there. This whole thing was a puzzle and he was pretty sure he had most of the pieces but he just couldn't connect him. It was frustrating.

"It is." Easton clicked onto the next slide – a video. Again, of the Omega. The silence in the room began heavy and Easton shifted, uncomfortable with the sharp spike of fear. The Omega looked wrong in images, but in a video, it was malice encased in lethal muscle and sharp claws. Everything about it was wrong – to take a human to break them into something like this. Lycans were born with nature in their souls, grounded by the bond of their soul-mate.

A creature like the Omega was born from torture. Moulded by pain and he was convinced a creature like that could only deliver pain. Before the farm-attack, maybe he could have convinced himself that rehabilitation would work.

Now...

The condemning of a person didn't sit well with him.

"And what plans do we have to kill it?" Carada asked.

"We have taken what the Ravi have left in their notes to develop a way to contain it, but before the Omega is ... exterminated, we must discover why their experiments worked on this particular person. I have no doubt that they will try and recreate the Omega model with other people. They've certainly caused the disappearance of enough poor souls to give it a shot, but there isn't a whisper of another successful experiment."

Easton glanced at Darren Morley; the young Lycan had been captured by the Ravi, but thank the Moon, had escaped without lasting harm. He had been the one person, apart from Blav, that he had trusted with his concerns about Nova.

Eight years in a Ravi facility meant that they had kept her alive for a reason. Darren had kept her blood and reported some anomalies that shouldn't be found in a human women, but nothing of dark concern. She didn't move like a human. She was too calculated, too smooth. Too watchful and quick.

But, that was her secret. He had taken too much from her already – he wouldn't take her secrets. He would have to wait until she gave them to him.

The quick shrill of the phone startled him. With a murmured 'sorry', he glanced down at the name. Blav. He unfolded himself from the too small chair, rising to leave the room. Darren stood awkwardly, but Easton waved him down.

"Blav," He greeted, stepping into the quiet hall. "I thought you were sick of hearing my voice, brother? You mustn't if you've taken it upon yourself to ring me."

There was silence for a long, peaceful moment.

Then, Blav's rough voice crackled down the line. "Easton..."

His stomach hollowed. He had known Blav long enough to recognise that tone. The one that beckoned bad news. "What is it?"

"The Ravi attacked Lunar."

"Fuck." Easton's jaw clenched, rage flickering through him. "Is my...is Nova safe and well?"

"They attacked Lunar and Nova... Easton...I- I failed my friend. I failed."

No. No. No. The desperate begging filled his mind, a sick and painful feeling flooding through him. Blav continued to speak. "They created a distraction in the square, the Omega appeared and in the chaos, they must have pinched her."

My Nova. He could see her there in his mind, her face burned into his memory. He wouldn't let himself forget her when he had wished for so long to see it. Narrow, gleaming eyes. A full mouth that dimpled when she granted anyone a rare smile. Moons, so beautiful. He had memorized the way she always looked at the sky when she stepped outside, a brief second of contentment flooding her before that usual guard went up; the way she cradled her coffee against her chest – the sigh she gave when she took her first sip in the morning. She was full of little quirks that he was sure she didn't know she was revealing and he would never point them out in fear that she would seal them away, never to be seen again.

Moons, she wasn't his. She didn't want to be, but he would give her that protection even if she denied him.

"We managed to capture the Omega, but he isn't forth-coming."

He took a calming breath. One, two, three. One, two, three. His panic would not help – even if it did hook razor sharp claws into the soft flesh of his throat. "I am coming. Keep him alive and if he doesn't give you answers, he will spill every life secret once I get my hands on him."

His mate would never see him like this. The news had not done his savagery justice – to survive in a world you wanted to change. In a world that needed it, he had made the hard decisions.

He did not think of himself as particularly smart, or clever or strong – he had made that decision to drag the Lycan monarchy to it's knees. When it wouldn't stay there, he brought their heads onto pikes. That was a tap of the savagery he felt now. He had been given a taste of the future he longed for. The Ravi had taken it – taken her.

The Omega would speak.

Then, it would die.

==================================

The Ravager and I stared out at the dark courtyard. I was calm as I examined the coming and goings of soldiers, hurrying in little clusters across the muck. I was trembling in the cold, weakened by the lightening and hungry. I would be fine. I had felt starvation before. This was child's play. The warm-up before the Ravi's main show.

I knew if I got up on the roof of the guard's station, I could vault the wall.

But, would they see me in the light?

We would have to be quick.

Just then, the gates into the compound began to groan and headlights flooded into the yard. The engine of a jeep hummed in the growing dark and I eyed the open space, my heart heavy.

"There's our chance." Attention was on the gate. I could scramble the walls of the guard's hut and then vault up and over and be gone into the night. I could remake myself again, free. Free. Free. I needed it – needed it to keep the darkness flooding my brain at bay.

The taint kept me safe, but the Omega was dangerous.

I took a single step and an alarm blared into the night. Lights lit up, illuminating the thick sheets of rain that fell onto muddy puddles. The alarm felt like hot irons twisting into my ears and I clapped the heels of my hands against my ears, a keening whine tearing from my throat. The Ravager fisted a hand in the back of my tattered shirt to keep me from falling to my knees.

"Feck."

Aggression chased the pain. Once the jelly left my knees, I ripped myself from the Ravager's hold. Great spotlights danced against the walls, across the great yard.

