Chapter two.

They say trust is like paper, that once it is crumpled, it cannot be perfected again.

Xavier could feel the weight of his son's trust on him, could feel it crumbling by the minute but he could not do anything. He had known that Elliot would probably hate him after the revelation, yet, knowing something and going through it are two entirely different things, so bearing that heaviness on him and seeing his son's hurt etched face wasn't easy.

"Does this mean that I too am a..." Elliot trailed off, not knowing what to call the creature he was seeing in front of him.

The big black wolf slowly stepped forward making Elliot step back, further away from him.

"What about mom? Does she know that you are this...beast?" Hearing Elliot call him a beast, Xavier's heart shattered. His wolf whimpered.

All this while, he had been holding back the truth from him only to protect him but Elliot could only see the betrayal, the fear, and nothing past that.

He feared his father.

Not able to talk to him in his lycan form, Xavier decided it was time to change back and for him to answer his son.

After the shift, Xavier felt the air thicken between him and his son. He took a few deliberate moments of hesitation before clearing his throat. He had to advance carefully, as though he were walking on eggshells, to not cause his son any more pain.

"Elliot, we hid this from you because we wanted to protect you from the dangers of our past. Please, son, you have to understand our situation as well." Xavier explained, his voice underlying a pleading tone.

Elliot wasn't having any of it. He yelled back, paying no heed to his father's desperate need to have his son understand his reasons, "no dad, I don't understand why you would want to hide such a big thing from me. What if I had become like you in front of my friends or my teachers; I might have even harmed someone. You wanted to protect me from your past, but who would've protected me from myself and my present, then?"

He wasn't ready to accept the fact that his family was not normal, that he was a monster and this mindset of his was making Xavier lose his patience.

"We are the children of the moon, not monsters like they show in those stupid movies. I know you don't want to, but you will have to come to terms with our," he paused, "and your reality. There's no other way." Xavier marched off, leaving Elliot alone.

While Elliot was trying to accept his lycan side, Celeste was gaining back her consciousness.

Gasping, she opened her mouth to howl as an agonizing pain shot through her body but no sound came out of her mouth. She felt someone –another werewolf's hands release her as she slowly sank to the ground blindly rubbing the right side of her temple where she could feel a bump from a wound. Crying tears of pain, she felt the sticky and dirty ground touch her thighs as her head lolled to the side.

Celeste could hear the werewolves conversing about her father's pack but apart from that, she couldn't make out anything else. All she could focus on was the throbbing pain and the burning sensation spreading throughout her body.

What is happening to me?

Her wolf was howling in fury, in the back of her mind. She wanted to shift, but something was stopping her from doing so, slowly distancing her from her wolf. Soon after, she took a deep shuddering breath, trying to control the pain. She gritted the teeth as the wound burned. She must have hit something because she could now clearly sense the metallic smell coming from her wound.

Caught up in her thoughts, she drew all of her energy together, then focusing on the blurred movement that had been going on in front of her; she let her anger flood into her mind. It dominated all other coherent thoughts as her fury suffused her with heat.

Attempting to ignore the pain, she crouched for a split second, angled herself at the werewolf in front of her, and then lunged. She couldn't go far enough because silver shackles were binding her wrists to the wall, but she could at least manage to take the wolf down, hurt him in some way.

The werewolf's eyes widened and he dodged the attack easily. Then in a split second, he was out, gesturing a human to shut the bars – silver bars. Celeste cowered back, snarling at the wolf who was now grinning maliciously at her.

"I don't see why we can't kill her now." The wolf who was grinning, said to the second one, sounding a bit petulant.

"Orders are orders, although we should wait for Scott, maybe he'll convince Ben to kill her." He grinned looking back at Celeste.

Scott- that bastard had betrayed her father, her pack. She didn't know for how long she was out but she was sure that someone would, by now, be out there searching for her. Her father would be going out of his mind with worry.

She was right.

Dominic had contacted Blayne through the pack link after Scott's car had crossed the enemy's territory. Blayne had ordered Dominic to stay where he was because going in the enemy land alone would have been foolish so the plan that they were to execute a night later was brought into action. Leaving the women and children with Henry, one of the older members, the wolves from Silver Forest pack went towards Ben's land.

As if they had been waiting for the arrival of Blayne's pack, almost fifty big wolves surrounded them in a clearing that separated both the pack territories. Growls and roars tore through the air as the lycans from both the sides attacked each other and all hell broke loose.

There was no telling about the difference between both the sides but Ben's pack had the upper hand as they outnumbered Blayne's pack with a ratio of two to one.

Dominic honed in on the nearest wolf, a scrawny blonde wolf that fixated her menacing blue eyes on him with a snarl. Circling each other, Dominic patiently waited for her to attack and instantly he knew that he was stronger.

With an impatient grunt, she lunged at him, but Dominic's brown wolf sprung out of the way and turned around to face her again. Lunging at her again, she had no time to dodge or even realize that Dominic was moving before he'd knocked her over. Dominic had every intention to toy with the she-wolf in front of him, tire her out. After gaining her balance, the blonde wolf lunged but Dominic twisted around and sidestepped, sinking his teeth into she-wolf's haunch as he did so. The blonde wolf howled in pain and backed away, snarling.

It got considerably more violent from there as two more wolves lunged simultaneously at Dominic, surrounding him from all the sides. Other wolves from Blayne's pack were having an even more difficult time than Dominic. He howled in sorrow when he felt his father exhale his last breath and at the same moment, the three wolves surrounding Dominic, sunk their teeth into him.

Blayne knew then that his pack was losing and was no match to Ben's, so he shifted back to his human form.

