Lia let out a breath that she didn’t know she had been holding. Although she hadn’t been able to come up with any outcome where the hunters wouldn’t believe Rick, she still had been worried. But when she looked at the sword that was now void of any proof that it had been used, she knew that he had to kill at least one human for them to believe or follow him. And that although Rick had been glowing and golden eyes. She looked at him straight and to her, there still seemed to be some gold left behind the dull brown irises of his. The unearthly glow had disappeared, too, but when she scanned the area in front of the wall there were no hunters left. They all had retreated behind the line of trees, waiting for their leader to parley.
Lia wanted to ask him if he really was an angel or something like that, but she didn’t dare. Apart from that, now really wasn’t the time to ask him. Especially if a whole other theory was growing in her mind.
If her mother’s vision meant that Rick was the sunlight, what if he was the Greek God of the sun, Apollo, who was the brother of Artemis, the Goddess of the hunt and the forest and even the moon if she remembered it right.
“Your mind is really jumbled right now,” Rick told her, giving her a smirk that wiped her mind clean in an instant.
Liala blinked a few times.
“One day you will need to tell me what you are, Rick,” she told him, cocking one brow.
“One day I will,” he answered with a tiny smile hiding in the corners of his mouth. “Here are our demands.” He cut it short and his choice of words struck her deeply.
It almost felt as if he was cutting off one of her limbs as if he was distancing himself from her. Lia nodded and prepared herself to hear what it would take to restore the peace between them.
“Three lives have been brutally, and senselessly taken,” Rick spoke loud and clear, obviously so that his hunters would be able to hear him. “One life of yours has already been taken in return. To restore the balance, we demand two lives of yours.”
Liala felt how all blood drained from her face. Although somewhere in a dark corner of her mind she had expected something like this, but she somehow had hoped that Rick would offer an alternative. As if he was reading her mind again, he continued.
“But tonight, already enough have died, so I have a proposal for you,” he spoke and his eyes rested on her the entire time.
You suggested it, he reminded her silently.
“Give us the one responsible for the bloodshed of this night and the night before, to be treated as the animal she is for her actions,” Rick kept looking Lia in the eyes as he uttered the words so strangely that it made her realize once again that he had to be centuries old, maybe even older, even millennia.
When silence spread across both sides of the wall Lia and Rick looked at Liala’s mother, who first stared at them in shock and then in anger.
Looking at the woman who once had been her mother was strange. Especially when Lia knew what probably was in store for her. But the gentle and loving woman of her childhood had died years ago and hadn’t come back. All that Liala had learned about the alpha of her clan was bad, and nothing to look up to. Lia didn’t want to take on her mantle, she didn’t have any experience or knowledge, but it was tradition that made her the only heir.
“If that is what is necessary to restore the balance, I am willing to give you the one responsible for these deaths, if my clan approves of it,” Liala said, tearing her stare from her mother and looked first at Eyla and then the other clan members.
“You have no right or authority!” Lia’s mother shouted at her, clenching her fists and ready to shift into her wolf form when Eyla rose her hand.
“As shaman and elder of the clan, I offer the choice of conscience!” She said calmly. “To all present members of the clan. Face towards the wall if you choose our heir to become alpha, turn your back on the wall to side with your current alpha.”
Liala hadn’t known for sure that it was possible to subvert a reigning alpha, but she figured that if this was at least partly a democracy that it would. Of course, there was still the chance that everyone regarded her as unfit as she felt, but with Nate and Rick by her side, she had proven that she was at least able to win strong allies.
Rick and Lia both watched Nate turn first towards the wall and look up at them, still towering over everything and everyone in his natural, daunting half-wendigo-form. The elder Eyla turned second, and although her mother’s mate turned his back on her, almost all other shifters faced her, more than she had expected and far more than she had hoped for. All of a sudden, she felt heady and tired, but the balance wasn’t restored yet.
“The clan has spoken,” Eyla spoke reverently and bowed her head. “Bow to our new alpha.”
Liala’s knees wobbled beneath her and Rick reached out to steady her stance as they watched the shifters follow Eyla’s lead and bowed their heads in unison, even those who had turned their back on her.
All of a sudden, Liala’s head was overflowing with voices as every member of her clan connected their minds to hers. That was something she hadn’t expected despite already hearing her sister, Nate, and Rick in her mind. But now, she was connected to everyone and had a hard time to shut them out. She had no idea for how long she stood there with her eyes closed, calmly finding every single voice, and putting them behind an imaginative door.
“I ask you to not kill her,” Liala said under her breath.
“That is not what we have in store for her,” was his answer to her request. “Like I said, she will receive the treatment she deserves. She acted like an animal, she will be treated like one.”
Lia frowned as she looked at Rick.
They demanded it. He explained, silently.
“And you must witness her imprisonment,” he added loudly and Liala simply nodded. “You can take a guard with you if you feel the need, although I guarantee your safety.”
They have agreed to your offer. Rick added in her mind. Are you still willing to do it?
Liala nodded slightly.
“Where are the twins?” She turned towards her mother, who was now kneeling on the floor, beat, and deprived of power. “Where did you send them?”
