"Wake up, Sari. We've all been called by Aven," someone said in a hushed voice as I was dragged from my sleep. I vaguely recognized the voice that belonged to Lotta.
"What?" I asked, sleep still intertwined in my words.
"Aven has summoned every wolf outside," she explained. "We need to go."
"Why?" I rubbed my eyes, removing their slumber as I got up and quickly changed into regular clothes. Lotta's wariness had caused me to waken rather quickly.
"I don't know." She looked worried, frightened even, as she led me outside.
We joined the rest of the pack, gathered in the gardens behind the Manor. The remains of Death Moon shone in the sky. It was still night, what had been so urgent?
In front of the large group of wolves, I guessed there had to be at least 200 of them, stood Aven, surrounded by small fire pyres and five other wolves. I recognized one of them. Jerr stood by Aven's right side, a dangerously serious expression on his face. All the wolves in the front between the pyres shared that expression, which could not mean anything good. The other wolves around me and Lotta noticed the severity of whatever was about to happen too, as no one dared to speak and the silence felt very, very tense.
Lotta pushed us through the larger part of the crowd, until we stood somewhere at the front. From where we stood now, we had a much clearer view on Aven and Jerr. The other wolves in front had to be Feytan and Mallee. To the side I recognized the parents of the young wolf Beckett had killed. Their faces were cold, and full of grief.
But now that I had gotten closer, I could see a seventh wolf, shackled to the ground. Forced on his knees, he was facing his head towards the ground. The metallic smell of blood carried its way through the air, and I could see it dripping down his face onto the ground.
Lotta tensed beside me as she saw what I was seeing. She probably knew what was about to come, and her reaction to it scared me. But I didn't dare ask her, not with everyone around us being so quiet.
In the distance, the wind ruffled through the trees that lined the edge of the gardens, giving the scene an even more eerie feeling.
Aven finally broke the silence, after more wolves had arrived. "Today, a grave crime has been committed. Fire Moon has taken one of our younglings and brutally murdered him." Gasps traveled along the crowd, and Lotta looked surprised too. I forgot I hadn't told her about what had happened, but she kept her stare on Aven, anticipating what was about to come. I did the same as Aven continued. "Their Alpha killed a twelve year old boy. Tortured him." The boy's parents froze at the mention of the horrors their son had been through. But Aven kept going, rage dripping off his features. "He was taken right from the safety of our city walls."
Aven took a step in the direction of the wolf on the ground and yanked his head up, so we could all see his face. It looked swollen and bruised, showing he had just been beaten up. Jerr clenched his jaw and crossed his hands behind his back when the wolf grunted in pain. Had Jerr done this?
Aven resumed his talking after the crowd had calmed down. "This wolf was on duty when the tragedy happened. He was responsible for guarding the wall in the location where the youngling has been taken. Yet, he had been distracted with other trivial matters, giving Fire Moon a clear and easy window to take one of our own. You have failed this pack," Aven spat at the wolf before him. "You are responsible for that boy's death." He shot a look towards Jerr, who in turn joined Aven and hoisted the shackled wolf up, keeping him up from behind.
"Do not think, not for one second, that Fire Moon has let go of this war. This death serves as proof of that." I gulped at Aven's words. This death had also served as proof of Beckett's personal vendetta against me, which was a frightening thought. "It was a preventable death, one that made Death Moon look weak in our enemies' eyes. That cannot happen, not ever again. Let that be clear." The crowd was so silent, dreading what we now all knew was about to come. Everyone held their breaths, fearing even our normal bodily functions would disrupt the tension and make the entire thing explode. "Everyone knows the cost of death. You pay with your own life. A death for a death." My heart started beating against my chest at the punishment Aven had just pronounced.
Aven turned to the wolf, as Jerr clenched his jaw even harder. He spoke more softly than before, but still loud enough for the front rows in the crowd to hear. "Nidhatos." And then his right hand pierced the wolf's chest with such ease, as if it were made of pudding. The wolf made a strange, gurgling sound and widened his eyes as blood gushed out of his mouth. But his eyes lessened not even a second after, as Aven tore out his heart with his bare hands. Jerr let go of the body, and it immediately slumped down to the ground, blood pooling out and coloring the ground a deep, dark red.