"Stop," he growled, making all the wolves pause the killing spree. Looking around, he noticed how most of his wolves were now dead so he did what he thought best at that point, even though his entire body screamed at him not to.

It was a mere whisper but it weighed more than a million tons, "I surrender."

Maniacal laughter pierced through the silence as Ben and his wolves shifted to their human forms while the remnant of Blayne's pack hunched their shoulders, sniffing. What felt like a long moment of silence later, the clinking of chains was heard as dread settled in Blayne's stomach.

This is it then.

He had failed his pack, and in shame, he bowed his head waiting for the part-vampires, who worked as slaves for Ben, to cuff him and his pack with silver.

They were taken to Ben's humungous castle that had once belonged to the wolf that Blayne used to call his best friend. Instead of taking the rogues from the front gates, the truck, in which the wolves were, was rounded around the castle and then the truck descended down the basement which led to the dungeons.

There were only fifteen remaining rogues and Ben was proud of that fact that none of the other pack-members was there, that they'd be safe back at the pack-house.

While the part-vampire guards shoved the rogues inside the dungeons and cuffed them up, Blayne was stunned when he didn't feel his daughter around. He could not even sense her presence.

"Where's my daughter?" Blayne growled with all the strength he could muster.

"She's around." It was Scott who replied. The moment Blayne saw his face, his vision turned red.

"I'm going to rip you apart, you traitor," came Blayne's rejoinder as he snarled at Ben and Scott. Both the abductors just smirked and left the rogues.

Merely an hour or two must have passed when a commotion was heard near the stairs that lead to the dungeons and then Blayne saw his wife, crying and wailing. His heart sank. He had been content that at least the women of the pack would be safe but he had been terribly wrong.

"Colina," Blayne whispered his mate's name and their eyes met.

"I'm sorry that I failed you and our pack." He breathed but Colina shook his head.

"You didn't." Murmurs of agreement were heard and that was the last of Colina that Blayne saw as the females and children were brutally thrown in the cells located towards the end of the tunnels. He wondered if his daughter was along with her mother but Colina's high pitched question followed by curses was enough to send him into a frenzy.

Where are you, Celeste?

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ⋆

For Elliot, nothing had been difficult. He had always been the most popular kid in his school; even his grades were straight As. But this situation had stirred turmoil in his head, he felt like he would explode any moment.

He was in his room, lying on his back as he stared at the monotonous ceiling above him. Thinking about his friends had him wanting to destroy everything in frustration when another heart-wrenching thought entered his mind.

Lea, his subconscious-self whispered.

What would she think of him? Lea and Elliot had been together for eight months now and were only growing stronger. Would the fact that he was a monster – a lycan – change anything between them?

Of course, it would, a voice inside him snickered mockingly.

Was he even allowed to disclose his secret to the people he was close to or was he to keep it locked inside his heart, just like his father had hidden it from him in order to protect them from getting hurt?

Suddenly, with his mind made up and a slightly changed perspective, he got up from his bed. After taking an hour long shower, he descended the stairs. His mother was in the kitchen along with Xavier. Greta looked up at Elliot and gave him a smile full of affection.

"Good morning, kiddo." She beamed at him while Elliot kissed his mother's cheek and greeted her with a forced smile.

Exhaling loudly, then Elliot addressed his father, "Dad, I've made a decision." Greta looked at both of them in confusion. What decision is Elliot talking about? She wondered. Xavier encouraged Elliot to continue, with a nod, bracing himself to be shouted at.

"Earlier, I was thinking as to why you would want to keep such a prominent truth about our lives from me. The shock of watching you change into a... wolf was ineffable but then I thought of my friends, of Lea and that was when I understood. You didn't want any harm to come to me. I was able to fathom that if you had let me know, not only your past would have affected me, but I wouldn't have been able to enjoy a normal life. It is a big decision for me to take, but I'm ready for what is to come." He sighed and looked into Xavier's eyes.

His father was beaming with a wide grin on his face and a proud look in his eyes. Greta, on the other hand, had turned ashen, her mouth agape in horror.

"No-no, Xavier. He wasn't supposed to know, you promised me that you won't let him get involved in this." She shook her head, big fat tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Mom, mom, shh..." Elliot went around the kitchen counter to hug his mother. Kissing her on the head he tried to calm her down as she held onto his shirt as if her life depended on it. She was mumbling something in Elliot's shirt when Xavier decided to speak.

"Greta, darling, our son's going to turn eighteen in less than two weeks and already his body has started adapting to the changes." Xavier began explaining Greta, the reasons that triggered him to reveal their true nature to Elliot.

All the while, Elliot's mind was filled with thoughts of Lea. He had a sinking feeling that he'd have to avoid school and his friends. As if to confirm his thoughts, Xavier ordered in the next moment for them to leave the city right after Elliot's graduation which was going to be held in a week.

Seemingly, Greta had relaxed and was partially glad that Xavier had thought ahead of time and of their family's safety but she still was afraid of the past, of Malcolm. She didn't want history to repeat itself; she didn't want to lose her son and her husband. Suppressing the feelings of dread, she turned to Xavier with a look of determination on her face.

"I don't want either one of you to waste a single day. Train him in every possible way, Xavier. I want my son to be the replica of you when it comes to strength, agility and all those alpha traits. On all counts, I want him to be capable of facing any and every kind of danger, including the vampires."

The whole day Elliot spent with his father, trying to let his beast overcome his instincts and take over but they were not able to bring the wolf out. Xavier had managed to teach a thing or two to Elliot about self-defence and the history of lycanthropes. Exhausted by the day's mental and physical strain, Elliot slipped into a deep slumber, dreaming about the moon and of silver-blue eyes.