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| Damon |
Relief filled Damon when he saw Sebastien come out of the woods with Lalo, Alastor, and Wesley. And almost at the same time, Tokala, Leon, Brando, and Enola returned from their perimeter search.
"What happened?" the Alpha asked as both groups stopped in front of him.
Sebastien and Tokala glanced at one another.
"You go first, man," Sebastien said.
Tokala set his eyes on Damon. "We didn't find any wolves—we didn't find anything living—but we spotted a couple of cadejo. One of them had its leg stuck in a silver bear trap, and the other two were just walking around like they do when they're lurking."
Damon frowned. "Silver traps?"
"We found those too, Alpha," Wesley said. "We don't know how many of them were there, but we saw one and didn't wanna take our chances."
Sebastien nodded and said, "I couldn't sense any life force for miles, so there's a chance that the hunters who left them there won't be coming back. However, there's also the possibility that they will, and since it's my job to keep you guys from doing shit that might get you killed and fuck up the mission, I'm advising you that we leave this glade and move on."
Damon scowled at the black hound. He didn't like being told what to do, but his recent lack of self-confidence prevented him from feeling the need to assert his dominance. Right now, his main priority was keeping Remus safe while he recovered, and if there was a risk that hunters might turn up, then he wasn't going to hang around.
Remus wasn't ready to move, though. His wounds might be healing, but he was still weak, and if he was going to get his strength back, he needed to eat something. Evidently, they weren't going to find anything to hunt around here. So, what should he do: give Remus a little more time to recover or get two of his wolves to carry his son?
He looked down at Remus.
"I can carry him, it's no problem," Sebastien said, moving closer—
Damon sharply turned his head and snarled at him. This guy needed to learn his place.
Sebastien backed off. "All right, damn."
"What should we do, chief?" Tokala asked.
That was when Remus opened his eyes and looked up at him. "Dad?"
"I'm here," he told him.
"W-we...we shouldn't stay here if hunters could come, right?"
"We don't know if they'll come or not, but we can't leave until you're able to—"
"I'm fine, Dad. I promise," Remus said as he started getting up.
Damon shook his head and tried to make him stay down. "You—"
"I'm fine," he insisted, nudging his paw off him as he climbed to his feet. "We...we can go."
He stared at his son in worry. His legs were shaking, and his breaths were a little heavy. He clearly needed more time to rest, but...what if he chose to stay here and the hunters who placed those traps came back? He didn't want to make another choice that would get anyone hurt. But there was also the risk of leaving the glade and getting into danger out there, too. Tokala had seen cadejo; what if there were more?
"Uh, chief?" Tokala asked.
Damon glanced at him. "What?"
"Should we put it to a vote?"
With a quiet sigh, Damon nodded. He'd rather know what everyone else thought than go right ahead and make a choice.
Tokala called everyone over.
Damon set his eyes on Wilson, who was following Jackson. "You're not part of the pack, so you're not part of this discussion," he said sternly.
Wilson scoffed as he glanced at Jackson. "Seriously? Part of your little pack or not, I'm a part of this team. Are you gonna send Sebastien away, too? Because last time I checked, he ain't a wolf either."
The Alpha snarled impatiently. "Sebastien's an asset. You're not."
"You don't even know that. You haven't seen me do shit—"
"Exactly. What are you even doing here?" Damon growled.
The muto growled in response and went to move closer—
Jackson held his paw out, and both Tokala and Brando moved in front of Damon protectively. The whole pack moved closer to defend Damon if need be, but he didn't want defending. He wanted to teach Wilson a little respect, but he could see the worried look on Jackson's face, and as angry as he was, he wouldn't do something that would hurt Jackson.
But Wilson scoffed as he eyed Damon's wolves. "Too much of a coward to face me again, huh?"
Damon snarled—
"Wilson, what the hell is going on with you?" Jackson exclaimed, moving in front of him so that they were face to face. "Calm the heck down."
"Me? What about—"
"Yes, you!" Jackson insisted, cutting him off. Then, he turned to face Damon, who dismissed his wolves. "Shouldn't he be a part of whatever we need to talk about? We are all working together."
Damon's anger increased when he saw a smug smirk stretch across Wilson's face. But he had to control himself. If this muto wasn't Jackson's friend, he'd probably have killed him by now. He wasn't going to keep letting everything slide, though. Sometime soon, that muto was going to do something that pushed him over the edge, and he was going to maim him, Jackson's friend or not.
