26

"The Council has decided. The girl must die." At first I was puzzled that Fargo was taking advice from a council. But now I understood. The boy was way too young to be alpha. Especially since his father was apparently still alive, it was completely incomprehensible to me that the boy had to carry such a burden. I didn't know how long I had been in the cell.

Eventually I fell asleep on the hard floor and only woke up when I was injected with a bluish liquid. However, that had directly caused my vision to blur and I lost consciousness. After I woke up, Helena came to me and gave me her creepy grin again while handing me a glass of water, which she tasted beforehand to show me that it was not poisoned. Nevertheless, I only drank a few sips calmly and serenely.

Helena's stupid grin only twisted into an angry grimace and she left without a word. I had used my time to think about my current situation. Of course, my thoughts kept wandering to Benjamin, but I decided that staying in here wouldn't do any good for him, and I couldn't think of ways to escape. I would grieve if I could find time to pay my respects to Benjamin.

Because he hadn't died in vain. His death had shown me that the days of sitting around were finally over. I wouldn't let myself be treated like that anymore. I wasn't a pawn, I played my own game by my own rules. And no advice could dissuade me from that.

"May I ask why this decision was made?" Crouching on the floor, I scanned the assembled werewolves. A few men and women had strange purple spots on their arms that caught my eye immediately. The room I was in was set up like a throne room. Large, roomy, and like my cell, there was little furniture, just a few chairs upholstered in red velvet.

Fargo looked nervously at his father. He returned his son's gaze with a clear nod. "You will not be allowed to make this request." "Objection," I replied. A few of the council members present grew restless. "My death has just been decided here and as a quasi-dead I am entitled to that couldn't be the reason. Unless Viktor did not want to lose his influence, but for reasons unknown to me had to leave his post.

That was certainly also decided by this Council. "This world was not made for a deity to roam. We have always lived well without it, and should continue to do so. With no option for us to send you back to the moon, that is our only choice." The red-haired woman took several steps back in line, obviously proud of her remarks. I just wondered why everyone thought I was the moon or that I lived on the moon.

"But you are all aware that if I die, your race will become extinct." The moment of shock I was hoping for didn't materialize. No one was even remotely surprised by what I said. "Of course. We submit to the new reality. Our race has changed for the worse in the last few decades anyway. We soften and don't even know what our real destiny is anymore," Helena said irascibly and received encouraging applause.

"We are werewolves. We fight among ourselves and kill each other. We don't negotiate land and make treaties, we just take it." "Well, that old-fashioned view definitely explains the throne room. You got stuck in the 17th century, didn't you? Everything evolves and changes, it's part of life." Their opinions and perspectives reminded me of something though. " Haven't you heard of the organization before?"

"Of course we have," Fargo replied immediately, "we work with her." Viktor took quick steps to his son and said urgently, "Stop telling her something like that tell." The boy shook his head, causing his braid to swing back and forth.

"She's going to die anyway. It doesn't matter anymore." I looked again at the arms of the people who didn't look quite healthy. "What did you do?" "Oh, we just gave them subjects for their Krecanos experiments. For this we will be spared and at some point we may die by ourselves. At least not through the organization, because we have signed a watertight contract with them." I thought contracts weren't for werewolves. They take it easy," I said, looking at Helena, who visibly took offense at this comment.

"What do you know?" "Quite a lot, unlike you," I hissed at Viktor. "You have no idea . You are so afraid of the real world that you hide behind excuses and in your throne room." Now I fixed the entire crowd in the room. "Out there your kind will die and you hole up here. That's not the way true werewolves behave." "You said yourself that the world is changing. In a way, we're just going with her."

"You're constantly contradicting yourself and twisting your excuses to always fit the starting point. As long as it sounds good." Fargo jumped out of his chair and marched towards me, ignoring his father's hand that tried to stop him. Fargo grabbed my arm and pressed his finger to the puncture mark on my upper arm. Me hissed and looked up at him through pursed lips, "hurts doesn't it? The organization developed this especially for you.