Around me, people looked away from the scene. Even if some of them might think of this as deserved, no one had taken pleasure in seeing this wolf's cruel death. If all the wolves were gathered here, that meant his friends, his family had probably just witnessed his sentence.
The mother of the murdered boy buried her face in her husband's shoulders, probably masking her disgust or her crying.
Aven turned back to us, the heart still in his hand. The crowd gasped once more, but no one dared move or talk. I found my hand covering my mouth, forcing my nausea to stay inside. Lotta looked frozen, too.
Aven's eyes scanned the crowd, and locked on mine. As he stared at me, he raised his hand with the heart, and offered me a subtle, menacing grin. The pyre to his side lit his face and graced his features, making the danger that curved around his lips all the more visible. But I stared him down. I wouldn't let another Alpha terrorize me. I wouldn't be scared, even if the picture before me was one that would haunt me many nights to come.
It was Lotta that broke the stare-down, as she tugged my arm. "Let's not linger here for a second longer than needed," she whispered with a trembling voice. I looked at her, and I saw how pale her face was. The rigidness of her body showed that her joyful spirit from earlier had been broken, shattered. And I hoped it would find its way back to her soon.
I nodded, not being able to speak. I let Lotta grab my hand and guide me away towards the edge of the garden, where we wouldn't have to push through the crowd to be able to leave. I dared one last time to look back at Aven, whose eyes were still locked on me, following my every step. His grin had disappeared and he tossed the heart on the ground, where it landed next to the body with a short thump. Lotta flinched at the sound, but kept moving us towards the edge of the crowd. The last thing I saw before I turned back to Lotta, was Aven whispering something in Jerr's ear, still not taking his eyes off me, and Jerr nodding in response.
Lotta got us out of the rush of wolves and we were making our way back to the Manor when I found the courage to speak again. "Does this.. Does he do this often?"
Lotta wasn't sure how to answer my question at first, and a short silence followed us as we walked through the gardens, back to the Manor. "It's not a daily occurrence if that's what you're asking. But he does it often enough to keep everyone here alert."
"How do you feel about that?"
Lotta raised her eyebrow at my dared question. "What I think about it doesn't matter. But to answer your question, most of the time Aven does what needs to be done."
"What about tonight? Do you think he needed to do that?"
"Sari, be careful with the questions you're asking," Lotta warned me. "I don't know about tonight. I don't know enough about what happened to that boy to make a judgement on tonight's retribution."
"I do," I said softly. "I was there when we found him. The boy, I mean."
Lotta stopped moving and looked me deep in the eyes. "Do you think this was deserved, then?"
I didn't know. I hadn't thought about it myself. But that little boy, only twelve years old, his body was so brutally mutilated. He had experienced the most horrible ending I could think of - torture at the hands of Beckett. Aven had said his death was preventable. Had the wolf on duty truly been able to stop this? If he had seen Beckett, he could have intervened. Called for help. So yes, I found that I also believed the wolf was at fault for this boy's death. And didn't that make this deserved? A death for a death. "Yes, I do think it was."
Lotta sighed and looked away in the distance. She spoke as we started walking again. "Then I also believe it was deserved."
We hadn't made it back to the Manor when I felt a presence behind me, as if someone was following me and Lotta. Only seconds later, I smelled who, as the familiar scent of spicy wood and incense danced around my nose. "Aven wants to talk to you," Jerr said from behind me.
Lotta and I simultaneously turned around, but Jerr made a sign for Lotta to continue on, and so she left. "About what?" I asked.
"I'm not spoiling anything. Follow me," he said as he also led me towards the Manor. We didn't talk on our way there, not even when Jerr led me up the stairs in the grand hall, and didn't stop until we'd reached the infamous third floor. The walls were lined with paintings, most of them portraits of other dark-haired wolves. Some of them had silver eyes as well. The previous Alphas.
"Correct," Jerr confirmed.
"Stay out of my head, bloody Wise Moon," I grumbled.
"That might become my new favorite sentence," he teased. I rolled my eyes, which made him chuckle. He walked us down the right hall, where we entered a room where Aven was already seated, cleaning off his bloodied hand with a towel. He waved his hand at us to sit down in the other chairs in the room. Jerr immediately obeyed, and I followed suit.
