A week had passed since he had awoken Sylvie with his nightmare. Since then, his demeanor had changed: a complete shift in personality that hadn’t gone unnoticed. His heart clenched as the siblings became hesitant in his presence, sensing the shift but unable to pinpoint the differences. An unseen chasm had grown between him and Sylvie and with every questioning glance she threw his way, his soul rebelled at his continued silence. Gone was his wit and charm, leaving only a frightening obsession behind.
“I am headed to the pack meeting. It will take us a few hours to get through the agenda, so I won’t be back until the late hours of the night,” Sylvie said, putting on her leather boots while Noah sat with his feet on the table and his hat covering his face.
She paused for a moment, and he could feel her gaze burning into the back of his head, waiting and hoping for him to respond. Silence answered her hope.
“Hopefully, they will grant you full pack membership tonight. We have waited long enough for them to accept you,” Sylvie said, trying again to engage him.
Why was this so painful for him? He had expected it to end this way since she first claimed him on that battlefield. In fact, he had planned on it. But now that the time had come to harden his heart, he balked.
“How will I pass the hours waiting for such an important decision to be made?” Noah fanned himself as if the very thought of such distressing news would cause him to faint.
“You may not care about your status in the pack, but I do. I need you to be a full member,” Sylvie snapped.
Surprised at the harshness of her tone, he removed his hat from his face and glanced over at her. “And why, my mate, do you need me to gain the status of a pack member?”
Sylvie exploded, her form shimmering as a growl reverberated through the air. “Because it’s shameful! I have a mate that isn’t accepted by the pack? I am the Alpha! How dare they question my mate?”
“Oh yes, let’s forget about your mate’s safety and happiness within the pack. No, we should worry about how it affects your image, Sylvie,” he said, snorting in disbelief at his selfish mate.
Her anger dissipated at his rebuke, and her shoulders sagged, resembling a chastised pup. In an eerie silence, she glided across the room and placed a tentative hand on his shoulder. “I do care about you Noah, but that only does so much if the pack won’t accept you as a member. Even an alpha is beholden to others.”
Against his will, he leaned into the warmth and comfort of her hand but remained silent with his arms crossed in childish defiance. The soothing warmth abandoned his shoulder as Sylvie threw up her hands in exasperation at having to deal with such a stubborn mate.
“Fine! Continue to sulk here while I go to the pack meeting. I will return later,” she said, storming out of the cabin with the dull glow of the sunset swallowing her darkening figure.
His eyes followed her retreating form until well after she had disappeared into the towering trees. A subtle heat on his shoulder was all that remained of her presence, and he gently touched the spot, attempting to memorize the way her fingers warmed his body and mind. As the sensation of a soul-deep cold replaced her heat, he vigorously rubbed at his shoulder, hoping friction would keep her alive for a few minutes more. Finally, his skin returned to its normal temperature and unhinged desperation transformed his features. The time had come.
Eyes closed in a peace that only resignation could bring, he waited in his chair for thirty minutes before rising and opening the window. “Come on in, you two. No reason to be bored outside in the woods alone.”
Without waiting for a response, he moved toward the hearth, beginning to build a roaring fire. Not even a few moments had passed before Luna jumped through the open window with an acrobatic flip.
“Mr. Human. Mr. Human. Guess what?” she said, hopping around the cabin in glee with her pigtails bouncing violently around her face.
“His name isn’t Mr. Human! It’s Noah. Noooaaahhh,” Silas said as he climbed in after her.
“Mr. Human, what should we play tonight?” Luna ignored her brother and jumped onto Sylvie’s bed, forgetting whatever earth-shattering news she had wanted to tell Noah only a second earlier.
At the hearth, he placed an iron pot filled with water on the metal grate. The crackling of the wood, and the flickering of the flames, transfixed him, rendering him speechless for a few moments. Smoke billowed out of the hearth, burning his eyes and obscuring his face from view. He refused to blink, accepting the deserved pain with open arms.
“Well, I thought I could make some fresh tea to warm us up and then, maybe, we could see how your howling is coming along Luna,” he said, dusting his hands off with a few claps and leaving the cover of the smoke.
“Yay!” She threw her arms up in the air, continuing to jump on Sylvie’s bed with unending energy. “I’ve been practicing real hard. You might even get scared when you hear it,” she warned him.
“We will see about that, won’t we?” he said with a sad smile.
After waiting a few minutes for the water to boil, he grabbed the iron pot with tongs and removed it from the metal grate. He retrieved a glass jar from the cupboard that held his ground herbs. As he was about to dump the herbs into the pot, his hand froze, leaving the herbs teetering on the lip of the jar. Sweat beaded at his brow, and his hand began to shake. Squeezing his eyes shut, he tipped the jar a fraction of an inch further and allowed gravity to complete the heinous task for him.
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Dissociated from the world, he stared at the brewing tea; the siblings fading from his senses. Once the tea was ready, he filled three cups with the fragrant beverage. Sights and sounds returned to him in a thundering rush as he handed two cups to Luna and Silas. As expected, Luna grabbed the cup in an instant, wasting no time gulping down her one cup for the day. When Silas grabbed his cup and sipped his tea with no hesitation, something broke inside of Noah. Silas’ trust in Noah was so great that he hadn’t even sniffed the liquid.
Blowing the steam away from his own cup, he sipped the tea before letting the liquid dribble between his lips and back into the cup. Luna and Silas filled the cabin with constant bickering, never allowing silence to get a word in. They became quieter as time went on.