Seluma and Krecanos. Together they suppress your powers and weaken you physically." He sneered. "You're not that big-mouthed now, are you?" However, when he saw my grin and raised my eyebrow at him in superiority, his smile faded and so did he let go of my arm in confusion. The next moment his father rushed to his side.

"You stupid boy, that's what she wanted," he hissed at him. He grabbed his son's arm and pointed to two werewolves. "Take her away from here. We will get her later so that she can receive her death." Viktor dragged Fargo behind him, back to his throne. Hands wrapped around my arms - they were pretty popular - and lifted me to my feet.

They carried me straight to my cell. One of them pushed my head down so that I could only look at the boring floor. In front of the door I knew, one of them finally said: "I'll get her into the cell. You can go." I frowned in confusion.

The voice sounded somehow familiar to me. There was no answer to that, but a hand released my arm and the pressure on my head also disappeared. After steps faded away more and more, the familiar voice finally hissed: "Now finally look up." I followed the instructions, confused. My eyes widened in surprise. "Niklas?!"

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, still totally shocked that he was here. "What does it look like?" he responded with a counter-question. "I'm not quite sure yet. Maybe you belong to this pack." I didn't think so myself, but I couldn't rule out anything. Niklas looked at me doubtfully. "Of course, I'm in two packs at once." I shrugged my shoulders. "Who knows." He rolled his eyes. "I'm here to get you out of here."

"Why?" He looked at me confused. "What do you mean with why?"

"Why are you helping me? We're not exactly best friends. Also, I'm wondering how you got here? Or how you knew where I am?" "You ask a lot of questions for someone being rescued by another person. How about gratitude?" "You'll get my gratitude if you answer my questions and we get out of here safely." I pointed to the door. "We're still in front of the door." Niklas glared at me for a few seconds.

Then "He grabbed my hand and pulled me behind him. He walked confidently through the narrow corridors, most of which were only lit by a lamp. He stopped before a turn and pressed me with one hand against the wall. He peered around the corner and then moved on, satisfied with what he had or hadn't seen, it just kept going and eventually I started to wonder if either Niklas had no idea where we were going or the throne room wasn't the only thing here that was was pretty archaic. Niklas finally stopped in front of a narrow and small door.

"Let's go out there, we're out. Then all we have to do is leave their territory and we're done." "Why do you know your way around here so well?" Nicholas sighed. "Okay, I'll answer your questions. But after that we're going to leave."

He leaned against the wall but kept an eye on our surroundings. Since the way to the door consisted of a narrow, dusty alley, it was easy to keep an eye on everything. "I saw how Damian and the others arrived in the village without you. So I stayed in the forest where I had been and kept an eye on everything." Nicholas shrugged his shoulders.

"I've gotten used to that." Why could I imagine. "And then... I can't believe it saying that, this squirrel came to me." He bowed his head, as if embarrassed by the statement. "I ignored it at first, but it didn't take off. When it then started to pull on my pants, I followed it. And it brought me here. I overheard two women talking about the goddess. Then I just snuck in, scouted out a bit, and you know the rest." I looked at him in surprise. He'd gone through all that just to get me out of here? "Thanks. I'm serious. Thanks for coming here."

"Oh well, it was pretty easy. Their safety precautions seem to be from the last century." A short laugh escaped me. "Besides, you shouldn't thank me just yet. We're not safe yet." "I didn't think you'd ever do something like that. So yes, thanks are due. And maybe an apology too, I really misjudged you."

"It's enough for me if you tell about this action in front of Amelia. Basically, I'm only doing this for her." I laughed again, even having to cover my mouth to keep from making any louder noises. "I will." "Well, once this is all settled, I would like to get out of here." I pointed to the door with one hand. "I'll follow you."

DAMIAN’S VIEW

"Okay, so just to sum it all up: We have no idea where Alina is, nor who has her. We don't even have the slightest clue as to where she is. Do I understand that correctly?" The werewolves in my office felt clearly uncomfortable, only a few responded to my question with a short nod.

"Great," I said sarcastically. I turned my gaze to the forest behind me. Too many Hours had passed. I hadn't slept. I couldn't remember the last time I ate either. I couldn't get in touch with Alina. I couldn't even sense what condition she was in.

