William felt a hollow space open in his gut. He had risked everything to save her and Charles. Aceso had risked so much just by bringing them to the Whyte Plain to begin with. He couldn’t move his eyes from the floor. He couldn’t fill his lungs properly and right then he didn’t care. He would suffocate, but he wouldn’t feel the pain of it. Achelois was gone. He knew that Ares was telling the truth but something deep in his mind wouldn’t let him believe it. It had to be a mistake. William forced his eyes upward to stare pleadingly at his teacher. Ares had no answer for him but there was real emotion in his eyes. This only served to drive the point home. Achelois was dead.
“What about Charles?”
Ares hunched down on the floor to look at William on an equal level. The eight-foot-tall werewolf remained on his feet. William wondered if there was a reason for this or if this was just Ares being comfortable, his voice sounded very tired all of a sudden. “It’s still fifty, fifty with Charles. Like you, as of an hour ago, he was still throwing himself against his chains and growling unintelligibly at his teacher.” Ares shook his head. “Time will tell. He has to come back himself, just as you did.”
William felt shell shocked. Everything he had done, all that Aceso had tried to do, had been for nothing. He let this happen to Charles. He hadn’t been strong enough to save his friends. They had trusted him, and he had failed them, and his alpha.
“It’s not your fault, William. If you had been a true pack this never would have happened. Achelois made her choice. Being a wolf born, she out of all of you, should have been better prepared.”
“So, this is all her fault then?” William asked. Ares eyes hardened and shot daggers at William. He immediately wished he could take that outburst back.
“If you had been a true pack, all of you would have felt Achelois leave and could have followed her. Because you were not all tied to your alpha in the same way you are, that safety mechanism for your pack was not in place.” Ares calmed down and his eyes softened. “Achelois made her choice and not you, or Aceso, or even I could have changed her mind. She had valid reasons for not swearing to Aceso.”
“So, what happens now?”
Ares’ tail flicked out to one side. “You will stay here for a few more days.” Ares was sympathetic toward his former student. It was written on his face. “I’m sorry. Just be glad that you are still alive. Charles will be kept under watch until he proves himself either way.”
“What do you mean, either way?”
“If he cannot prove himself to be a shape shifter than he will be condemned as an unthinking beast and put down.”
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“I bet Derceto would love that.”
The strike came so fast that William didn’t have time to react to it. Ares claws left a raking wound across his chest and William fell backwards holding himself. “The Elder has her reasons and has been proven right time and again. Your behavior is a glaring example of that.” Ares stood up and gazed down at William. “She is charged with protecting this city, just as we all are. The Elders will be shown respect.”
Ares turned around and left the cell.
William heard the heavy, archaic finality of the heavy door swing shut. The subdued thud of the door closing echoed around his cell before leaving him once again in silence. He guessed that the only thing he could do at this point was wait. His stomach growled at him and he rubbed at his stomach as much as the stinging lines that arched across his chest. In hindsight, he knew how his former teacher felt about the Elders and the City. It had been a really stupid move to voice that kind of comment, especially when he knew that it hadn’t been true.
William didn’t have to wait very long. The door opened and a grey werewolf stepped into the cell long enough to throw a large leg of meat at him. As William watched the leg land next to him, the grey turned around and exited without a word. The whole thing had seemed really barbaric. He was unfit to be spoken to and therefore was feed like a rabid dog. The smell of the flesh from the leg made his stomach growl even louder. He hated being thought of as just an animal, but he hadn’t eaten in a long time. He grabbed the leg of meat and tore into the flesh.
William took another bite of the tender meat and looked down to find that the leg was nothing but bone. Had he eaten the entire thing already? He still felt much too hungry but the food was settling down into his gut. He was far from satisfied but at least his stomach wasn’t grumbling so loudly now. The leg of meat couldn’t even have qualified as a snack but it would keep him alive and that was the best that he could hope for under the circumstances.
He was fed in the same manner three more times for the remainder of his stay in the cell. The grey werewolf would throw him his meat like a human would throw meat to a dog. But it was sustenance and William swallowed his pride as best he could.
After what he figured was about two days after he had been visited by Ares he was let out of his cell. The grey walked in and released his clasps and the heavy chains clanked to the ground. The grey stood up and walked out of the cell. William was left sitting there massaging his wrists and ankles. His wrists had healed some time ago and the act of massaging the now free flesh was more of a reflex than for any beneficial purpose.
William stood up and walked out of the cell. The heavy door was held open by a block and chain retainer. The door was thicker than he had imagined, a good seven or eight inches thick. Standing just beyond the door to his cell was Ansuya. She was wearing a green silk dress with a scarf looking garment wrapped around her black hair. Her almond shaped, dark brown eyes studied him for a long moment. She had been the last person in the world that he had expected to see. Even outside of her werewolf form, the quiet strength that irradiated outward from this woman was intimidating.
“I’m glad to see you are well, William.” He didn’t know how to respond. She held his gaze and he was only able to nod. “The Elders have judged you to be a shape shifter and you are to be allowed to rejoin your pack.” With that simple statement that carried so much weight, Ansuya turned in a rippling of green silk and disappeared down a narrow walkway.