“Ahhhhh!” Graham’s scream rent the air. “I swear I would tell you everything I know.”
“Then you’d better start talking already,” I muttered, dangling his ring finger in front of him. “Or you’ll lose the pinkie next.”Graham sobbed and banged his head back against the wall hard enough to crack his skull.“Don’t even dare,” I warned him. “Would be a shame if I didn’t get to kill you myself.”I didn’t feel an atom of pity for the old man sitting on the floor of the dungeon. He was Graham, my father’s chief guard and I had found out a few months after my father’s death that he had planned everything from the negotiation down to the dinner party with Alpha Demontes. It came as a shock to me then because I didn’t expect that a person like Graham would want to harm my father. Father was always good to him. Ever since I found out about his involvement in the massacre of my family, I made it a duty to celebrate him for his evil deeds. Once every year, I visited him in the dungeons to make a bargain with him - his much valued freedom in exchange for the details of the location of the Black Fur pack and every year, he turned me down, telling me that he would rather die than betray Alpha Demontes. It was painful to see my father’s former servant show such an extreme level of loyalty towards an enemy but I managed to get by over the years, torturing him by cutting off a finger or toe from his hands or legs. I had been doing this ritual since I was eight and eighteen years later, I figured I couldn’t hold on for long. It wasn’t much fun anymore. I had to make the bastard talk.“Tell me where the Alpha is,” I said, my voice as calm as the winds.“I’ve already told you I would never!” Graham cried. “Just kill me already.”I stared at the old man and shook my head pitifully. He didn’t know that I had made my research and found out about his family living undercover in a neighboring pack.“Bring in the prisoners!” I said to no one in particular.The doors opened and Graham’s eyes went wide in shock as he came face to face with his wife and two daughters. They were bound with ropes and blindfolded and from the way their clothes were dirty, he could tell that they had been in a dungeon for a long time.“They’re innocent!” Graham gnarled at me. “Why don’t you face me like a man and leave my children out of it?”“Smart one,” I smiled at him. “But it’s not going to work today. If you don’t tell me where I can find Demontes, I’ll kill them all.”“Pfft, you can never,” Graham laughed. “You’re nothing but a weakling.”I smiled at his description of me as a weakling and beckoned on the guard that was standing nearby.“Torture them until they start to talk,” I commanded him. “And I want his eyelids pegged together so he can watch the show.”That morning, I was not in the mood for such a gruesome show so I excused myself quickly and went to my study for a few minutes.A guard came barging into my room about five minutes later and from the look of excitement on his face and the fact that he had forgotten that the offense he had just committed by barging into my room unannounced was punishable by death, I could tell that he had good news or very bad news to tell.“He has spilled, Alpha,” he announced smiling. “He has told us all we need to know about Demontes’s location. The Black Fur Pack has been hidden away from the rest of the world because of their alliance with the evil witch, Freya. Her spell covers the kingdom and makes it invisible to the eyes of their enemies.”“Took him eighteen years to finally talk,” I muttered, staring into space. I turned to face the guard. “Release his wife and daughter. Treat them to a banquet and let them have the finest robes. No woman or child deserves to suffer with a man like Graham.”The guard scratched his head and frowned and I figured that something was wrong.“There’s a little problem with that, Alpha Salvador ,” he grunted.“I’m listening.”“His wife and one of his daughter are dead already,” the guard replied. “They died in the process of the torture. We had to make it intense because he was not ready to spill.I nodded my head in understanding. My father used to tell me of times like this when he was alive. One life sacrificed to save millions was for the greater good, he would say. Never regret making a decision like that.I wasn’t about to start sulking over a decision I made for the good of my pack and so I dismissed him after giving my last instructions.“Bury them in the ancient tombs of the Alphas,” I said to the guard. “They would be remembered because they died to save the lives of thousands.”He nodded at my command and turned to leave.Like every other night in the Black Fur pack, the sky was starless. I could hear my wolf mutter some curse words in my head and I couldn’t blame her much for it. The sight of my father, Alpha Demontes kissing an old witch was enough to make the both of us sick. I turned away before Freyacould make an eye contact with me but it was too late. She had seen me watching them and she smiled.“You care to join us princess?” she offered.Her two tongues slithered like a snake’s as she talked and the thought of that thing in my dad’s mouth made me want to puke. Disgusting.“I’d rather join the warriors,” I grunted and turned away.My father disconnected from her and turned to stare at me. “Go get me a glass of wine Freya honey,” he smiled at the witch.She smiled back at him and stood up to get the wine and he turned back to face me.“You know you’re not very nice to her,” he eyed me.I didn’t reply him. I tried my best to focus on the food I was eating. I couldn’t bring myself to look up at
it had been three days since I escaped from my father’s pack and things weren’t getting any better. The first problem was that I was tired and hungry. The second was that I was lost, and the third was that for the first time in eighteen years, my father had sent out his wolves on a hunt unannounced, a hunt for the rogue princess, Antonella. I wasn’t sure of his exact commands to them if they found me but from the whispers I overheard a few times in the woods, it wasn’t something very good. Nala wasn’t making matters any better for me. She kept sulking and complaining about how we had been better fed at the pack house and how I had ruined everything by running away, as if it wasn’t her that advised me to run! A few times, I had to resist the urge to yell at her to shut up because she was beginning to get on my nerves.I stopped at the base of a pine tree and sat down on the floor to rest. My feet were sore from walking for days and my mouth was dry. I wondered if there were any animals