"Everyone out of here!" Only Jack stayed while everyone else seemed very happy to have been released from my attention. Jack cleared his throat. "You mustn't lose heart-" He stopped abruptly, when I slammed my fist into the wall again. "Okay," he began, "nevertheless, it's im-" I put my hands on the underside of my table and knocked it over in one quick movement. That meant there was so much strength in my arms that the table momentarily flew across the room, and Jack had to jump sideways to avoid being buried under it. Slightly overwhelmed, he now looked from the table to me.

"Okay," he began again, "can I finish my sentence without breaking anything in this room again?" Since I didn't react, but also didn't destroy anything anymore, he seemed satisfied.

"You mustn't forget that Alina is very good at taking care of herself." I put my head back and closed my eyes. Jack continued undeterred: "She's proved that to us several times. Besides, it can't be long before we have a lead. And if she were already dead, we'd notice that." I looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Wow, thanks. That's really reassuring." Jack groaned. "Oh man. I'm really not good at this comforting and uplifting thing. I act. So I'm happy to offer to take your frustration out on me if you want." I wanted to say no when I realized that the idea wasn't so bad after all. But I didn't want to waste any time. Every minute I didn't spend looking for Alina could be a minute too long. Since I did not know what condition she was in, I could not say anything about her health condition. It was maddening. I had the entire forest area where Benjamin died and where Alina was walking searched. I'd even been to see Mr. Tally. Nothing, I had no sign of her. I couldn't even smell her. "I hate doing nothing. Despairing slowly while I have no idea what's going on with her."

"Believe me, I feel au-" "Alpha," my office door opened abruptly. Jack groaned in annoyance. "Why is everyone interrupting me today?" I didn't respond, instead I asked, "What is it?" "There's a deer outside." I looked at the man in disbelief. Was he kidding me? He burst in here to tell me there was a deer in this forest.

"Nice for the deer. Unfortunately I don't have time to have a tea party with him." "Alpha, that's really important. The deer stands directly in front of the pack house and does not disappear. Not even if we roar at it in wolf form." Still staring at the man. Then I said, "I can't believe I have to deal with a stupid deer." Jack and I followed the man out. Also I would have seen it without him showing me the animal. It really was standing right outside the door, with a brown wolf next to it, who was snarling menacingly at it. But he didn't seem to mind at all.

I ordered the woman to transform back and ran towards the deer. It stared at me with dark eyes. I raised my hands in a request. I didn't care that I was making a fool of myself. Right now I didn't care anyway. In fact, the animal responded. It came towards me, grabbed my pants and pulled me towards the forest.

"Oh no, I really don't have any nerve for that now. Leave me alone." When the animal - oh wonder - didn't react, I growled at it. Finally a reaction. It stomped back a few steps and looked at me again. Now I pointed to the forest.

"Go on, get out before I lose patience." I added a little quieter, "I can't believe I have any left of this." Briefly distracted, I only realized the deer had stepped behind me when I felt a head on my butt, pushing me forward. I sighed and followed the prompt for a few yards before realizing it was only meant to lead me back to the forest. I turned around and said: "Okay, now I'm fed up. Then just stay here and deal with wolves alone in a village."

I turned and was about to go back inside when I caught Jack's gaze. I sighed and closed my eyes and massaged my temples before saying "What?" squeezed out. "Now just a funny thought. Alina is connected to nature. And that includes the animals. Maybe they want to help us find them." I looked at him blankly. I raised my face to the sky. I sighed again. I turned back to the deer.

"Do you want to help us?" I have no idea what I was expecting. The animal just cocked its head. "In the end, it's our last chance and hope anyway. After all, we don't have any idea where it is," I murmured. Then I looked at the deer again and leaned forward a bit. "All right. I hope for your sake that you know where she is."

The deer stomped in place for a moment and then ran to the forest. Jack came to my side. "Never mind. There comes a point in an alpha's life where you just have to talk to an animal." He patted my shoulder encouragingly.