There was no time for his emotions now, though. "The hunting party came across several silver bear traps," he started, looking around at everyone. "It's possible that the hunters who placed them might come back, and we can't risk being here when and if that happens. However," he said, glancing at Remus, who had chosen to sit rather than stand, "my son still needs time to recover—"
"I'm fine, Dad. I can—"
"Let me finish," Damon said calmly.
Remus nodded.
"Remus still needs to recover, but the hunting party were unable to find anything." He looked at Sebastien. "You said you sensed nothing for miles."
"Five miles to be exact. That's how far my sensory ethos reaches. But yeah, nothing that's alive, at least," the winged hound said.
"Tokala also discovered some cadejo," Damon said, looking at his Zeta.
Tokala glanced around at the pack as he said, "There were three of them. One was stuck in one of the silver traps mentioned."
Damon continued, "We can't risk there being more cadejo out there, either. We might be able to fight off a few, but the truth is that we're not as strong as we were before. So, we have to choose between spending longer here so that Remus can recover or moving on now and carrying him."
The wolves adorned nervous, conflicted expressions as they looked at one another.
"What do you want to do, Damon?" Jackson asked.
"I'm not sure," he answered honestly.
Bly then stepped out of the crowd. "In my medical opinion, I think that Remus needs to get some more rest. But...my personal opinion is that we should move. Cadejo or hunters, we can't risk a fight."
Damon nodded at Tokala, who was staring at him, waiting for his approval to speak.
Tokala asked everyone, "Who thinks moving on is the best course of action?"
"Do I get a vote?" Wilson asked as some of the pack raised their paws.
The Zeta looked at Damon again.
Damon ignored both of them, though. He focused on counting each raised paw, and ten of thirteen voted to leave, including Jackson.
"It looks like we're moving on," Sebastien said.
Wilson snarled angrily.
"Stop," Jackson muttered to him.
Damon felt hesitant, but he wasn't going to ignore what his pack thought was best. He set his sights on Remus. "Are you sure you're okay to travel?"
Remus nodded. "I'll be fine. It sounds like the sooner we get out of here, the better."
"Offer's still on the table," Sebastien said.
Damon ignored him, too. "Start packing up," he told the pack. "We'll move out in ten."
As the pack dispersed, Sebastien moved closer to Damon. "I know they're not as good as a like...deer or whatever you guys usually eat, but those protein bars are better than nothing. They'll give your kid everything he needs to feel better."
The Alpha sighed quietly. Sebastien was right. Something was better than nothing, and if there was anything that would help his son feel even a tiny bit better, then he'd take it. "Fine."
"Hey, wait up," Sebastien called to Jackson.
Jackson stopped walking, and so did Wilson and Julian.
Sebastien shifted into his human form as he headed over to them. Once he reached Jackson, he reached into the left pack he was carrying and pulled out what looked like three candy bars, but Damon knew they were actually the protein bars. Why would they pack them like that? Were they trying to convince people that they didn't taste like shit?
The white-haired demon made his way back over to Damon and held the bars out to him. "Make sure he eats them."
"I got it," Remus said.
Damon watched his son shift into his human form, and when he saw the healing wounds and dark bruises all over his dirt-covered skin, he felt dismay latch onto his heart. He must be in agony, and there wasn't anything he could do to help him.
Remus took the protein bars and eagerly unwrapped one of them. When he took a bite, he made a disgusted face and groaned. "Ugh, this taste like...I don't even know. Mud?"
Sebastien smirked amusedly. "Hey, when you've had to eat about a thousand of them, you get used to it."
"I don't think I wanna get used to it," Remus mumbled.
With a smirk still on his face, Sebastien turned around and headed over to where Jackson, Julian, and Wilson were sitting.
Damon exhaled deeply and turned to face his son. "I'm sorry there's nothing else to eat. We'll find something by tonight."
Remus shrugged as he finished the first bar. "It's fine. They might taste like mud, but this is the first thing I've had in days."
Days? He had so many questions...but was now the time to ask them? The last thing he wanted to do was pressure Remus, but there were things he had to know. "How's your mother?"
His son's expression quickly faded from reflecting his relief of having food to something sullen. "A lot happened out there, Dad."
He sat down. "What happened?"
Remus finished chewing and swallowed with a grimace. "Things were bad right from the start. Some of the pack were even talking about trying to find their way back to you, but Mom wouldn't let them go."
Damon waited for him to elaborate.
