Ettore | ✔️

𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒚-𝑻𝒘𝒐 | 𝑰𝑰

VINDICATIO pushed himself up from the couch, a loud grunt resounded seconds later as he stepped heavily on Chaska's back, waking him from his slumber on the plush, living room rug. He proceeded to storm through the kitchen over to the slider door that led to the balcony, a light breeze causing Syretia's hair to sway in his wake.

Syretia's eyes widened at his sudden presence. 

Vindicatio wrenched the slider door open and demanded Talise and Moki back inside. He picked Salvatore —who was still strapped on the lounge chair— up into an awkward standing position before leaning the chair back against the janky railing. The rod iron let out a horrendous noise as it shifted on the concrete it had once been tightly secured to.

Vindicatio lowered himself and grabbed the bottom of the chair lifting it slightly causing Salvatore to slide further over the railing.

"Enough of this childish game, Vindicatio," he calmly bit out, staring into his son's eyes that mirrored his own. "You've already got me playing hostage," Salvatore stated drolly. Vindicatio let out a growl as he flung the chair back onto the balcony, Salvatore's head bobbing around in response to the sudden action.

"You've got quite the temper," Salvatore commented. "Why did you leave? We could be working together."

"We have different motives, mine has nothing to do with power. I left because I had to find my mate." 

"Which one of the four werewolves is your mate?"

"None," he stated flatly, "my mate is the human you terrorized last night."

Salvatore burst out into a laugh, "a lycan mated to a weak human, come on. She'll never be able to provide you with kids, you know that right? Our bloodline will end here. There will be no more lycans in our family."

"As far as family is concerned, the people inside are proving to be more family than you are and I haven't even known them for more than a few days."

"Don't be ridiculous, get out of here while you can Vindicatio. Before you fuck everything up, I can help you get to Italy, I have a jet that we could take. We could be out of here this evening. A human mate isn't good for our kind, they kill off our beast. You'll begin to suppress your true nature, you'll become more human and once that happens there's no going back."

That thought scared Vindicatio, he wasn't used to this human body enough to want to be in it day in and day out. He needed to be in his other forms, being free and following his instincts. He glanced inside to see Syretia sitting at the kitchen table, her back facing the sliding door. 

"I could turn her," Vindicatio countered. "Afterall it was you who told me, that true mates matter the most."

"It was because they matter most that I was destroyed by your mother. I told you that so that you wouldn't be taken down and overtaken by her," Salvatore ground out, frustrated. "If you keep this human around you'll be met with nothing but pain and restriction. They don't understand that the wild calls out for us, that it's our beast's form that we enjoy residing in the most. Even if you turned her she'd be weak, turned lycans are disgraces to our kinds and that's probably why your mother never turned Vincenzo. She might have the power that comes with being a Queen but in the eyes of Lycans she'd be judged by the ones that hold the most authority. Lycans strive to be paired with other lycans, anything less is void."

"Why is mother with a werewolf then?" Vindicatio threw his hands up in the air.

"The Lycan Council members were all taken, the next best bet was a king," Salvatore spat out in hatred. "A king's status means more than being lycan in today's age which is why I want to become king. I want to take that crown from Vincenzo's fat head and I'm going to banish Analyn to the Arctic, she'll have no power, no followers, no Vincenzo. She'll die of a broken heart, she'll feel as destroyed as I did the night she trapped our son inside a vessel and threw my feelings away like trash. She's a selfish woman so I've learned to be even more selfish. The moment I brought you back I started to destroy her. I didn't bring you back to bond with you, I brought you back because I knew the one thing that would destroy Analyn the most would be seeing the son whose life she destroyed."