"The Omega has escaped."

Light blinded me, burning my retinas and the shock if it tore through my feeble control. I broke into my stronger form in seconds, releasing a snarl that rose the hackles of my singed fur. The noise addled me. The light blinded me. It had always blinded me when they strapped me down, when they cut me open and I screamed, trapped and awake and wishing that the pain would drag me into something peaceful.

"Crazy fool." The Ravager scoffed behind me.

The Omega pressed me forward and for the first time in a long time, I felt as if my limbs were moving without my control. A twitching snout scented the air, but the reek of my own burned skin was nearly over powering. A guard rushed to me, his own form formidable and sleek.

The Omega lunged, quicker than a wink and wrapped an enormous paw around his thick neck. I slammed him to the ground, pushing my weight down into his throat. He scrapped at me and they scored flesh, but what was pain. Pain a thousand times over.

Burning aggression ignored it as I scented something else on the air.

The door of the jeep opened. Harsh, artificial light cut across the feral face of the Alpha Commander. He was dressed in black, the rain plastering his hair to his head. His lips curled into a snarl, twisting the scars of his face.

I gave a lupine grin. There was the Alpha Commander who dismantled the monarchy. I threw the soldier I was holding to the side. He hit the mud with a groan, breaking down into his human form only to begin gasping into the wet earth. I shifted to face the Lycan, the taste of blood addling my mind.

Easton.

Enemy.

He loosed a vicious snarl, his form trembling. He walked towards me, unflinching as I let out my own answering snarl. "Where is she?"

I took in the threat. The twisting form that foretold the change from man to beast. My own claws, serrated and bloody, curled in the mud. A challenge. Finally, a challenge. The Omega, with her fried fur and hollow stomach, was hungry for the fight.

Guns were cocked up.

"No wonder you could not keep her safe," The Omega sounded demonic, her vocal chords rough and gravelly. "With your soldiers to do your bidding. Can you even fight, little Alpha?"

He stopped and beheld me. "You will regret taking her from me."

"She doesn't have long left." I said. The Omega said. Who cared at this point?

Easton's expression spliced, caught between panic and rage. His form twisted and the Alpha showed himself finally. The change was fluid and quick and he became a beast whose scars were shown across his short-sheared fur. They cut across his broad face, across his snarling muzzle and down the barrel of his broad chest. He stood on his back legs, where the defined muscles were easily seen.

He was as tall as the Omega. Broader.

I didn't know where the excitement inside was coming from. All those experiments, all that twisted medical intervention had created me to defeat beasts like this.

Underneath, buried deep. A flicker of fear.

A challenger that the Omega would struggle against.

We clashed and the strength of the Alpha couldn't be denied. He was fuelled by rage, boosted by the thought that his mate had been killed once more. I thought of breaking myself down to show him that I lived but I saw the faces staring at me with such twisted disgust and knew I couldn't break him any further. He would have to pull me apart to discover the secrets of the Ravi.

The fight was rabid and brutal.

The impact of the fight boomed like thunder and the guards had scrambled out of the way to let their Alpha handle me. We tore at flesh, neither giving an inch and I scored scars into his flesh that ripped open old paths. He cut me down into the mud. I kicked him hard enough that he flew through the air and broke the wall of the guard's hurt with his back.

He rose in seconds with a shake of his mighty head, his eyes lupine and bright. He rolled a long tongue along his sharp teeth and grinned savagely before lunging again. A flicker of rationality surged through me.

I didn't want to fight him. I didn't want to hurt him.

The force his blow cracked my collar-bone and my shoulder popped out. I faltered and he advanced. His jaws seized my throat. With a vicious toss of his head, he threw me across the yard. I landed in the mud, illuminated by torchlight. Rain froze me and I watched blood pool out into the mud.

I collapsed. A large paw, mangled by blood and fur lay in front of my eyes.

I twitched and those gleaming claws moved.

The world was cold, but I was warm. So warm.

Water sloshed as the Alpha approached me. I stared at my hand, the world dimming. The Alpha's approach slowed as my fur receded back into my skin. My claws broke into bleeding skin, my spine popping as it settled back into place. I tried to keep the cover of the Omega, but it slipped away from me.

That hand became a woman's.

The Alpha stopped, standing over me. From his massive chest, he heaved a hot breath. The claw that had been raised to deliver the final blow, fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Instead, a claw traced the swell of my cheek.

He fell to his knees in human form, that claw on my cheek becoming a hand curving to lift my face up. He spoke my name as a tremble. "Nova?"

The pain in his voice struck me. I didn't want to feel the rising guilt. "I didn't want you to know."

His hand burned my skin. Another trailed over my shoulder, achingly soft. Almost disbelieving. "Nova?"

"I'm sorry you had to find out." I tasted the blood on my tongue and swallowed it again. It caught in my throat and I coughed, hacking it back up. "Just – promise me that..."

People were moving around me. I could hear them and in my ringing head, their footfalls sounded like the crash of thunder. My shoulder was definitely popped out, my leg broken. The Lycan who had dismantled the monarchy. I could see why. "Kill me before you pull me to pieces. Just a small mercy."

I had asked the Ravi for mercy, but they had never given it. But Easton, despite the wounds he had inflicted on me, was a good man. A good, merciful soul.

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