Page 83 of Tenebrous

“Osiris…” The fear in her voice rattles me. I can still recall how distraught she'd become all those winters ago when we’d fled in the night. For days, she did naught but lay on the ground and weep, in pain at their separation. I could only watch her fall apart, completely useless. It hurt to watch her hurt.

When Father advances, she takes a quick step back, and the terror on her scent is palpable. It has me moving forward to stand in front of her. “Come no closer.”

“Orion!” She reaches for me immediately. “No⁠—”

I spread my arms wide, placing myself between them. “She does not wish to go.”

Father's nostrils flare. Anger flashes in his eye when he exhales heavily, and quicker than I can react, his claws strike out.

Pain explodes across my brow. Mother's scream tears through the mountainside as I hit the rocks, followed by a sob when she reaches my side. “No! Stay back!”

Father doesn't attack again, but he towers over us with crimson dripping from his fingertips. “Move.”

Mother doesn't listen. “You will not touch him again.”

“He stood between me and my mate.”

Warm blood pours down my face, dripping from the wound above my eye. I wipe it away and let Mother help me to my feet, even though I have grown significantly since last spring.

With her teeth bared, she snarls. “He is our son.”

“He challenged me.”

“He was protecting his mother!”

Father doesn't so much as glance at me. His eyes remain fixed on Mother as rain runs down the curve of his horns, imposingly tall and curled around his ears. “An alpha must eliminate all threats. You know this.”

“Please, Osiris,” Mother whispers back, taking my hand. “He is still a child.”

“Not for long.” The alpha's gaze flicks toward my head, lingering on the small ridges that have pushed through my skin. Until this moment, I had scarcely given them any thought. Mother never spoke of them, either, only smiling whenever I asked why the top of my head ached.

The very day my horns and fur had started to grow in was the same night we'd vanished, leaving Father in his sleep.

“You should have brought him to me the moment they broke through,” he growls, voice deeper than I've ever heard it.

Mother's grip tightens painfully around my hand. “So you could kill him?”

Father doesn't deny it. Instead, he takes a single step closer, his massive frame swallowing the space between us. “When his horns finish growing, he will challenge me whether he wishes to or not. Just as I did before him. That is our way.”

“He doesn't want your place,” she says desperately, fresh tears tracking down her cheeks. “He's not like you! The mountain and woods are still yours to rule, just let us leave in peace. He still tries to climb into my lap when the thunder frightens him, for God's sake. There is no rival here.”

For the first time since Father appeared, something truly dangerous flashes across his features. “You would choose one alpha over another?”

“I would choose my child.”

“Enough!” Father's roar sends my ears flat against my head. “You have hidden from me for too long. We will create more spawn.”

Mother's breathing catches. “I will bear no more children for you.”

“You will.”

“And if they grow into alphas too?”

His answer comes without the slightest hesitation. “Then I will kill them before they become a threat.”

The words settle over the mountainside with all the finality of a death knell.

Mother doesn't argue anymore. She simply turns to look at me, and something inside her gaze shatters.