Maybe fate is indeed a fickle mistress. I could not come to the terms of what had just happened. My arms and legs began to tremble immediately. I could not control the tears that flowed from my eyes as the whole incident flashed before my eyes again. The whole painful incident of watching my parents being murdered.Bile formed in my throat almost immediately. Anger and pain was an understatement to describe how I felt that very minute. I could not take it in anymore so I turned to return inside.“Are you fine, Alpha?” Dan questioned, with so much concern evident in his voice. No. I did not want to look weak right in front of him. I did not want to look like a weak Alpha. I looked away from him as I did not want him to see the pain sliding down my eyes in the form of tears.“I am fine” I answered with all confidence and I was grateful my voice did not fail me as it sounded as firm as it would always sound.“If there is anything…..”“I am fine!” I yelled almost immediately. My pain had
The night was cold and so, I embraced myself as that was the only way I could shield myself from the cold. My lips began to quiver as well as because of the cold. The dungeon walls were not helping either as it seemed like it aided the cold.The moon reflected into the space I was and I stood up, realizing the full moon was out. Of course, I was so weak and tired but I gathered the little strength I had left in me to walk closer to the reflection of the moon in my space.A tear fell from my eyes as I knew I was finally paying for my Father’s crime. I had no idea whom the young man was but everything about him seemed familiar. Father had often returned home with a lot of scents when I was much younger. Scents of the body of his prey. Perhaps, Father had tried to kill him or something?I silently prayed to the moon goddess within me to help me out f the mess I had gotten myself into. I had left the house simply because I was fed up with all Father was doing and his cruelty. What then ha
The clanking sound of metal coupled with the early morning sun grazing my skin made me flicker my eyes open although my eyelids were still heavy and threatened to shut itself. I was not sure of what was going on as I still could not embrace reality. My head ached and so did every other part of my body. The bed was far from okay.It was far from comfortable and I really wanted to cuss at Father for making me go through such. If only he has been nice…. I held my head as I looked up at the stranger who was at the door. Utter displeasure was registered in his eyes as he stared at me like I had done something very terrible to him.“Here is your meal” He pushed the door opened slightly and passed what I believed was my food beneath the door and then shut it immediately, perhaps so I would not escape. I stared at the meal and then at him, wondering what I was to do with it. I could not imagine how I was supposed to eat that.I looked at the food and then cringed at the sight. It was so bad.
A gazillion thoughts crossed my mind all at the same time. Even though I tried to pretend not to see it, I could see fear obvious and evident in her eyes as soon as she heard me request for the whip.“If whipping me will make you believe that I have done nothing and I have nothing against you, then so be it. Kill you if you want but there is nothing I have against you” She spoke, her voice laced with fear.I froze almost immediately on the spot as I could pretend.I was quite hurt and broken. I stormed out immediately and headed back to my room, holding my head so tight as I was beginning to lose my mind.“Do you still think she is guilty?” Fur questioned. That was the last thing I wanted to hear.“Stop! Don’t do that! Don’t say a word!” I yelled almost immediately, holding my head so tight like I would pull it off. Why was everything getting so complicated to figure out? Antonella’s presence was making things even more difficult for me to handle.There was possibly no way she could b
“Cole?” I raised my brows, staring at the stranger. He was the last person I had expected to see that minute.“Cole” I embraced him quickly, a smile on my face. I had really missed him. After I had lost my friend; Antonella while growing up, he had somehow filed the void of course, until a particular day when he suddenly went missing.My whole life seemed to have taken a new turn ever since he was gone and I had no choice but to adapt to the new life I found myself in. Cole looked up at me and I could tell he was confused. He had no idea who I was. I had changed so much. He on the other hand, still looked the same like he was when he was little.“I am sorry” Letting go of him was the best way to get rid of the awkwardness between us. He bowed and stretched forth the letter he had come to deliver to me.I still could not understand how he had ended up being a delivery man for some rogues or whoever it was that had sent the letter.Not taking my eyes off him, I took the letter and read
Just then, he started to cough out blood.What was going on? I hurriedly placed the jar of water in his mouth but more blood? My eyes widened in shock as I dropped the jar that was in my hand.“No….. No….No. Don’t do this” I pleaded with him as he spat out blood. Where was the blood from? Had he been poisoned? My eyes widened in shock as several thoughts began to run through my mind. I could not afford to lose Dave. He had always been my support.He was my go to person and the only person I could trust so much with my pack. He suddenly began to turn pale. “Get the Royal physician!” I yelled at the maid and then, she nodded. Running quickly with one of the guards.“Stay with me” I pleaded as his eyelids had gently began to close. “Stay with me. Please, do not die. I cannot afford to lose you” I pleaded with him. Leading the pack without him would be very difficult. We had began to do things together since I became the Alpha.I had chosen him specifically to help me out and he had not l