Chapter 17

Rowan

I was just about to return to Nymeria when I spotted Thane standing at the table next to her. I sighed but plastered a smile on my face and approached him and his usual accomplices.

"Thane. How are you doing?" Regrettably, Thane looked fine. Considering he was such a pain in the arse, I wondered how nobody had ended his miserable existence in the past half millennia- but didn't show my disapproval on my face, schooling my features into a pleasant but aloof canvas.

"Fantastic, I'm afraid." Thane was very aware of- and returned, my dislike.

"I heard you got a mate. Wonder how long until she runs off." He muttered.

"I understand a man like you would be paranoid about that topic, but I'm afraid not everyone have as bad manners as you do." A fact all elder people in high society knew but nobody spoke of- his mate had run off when he was young. Thane looked calm on the surface, but there was anger boiling in his eyes.

"She was a weak minded female."

"Just like your children then?" My advisors had informed me about Thane at great detail. At first I had thought we could become friends as I read about his early life. We had been similar in many ways, his father had been an arse who valued strength above all. He had pitted all his children against one another, and let only the strongest survive to become his heir apparent. One of my advisors had said that was when he went mad. He had slaughtered his entire family- all siblings, his father, his mother and every one of his fathers mistresses. As soon as he was crowned alpha he had searched out the strongest alpha in his packs surroundings and got himself married to his eldest daughter. It is not known exactly what happened to his bride, but he had at least three children, out of which only one seems to have survived him, and after a number of years, rumors had spread that the lady had ran off. His only surviving child, Raven could occasionally be seen at social gatherings in the eastern territory, and I had seen him once myself. It had been clear that even though his eyes and hair matched his father, he had taken after his mother. He was tall and gangly, with an almost completely expressionless face and watchful eyes. The kind of person who would stay in a corner and attract as little attention as possible in order to watch and hear his way into the secrets of high society. Unlike his father there was no glimmer of madness in his eye- I just hoped he wouldn't completely break before the death of his father. It would be much easier to make Thanes pack accept a new alpha if he was the one who had been in line to his fathers position before the death.

"they took after their mother too much." He simply shrugged. As if that was a feasible reason for killing your own children.

Nymeria

My head was loud. Loud in the way that it almost seemed silent. Loud in the way where a thousand voices in your head are screaming and you can't hear your own thoughts throughout the sheer noise. So loud you might forget there's really any sound at all. My hands were shaking, and I gripped my skirts, digging my nails into the scarred flesh on my legs to prevent it from showing. I kept my jaw clenched and tried my hardest to continue having my mask on.

*Red hair golden eyes red hair golden eyes red hair- Raven was alive- Red hair golden eyes red- I needed to find him- Red eyes golden hair red eyes- shit! Red hair golden eyes red hair golden- was anyone else alive? Was more of my pack alive?*

I walked out of the room- too fast to be casual, but I didn't care.

for five hundred years I had thought my children were all gone, suddenly that might be untrue for not one, but three of them.

And so, I burst into my room and tore the blue gown off, kicked the heeled shoes off and discarded jewelry and gloves. My head was so loud not a thought could fit in it as I approached the bathroom mirror and forged myself a new mask- a new body with unscarred skin.