The female let her eyes fall from Achelois to Katherine who still looked rough from her ordeal. “Now you understand the limitations that we stressed so vehemently during your training.” Katherine looked up but before she could nod in embarrassed agreement the female interrupted. “What good are you to your pack if you are passed out on the ground?” Katherine met the gaze of the female. “Your connection with the earth is exceptional as your teacher has reported, but you still adhere to the weakness of all sages. What you did was remarkable, yes. But then you passed out and Efraim removed himself from your little stunt moments later. What did you accomplish?” Katherine remained stone still, meeting her gaze but not speaking or even attempting to move. “As sages we must always guard against pushing ourselves up against our limits. What we ask of the Earth comes directly from us. We give of our own lifeforce, and strength. Once our strength is gone, we are spent and become useless to the rest of our pack. The question you have to always ask yourself, is my ability going to be an asset or a liability?” Katherine remained still. She didn’t look away from the female. She sat there taking in everything that was said. William was familiar with the profile. Her set shoulders and her stiff neck told William everything he needed to know about how she was responding to the lecture.
The female shifted her attention to Aceso who was standing over William’s left shoulder. She stared at her. William wanted to look up to see how Aceso was handling that look, but he couldn’t seem to make his head move.
“The pack alpha,” the female said the words slowly as if she had to pull them out of her own mouth. The female didn’t try to hide her emotions as she said it. William couldn’t read her face. There was something there but to his eyes it wasn’t disgust or anything distasteful but something about the way her face moved told William there was something that the female didn’t like about having to say those words. “You need to be better than that.” William watched as the female seemed to choose her words more carefully than she had with the rest of them. “You allowed yourself to be cornered and cut off from your pack mates. This is not what you did wrong. When you were free you ran to help Charles.” She glanced down toward William and Katherine. Then shot daggers from her eyes as she raised her gaze once more to Aceso. “What you should have done was take a few extra seconds to assess the situation. You would have seen that William was injured and Katherine was no match for her opponent.” The reddish-brown female without moving seemed to take two or three steps closer to the rest of the pack. The effect was intimidating and awe inspiring all at the same time. “You, as alpha, have a responsibility to this pack. Without them you are nothing. If you want to wear that mantle you have to be more focused on the whole, not just the one nearest to you at the time.” Aceso made no motion or noise behind him. William was still unsure if he should glance up behind him. He knew how strong Aceso was. He was sure that she could handle it. He didn’t hear even the slightest movement from behind him. The female took in the whole of the pack. “For those of you who don’t know, I am Derceto, Elder Sage to the City under the Mountain.”
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William felt a sudden flash of anger and hate well up inside him so quickly he wondered if he hadn’t already known who this female was the whole time. He stood up but knew better than to try anything.
The gesture was not lost on Derceto. “William, you think me evil.”
William stared at her. “You sent your three bodyguards to kill me. I just wondered why, if you felt so strongly about it, you didn’t come yourself?”
Derceto was bare inches away from him in a motion that he couldn’t track with his eyes. She locked onto his eyes with a death cold stare. William was a little surprised in himself as he met the gaze unflinching. Derceto inhaled through her nose. William knew that even now she was testing him. “I stand by my decision, pup.” Derceto backed away from him. Derceto regained her place a respectable distance between the two groups. She took in everyone in the pack. Her eyes seemed to focus on all of them at once. “Overall, you fought as a group of individuals, not as a pack. This tells me that you are not a true pack yet.” She made it obvious when she shifted her gaze to Aceso. “You need to find an answer to that.”
Derceto motioned behind her while keeping her attention on the young pack in front of her. “Your proctors for this test.”
The pack stepped forward to Derceto’s right, while the other three greys stepped up to her left. The pack on her right formed a line. Derceto glanced toward the black and white calico that William and Katherine had fought. “This is Efraim Goldstein, he is the combat master for the City under the Mountain. You will all be trained under his supervision.” The calico bowed his head.
William didn’t feel so bad that he had gotten his butt handed to him. Efraim looked very comfortable with his pack. There was none of the bravado that he would have expected from a combat master. The term brought to mind Marine drill sergeants yelling at people about how they need to shape up or ship out. But this werewolf seemed almost quiet, accepting his duties as duties and performing them to the best of his abilities. Now that he thought about it none of the werewolves in the city had any kind of ego that he could tell. Ares was the protector of the City under the Mountain but he was quiet and reserved. That could have been because of his size. But take that with how Efraim had just responded, he wondered if maybe ego was one of those dangerous emotions Derceto had spoken about that had been stamped out of the werewolves that lived here. Was everything here done simply for the good of the pack and by extension the good of the city?
Derceto turned on her heel and walked out of the clearing. The greys followed her and the other pack broke out into a run on all fours, leaving them in the sudden quiet of the forest clearing.