“To attack their camp and kill everyone they left behind,” her mother answered obediently, yet there was anger in her voice. “My bond with them is broken, so they might have stopped.”
“Allow me to send Nate to meet and stop them,” Lia quickly turned towards Rick and he nodded.
She didn’t need to say anything to Nate. Even before she had finished the thought he already had leaped across the wall and vanished into the darkness.
“Tend to the wounded,” she told Eyla and then turned towards her mother. “Join me.”
Her mother got to her feet, gathered her strength, and jumped onto the wall next to her.
“You are making a mistake, trusting a hunter,” she told her, but Liala shook her head.
“Maybe it’s a mistake, but I doubt it,” she spoke lowly. “Rick revealed himself for me. Nate revealed himself to me. Both chose to trust me. Malia trusts me. Eyla trusts me. The clan trusts me. None of them trust you. Think about that, mother.”
“You offered them more than just my servitude, did you?” Liala’s mother addressed Rick.
“I offered them what your daughter told me to, and they accepted,” was his answer.
The former alpha was stunned, shocked, and petrified as it dawned on her that Liala already had parlayed in secrecy.
“What did you promise them?” She breathed out.
“Let’s go,” Liala ignored her mother and looked at Eyla. “I’ll be back when this night is over.”
With that being said, Rick jumped off the wall first and Lia’s mother followed, yielding to the new alpha’s will, who was the third to jump.
As they walked through the forest and towards the hunter’s camp, more and more humans broke from their hiding spots between the trees and followed them, yet keeping their distance.
Liala felt the need to cat
ch up to Rick who was taking the lead, but she was too worried that her mother might choose to disobey and try to escape even though there was no chance for her to get out of this. Lia believed she knew what was going to happen to her mother, even though she had not dared to picture it.
Her mother had treated the hunters like nothing but prey. She had ordered the deaths of them and innocent humans. Liala could only imagine what else her mother had allowed to happen, or ordered in the past decade.
Yet, the hunters hadn’t been innocent themselves, but Liala was willing to believe that the deeds and orders of her mother had triggered their actions. Apart from that, the new leader of the hunters was her ally, and Rick had explained to her that although Brenna’s dad had been close to megalomaniacal, it was because he had lost his wife to the wolves.
Lia was nervous. She hoped Nate had caught up with the twins quickly and prevented them from doing harm. She wanted to reach out to his mind with hers, hoping that he could give her the news, but she was still too new at this and there was nothing but silence.
None of them spoke, not Rick, not her mother, not any one of all the hunters marching behind them. Liala’s body felt increasingly heavy with every step she took, as she knew what was about to happen. Yet, there was a shadow of dread that seemed to follow her. Something that she hadn’t thought of. Like a shadow following her that she could only see in the corners of her eyes, vanishing when she turned to look at it.
Lia did her best to shut out this feeling, and instead, concentrated on Rick, watching him closely and the sword that he now carried on his back as he walked ahead. Maybe it was just her instinct, or maybe it was coincidence, but it was in slow motion as Liala watched her mother speed up suddenly, grab his sword and pulled it from his shaft.
A scream of agony erupted from her mother’s throat and she instantly dropped the sword, grabbing the hand that had held it and pressed it into her body. It was then when Liala understood why Rick had said that his sister – his sword – liked her. Turning towards her mother, taking her hand to have a look at it, she could see that blisters were already emerging on her palm. The sword had burned her severely.
“He really is one,” her mother mumbled, rather to herself than to her daughter.
“What?” Liala whispered to her. “He won’t tell me. What is he?”
Liala’s mother just looked at her, face pale, but silent.
“Mom, tell me,” Liala urged.
“I will never tell you,” her mother gave back, coldly.
“You might change your mind about that, soon,” Lia gritted her teeth, grabbed her mother by her arm and pushed her onward.
She was angry at this woman. Angry about the fact that she had ripped her from her normal life, without remorse, angry that she was the reason that her adoptive father was dead, angry that even now this woman didn’t even try and act like a mother to her, but was bitching around, acting just like Brenna the girl she allowed to die in the most gruesome way.
Thinking of that, it had been easy for Liala to offer her mother’s freedom and pride to even the score. But now she couldn’t help but wonder if her decisions, and the fact that she was willing to degrade her own mother, made her just the same as her. Just as bad, just as despicable.
How could she even believe that she had any right to make decisions like that when she didn’t know even half of what had happened between the hunters and the shifters. She was in way over her head but pretended to know it all.
Liala felt sick, all of a sudden. But it was exactly that feeling that terrified her even more. Because, what if she was already pregnant? How could she know who was the father, if she really was? She wanted to throw up, wanted to do something, anything to receive a negative answer to that question.
18 – Balance
Just when they were about to leave for the hunter’s camp, Lia felt a strong nudge at her mind and turned towards the inside of the sanctuary, jumping down in front of the old woman, who was the shaman and therefore now her highest advisor.
