The Wolf's Loyalty

Chapter Three: Noor

 Noor was lead through the kingdom swiftly and he found himself having a hard time keeping up with the men who had longer legs than he. He narrowed his eyes at a beggar on the streets whose tail and ears curled towards them in fear of the merchant who caught them stealing. He had been a beggar once, but most of the time he got what he wanted because of his size and tear-filled eyes. He could see the ginormous stone palace in the distance. He saw the guard towers filled with archers waiting for the perfect moment for Noor to give them a reason to shoot him.

He glanced at the guards on his sides, wondering if there was any possibility that he could escape and run away to The Tenebris Forest. He sighed in frustration as he realized that no man other than skilled hunters made it through Tenebris. Noor was a mere hitman, not a hunter who's been training since they were old enough to hold a sword.

"Don't even think about it." the leader of the guard said. Noor smirked and caught the eye of a young seamstress with a bright blonde head of hair, ears and a tail. He winked at her and she flushed a deep shade of scarlet and turned back to her work. Noor snickered to himself and looked up at the dark set clouds looming above. He frowned and tried to reach up to put his hood on, but was quickly stopped by another young shaking guard. Noor smiled to himself as he realized the guard was shaking out of fear.

This was right. They had every right to be scared of him. They got closer to the palace and Noor's feet thumped softly in pain. The rain started pattering onto the shingles of roofs. Noor cringed at the sound of the droplets pounding into an empty metal bucket at a blacksmith's shop.

A guard roughly pushed Noor forward so he stumbled and quickened his pace. The lead of the guard signaled to an archer in a tower and the archer nodded and pressed a lever. The large metal gate groaned and lifted up. Guards came and walked in front and behind and at Noor's sides. They patted him down for any weapons before finally letting him walk inside the palace, straight towards the throne room.

"So glad you could join us, Noor." the Alpha said. His greying black hair was slicked back into a tail behind his neck, tied perfectly with a ribbon of metallic gold. His grey ears were adorned with many gold piercings. Noor looked straight into the man's black as coal eyes.

"Why am I here? If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure the thing I do for a living has never affected you personally." Noor pointed out, hoping the Alpha would be daft enough to let him off with a warning.

"I suppose yes, but you still endanger my people. Besides, that's not the reason why you're here. I have a job I need you to do." the Alpha said.

"Why don't you get one of your ever loyal guards to do it instead of an untrusted seventeen-year-old?" Noor questioned, reaching for a knife at his waist to spin around that wasn't there.

"By those scars, you got there, I can tell you've survived a lot," the Alpha started. Noor looked at the scar running from his shoulder to the tip of his right pointer finger. All he remembered from it was a searing pain in his arm, and tears streaming down his face while he cried. He knew it happened when he was younger, but no one ever knew the true story of why the scar existed. "And while my guards are skilled, there's no way they would survive Tenebris."

"What in the world do you need to send someone through Tenebris for?" Noor asked, trying to ignore the doubt running through his mind, telling him there was no possible way he could make it through Tenebris with his head.

"In Avem there's a girl that I'm interested in purchasing to be a slave. Her wings have already been clipped and I've been told her mind is broken in two because of being kept in a dungeon for over ten years. Perfect requirements for a slave wouldn't you say?" the Alpha replied.