Jana's POV
"Don't do this again," I say to Carys. My eyes are teary, but if I break down here, the pack will see me as weak. And that would start a whole new problem. "Don't keep it all inside, you know where that'll get you."
Carys reaches for my hand, "Jana, I-"
"Do you want to end up back in hospital again? Away from me? Away from your family? Carys, you have to help yourself."
"I'm trying to protect you, all of you. Please, leave it at that," she sits up, and winces as she tries to find a comfortable position.
"Protect us from what?" Bryn asks.
"Gerwyn, take Bryn to the river," Ceri says. They obey her immediately. "You too, Jana."
"You're not pushing me out again, Ceri!"
"Now, Jana!" She crosses her arms.
Carys crosses her arms too and looks down at the ground. I hate how they can push me around like this. I love her, I just want to help.
"Fine," I storm out after Gerwyn and Bryn. Bryn has already run off with the cubs. Gerwyn and Maddy are sitting with Rhydian at the edge of the camp. I walk over.
"We will figure this out, son," Gerwyn says, "It's not your place to get involved."
"Not his place?" I chime in, still angry. "He's her brother! He's known her longer than you have. If anyone is going to figure this out it's us. You didn't even try to get her back after Geraint took her, did you?"
"Jana, don't start this now," Maddy gets up and tries to pull me aside.
"No, he needs to hear this," I push past her to get in Gerwyn's face, "You have to find who's doing this to her and have them exiled. That's what a real Alpha would do. Actually no, that's what a real father would do."
"She's right dad," Rhydian comes to my side.
"Rhydian?" Maddy snaps at him, "This isn't the time to be dividing."
"We can't just wait this out, we have to fix it now, before she gets worse! Yeah, maybe she's not hearing voices yet, but it's only a matter of time. We can't let her suffer while we sit back and 'keep an eye out.' Whatever the hell that means. Come on Jana," he walks straight past Maddy. I follow.
"Rhydian, come back. Rhydian!" Maddy shouts after him.
He ignores her. We walk along the river and sit down on a small ledge that gives us a good view of the camp.
"Not a clue, I mean the pack all had a bit of a problem with her at first, because of everything her d- Geraint did. But I never thought any of them would go this far."
I scan my brain for some kind of answer. She's always been kind to everyone in the pack, it just doesn't make sense that someone would hate her so much that they'd put her through hell.
"You'd be surprised what goes through a Wolfblood's mind when their pack is hurting. Maybe she did something to upset someone specifically, something she didn't realise. Can you think of anything like that?"
"Nope, nothing. For the most part, she stayed out of everyone's way. She knows they're all stronger than she is. Well, she thinks they are, she never really put it to the test. Until she got that bruise. When I get my paws on whoever did that to her, I don't know what I'll do," I clench my fists and try to contain my wolf.
"I'm with you on that one. I'm so angry, and... scared," he goes quiet. The look in his eyes is something that I think only I can relate to.
"Do you still see it?" He looks at me, he knows what I'm talking about. "When you close your eyes?"
He nods, "I thought once she got better it would stop."
I take his hand, "Right after it happened, I barely slept for weeks. I kept picturing her lying on the floor," I take a breath, "I've never seen so much blood. All over her. She looked dead," I try to shake off the image in my mind.
"I still struggle to sleep, but that first night we got here, I was so tired, I can't believe I slept through. Someone must have taken her from our tent while we slept. I know it's not my fault, but hate myself for it."
"Whoever's doing this must have a reason, more of a reason than anyone else has. It obviously wasn't Gwyn, she's just a cub..." we go through all the females in the pack, hoping to narrow it down.
"What about Tove?" Rhydian asks.
"She and her little gang were giving us weird looks the other day. They're a little bit mean, but they've never really acted on anything they've thought was wrong about someone."
When we were cubs, I was actually good friends with the three of them. We were inseparable. Then as we got older, they started to realise that I was the Alpha's daughter, so they cut me out. It was Meinir who made them ditch me. She liked to be in charge and hated that I would never obey her. They knew that if they ever upset me, whether it was an accident or not, there would be repercussions from my father. Awful ones. Ingrid and I were especially close, we had a shared curiosity for the human world. Things have definitely changed. She's dead set against any human interaction now.
And now it makes sense.
"Rhydian, I think I know who it is."
He doesn't hear me because Ceri, Gerwyn and Maddy are running towards us shouting about something.
"The cubs are hurt!" Gerwyn shouts, "Jana, we need you, you have to help us calm the pack down, Alric's out hunting and they won't listen to us. They don't trust us."
"Bryn is missing!" Ceri says, on the verge of tears.
"Okay, calm down Ceri, take us to the cubs," I say.
"Are you sure he hasn't just run off?" Rhydian asks.
"He was playing with Gwyn and Cadwr, the gatherers found them down by the creek, but Bryn was nowhere to be seen," Ceri's voice shakes, this is her worst nightmare.
