Beasthood

~Chapter 21- Build~ Part 3

The first thing she had overheard half an hour before.

Garth, who was the head of construction, was having an in depth discussion with Carr -the group leader who had worked Jaz hard. Garth was asking him about the building plan. He was holding what looked like drawings of the project.

She was walking past when Garth said, “We won't be able to finish it in two days. He must be joking!”

“The Pack Leader never jokes about work,” Carr said. “He knows you can do it.”

“I don't see him coming down here and-”

The threatening look that Carr shot Garth stopped him mid-sentence.

Carr said, “Nik trusts you to do it for him.” Hearing his name caused Jaz's shoulders to stiffen as she turned her back on them. “He's very busy and appreciates all our efforts.”

Jaz didn't hear any more of their conversation, her mind reeling.

She sat down on a log, staring at nothing as she absorbed this new information. Nik? Nik who was Lora's husband, is the Pack Leader? My brother-in-law? So where the hell is he then? Why hasn't he even spoken to me?

Something was trying to poke its way out of her subconscious but she couldn't pull it out.

The next thing she discovered was revealed soon after.

She was watching the others work whilst on her break. The walls of the building were fully up, cladded with oak planks. There was an engraving on a recently nailed plank on the side. She hadn't noticed it before but the moment she laid eyes on it, she recognized it immediately and her heart skipped a beat.

It was an oval insignia with a vine of roses and thorns interwoven with the foreign letters. The joined 'X', the one lined 'I' and the sharp 'R'. She didn't know what they meant but she'd definitely seen them more than once before.

On Lora's Diary; and she was sure she'd seen the letters somewhere else before. But for the life of her she hadn't been able to remember where. It was really frustrating.

Ronnie sidled over to where she was and sat by her side. She looked at him several times, opening and closing her mouth.

He saw her searching eyes and frowned self-consciously. “What?”

She paused. “Who's Nik?”

He stared at her as if he'd been winded.

This made alarm bells ring in her brain. “Is he the Pack Leader?”

Ronnie stared at her. His eyelids softened. “Yes,” he answered.

Jaz nodded. She had to be sure. Rather than delve in further -though she wasn't sure exactly what she wanted to ask, but knew there was something- she changed topic. “What does that mean?” She pointed to the insignia and Ronnie looked that way, relief trickling into his face at the change of subject.

He gazed back at her, thinking about it for a moment. “It's our crest.”

“Of your community?”

He shook his head. “Of our species.”

Jaz tried not to look as uncomfortable as she felt when he said that. Especially with the way he'd emphasized 'our'. “What does it mean?”

He furrowed his brow.

Jaz thought the grown-up expression looked so cute on his chubby childish face. “The letters?” she encouraged.

“Oh, it's Norse. Like, you know, from Viking times or something? It's the word 'Dyr' in the Runic alphabet. It means Beast.”

“Oh.” She eyed it and then said casually, “I think I've seen it before.”

Ronnie nodded, smiling. “Yeah, probably, we have it everywhere. Inside the main building, outside on a few of the walls, the Pack Leader even has it on a-” He stopped dead.

Jaz stared at him with wide, hungry eyes. “What were you gonna say?” she demanded.

Ronnie shook his head. “Nothing, it's nothing.”

“Tell me, Ronnie.”

He shook his head, even quicker.

“He has it on a...? On a what?” And then the answer came to her. Her face drooped. She stared, not seeing the building in front.

She'd seen it before but had never processed it in her brain. It had always been in the background. Now she knew. “The ring...” Her voice was strained. It barely came out in a whisper.

Ronnie eyed her. “Jaz?”

Now it all made sense. The weight of the knowledge crushed her. Her lungs gasped for air.

“Jaz? Are you okay?”

She blinked and looked up at the startled boy's face. It wasn't his fault. She forced a smile. It wasn't very convincing but his face softened a little. “He has it on his ring,” she said, her voice hollow.

It didn't sound like a question but Ronnie bobbed his head in reply anyway. “All the Pack Leaders do,” he added, still watching her with questioning eyes.

She closed hers and opened them again. She didn't need to ask because she knew what the answer would be. Still the words escaped her mouth as if they had a mind of their own. “Nik and Driver are the same person? Driver is...the Pack Leader?”

The look on Ronnie's face was enough. He mumbled, “His last name is Driver.”

She felt like she'd been stabbed in the back.

“Please don't tell anyone I told you.”

She snapped her head up at his words.

“We weren't supposed to tell you.”

“Who? Skye, Edda, you?”

“... Everyone.”

Jaz felt another stab in her back. The knife kept on coming, gouging holes in her flesh, digging in deeper. Just when she had started to allow herself to trust in people again, her confidence was now shattered. “Did he tell you all not to?” Her voice was a ghost of its former self.

Ronnie gazed at her carefully for a moment and then replied, “Yes.”