Whispers of the Wolf

My Decision

Orion

I wasn't surprised to see Alpha Conri. In fact, I'd been expecting him to turn up. Especially after he'd shown Claudia into the cell next to mine yesterday.

What I hadn't been expecting was Radley to be standing next to him, with a couple of guards watching over them. Radley smiled softly at me, eyeing the cell bars suspiciously.

"Radley!" Claudia called from the next cell. "My boy!"

Radley cast her a quick glance, before focusing on me once more, saying nothing to the wolf that raised him.

My chest squeezed, a painful stab piercing my heart as I watched him blink away the tears that coated his eyes. Claudia had told me what had happened. What she'd done. What she'd been told to do.

All to protect him. And the pack.

With Radley caught right in the middle of it all.

What a fucking mess.

I wanted to punch my way out of these fucking bars and rush over to him. To hold him. Comfort him.

"Hi, Orion," Radley muttered, his voice soft. He looked ... tired. Sounded tired, too.

"Hi, Radley." I smiled at him. "How are your hands?"

He held up his hands to show me smooth skin, a weary smile on his face. "A lot better now."

Alpha Conri threw me a confused look and I shrugged. "He hurt himself on the silver bars yesterday," I explained.

"He didn't know silver would hurt him," Claudia murmured from the next cell. "I should have realised ..."

The Alpha cleared his throat and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking bored. The same stance that his Beta had taken with me.

They had obviously been trained together.

"Orion," Alpha Conri started. "I need you to tell me everything."

Huh?

"Everything?"

He nodded. "I need to know where you're from. If you work with other hunters. So I know what other threats there are to this pack." He glanced over at Claudia's cell before his eyes settled on mine once more. "I will protect this pack. At any cost."

Yeah, I knew that. It was one of the reasons I turned down Claudia's help to break me out of my cell. If I'd escaped, I would be in even more trouble than I was already.

Would the pack come after me, even if I went back to the city? I couldn't be sure.

Anyway, I didn't want to run away from this place. I wanted to stay. The more I thought about Radley, about Alaric ... the more I realised I wanted to be with them. Not away from them.

I didn't want to go back to the city. Or the life I led before. None of it held any sort of appeal any more.

Sighing, I nodded my head. "I understand. I'll tell you everything you want to know."

Alpha Conri cocked his head expectantly and I took a deep breath.

Okay, then.

Here goes.

Everything.

I told him everything. From the beginning. About my early childhood. About my mother walking out of my life. About my father's obsession with wolves. About being forced into a job I didn't really want.

My eyes flickered over to Radley, my heart coming apart piece by painful piece as I watched his face fall while I explained what I was doing in the Silver Dawn Pack in the first place.