He took a deep breath. "She...well, her and Elias got in a fight with some other wolves. We thought they were from that other pack."
"Kane?"
"Yeah. They threatened us and said they were gonna take us to their Alpha. Mom made the call to attack them, and this huge fight broke out."
"Is that how this happened to you?" he asked as his anger began returning.
"No. Mom made me and Rom leave with Miakoda and Kajika. We met up with Mom and the others a few hours later. Some of them were really hurt, though. Elias got his ear bit off and everything."
"What about your mother?"
"She was fine as far as I could tell. But after that, we were travelling without even stopping to rest. We ended up near this old log hut, and that was where Mom finally decided to let everyone rest. And then...I heard Tainn and Fala talking. They didn't trust Mom or Elias anymore because they were talking about tracking down wherever that other pack were staying and seeing if they could take them on. But there were like seventy of them, right?"
Why would Aysel be so stupid? Damon knew that she was reckless and didn't thoroughly think things through sometimes, but this was a whole new level. "That's what Julian told us," he answered.
"Tainn tried to tell her that, but she wouldn't listen. And they got into a big fight. She hit Tainn real hard, and that made a lot of the others start questioning if they actually wanted to keep following her. I wanted to come and find you. I tried to tell her that you would let us all come back, but she yelled at me and said that you'd kill us for being traitors."
Damon scoffed in astonishment. He didn't even know what to say to that.
"Romulus believed her, even after I tried to get him to believe me. I didn't want to stay there, and I knew that I was going to have to come and find you by myself to prove to them that you'd take us back. So...I left on my own. But it got dark, and I knew something was following me. I didn't know what it was, so I started running. I..." he paused and hid his tormented face. "I...tried to hide, but...they pulled me out of the log, and...."
Damon frowned despondently and nuzzled his head. "You don't have to talk about it," he told him quietly. But he wanted to know who did this—he wanted specifics so that he could hunt them down and tear them apart. "Did...you get a look at them?"
Remus exhaled shakily and frowned as Damon pulled away to look at him. "I...think one of them had half an ear." His frown became a scowl, and the look of torment in his eyes thickened. "I...I don't know, I—"
"It's okay, Remus," Damon said as he moved his front leg around him and pulled him into his embrace. "You're safe now. I'm not going to let anything else happen to you."
His son dropped the second half-eaten protein bar and wrapped his arms around him as he began crying. "They were gonna kill me, Dad," he wept, tightening his arms around him.
Damon scowled furiously as he glared at the tree line. His desire to destroy whoever did this to his son increased so much that he felt himself tremble. It was getting harder to control his emotions. But he huffed and tried to settle. "No one is going to hurt you, Rem."
Remus sniffled and loosened his grip a little. "I wish Rom came with me. He's still out there with Mom."
"Do you know where they are?" he asked, looking down at him. He wasn't connected to Aysel anymore, so the only hope he had of finding her and Romulus was through Remus.
"I...I don't know, Dad."
He didn't want to push him, though. "It's okay."
"But...if we found them, you could convince them," he said with a look of realization on his face. "Y-you can make them see that you'd welcome them back." But then he frowned. "You...would, right?"
Damon frowned at him. "Of course I would, Remus. I don't have the faintest idea where your mother came up with the idea that I'd kill any of you."
Remus looked down at the snow and shrugged. "Maybe she was just scared of people leaving."
"Sounds like her," he grumbled.
"Chief," came Tokala's voice.
Damon glanced at him.
"We're all ready to leave."
With a quiet sigh, Damon nodded. "Finish that last bar," he told Remus.
His son wiped his tears away and opened the third protein bar. He didn't hesitate to shove the whole thing in his mouth, and as he chewed it loudly, he held his thumbs up at Damon.
The Alpha smiled slightly and stood up. "All right, let's get moving."
"Where are we going?" Remus asked, his voice muffled by the food in his mouth.
It only just hit Damon that he hadn't told Remus anything about what was going on. "That's a long story," he answered, leading the way over to where the pack was waiting. "I'll tell you along the way."
Remus swallowed his food and shifted into his wolf form. "Okay."
"Stay on high alert," Damon called as he passed the pack. "Watch the snow for traps and keep all your senses sharp."
The pack followed closely behind him and called their acknowledgements of his orders.
They weren't too far off course, and once they were back on track, he'd send someone forward to scout. There was a long journey ahead of them, but it would be getting dark in a few hours, so he had to make sure they found somewhere safe to rest. He wasn't taking any chances.
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