Third Person POV (Rhyn)
They'd been gone for about three days already.
Rhyn decided if he was going to do something, he better do it before they got back tonight.
He hoped nothing bad had happened to Scar or V.
Rhyn crept away from his duties as stand in Alpha and ran off into the woods.
He searched dutifully for the tree where he'd hidden the lock of hair.
When he found it, he grasped the braid and took it to the nearest stream where he rinsed off all the mud and grime.
It was an auburn color. It wasn't red, or brown, just an odd mix in between.
He didn't know anyone with hair like that.
The only person he could think of with red hair...was Julianne.
He got a bad feeling in his gut as he stuffed the braid into his bag and headed into town.
He found Julianne not in the town hall, but in her house with her mother. They were drinking tea and playing cards. Though it was full daylight, they had candles lit.
He knocked on their door when Julianne answered "Uh...Beta Rhyn. To what do we owe this pleasure?" She asked calmly.
Rhyn motioned inside "I'd like to come in if you don't mind. I need to talk to both of you privately."
Svetlana, Julianne's mother offered him tea, but he politely declined.
Rhyn asked them to sit down and they did, glancing at each other and then back at him with looks he recognized very well. They weren't nearly as harsh, but those solemn gazes were practically identical to V's.
He slowly pulled out the braid "Neither of you look like you've had a haircut in a while, but this color, well, I coudln't help but notice the red. Ladies, you're the only people in town with red hair."
Julie stared at the braid, blinked and then looked back at him before taking a slow, deep breath. Her mother still chose to gaze at the braid with an almost somber expression.
"I'm afraid we're not aware of what point you're trying to make, Beta." Julie replied coolly.
Rhyn inhaled sharply. Her heartbeat didn't waver, but that could be due to a lot of things. Rhyn stood, placing the braid on the table in front of them "What point I'm trying to make is that V never really looked too much like a boy to me. I knew that some boys just had soft faces, but it's ingrained in the way V acts...he acts like a woman. Granted, a feisty one, but then again, I hear that comes with the red hair. To conclude this little theory, I will say this: I'm trying to make the point that when I found this braid it all clicked into place. V doesn't look like a boy for one very simple reason, she isn't one. Is she?"
Svetlana shared a look with Julie and that was all the answer Rhyn needed "What's her real name?"
Svetlana sighed "Vasilisa Grigori is my eldest daughter."
Her gaze sent chills through Rhyn, but her words froze him straight through.
"How old is she?" He asked after a moment. Julie's mother replied "19, recently. Why do you ask?"
Rhyn stood with steely determination. He fought to control his anger. He felt so betrayed.
He stormed towards the door. Julie called out "If you hurt her..."
He stopped, turning to hiss at her "What will you do? Will you cut your hair off and pretend to be a boy as well, frequently endangering yourself and the lives of those around you?"
Julie scoffed "Oh please, I'm warning you." Her voice wavered with such distraught anger, it even (if only for a moment) cut through his haze of rage "I'm warning you that if you hurt her, I'll kill you myself."
Rhyn hissed "Then you can be punished with her."
He turned and stormed off determined to meet them at the gate.
Vasilisa's POV
It had been relatively peaceful on our way back home.
Granted, Scar was still acting like a kicked puppy and I was ignoring him.
I got a bad feeling when we weren't too far away from home.
I mean, I wanted to be home, badly. I wanted to sleep in my own bed for a day or three and eat a lot of pastries. But still at the thought of home, dread filled my stomach.
My palms were clammy and a cold seat broke out above my brow.
I was trying to guess what was happening, or what was going to happen, but what actually did surprised me more than anything.
Rhyn burst through the brush in his human form, a bag hanging around his body.
I jumped even though I knew he posed no threat to me.
Or, I thought he didn't.
That's when he pulled out the braid, and that's when my heart stopped beating.
Everything slowed down as he yelled at me accusatively "He is actually a she, Scar! V's real name is Vasilisa Grigori and she's been lying this whole time. She's really a woman."
Everything was happening in slow motion, especially where Scar didn't hesitate to grasp my shirt and shove me against a tree. It knocked the air out of me and it seemed like an eternity that nothing else registered except the heavy beats of my heart. They banged loudly in my eardrums.
Scar was growling in my face, things I couldn't comprehend from the shock. "Why did you hide this?!" Was the first thing that I grasped onto "I was going to tell you, eventually." I choked out.
He hissed, his eyes beginning to glow with pure, unadulterated rage "Oh really? And when was that?"
I fought to breath as his grasp tightened on my throat "I hadn't...planned that far...ahead. I didn't...know...how serious..." black dots danced across my vision and my ears popped. This giant rage monster was going to kill me. He was going to kill me like my father was killed.
No.
No, he wasn't.
