* freya.
freya scoffed. “i couldn’t agree more.” though her words went against what she had said only seconds before, these ones were laced with poisonous truth. millennia before, she would have replied differently. back when she was human, back when her sister and her husband and children were alive, everything was different. they were different — so, so different.
and now, instead of chasing each other while playing hide and seek, they hunted each other down. they hurt each other the only way they knew how —- without any long term consequences for either of them. they were indestructible and perhaps that’s why they kept doing what they do.
her gaze fell on his fingers as they surrounded her wrist. a moment later, her hazel eyes met his dark ones. you know me. she did. and she hated it. right there and then, freya wished there were no good memories left of him. it would be so easy to rip his heart out ( and either eat it or send it to his siblings for safekeeping ) and be done with all of that. alas, no matter how close she got to do it, she could never take that last and final step. “that’s what you want, isn’t it? to get bloody and beaten.” another scoff. “if you tempt me, i might just impale you and leave you here for your little sister to find. she could use a little warning.” disdain dripped from every word she said.
freya let his laugh echo in her ears. it wasn’t the laugh she remembered —- she didn’t even want to remember it. or anything of him. “not with you. not anymore.” though her lips showed a smile, there was nothing behind it. she wished there was nothing inside of her. have the switch flipped and tear another lykosson up with no problem. “i can make more vampires, ambrose. and the transformation sticks.” she leaned closer and the force around his neck increased, just enough to make it uncomfortable. “maybe i should tell baldr to round up your little pack of dogs and turn them all into hybrids. how does that sound?”
their traditions always did seem to involve bloodshed now, crowns weaved with freshly picked flowers, roughhousing in the front lawn, climbing up to their spot in the loft ---- all of it was replaced with this. cat & mouse, back & forth, meeting up to hash it out, to feel the seething rage in their bones & try to desperately squander memories they kept them holding on. ( & the truth in it all ? ambrose didn’t want to forget it, to forget them, if he did then calling them family truly did mean nothing to him. )
“ don’t flatter yourself, i haven’t wanted anything from you in years. “ a lie, but oh he wears it so well, like a second skin. snarling at the mention, his grip on her wrist tightens, as if a warning before he grows tired. the discomfort’s nothing he isn’t used to, especially where freya’s concerned. her voice echos, not anymore. “ when did that stop, exactly ? “ he would’ve followed her to the ends of the earth had she only asked then, now his hand feels forced by the fates.
with that threat, his warning’s gone, tearing her grip off his throat & ignoring the rawness it leaves. flipping them around with a practiced ease, this dance is all too familiar. grip’s still firmly set on her offending arm, pressed back against the wall that’s surely more damaged than the either of them. “ you know as well as i do for every vampire you make, another dies. another wolf activates their curse, it just keeps going. “ the cycle starts again, over & over again, the curse made sure of that.
“ if you want baldr in one piece, you’ll figure out your answer quick. loyalty runs deeper than a forced artificial hybrid bond. “ as if he’d truly attack baldr openly, as if he’d kill any of the family ! what a joke it is & his temper only flares at the thought. to have your purpose, the reason you’re allowed to be virtually indestructible destroyed, well, where would that leave him ? where did it leave him to continue the witch’s bidding ? it wouldn’t bring back the dead, left in a never ending pattern.













