A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Frowning, she looked around, and mumbled, "Kirkenes? What am I doing here?"

She was standing on the Kirkenes docks, the town on one side, and the cold, northern sea, lapping at the dock's mooring on the other. Continue your adventure at empire

Only, the town looked like it did before the awakening, without any of the damage that all the fighting had done to this place. It was like she was walking in her memories, with the only difference being the lack of people. She was all alone.

Just as she was about to start walking around and searching for anything that might indicate why she was there, something changed. Shimmering, two humanoid forms suddenly appeared in front of her. When their faces became clear, Astrid scowled in anger and frustration.

"Edda," she growled, filled with hatred.

In front of her stood the Erik's childhood love, accompanied by the man himself. They appeared with their bodies practically melting into each other, or at least as much as they could while still wearing clothes. They both wore taunting sneers as they looked at Astrid.

"You didn't actually think I'd choose you over Edda, did you?" the shimmery Erik chuckled malevolently. "She's always been my true love, and what is a little betrayal in the face of that? I've already forgiven her actions in Frostvik!"

Next to him, Edda grinned at her, "You never had a chance, you vile bloodsucker!"

Despite knowing it was all fake, Astrid had always been impulsive and quick to anger. She seethed as her eyes were locked on the couple in front of her as fury threatened to boil over in her mind. She wasn't even sure who her fury was aimed at.

It wasn't just their words either, it was the setting as well. Being back here, where the three of them had spent so much time together, and Astrid had suffered every second longing for someone who barely noticed her existence, was brining back all the frustration from that time.

Without pause, the fake Erik and Edda started kissing and slowly undressing each other, uncaring for their single spectator.

Bile rose inside Astrid. "You bitch!" she roared, and tried to take a step forward, but suddenly noticed she couldn't. Her body was stuck.

Before she could struggle much against her invisible bonds, a voice echoed in her head. It was Edda's voice, tinted with a sadistic edge. "Just watch as I tame your love into my obedient little pet. Soon, he'll happily rip you to shreds on my orders. After all, dogs like him should have an 0wner, don't you think?"

With those words, something broke in Astrid. Her eyes turned redder than they already were, and she screeched uncontrollably. Suddenly, two swords appeared in her hands, and she suddenly found her body able to move again.

Barely able to think coherently, she simply charged Edda with swords pointed in front of her.

Meanwhile, the fake Erik and Edda had lost their clothes, and Erik was kneeling submissively in front of Edda. His normally so dominant and piercing amber eyes, now looked up at his mistress with love and obedience as he started to lap at her cunt.

The pair completely ignored the raging bull in Astrid form charging at them, as if they didn't care Edda was about to be impaled.

But just as the furious Astrid was about to skewer her rival, she saw the expression on Erik's face, and blinked. She'd never seen that expression before. And she couldn't imagine it ever happening either.

She stopped, her swords inches from Edda's uncaring face. Suddenly, all the instances where Erik had looked at her with that domineering, piercing, amber gaze flashed in front of her eyes. The time where he defeated her mother, and caused her to submit to him. The times he talked about his hatred for Edda.

She remembered it all, and every memory made some of her fury disappear, until none was left.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Astrid muttered softly, "Right… this is fake. Maybe the Erik from my memories might have turned into this, but he's different now…"

Her lips curled into a grin, "Huh, I guess I really do like the new Erik better than the old one. Perhaps I never even really loved the old one… perhaps it was just an obsession, combined with stubbornness."

She paused a moment, before her grin turned into a genuine smile, "But I do love the new one…"

She looked down at the submissive version of Erik, and scoffed in disgust, "And that's not you."

Then, she chopped off the fake Erik's head instead.

***

Rather than look at the procedures in the middle of the room, the werelynx, Anne, continued looking uncomfortable and filled with instinctual disgust, as she tried to stay away from Emma and Emily as far as possible.

She still didn't understand why Erik would ask her to be here today, and she couldn't help but resent him a little for it. He knew she hated humans, and now he basically locked her in a room with two of them, who were both more powerful than her.

She constantly had to suppress the rage boiling inside her, just because she knew there was nothing she could do.

But there was something strange going on as well. Whenever she looked at Emily she only felt the expected loathing, but when she looked at Emma it was mixed with something else. Something uncomfortable, and hard to think about. A feeling that reminded her of someone.

Her mother.

Suddenly, that feeling was getting worse. She looked to the side, and noticed Emma was slowly approaching her. The white-haired woman's lips were turned up into a kind smile, and her mismatched, heterochromatic eyes were filled with compassion.

Anne's eyes widened, and she backed away, but she soon hit the wall and couldn't go any further. "S— Stay away from me!" she exclaimed in a panic.

But Emma didn't stop coming closer. "Don't worry…" she muttered softly, soothingly, "I just want to help."