A Luna for Alpha Kieran-Chapter 304: Payment
(...continued)
Autumn clutched the items to her chest, trembling violently now, vision blurring as fear surged like floodwater.
Kieran’s mother watched her unravel with unblinking fascination.
Like her favourite movie was being played.
Then, as if the moment wasn’t cruel enough, she reached again into her gown.
"Oh...before you spiral too far," she said sweetly, "I have another surprise."
Autumn froze.
Her body went rigid.
Her breath hitched.
Her eyes lifted with terror.
The woman gently placed a small silk pouch in Autumn’s trembling palm.
Autumn swallowed hard and opened it.
A rough chunk of hair slid into her hand.
Dark.
Coarse.
Familiar colour.
Too familiar.
She stopped breathing.
Her pupils blew wide.
Her fingers curled around the lock tightly, desperately...like the world depended on not letting it fall.
"...noooo..."
Her voice wasn’t a whisper anymore but a tremor.
Her eyes shot up, wild, frantic, disbelieving.
"This...this is...Is this my father’s hair?" She didn’t need the answer. She knew. But did not want to believe it because she was scared she might be disappointed.Her voice cracked in half.
"How...how do you..."
She stumbled forward a step, as if dragged by raw instinct. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
"HOW do you have this?" she demanded, voice breaking into a strained cry. "Do you...do you know where he is?! Where is he...? WHERE IS HE?!"
Kieran’s mother just smiled.
The slow, victorious smile of someone who knew she had finally cracked the last unbroken part of Autumn.
She leaned in...
...her wicked grin widening...
...and said nothing.
Kieran’s mother inhaled deeply...
almost shuddering with pleasure as if Autumn’s terror was perfume she had waited centuries to taste.
Her grin sharpened.
"Your fear..." she whispered, eyes half-lidded in delight, "...is exquisite...truly lives up to the mark...delicious..."
Autumn’s throat worked, her fingers tightening around the items crushed to her chest.
The woman drifted closer...slow, deliberate, a vicious predator.
Her steps barely disturbed the air.
Her smile stretched.
"Shall I give you something sweet...?" she murmured.
"Something... hopeful?"
Autumn’s heartbeat jumped painfully.
She couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t blink.
"What... what do you mean...?" she whispered.
Kieran’s mother leaned in, her lips almost brushing Autumn’s ear.
"Your father... lives...yeah..."
The words detonated inside Autumn’s mind.
Her knees buckled.
Her chest hollowed.
Her breath fell out in a trembling sob as tears spilled without control... not of grief
but of relief so overwhelming it almost hurt.
"He is alive..." she cried, voice breaking open like a wound.
"My father... he is alive...he is...he is..."
But the woman’s hand snapped up, silencing her joy like a flame being pinched.
"Oh, darling," she crooned with mock sympathy,"don’t get too happy."
Autumn froze mid-sob.
The smile on the woman’s face turned sharp...serrated.
"He is not the man you once knew anymore. "
Autumn blinked, confused, breath catching.
"What... what does that mean?" she whispered hoarsely.
The laugh that tore from Kieran’s mother’s throat was manic...shrill... echoing against stone like metal scraping bone.
"He has accepted his primal form," she announced gleefully.
Autumn’s blood went cold.
"...his what?"
The woman’s grin widened.
"Would you like to see?"
Autumn stumbled back.
"No...wait..I... "
But she raised one elegant, bone white hand...
and swiped the air like slicing through silk.
A crack rippled across the cavern.
The shadows twisted.
The air vibrated.
Reality flickered.
And then...
An image ignited before Autumn.
A hanging shape.
A shadow.
A mass.
Upside down.
Autumn squinted through the flickering haze...
and then her breath fell out of her lungs like she had been punched.
The figure sharpened.
A massive, grotesque wolf... hair matted with dried blood,ribs jutting through torn flesh,eyes wild and unfocused,limbs bound in chains that dug deep into muscle.
Foam dripped from its gnarled mouth.
A ragged growl bubbled from its chest...wet, venomous, deranged.
Autumn’s heart stopped.
Her palms flew to her mouth as a strangled sound tore from her.
"No..." Her voice cracked."No...no...NO...that’s not...that can’t...that’s not him..."
Her father.
Her father.
THE MIGHTY THORGAR ?!!!
Her ferocious, proud, unbreakable father...reduced to a monstrous, wounded, feral creature, barely recognizable beneath agony and rage.
Her breath shook violently as she staggered backward.
Kieran’s mother smiled softly...almost lovingly... as Autumn’s world broke apart at the seams.
"Do you see now?" she whispered."Your father didn’t just fall..." Her eyes gleamed with cruel satisfaction. "...he surrendered to what he was offered..." Her head lopped back in a violent laughter.
Autumn shook her head...fast...desperate...as if she could shake the image out of existence.
"No...no, stop...STOP...that’s not him...it’s not him...IT...!"
Her legs gave out.