We run back to the tent where Carys is tending to Gwyn and Cadwr. Each of them has slash marks across their arms, someone scratched them with their claws.
"I told you this would happen," she whispers to herself as she cleans blood from Gwyn's shoulder.
"Their wounds aren't life-threatening," Ceri jumps into action and starts bandaging their cuts, "But Bryn is still out there somewhere."
I have no choice but to resume my position as Alpha, "Ceri, you and Carys stay with the cubs. Maddy, I need you to stand guard outside and keep everyone out. I will speak to the pack and then Rhydian and I will find Bryn," I look at Carys as we leave the tent, she's a mess but she's safe in here with her parents.
The pack are circling the camp, starting fights with each other, they're furious at the thought of a traitor among us.
"Quiet!" I shout, and the camp falls silent. I step up onto a tree stump, everyone looks at me. I take a breath, "Our cubs are hurt; our Alpha isn't present. I understand your fury and your fear."
"We don't fear cowards who attack children!" Someone shouts.
"Fear isn't the enemy here, it can be a good thing. It fuels us for justice. I promise I will find who hurt them, and I will do exactly what they did, if not worse, to them. We will get our vengeance!"
They cheer for me, but I don't feel so cheerful. Rhydian tugs me back to whisper in my ear.
"You're not going to kill anyone are you?" I don't answer. "And what about Bryn? We need a search party," he asks.
"We can't tell them he's missing, and we can't bring anyone with us to search. I'm pretty sure I know who did this, but if she's got people on her side they could lead us off in the wrong direction or worse," I tug back away from him.
I scan the pack for the girl I'm looking for. I don't see Ingrid, but I see Tove and Beca looking guilty as sin. They look so out of place in the blood-thirsty crowd. I silence the pack again.
"Tove, Beca." Everyone looks at them, and they turn white as the winter snow. "Follow me."
I jump down and walk towards them as Rhydian follows. I lead them to one of the empty tents. They reluctantly enter. Rhydian stands by the entrance, not saying a word. He's suddenly lost all of his rage and is only full of worry for his family, which I understand. But now that Bryn's life is at stake, I can't waste time worrying, I have to take action.
"Where's Ingrid?" I ask. They look at each other. "Answer me!" I flash my eyes, bare my teeth and growl in their faces.
"She's hunting. With Alric and Aran," Tove says.
"Don't lie to me."
"You're not my Alpha, you don't get to make demands," Tove is trying to scare me. It won't work.
"As soon as my father is Alpha again, I am the next in line, so I think you'll find that I do have authority over you. Until then, Rhydian is the heir, so you'll do what we ask of you. If not, you're going to the Kronock."
"No, no please," Beca starts begging, and Tove looks at her with disappointment. "I'm sorry Tove, I'm not going to the Kronock. I'm not strong enough," she turns back to me, "Ingrid's down by the river."
I bolt out of the tent with Rhydian chasing after me.
"Jana, wait! What are you going to do? You can't just attack her!" He says.
I stop in my tracks, "It's your family she's going after, Rhydian! Bryn could be seriously hurt and I'm not letting her get away with it. What's happened to you? 20 minutes ago, you wanted the person that did this dead," I say, "Now we know who it is."
"We're not killers, Jana. We can punish her. But I won't let you kill her."
"Kill who?"
We turn around to see Ingrid standing at the edge of the river. In her hand is a small orange bottle of Carys' pills. An evil grin crosses her face. I feel my blood pumping around my body. Rhydian grabs my arm.
"Where's my brother?" Rhydian asks.
I thought the second I saw her I would pounce on her and wrap my hands around her neck, squeezing the life out of her. But all I can think about is Bryn lying in a cave somewhere hurt, or worse.
"I told your sister what would happen if she told," Ingrid opens the bottle and starts taking the pills out and throwing them in the river, one by one.
"Why are you doing this? What has she ever done to you?" I ask, slowly approaching her.
"Because she deserves it. When I heard her telling you and the rest of her misfit family all about our little chat, I had to follow through on my promise. So maybe she didn't mention me by name but it was only a matter of time before Alpha wannabe Jana figured it all out."
"Enough!" Rhydian yells, "Where's Bryn?"
She rolls her eyes, "He's alive, for now. But you won't find him in time, because you'll be dead too," she gets right up in my face and growls.
I step back from her, half of me wants to wolf-out and rip her apart, but then we'll never find Bryn. Rhydian steps between Ingrid and I.
He veins up, "Bryn has nothing to do with any of this. He's just a kid, just tell us where he is, and maybe my parents will go easy on you."
She growls at him, and her transformation begins.
Rhydian follows suit, and they square up to each other, both ready to pounce. I try to run to them, but I feel hands wrap around my arms and pull me backwards. Tove and Beca.
"LET ME GO," I shout and squirm, but I'm outnumbered.
They wrestle me to the ground and one of them has her hands on my neck. The last thing I see is a blurry image of Rhydian and Ingrid scratching and biting at each other.
Everything goes black.