Of Young Love Gone Bad

Little bit of backstory to Kosi and Ryce's love/hate relationship later on.

Not every day could be perfect in the Haggard werewolf pack. They lived in the mountains, had to live off of either people they could snag or the occasional goats. Most were white or black in color, some to blend in with snow and others the rocky mountainside. Then there was the prince, who had the golden-splashed coat of a true legacy gone dead. But right now, his own legacy was at severe risk. In the lowland of the mountain, at the forested depths to the bottom right of their cold home, there were two young men staring each other down. Both were bloody, one had a deep bite wound in his shoulder; the other had been shot twice in the chest and was wheezing for breath, a dribble of blood leaving his parted lips.

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"Ryce, I don't want to do this." Pink lips moved of their own accord as their blonde owner's blue eyes locked to another young man's across a small gap between them, maybe reaching ten feet.

"Neither do I." The other male's brown orbs were rich with emotions as he watched the blue eyes that pleaded for this to stop. Pistols were still aimed at each other, ready to fire, safety going off for a good minute already. Both sides of the divide were frozen with a mix of fear and overall worry that this was going to end in bloodshed. The only thing they both agreed on was that this wouldn't be pretty.

"Put your gun down," was the blonde's soft and pained plea, but it was met by a frown from the brunette. The blonde was taller, more thoughtful, but the brunette was not willing to give in to simple emotions. He had one simple, but heartbreaking answer for his lover across the gap.

"No."

Kosi Haggard, prince of the Haggard werewolf clan, was in the middle of this forest with his gun aimed at the only male in his pack he could talk to without getting it turned back on him. Of course, Kosi did have his perks of being the only /living/ heir, but the king wasn't thrilled at having an heir that was in love with another male wolf. That just wasn't right, not when Kosi would have to one day have his own heirs. The other boy, Ryce Drown, was not here to go after the prince of the clan and kill him. He was here to end this before the king grew fed up and killed them both off. Chocolate orbs were wavering with emotions, but the glacier ones were stubborn and raging with both passion and anger. Ryce had been abandoned as a pup by his original pack and adopted into the Haggard clan, but that didn't stop the prince from wanting to have a real friend inside his home.

"I don't want to kill you, Ry," Kosi's voice wavered, the usually calm and relaxed tone nowhere to be found. Ryce only kept his pistol aimed at his prince, eyes slowly darkening to a steely grey. "Put it down." Kosi once again was met with silence, but Ryce did smile slightly toward his lover. Then, just as quick as they had caught sight of each other, the brunette fired off the gun. Once, twice. The cracks of it echoed around the mountain and forest, but the silence that followed was harder to listen to than anything Ryce had heard before.

Wheezing for breath as he dropped to his knees, the prince was holding his chest. Ryce had aimed for nothing vital, but that was hard to do in the chest. Quickly jumping the gap between them, the brunette stopped a few feet away from his lover as the crimson soaked the older wolf's hands. Kosi was no older than fourteen, and this betrayal would never be forgiven. Blue eyes looked up into brown, and in seconds the two were fighting in a flourish of fur and teeth, snarls and yips echoing around the two. Sounds bounced off the walls, the rapid breathing of both parties (however one was much more pained) signaled a flurry of anger. The fight was nothing but violence; as one would gain an upper hand, then the other would suddenly come back and send the winning one down to the ground. The usually relaxed prince wasn't ready for a fight like this, but when his teeth sink into his lover's shoulder and the blood rushed his mouth, he lost his sense of control.

The two wolves seemed to fight for hours, the red wolf against the golden, and both seemed too raged to think correctly. Guns had been left alone, all they were using was their bodies. The golden wolf was splashed with crimson that dribbled down his legs, while the red one seemed a dark brown in spots from severe bites that had wounded over the course of their battle, only to be ripped back open when they grew near again. The bullets were still inside the prince, but the bleeding had stopped for the moment. There was a moment as the two stared each other down, the blue and brown clashing in a violent electricity. Ryce was jealous of the prince, who received so much care from the king.

Ryce had no idea what it meant to be 'loved' by the king of the pack, and he wouldn't have believed Kosi in the first place, not even with the scars lacing down the wrists and arms of the wolf just days before, he'd been sleeping next to during the morning hours. As the two wolves, bloodstained and sore, watched the other, Kosi was the first one to back up and leave the fight. Limping from a deep bite in his back leg, he retreated as Ryce only watched, tears unable to fall in his wolf form as his ears dropped. The sight of the defeated prince fleeing from a fight hurt Ryce, but not nearly as much as he'd ignored the golden prince's heart.

Kitru would go and find his friend Abby, who he'd be able to confide in without too much questioning at first. She was, in some ways, his lover. But his only real friend in his own pack had turned on Kosi, making the prince learn the hard way that no single person... no single wolf could ever be trusted. He hated grown to hate the king, but now he'd lost his hope in the entire pack. If his own friend could turn their back that easy, what about the rest who actually hated him?

That night, as the adrenaline faded and the darkness took hold, the prince cried for the loss he'd sustained. It was not the loss of a limb, but it was just as disabling. He had lost his best friend, and his only hope on that dreadful mountain. Now, all he had was the world of the human; the world he'd been accidentally introduced to when he had fallen as a pup and met the witch named Abigail.

Author's Note

Kosi Haggard, Ryce Drown, and their story is my idea. Abigail belongs to Faith.