Eyla placed her hand against her temple, signaling her that she wanted to talk telepathically with her and Lia nodded, trying to imagine herself in a large hallway with said doors she had shut just moments before, trying to find the one, which was the one Eyla’s voice was behind. Maybe her being able to do this that easily was a sign, that she was meant to be the alpha because Lia had no idea how she had come up with the doors. It had felt so natural, just like the logical thing to do, when your mind is crowded with different voices all of the sudden.
You were lucky this time, Lia, Eyla told her shaking her head, and she could feel the woman’s hand against her lower abdomen, and Lia realized what the old woman was talking about; she wasn’t pregnant. But this night you might not. When you return, come straight to me and I will give you something that will prevent the worst.
Lia just nodded and took a deep breath.
This news was a relief because there was no chance at all that she could know who that father was, if she had gotten knocked up. Although she understood what the woman was really talking about, Lia had no idea how Eyla knew. Not only about the fact that she wasn’t pregnant and wouldn’t become pregnant if she hadn’t any sex tonight. Sometimes it needed a day or two, that much she knew.
Eyla just looked at her earnestly, almost as if she was aware of something no one else was, not even Lia. The air was heavy and cold as they reached the hunter’s camp and Lia’s pulse began to race. Out here there were close to no shifters she had to shut out of her head, but she still could feel three additional ones to her mother and herself. It was Nate and his friends, the twins.
A part of her wished that the three of them wouldn’t be here, but she knew that Nate needed to see this, that he had to see her mother getting punished for letting his own mother die, and leave him alone with his wendigo father, who only didn’t kill him because he wasn’t flesh to feast on.
Liala had no idea what Nate had gone through as a child, but she could try to imagine some of it. Being a mindless killing machine would have been easier and more merciful to him, but Nate was sentient, and somewhat in control, which was worse. He deserved justice for his pain and suffering. He deserved his scales to be balanced. There were too many if’s in his equations. It would have torn her apart as well. Her own suffering and torment was nothing in comparison to how Nate had grown up.
Lia had no idea if she could ever mend his wounds, or his trauma, it was just unspeakable.
Reaching the center of the encampment, her anxiety increased. Although she had suggested to Rick to exchange her own mother for peace and a new beginning, she didn’t know what the hunters really had agreed on. Lia knew that they would degrade her, giving her the same treatment she had in store for the hunters caught on her turf. But given what she had witnessed and gone through herself, Liala could imagine. She was just happy that they didn’t have dogs. This was something she would prevent. The thought alone churned her stomach into a knot and made her feel sick. Silently, she prayed for her mother to be treated with mercy, although in some regards, she didn’t deserve it.
As everyone came to a stop Rick led her mother and her into the center, while Liala could see Nate and the twins step out of the darkness. All three of them now were in their human form and had taken clothes from the hunter’s camp.
Lia sensed how the harmony between the three of them was disturbed now. The twins were keeping their distance, as they now didn’t trust Nate anymore. She saw and feel how it hurt him, it was written all over his face along with resignation.
One of the hunters stepped from the circle that was building around the center of the camp, carrying something that she couldn’t distinguish, until he handed it over to Rick, looking at her mother and her skeptically. Both women inhaled sharply as they identified the item as a collar with a leash.
Rick turned towards them.
“You will serve your sentence as our dog,” he explained and although Lia had suggested this sentence, she tensed along
with her mother. “You can decide for yourself which form you’ll take on, but you can’t change your mind afterward.”
Liala watched her mother swallow dryly, but the woman completely ignored her, and Lia could feel her defiance. Secretly she hoped her mother would decide to turn into a wolf because she couldn’t imagine that the men would rape her in that form. She instantly hoped that Rick would prevent any abuse after this night. She had agreed to stay there and witness the hunters restoring the balance, and that would include physical punishment.
As they talked through the parts of her plan just an hour before, Rick had started to tell her what actions her mother had condoned. That she had allowed the half-breeds that weren’t fully in control of themselves to roam through the forest and even further, putting innocent lives in danger over time. When he continued to go into specifics Liala had asked him to stop. She didn’t need to blindly trust him in regards to him being honest about her mother because she simply felt it. Lia could sense how uncomfortable and sad Rick felt when he thought about the now former alpha of Lia’s clan.
It was her mother’s actions that had made him join this specific group of hunters, if not to help and keep that balance, which was so obviously disturbed to him.
But Liala wondered why he hadn’t revealed himself as an original hunter? Why had he kept his identity a secret? Wouldn’t he have been able to stop all of this from happening if both shifters and hunters had known who he was? However, these were questions for another time. Maybe there was something she didn’t know or couldn’t understand. Maybe he was breaking some unknown rules by intervening. Still, Lia couldn’t help but wonder if he himself were to blame for some deaths, too.
When her mother started to shift, ruining her clothes in the process, Lia was brought back to the present watching the woman in front of her turn into a wolf, who didn’t make a sound as Rick put on the collar. It felt all kinds of wrong to see her own mother like this, but she needed to be punished for her disregard of human life. She just hoped that this was enough for Nate, even though she already knew that it wasn’t. But what would he demand in exchange for his mother’s life? Would there be any punishment to match the crime? Lia just hoped that her suggestion was enough.
HOWL and HUNT the HEIR: HOWL 1-3 (Dark World) Page 25