Chapter 12: Brandon
“Really? I don’t think so. You seem to be…” her voice sounds suspicious now. She keeps on stepping forward while I step backward. My breathing started to narrow, bile rising up on my throat.
This girl in front of me, she may be human in form. But once she finds out I’m not like them, I will be as good as dead.
“I really do need to go.” I cleared my throat, and when I get out of the borders, I will look for a safer place from this weird village. I should probably look for Zarion first.
But where the hell am I going to look?!
Delilah’s suspicions deepen when we hear the crowd fall silent. Looking around, I could feel all eyes on me.
The crowd suddenly stopped. On the horizon, I saw a strange man whose body looked exactly like Zarion's. However, looking at his evil smirk, I could sense that they are the complete opposite. Zarion’s was always mocking.
The man has a cunning personality, a sarcastic beast, for sure. Zarion’s cold, brutal, and dangerous aura is nothing like this man. He may be smiling, but I saw the danger within the windows of his soul, his eyes. In just a flash of light, he already grabbed my wrist and pinned me to the tree.
My heart started beating so loudly that I thought it would burst out from my ribcage. “What’s that fragrant smell?” he asked, sniffing me like I’m a flower he was going to buy.
“Alpha Brandon,” was all I heard from Delilah who knelt down a second after seeing him. The rest of them did the same as if he was the king in this village.
Well, to be honest, it looks like it. He is the Alpha of this pack of man-shifting wolves. There’s no doubt about that.
“Ah, she’s a human,” he grinned, softly touching my burning cheeks. I kept my shriek at bay, disregarding the nervousness creeping in my bones. When this Alpha Brandon mentions the word ‘human’ like it’s cursed, like it’s disgusting, the rest of the villagers who were in human form began to shift into wolves. Howling, and growling.
“There’s an intruder!” someone shouted and everyone’s face turned feral at me even more. I was like a meek mouse trapped in a den of merciless lions. Instead, they were all wolves. If I remember what my grandmother told me before about werewolves, where I used to believe them that they are all a myth, humans are their rivals. They despise them very much.
They never want to get involved with humans.
Yet here I am. I just fell right into their wild mouths.
***
“How did a human find this pack?”
“I…”
“I can see in your eyes that you are desperately looking for something, or someone...” Brandon trailed off, yielding another step towards me. “Who is it? What’s his name?”
“If I tell you his name, will you let go of me safely?”
“Of course, of course,” he nodded. “Who are you looking for?”
“I’m looking for Zarion, and I believe he’s also the one who brought me here. He—he's also like you, shifts into an animal. Into a—” I paused, swallowing hard as I resumed. “Into a wolf. A big, big wolf.”
“Werewolf. It’s what we are," Brandon uttered softly that only I could hear. But his eyes…they were telling me otherwise. His eyes were loud, threatening to rip me apart by just his mere gaze. Brandon was looking at me intently, curiously, like a predator ready to cram down his prey. Any minute from now, I might be dead. At least I know that I will die soon, compared to yesterday where I thought I’m going to—
The wolf is Zarion. He even saved you from the cold hands of harsh winter, I thought, my inner Zarion-stan is the one who continued my thoughts. Looking at these foreign faces around me, I couldn’t help but scream for help. But my system prevented it otherwise—the last thread of self-control refrained it otherwise.
They wouldn’t kill me, right? Zarion shifted into a wolf just like them, and he didn’t kill me. Well, they are not Zarion. And you might just be a feast for their belly as much as a threat to their lives.
With an anxious nod, I stared at Brandon, my eyes boring a hole into his soul. “Yes, y-yes. I was thinking maybe he's here?” I scanned the faces again, hoping that Zarion would materialize even before I knew it. Instead, the several pairs of wolf eyes looking at me made me too uncomfortable and hazy to care for Zarion’s presence. Or arrival.
Brandon roared into a sarcastic laugh, pointing a finger at everyone gathered in the village. “Did you just hear what she says? He's looking for the Alpha!” He continues laughing like a madman. “Our Alpha who's supposed to take care of us but is an idiot to run away from all of his responsibilities!”
Intrigued by his speech, I asked. “Who are you?”
“I'm the Alpha of this pack now...with his permanent absence.” Smirk split his masculine face like he just won something.
“You don't look like one,” innocence flooded my tone. Everyone gasped after I said that. “Sorry,” I apologized. “Did I just say something wrong?”
Brandon snarled and the iris of his eyes changed. “You're looking for your own death, human.” He turned his head to a nearby wolf that didn’t fully shift.
My heart hums to the tune of terror.