Once seated, Aven opened the conversation. "Do you know why I've called for you?"
"No, I do not," I admitted. Because you wouldn't tell me, I added in my mind. Jerr gave me a subtle wink.
"Jerr and I have discovered what has happened to the young wolf yesterday," Aven said. "But there are a few things we do not understand. I figured, since you were born and raised in Fire Moon, you might help with that."
"What would you like me to do?" I ignored the sting in my chest at the reminder of where I came from.
"Fill in the gaps of the story."
Jerr acknowledged my confused look and explained what had happened. Aven's face made room for sorrow as Jerr began. "The boy was named Willis. He hadn't come home since the day after the Ascension, after he went out to play with some of his friends." Jerr paused for a quick moment, hesitant about how to continue. "We talked with his friends, too. They were playing with a ball, but it got lost over the wall. Willis went to retrieve it, but never came back. His friends tried to look for him, but they didn't dare go too far out of the Wall's reach. They couldn't have done anything, anyway. They immediately informed his parents when they got back, who went out looking for Willis, but he was already gone. We assume that's when Beckett took him." And that's when the wolf who gave his life today, should have paid attention and spotted Beckett and his minions. Jerr nodded. "We found a bite mark in his neck. He was too young to transform, yet we found him in his wolven form. Which means Beckett Ascended him."
Aven interrupted Jerr's story. "Do you know why the Ascension can only be done on wolves of age, Sari?"
"Yes," I said quietly, trying not to think of the horrible pain that boy must have endured. "Because if you're not of age, your body is not prepared for the transformation. It is painful." Like mine had been. Even if I was of age, my body was weak - too weak.
"Not only that, it is deadly in most cases, too. Unfortunately, it seems Willis had survived the Bite," Aven added. Which also meant he had been alive for all the torture that had followed. "That brings me to my first question. Why do you think he bit that young boy?"
"We believe it was done as a form of torture as well," Jerr explained. "But somehow, that doesn't add up."
"No, it doesn't," I agreed. If Beckett had only wanted to torture the boy, he would have been smart enough not to risk his death by Ascending a twelve year old wolfling. Which meant he must have had an entirely different reason for biting him. I knew why Beckett had done this, but that meant I had to bare myself to Aven and Jerr. Lay out my trauma before them. But I didn't really have a choice. What had happened here, surpassed my sense of privacy. I didn't even have one with Jerr in the room anyway, not really. "Beckett has always liked to play games. Show he's the one in charge. He hates losing, and then he lashes out. But everything is a game to him, every move he makes is calculated. Everything is done with the goal to assert himself as the one with the upper hand, the winner of the game. So my guess would be that he bit what was yours, because you bit what was his." I looked at Aven as I said that, my hand going up to my neck, caressing over where Aven had bitten me. By now the wound had long healed, but in this moment, I could still feel it.
Both men nodded at what I said, confirming for themselves that this was a valid explanation. But Aven came with a remark. "How could this have been calculated, if I only Ascended you two days before? Leaving the Castle with three other wolves, knowing the route we'd take and still not get caught at any point, it seems way too calculated to have been thought of in the spur of the moment."
"I don't know," I admitted. "He would never do anything this big without being absolutely careful and sure that he will win." The attack in the chambers after my Ascension had to be an exception to that, a wild decision quickly made in the heat of his rage. But normally, he was always in control. Even when he broke my finger when I defied him, he didn't go any further than that. He let me go. And breaking a finger of his submissive on his grounds is only a small thing, painful as it was. But kidnapping, Ascending, torturing and killing a twelve year old boy, leaving his body on the side of the road for us to find, it seemed like too big of a move not to be well thought out.
"What if only a part of it was done impulsively?" Jerr asked.
"What do you mean?" Aven and I asked him.
"What if, in his rage, he bit the boy and left that note for us as revenge for Ascending you. But the rest of it was planned in advance?"
That made more sense than this entire thing being done on a whim. "But that would mean.." I didn't dare finish my sentence.
Aven finished it for me. "That Fire Moon was planning this all along. That Beckett has knowingly committed an act of war."