I fought then. I clawed at his hand, fighting to stay awake, breathing. I screamed but the sound was obstructed and I sounded more like a dying animal. At the moment, that's what I was.
I wriggled, trying to break the grip, but his iron noose wasn't loosening at all.
The last thing I saw was his glowing yellow eyes before I passed out. This was no peaceful rest though, because the minute I closed my eyes, every nightmare I'd ever had rushed to the surface. I had no defense against them and I couldn't seem to wake up either.
Maybe I'd finally arrived at my final destination: hell.
Third Person POV (Rhyn/Scar)
Rhyn realized what a bad idea it was when Scar's first reaction was to turn and hold Vas against a tree by her neck.
Her gasping breaths told him she was in pain, but all he could do was stare in shock. He'd never seen Scar so enraged. Scar yelled obscene, horrible things at her but she seemed too shocked to acknowledge them and Rhyn was glad. Those words shouldn't ever pass a woman's ears, ever.
She started trying to answer, but Scar's fist only got tighter and her face got redder as she tried and failed to complete a sentence.
She was giving up, Rhyn could see it in her eyes. He was in shock himself, but he couldn't let Scar kill her. He was about to step in when she came alive again with a bolt of energy and fought.
Her fingers clawed at his arms, drawing blood, and her feet swung violently, trying to land a blow. She screamed and the agonizing wail was so painful, Rhyn cringed.
What had he done? Why was Scar reacting so violently?
When she fell limp, Scar still held her to the tree, growling at her soon to be corpse.
Rhyn yanked his arm away from her neck which was already bruising. She collapsed on the ground and didn't move. Rhyn feared the worse and quickly leaned down, desperately searching for a pulse, any sign of life. He found it, soft, slow, dying.
Scar was staring down at her blankly "Mine." he growled before turning and walking into the city.
The Beta gently slipped his arms beneath her light, comatose body.
Rhyn looked down at the girl, once a male in his arms. She appeared a lot smaller now. It could be that she was weak and on the brink of death that made her look a lot more vulnerable, but none the less, she did.
Madge eyed the girl when he brought her in, and she frowned. She was disappointed "Did our Alpha truly do this to his mate?"
Rhyn gulped "I didn't handle the situation very well and he flew off the handle. I couldn't stop him from...from..." Madge glanced at the girl's throat "From trying to terrorize her? No, I suppose not. Go now, I will help her body heal...but her mind will have to sort itself out."
Vasilisa's POV
When I woke up, I was gasping for air.
Air!
I hadn't had real air in ages.
The hands, the hands were grasping at my arms again, making me watch.
There were no arms here.
No arms, no people, no light.
Was I dead?
I took a deep breath. Do dead people even breath?
No, probably not.
I took a deep breath and exhaled "Incendia."
I felt something move through me as tiny flames erupted all around...or to be more exact; on the three candles that were positioned around the room.
I was in a small bed, in a small room, that looked very familiar.
This was the room I'd spent several days in with Scar when he fought Duran. That seemed like a lifetime ago.
I gently lifted my hand to my throat; it was tender.
Madge barged in through the door and stopped "Ah, nice. This is a good sign. It means you're healing properly. Please don't touch your neck."
My hand dropped as I stared at her and she waddled around the room in her hunchback way.
"What...mean?" I found it difficult and painful to talk.
She gazed at me apologetically "The candles. It's good that you lit them...the old, old fashioned way as I like to call it. So many young women these days give up the chance to be great proficients for housewives and the like and personally I think if we just slowed down and backed up a bit, we wouldn't have all these temperamental males thinking they owned the place."
She came to me and ordered me to open my mouth. I did and she poured a sickly sweet liquid into my mouth.
I coughed a little but it soothed my throat and made my brain heavy again "Not whiskey." I mumbled.
She chuckled "No, Vasilisa, not whiskey for sure. I have to keep this locked away for special people and away from other special people. You see, wolfsbane is a wonderful ingredient. It helps to ease pain and keep the bad dreams at rest. I've been feeding you this as often as I could, but that wasn't as often as I'd like. You see you were having nightmares, a lot of them. You'd thrash around and hurt yourself, so I'd feed you this and stay around to make sure it went down alright."
She sighed "Scar ordered me to others though so you'd go without for a while and none of the wolves could give it to you because the wolfsbane makes them go absolutely mad."
I asked worriedly "Mom? Julie?"
She stopped mixing her new concoction and glanced at me with another conciliatory look "He wouldn't allow anyone to see to you except myself. He's not happy."
I Â was feeling really tried again. Madge stepped up and gently laid me back down "Back to sleep, girl. Heal. You'll need your strength."
I watched through hooded eyes as she scurried out of the room.
The candles were still on and slowly I raised my fingers and snapped. The lights fell dark and I fell asleep, gladly wanting to never awaken again.