Killed His Parents?!

Kyle stirs awake, his eyelids fluttering weakly.

A silent groan escapes him as he sits up in bed, clutching his pounding head, the world around him spinning out of control.

Blinking through the dizziness, he looks around, and frustration builds inside him like a storm when he realizes he's still in Lucan's room.

A heavy, sinking feeling claws at his chest.

He remembers nothing about the violent, evil energy that had torn free from his mark.

The only thing that stands sharp in his memory is the moment he rejected Alpha Lucan in front of everyone.

Slowly, his gaze drifts across the room because he can feel him close enough, and then his land on Lucan.

Lucan is sitting on the couch, his body hunched over, his head buried in his palms like the weight of the world is pressing down on him.

Kyle's heart skips a beat, his stomach twisting painfully.

Lucan must be furious. He must hate him. After everything he did... after hesitating and humiliating him before the entire gathering...

What had he done?

But what choice did he have?

Kyle's throat tightens, and when Lucan finally looks up, Kyle's heart nearly stops.

Lucan's eyes are bloodshot, swollen from crying_ maybe.

Kyle's breath catches.

Was it because of me?

Guilt gnaws at him like a thousand tiny blades, carving deep into his insides. Without even thinking, the words tumble out, raw and desperate:

"I... didn't mean to... humiliate yo..."

Before he can even finish, Lucan's voice cuts through the room, a jagged, broken sound, weak but sharp enough to slice through bone.

"You really think I care about humiliation? You actually think I care about what people think? No! I do not!" Lucan snarls, his voice cracking under the weight of his pain. "The only thing I care about... is that you rejected me. I thought we were on the same page here, Kyler. I thought you wanted this as much. So why? Why did you do it? Was it because I was too obsessed? Because I kissed you last night even though I said I wouldn't touch you? Because I'm just not good enough for you? Which one? Tell me! Make a list, maybe then I'll know what to fix, maybe then I can make myself perfect enough!"

The agony in his voice is deeper than words alone, it is a sound born from a place beyond heartbreak, beyond betrayal.

Goosebumps race down Kyle's arms, but he forces himself to speak, to push past the lump choking him. He has to.

"It's not that you're not good enough for me... it's that I'm not good for yo..."

Lucan cuts him off again, this time fiercer,

"You don't get to decide that for me! I decide whether you're good enough for me or not. The only thing you get to decide... is whether I'm good enough for you!"

Kyle freezes, the world around him falling utterly silent.

He wants to say it. To lie and say no, Lucan isn't good enough, just so he can let him go.

But what right does he have? What kind of standard could he possibly have to look at a man like Lucan and call him not good enough?

Still, if it's the only way to escape, he tries to force the words, but he doesn't get the chance.

Lucan stands, moving to the bed with slow, heavy steps, sitting down beside him.

"Kyler..." His voice is low, hoarse. "One thing I've never done and never want to do is force someone to do what they don't want to do. So I'm telling you right now, I'm not ready to let you go. I'll never be ready. So I want you to choose me, of your own will, because I don't want to force you to. And neither am I going to let you leave.

So If you've already seen things in me that turned you away, if there's something you can't accept about me, then tell me. We'll work through it. Together."

Kyle's heart pounds so violently it hurts.

Lucan's voice drops to a whisper, one so full of raw truth it shakes Kyle's soul.

"I feel whole when you're near. I feel peace, real peace. And right now, the only reason I'm holding myself together after losing my parents... is because you're here."

Kyle stiffens, blood freezing in his veins.

Losing... his parents?

"What do you mean, losing your parents?" he croaks out, confusion swirling with dread. Weren't Lucan's parents there, alive, at the ritual?

Lucan swallows thickly, his jaw clenching. His eyes darken with a rage Kyle hadn't seen before.

"They died yesterday. At the ritual. Killed by an evil, cursed force, a cursed wolf who was born about eighteen years ago."

Kyle's entire body locks up, his breath stolen from his lungs.

He's talking about me.

And Lucan's voice bleeds hatred, dripping with venom.

Lucan continues, unaware of the storm tearing Kyle apart.

"Maybe you heard of him. Born with glowing crimson eyes instead of gold, a mark of the beast burning on his chest. Ever since he came into the world, there's been nothing but chaos. For eighteen years, not a moment of peace. That cursed energy he released when he was born... it was the same yesterday. It killed my parents."

Panic claws at Kyle's mind.

No...

No, no, no...

Why don't I remember any of this?

Had he killed them? Had he truly killed Lucan's parents without even knowing it?

Lucan's voice cuts deeper, colder:

"Creatures like that shouldn't even exist. We've tried to hunt him down, but he's slippery. Still, we're making progress. His parents were protecting him, but we got rid of them.

It didn't make sense.

His parents were the Alpha and Luna of this pack. They didn't have a child for a long time, and when they finally did, it was a monster baby.

The packs got furious and stripped them of their titles. When they refused to end the baby, they were exiled, but the bad things didn't stop happening.

My parents took over as the new Alpha and Luna, tried to get things back to normal, but nothing has ever been normal since he was born."

Kyle's mind shatters. His body burns, searing from the inside out. The mark on his chest pulses, white-hot. His eyes itch with unbearable fire.

They killed his parents.

Lucan, the man sitting beside him, talking like it was nothing... had taken part in murdering his parents.

Kyle's whole body trembles. The rage, the grief, the horror, confusion_they claw and tear at him, too vast to contain.

Without a word, without even looking at Lucan again, Kyle throws the blanket aside and stumbles off the bed.

His legs barely hold him as he bolts into the bathroom, the walls closing in around him.