She collapsed to her knees.
Head shaking.
Tears streaming.
Breath collapsing.
Whispering "...no, no, no," over and over like a broken prayer... as her father’s monstrous snarls echoed inside her skull.
She almost curled into herself...unable to think with rationale...Silent devastation.
A heartbreak too big for sound.
And she tried...wildly, helplessly...to scrub the image out of her mind with trembling hands...
...but it clung to her.
Her father.
Her mighty father.
A monster hanging in the dark.
And the truth crushed her so hard she couldn’t even scream.
The world slowed to a crawl.
Every sound stretched...every heartbeat thundered in Autumn’s ears, every breath felt stolen.
The woman moved like a serpent, circling Autumn with a wicked elegance, her gown whispering across the cracked stone floor. She drank in Autumn’s anguish as if it were the finest wine.
Little Freya whimpered softly, her tiny fingers fisting Autumn’s tunic. Her eyes fluttered open...just barely...glazed and frightened, reflecting the silhouette of the woman.
"Shhh, sweetheart... shhh...," Autumn whispered shakily, clutching her protectively.
But the woman was far from done.
She leaned in abruptly, her fingers clamping around Autumn’s cheeks, cold and sharp like talons. Her lips brushed Autumn’s ear as she spoke in a syrupy, venomous tone.
"It’s true, darling. Every bit of it. That... creature is your father. Your daddy, darling."
Autumn’s knees buckled. A strangled sob escaped her throat.
"No... no, you are lying...The Thorgar Ulfsen I know would never...he would never...You did something to him, didn’t you ?" Her eyes went from sobbing to vengeful in the fraction of a second.
The woman’s grin widened, stretching too far, too gleefully.
"Wait, darling...wait..." she cooed."Oh, don’t crumble yet. I am not finished yet..."
She twirled, arms spreading like a deranged ballerina giving her final performance, her laughter echoed slow and warped through the room.
"The show is not over yet, darling.I have more surprises."
She snapped her fingers.
A second image bloomed into view...this one clearer
Autumn’s breath froze halfway out of her chest.
Kieran??!!!
He stood in a dim, unfamiliar chamber, the air around him trembling with distortions. He walked cautiously, eyes narrowed, as if trying to understand where he had been transported.
"Kieran..." Autumn whispered, voice breaking.
The woman clapped her hands like an excited hostess.
"Watch closely."
On the illusion, Kieran turned a corner...
And came face to face with the suspended beast.
Hanging upside down.
Frothing.
Raging.
Scarred beyond recognition.
Thorgar.
Autumn’s father.
Kieran froze in front of the monstrous figure, confusion clouding his face as he tried to grasp what he was looking at.
Autumn choked on her breath.
"Stop....stop it! Turn it off! TURN IT OFF!"
The woman only smiled.
Slow. Wide.Unfathomably delighted.
"Oh, darling," she purred,"this is only the beginning."
The world thickened...as if time itself had become syrup.
Autumn’s heartbeat slammed in her ears, each thud stretching, echoing.
The woman drifted around her again, hips swaying like she was enjoying music only she could hear. Her smile was too sharp. Too pleased. Too hungry.
"Would you like to see what happens next?" she whispered, leaning so close Autumn could feel her breath ghost along her jaw.
Autumn tried to speak...
a plea, a cry, a scream...
but the words caught in her throat.
The woman didn’t wait for an answer.
With a flick of her hand...The air split.
A new image stuttered into existence... though
glitching,distorting.
Autumn’s pupils dilated in horror.
Because the scene...The scene was worse than anything before...
Her Kieran.
Locked in a brutal, frantic clash with the monstrous, mutated form of her father.
The beast roared...as its massive claws swiped at Kieran.
Kieran dodged...barely...sliding across the ground, grabbing for footing, his eyes wide in confusion and pain.
"NO!" Autumn screamed, her voice tearing out of her chest.
The image flickered violently, showing Kieran thrown back... then lunging forward...then nearly crushed under Thorgar’s weight.
"No... no... I beg you... stop this... STOP THIS!"
Autumn lurched forward, fueled by desperation, hurling herself at the woman.
Her fingers caught the witch’s sleeves shaking her... trying to tear the illusion apart.
"STOP IT! STOP IT I SAID!"
A sudden surge of power ripped through her veins... hot, electric...sparking beneath her skin like lightning waking up.
The woman did not flinch.
She only smiled.
CRUEL AS FUCK.
"Sure," she whispered, brushing imaginary dust from Autumn’s shaking fingers.
"Sure. I can do that."
Her smile sharpened—
gleaming.
"But..." she drawled, stepping back with a predator’s grace.
"I would need a tiny, tiny payment for it...."
Her gaze slid downward...past Autumn’s wild, tear filled eyes... past her trembling hands...and stopped on little Freya.
Frozen. Almost helpless in Autumn’s arms.
Her wicked smile widened.
"That one will do."
