Veritas

Chapter 14

"Hey, you listen here young lady" Rei said, capturing Aislinn's face in her hands so she could force her to look at her. "There is nothing wrong with you. You're a werewolf, I can smell it. You don't have our weakness to silver? That's a fantastic thing you should be excited by, sweetie. I know there's a lot going on, and you're overwhelmed; but, I promise everything will be okay."

Aislinn nodded as best she could in understanding, her face still held by Rei. She had to acknowledge that Rei was right about her scent. If she wasn't a werewolf, she'd have never survived in a pack for as long as she did.

Seeing that she was able to get through to Aislinn at least a little, Rei pulled her into a comforting hug. After some sniffling, and doing her best to get her tears under control, Aislinn was finally able to speak again.

"What if I never get my wolf?" She wondered aloud miserably.

"Well, I think it's best to give it another year. If you don't get your wolf by your next birthday...We will go find someone who can give us answers" Rei suggested, purposely trying to be vague in her plans.

As anticipated, though, Aislinn didn't accept that without questioning "Answers? Who might have answers? Why can't we go see them now?"

Rei let out a sigh, but she wasn't surprised by the pushback. "That's part of why I need more time, my love. I need to find someone; although, I have some ideas...I think we would need a witch to help us. So, please be patient, and keep up with your training. I'll do my best to find someone who can help us, okay?"

Aislinn's eyes nearly bugged out of her head at the mention of a witch. She unwittingly began throwing the same questions at Rei that Ryan just had before they'd entered her room.

"Why would we trust a witch? They're evil, aren't they? How would you even know where to find one? Is that even safe?" Aislinn demanded, her last question seeming to stir more emotions within her. "I don't want you putting yourself in danger for me! I can find some other way" she insisted, a bit panicky. The last thing she wanted was to lose the last people she had left. Truthfully, she'd rather be without her wolf for the rest of time if it meant keeping Ryan and Rei safe.

"There could be another way" Ryan piped up from where he'd taken to leaning against the cave wall.

Rei and Aislinn both looked at him, the former with confusion, the latter with hope. In unison, they voiced the same thought: "What other way?"

"Why go to witches, when we can try to get help from our own kind? I know you told me to always avoid it, because it's dangerous, mom...But, I think maybe the Royal Pack would have some answers. They have the best of the best there, from doctors to books" he reasoned, but he could tell by his mother's face that she was unhappy with him for his suggestion.

"No" was Rei's simple response.

"Why not?" Aislinn asked, turning her attention back to Rei. "Ryan's right! I read all about the Royal Pack in my studies, and he's right. Their library alone is supposed to be bigger than my old pack's territory! They have scholars with loads of knowledge, and doctors if it's something medically wrong. If anywhere would have answers, it'd be there" she continued on enthusiastically, beginning to get excited at the idea. Surely seeking answers from other wolves would be safer than trusting a witch.

"No" Rei repeated, shaking her head. "It's safer dealing with a witch" she insisted.

"How? I don't understand why it's dangerous at all. They're werewolves, and as long as we're not rogue, they'd want to help us" Aislinn insisted, not willing to drop it.

This elicited a dry laugh from Rei. "If you think it's safe to walk into the Royal Pack, at the age of 16, with no wolf and no weakness to silver...You're being naive. Their scientists would tear you apart to experiment on you! You'd be locked up until they could figure out how you're immune to silver, so they could have it for themselves. No, we will not be stepping foot near there, and that's final" she explained, finishing with a tone that was not to be argued against.

Looking to Ryan for help, Aislinn had hope that he would know how to talk sense into his mom. To her dismay, he merely shrugged to indicate he didn't know what to say.

After a few moments of silence, Rei kissed Aislinn on the forehead then patted her cheek softly. "Give it time, honey. I'll start trying to track down a witch, but you need to be patient. Don't lose heart, keep training, eat better, and I promise you that we'll find answers. Okay?"

Aislinn gave Rei a small smile and nodded. "Okay" she murmured. Inside, though, she was beginning to recall all of the information she had once read about the Royal Pack. Her mind was racing as she put together a plan.

Going to a witch was a risk she wasn't going to let her family take. She'd sooner be captured by the Royal Pack and experimented on, as Rei said, than let all of them be captured and slaughtered by witches.

Just as she'd studied the Royal Pack, Aislinn had studied witches. There were four races on the planet; werewolves, humans, witches and vampires. The humans generally had no idea of the existence of the others, and remained blissfully unaware, while the other three hated each other.

Werewolves held vast amounts of territory, where they could run freely in their wolf forms. Packs separated out into smaller, yet still large pieces of land that were under the protection and control of the Alpha. All werewolf territory was under the protection and control of the Alpha King, though, and each Alpha had to answer to him.

Witches, on the other hand, lived and blended in amongst humans. Unlike werewolves and vampires, the witches depended on humans to procreate. All witches were female, and needed human sperm to give birth to new witches. Their partners were often other witches, but they would seduce humans into one-night-stands in order to get pregnant.

It was because of this dependence on humans that the witches chose to live among them, and protect them from the monsters they were ignorant of. To the humans, the witches were just another one of their kind. They had no idea the terrifying capacity these women had for magic. Not every witch was as powerful as the next, and there was a hierarchy in each coven. Similarly, not every coven was as powerful as the next, and it wasn't uncommon for covens to fight each other to absorb the lands and knowledge of other covens. They weren't above slaughtering their own to increase their own standing, and the same could be said about their willingness to slaughter anything else but humans.

Unlike the werewolves, who had an ultimate overseer in the Alpha King; the witches simply had a Praesum Matris in each coven. These women were the most powerful within their covens, and could negotiate for peace; however, they sometimes opted for war between covens. The one unspoken agreement amongst witches was to never harm humans, and so their wars were always fought on neutral territory. There, they could let their horrific spells fly, and massacre each other without fear of harming humans.

Oftentimes, though, their "neutral territory" would be on werewolf lands. In these times, the ultimate decision of what to do next would fall to the King. More often than not, though, he would choose to simply observe as his own enemies slaughtered each other. He was young, but wise enough to know that joining the battle could lead to a war he didn't want. It made more sense to let them do away with each other if the cost was nothing more than some damaged land. It also provided his spies the opportunity to gather intel on the abilities of these covens. And so, it was an unofficial, and unspoken agreement between werewolf and witch that in these scenarios, the werewolf lands were open to them.

Unfortunately for some witches, there were times they would settle on territory outside of their own, and the werewolves. In these instances, they were battling on the small, but heavily protected lands of the vampires.

Unlike the werewolves, the vampires had no qualms about slaughtering everyone who dared to step foot on their land. They didn't have fears of warring with witches, as they were a haughty and arrogant race who believed themselves above all others. It was a sport to them, when any other race would stumble into their lands; a game of cat and mouse. Nobody ever left vampire lands alive.

With the knowledge in mind, Aislinn was certain that she would rather take her chances with werewolves than any of the others. And so, she returned to her usual routine, all while plotting to leave her family behind for their safety.

If Rei was too scared to go to the Royal Pack, then Aislinn would keep her safe by going alone.