As the siblings became more lethargic, he gazed at the herbs floating languidly in the water. Absent from the solid green grounds were the bits of pink that signified their ripeness. The “unripe” herbs had finally made their first appearance tonight. They were so similar to the herbs that brewed amazing tea, and yet, the effects couldn’t be more different.
After a few more minutes, the siblings blinked their eyes as if they were having trouble keeping them open. Luna lost consciousness first, her cup hitting the ground and spilling tea across the floor. Luckily, the soft bed cradled her fall instead of the hard floor.
Silas stared wide-eyed at his slumbering sister as he tried to fight the sedation of the herbs. As if hit by a battering ram, his gaze whipped to Noah in realization, betrayal etched across his face. Silas bolted out of his chair, sending the chair flying across the cabin and slamming into the wall. Like a drunk, he wobbled on his feet, swaying back and forth.
Every second that Silas struggled against the sedative added new stains to Noah’s soul. He walked toward the stumbling teenager and grasped his shoulders, steadying him. “I’m sorry, brother. You and Luna will suffer no ill-effects and wake up in a few hours…”
His voice trailed off and his eyes clouded. “You must risk everything if you want to gain your freedom. Friendship? Family? Morals? These will only shackle you. I wish another path had presented itself, but this was the only way forward.”
Tears leaked down Silas’s cheeks before he too lost consciousness, collapsing into Noah’s arms. Noah picked up the lad and placed him on the bed beside Luna. When no one else would, these siblings had welcomed him with open arms. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from their slumbering faces, hesitation paralyzing his body. Was he creating new nightmares to cure his old ones?
An image of 125, his neck ripped apart and his body contorted in horrifying angles, exploded into his mind. Refusing to be banished, the haunting images cackled in glee at his attempts to move on to happier thoughts. An eternity later, he finally regained his rationale, but the struggle left him drained.
If the choice had ever belonged to him, now it no longer did. He had to leave or his past would leave him lost in madness for the rest of his life. He hesitated no longer, turning away from Luna and Silas with grim determination.
Making his way to the table, he carefully emptied the rest of the tea into a small cup. A paper lid secured the tea, ensuring that he wouldn’t arrive at the entrance of the territory with an empty cup.
Without looking back, he grabbed his cane that was leaning against the wall and strolled through the open doorway. Time was of the essence, and he took off in a brisk but steady jog. He needed to leave the territory before Sylvie returned home, but he couldn’t sacrifice endurance for speed. This was his one chance at escape, and there were no betrayals that he would not commit to ensure his success.
The sun sunk below the giant trees and darkness engulfed him. However, he had memorized the route over the past three weeks and continued his jog with confident steps. Moonlight fell in scattered patterns across the forest floor, granting him just enough light to secure his footing against any wayward roots or bushes. Owls hooted their alarm at his presence, a constant ‘who’ filling the silence of the woods. Encountering no one during his couple-hour jog, he finally approached the border of the territory. A wolf materialized from the shadows and shifted into his human form.
“Human? What are you doing all the way out here without an escort?” Clay questioned him, more in confusion than alarm.
Gasping for breath, Noah held out the cup of tea he had prepared. “Greetings, Sir Clay! The siblings and I brewed some hot tea tonight, and we figured if anyone deserves its warmth, it’s the guard wolves on duty in this chill.”
He handed the mug to Clay, who took it without thinking twice. And why would he? Noah had spent weeks creating a routine for this guard. For the first few days, Clay had sniffed the liquid in suspicion, but after a few weeks? Alertness had no defenses against the monotonous and mundane.
“But where are the pups?” asked Clay, taking deep swallows of tea and narrowing his eyes toward the path Noah had emerged from.
Noah draped an arm around the wolf’s shoulder like they were old drinking mates, letting out a boisterous laugh. “The kids? They will be so embarrassed by the time they get here.”
He gestured toward the forest, diverting Clay’s attention and biding the necessary time for the tea to take effect. “We made a bet that if they gave me an hour head start, they could still beat me here. They are sure to be coming any minute now, mad as hell.”
“Luna will be spitting mad alright,” Clay said, chuckling in perhaps his first sign of friendliness toward Noah.
The wait for the tea to take effect was excruciating. He needed to create distance between himself and the pack territory, not have a tea party. But he had to follow his plan or his freedom would slip through his grasp.
Finally, Clay began to slur his words, swaying on his feet just as Silas had. A smile lit Clay’s face as if he was enjoying the powerful sedative, and with no other warning, he collapsed face-first onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. Noah sprinted off into the darkness before the dust had even settled.
For the first time since he had been taken prisoner, he finally came upon the wolf eyes carved into the two trees. The mighty symbol of the Baleful Fiend Pack: a pair of wondrous lights braving the dark to guide friends or warn enemies. The eyes’ ever-watchful gaze followed his movements through the trees, casting an eerie glow and covering him in sinister shadows.
As he emerged onto the dirt road, he pumped his cane above his head in celebration. They wouldn’t dare chase him too far into the Wilds, not for a human they didn’t want in their territory to begin with. A weight lifted from his spirit as his freedom became imminent. Instead of rushing away from the territory, he glanced back at the territory symbol. The yellow eyes, so sinister when he first arrived, seemed to follow him with a sad gaze as he backpedaled away.
“You aren’t a wolf, Noah. Don’t search for a home where none can be found.”
Filled with confidence from his naïve wisdom, he sprinted away from the freedom that had eluded him his entire life.