The Girl With The Scales

Worthy

☽ ASTORIA ☾

I never thought I'd see him again.

Yet there he was, sitting on my bed, trying to pretend like he didn't have a care in the world. It wasn't working, because I could see the lines of worry on his face, and the way his forehead pinched together. His brown eyes betrayed the storm of uncertainty brewing within.

Devon and I hadn't seen each other in ten years. Not since Alpha Caius' twentieth birthday party. I unexpectedly shifted and ruined his good time, terrifying his guests. Apparently, a dragon crashing his good time wasn't on the list of things the newly minted alpha would tolerate from me. That night he sent me away in a fit of rage, banishing me from the pack.

I was only ten years old.

I stepped into the room, and Devon looked up, his face breaking into a wide smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. The worried lines remained.

"Hey Tori... " he started, using a nickname I hadn't heard in a decade as if he was trying to soften me up.

"Don't call me that," I snapped back. I was too old to be called Tori, too old for buttering up and dancing around reasons for him to be here.

I was already annoyed with his presence. He had been my friend, but he had forgotten me in the wake of our alpha's anger. I had not heard from anyone in my former pack since being carted away.

Except Matt.

I softened at the thought of Matt. He sent me letters every month. He was the only reason I knew anything about my pack at all. But it still felt like a lifetime ago since I'd been anywhere near the mountains and rolling hills I had grown up in. Matt did his best to keep the connection alive for me through his words and pictures.

Devon flinched at my tone, but he forged on. Clearly, whatever he had to say was important.

"Caius wants you to come home, Astoria," he muttered, like he was waiting for the anger that he knew would flair at his words.

"I don't have a home, remember? That bastard banished me," I snarled back.

By werewolf standards, I was rogue. I had no pack to claim as my own, sentenced to live my life on the run like a common criminal. It was only because I possessed magic that I was sent to the monastery I lived in instead of being tossed out into the forest to fend for myself.

"He ne-....we need your help," Devon implored, but I didn't miss the correction he made. He was trying to make it sound like more than just Caius wanted me back, but I knew better.

Werewolves were generally suspicious and distrustful of anything that could see them as prey. On the food chain, I was the highest predator. My species was ancient and rarely seen in the world, and it was a miracle I was even born.

"Then ask one of the witches for help. I'm not doing whatever it is he's suddenly decided I'm worthy of."

Forgiveness wasn't something I had so far been able to achieve for Caius' betrayal. He had torn me from my home and my family, then hid me away in a monastery deep in the Appalachian mountains. I had grown up far from my birthplace all because I upstaged him at his own party.

Devon sighed a deep sigh, and the lines on his face increased as he contemplated his next move. I was just as stubborn at twenty as I had been at ten, and he knew it. I wasn't going to just go along with whatever he and Caius wanted without a good reason.

"Matt was kidnapped. Rogues are threatening to kill him unless Caius gives up the pack," Devon said in a rush of words.

Well, that was a damn good reason.