A Night of Bloodshed - Chapter Twelve
Odin’s POV:
The world seemed to spin from around me as the pillow from under my head lulled me into a deep sleep, asleep that I knew I couldn’t fight against, I wouldn’t be able to pull myself out this time. I finally closed my eyes and allowed my mind and body to sink into the numbed cold that I had come to know so well. I released a frustrated sigh as I finally succumbed to the intoxicating sense of nothingness, my mind slowly sunk within the dark abyss that I had been trying to avoid over the last six months. The image of my adoptive father, Cassius’s death was forever burned within my mind as the scenes replayed themselves before me causing a deep sense of anger and frustration to dwell within me as I blamed myself for not doing anything back then to save him.
He was a strong man who all those below him looked up to him for guidance and safety, he cared deeply for his family it was the one thing that possibly made him succumb to Elijah the Mad’s blade. It came as a surprise the night the sent his hounds after us as their quick stealth easily bypassed our scouts as they tore through their necks and leaving behind a river of blood. Cassius had barely managed to get his daughters out alive by the time Elijah tore through his chest.
Cassius was murdered in cold blood before my eyes, a haunting figure stood before his limp body with the eyes of a possessed and deranged man whose body was covered in blood that wasn’t his own. It was at that moment I had realized who the man was that stood before me, His cold and lifeless eyes were unremarkable as they contained nothing but a sad and lonely existence. The generational madness that ran through his bloodline slowly took over his mind as it ingrained itself deep within his very soul.
It was the first time I ever stood before Elijah; the man who had helped give me life.
“She should have killed you the moment you were born,” The man is known as the Mad Alpha of Southern Thallyn, Elijah said in a haunting and dead tone.
Elijah towered over Cassius’s limp body with either of his heavily booted feet placed within the mud on either side of Cassius's body. I stared wide-eyed as the voices of my fellow pack mates filled my ears, soot clung to my face as I stood just a few meters away from the ravaged and haggard man. Elijah’s once vibrant blue eyes were now vacant of life as he stared at me as with his pale and lifeless orbs staring into my soul with intense hatred.
“You should be dead, boy,” Elijah stated in a cold and flat tone as he pointed a bony and wrinkled finger at me.
He leaned over the body that had once been my adoptive father and removed his sword from Cassius's bloodied chest, the sharp blade tore through his lungs releasing any air that had been held within his chest. I flinched as Elijah roughly placed his foot against the dead man’s chest and violently jerked his wrist to the left causing some ribs to snap as the blade finally became free.
“Do you know what I did to your mother Iris the moment I found her cowered in a corner deep within a thickened wood?” Elijah’s voice bellowed out as he turned his body towards me and glared at me as his lengthened graying hair covered his eyes.
He looked as if he had aged decades with estranged and partially matted graying hair that had once been a beautiful chocolate brown, the wrinkles upon his face ran deep and revealed centuries of sadness and insanity. He was a weathered old man who looked ancient and ready to crumble if the wind blew too hard against his hunched-over frame. I knew that despite his appearance that I couldn't take this man for granted, he was one of the strongest and fastest amongst his pack, and yet he appeared slow and cautious.
“I ripped that whores throat,” Elijah said as he cackled from amusement as if he were laughing at his joke.
Cassius had always been reluctant to tell me about my birth mother, only that she was a beautiful and gentle creature who had originally come from his pack. I knew the one thing he wouldn’t tell me was how the two children grew up together and were extremely close as if containing a sibling relationship. I knew this wasn’t the case though as I could see the sadness within Cassius’s eyes when we would talk about her.
She was his everything.
It was the love that Iris held for Cassius that convinced her to leave her newborn child with him and hide me within her care as she knew the moment I was born Elijah would be on the hunt for me and end my life the very moment he found me. Elijah had spent years hunting me down, tearing down villages, and killing young families that consisted of pups with similarities to his son.
Eighteen years later and Cassius was no longer capable of hiding me from the world, his adoptive son who he raised as his very own blood and raised to take over his throne instead of his son Ure.
“You are the reason she will end us all!” Elijah screamed from madness as he finally took that moment to spring forward.
I barely managed to avoid him as he thrust his sword towards me just barely missing me as I could feel the sting from the blade as it grazed against my arm.
“Odin!” A young girl screamed terrified as she appeared from behind rubble that had been on fire.
My eyes narrowed as I shifted my gaze from Elijah to the young girl who had called out to me, her vibrant emerald eyes caught my attention as her soot-covered cheeks had tear stains running down them. I could feel her fear deep within my chest as I’rie stared at the scene from before as her father lied dead on the ground with his murdered just inches from me.
She was supposed to flee with Immoenne, I thought to myself terrified now as Elijah took that moment to plunge the blade through my side.
I violently coughed up blood as a figure charged at Elijah in their wolf form and took the mad man down. The blade fell from Elijah’s hand just as he tore it from my body, I help my side desperately as he had torn through an artery. Blood began to pour down my side and coated my thigh as the world started to spin causing my balance to topple slightly.
“Run!” Ure screamed in my ear just as things went dark.