Chapter 478: Becoming one

The sun was bright in the sky that day, its rays shining so brilliantly that the vast surface of the sea reflected the light back. However, a glow rose from below the sea, brightening even the darkest depths and shining all the way up to the surface.

The light lasted only a few seconds before fading, and a few minutes later, two mermaids surfaced, carrying an unconscious Viola and laying her on the shore, where the waves touched her and slid back, her eyes still closed.

"Let’s go before someone sees us," Yasmin said to her cousin, who was looking worriedly down at her twin.

Viola had fallen unconscious after long, agonizing hours of her bones breaking and reshaping to welcome her wolf. In the end, she’d blacked out once the suppressant fully released, and they’d had to bring her back to the surface, since she might no longer be able to breathe underwater now that her mermaid side had been given up.

"I can’t leave her here alone. I’ll wait until she regains consciousness, you can go ahead." Ivy said, brushing wet hair away from her sister’s pale face. "We still don’t know if she’s become one with her wolf spirit yet."

"My mother said it will take time for her to adjust to sharing her body with another presence, and that she’ll have to search for the spirit within herself before she wakes. That could take days, let’s go find some of her friends and bring them here instead." Yasmin suggested, uneasy with the land and even more uneasy at the thought of being caught again.

"No, let’s wait for her. We don’t know where her friends are at this moment and could get caught trying to find them." Ivy said, reaching out and holding her sister’s hand in hers tightly.

However, as they talked, every word was being heard by Viola, who couldn’t seem to open her eyes no matter how hard she tried as she was stuck inside her own mind. She found herself staring at a mighty wolf standing before her, now fully unlocked, standing in its full, towering glory, so tall she had to tilt her head back just to meet its blue-green eyes.

"We’re finally meeting, Viola. You have the strangest name, I don’t like it much." Came the wolf’s words, as it began to circle her like she was its prey, its paws making soft sounds she tried to track as she turned with the creature, unable to make out its fur color in the dark, only its eyes visible.

"I thought we were supposed to merge together once you were unlocked." Viola voiced her thoughts, a small frown on her face, and the wolf snorted at her words as though it found them amusing or stupid.

"I am already inside you, but I haven’t given you the reins over me yet, because I don’t think you can handle containing me. I’ve been locked away too long, and we’ve wasted the years you were supposed to spend taming me and getting used to me. Now I’m full of energy and uncontrollable power that can’t keep me contain inward, how do you propose we settle that?"

Viola had heard that Alpha wolf spirits were hard to tame once inside a person, and that it was meant to be done at the age one first awakened it, but years had been wasted for hers, and now she wondered if she could ever control the mighty beast before her, who looked like she couldn’t wait to burst out and face the world with all that pent-up energy.

Viola was clueless about how it felt to have a wolf and now that she was facing hers, she didn’t know how to begin this get together.

"We’ll come to an agreement, and find control, once we get out of here, wherever here is. How do I get out?" Viola questioned, having no idea how to wake herself up, locked as she was inside her own mind with a wolf spirit who apparently had a personality all her own. Viola watched the creature settle down to the bottomless darkness and stare at her.

"Then wake us up, Viola. Cyan can’t wait any longer," the wolf said. "You are wasting our time when I’m impatient to finally see the world with you."

"Cyan?" Viola questioned, and she could have sworn the wolf rolled her eyes.

"Me. I am Cyan. I existed long before you. I was the wolf spirit of a girl who named me Cyan, but she was killed right after she awakened me. After that, I was passed down to you. I’ve been locked inside you all this time, and now I hope I won’t be killed off again, only to be reborn into someone else who will eventually die."

Cyan sounded almost bored as she spoke, watching her human with guarded eyes.

Viola understood something then. This same wolf must have been meant to break the curse, passed from one curse-breaker to another, all of whom Nerrisa had killed. She realized Cyan would probably remain sassy and guarded until Viola earned her trust completely and showed her that they were here to stay together.

But Viola didn’t think she had much time to convince Cyan that she wouldn’t die and leave her to be reborn into another human who might not last any longer than the ones before her.

"I can’t promise you much, Cyan, but help me get out of here, and we’ll be fine together. As long as we have each other’s backs, we’ll be fine. Our mate is out there, and he might need us to come—"

"You found our mate?" Cyan exclaimed, suddenly rising onto all fours.

The thought alone seemed to excite her. If Viola had already found their mate, then her human had come much farther than all the ones before her who had died.

Viola nodded, and Cyan immediately asked, "Is he our true mate? Will I feel his wolf, or is it one-sided?"

"We’ll have to find that out now that you’re here. But we’ll never know if we stay here," Viola said, noticing the glint that appeared in the wolf’s eyes at the mention of their mate.

The wolf snarled. "You should have told me that sooner. Let’s get us out of here, shall we? But fair warning, there will be hell to pay for bringing me out into the open and not allowing me to take control sometimes, too."

Cyan walked forward until she stood face-to-face with Viola. When Viola told her she would take anything she could throw at her as long as they left this place, Cyan’s expression softened into something almost satisfied.

Then her body began to dissolve into mist.

The mist slowly seeped into Viola, sinking into her body until the wolf standing before her disappeared completely.

•••

In Silver, many of the pack members gathered at the place where it had been announced the Alpha would be executed. Though it was said to be a private execution, many had come out to witness the so-called honorable killing of their Alpha, a man who had surrendered himself to it in order to spare the pack from the destruction he was otherwise bound to cause.

Killing an Alpha, especially the Supreme Alpha, wasn’t easily done, not unless his head was severed from his body, and Sebastian had allowed them to do as they pleased with him, so long as his wife would be safe.

As the crowd gathered to watch on the screens set up around the pack, the executioner walked into view, a sword coated in wolfsbane in hand, and everyone grew anxious. Some, with twisted hearts, even felt a thrill of excitement that their Alpha was giving his life for them and were curious to see what color his blood was.

Not long after, Sebastian was led to the scene, dressed in the same outfit he had worn years ago when he was officially named the Supreme Alpha. Only this time, he wore it to give up his life and his position for his family.

He walked with dignity, men flanking him on either side, carrying himself as though he were about to command the crowd rather than meet such a fate. His expression looked as though it had been carved from granite, his eyes cold as steel, while the faint click of his leather shoes echoed with every step.