Chapter 10
DION
I rode through the night non-stop to get to Doraj. As the sun rose I entered the valley where the village was located. It was hard country, rough grounds and boulders. Nothing grew and the only life other than the town was the gray wolves that roamed the ridge line.
Real wolves were often standoffish with shifters. Some of them even looked at us as unnatural hybrids too, but it depended on which alpha you met. I’d spoken with Skerrig many times before and he was more forthcoming with me than he may have been with outsiders of his lands.
Having been the leader of his pack for twenty seasons now, Skerrig was old and battered but a wise wolf.
He wasn’t as skeptical of shifters or humans as some of his counterparts were.
Especially with the rise of feral shifters beginning to rise in the Warlands.
But he didn’t tell me good news either. Doraj had changed drastically since Roman and I had last come.
For a long time Doraj had been neutral. But with the recent feral werewolf attacks, they’d been relying more and more on Lady Skol’s guards for help.
Skerrig didn’t like it one bit, and we both knew that Lady Skol’s Inspectors only needed a sliver of a chance to weasel their way into a village.
He emphasized for me to be careful when I left him, the guards were coming more often than normal and he didn’t know why. I will watch over you.
I sat uneasy on my horse now. That had been up in the mountains, hours later I was crossing the large plain before the village. There was no hiding here. I’d never felt watched coming here, but now it was different. I knew there were eyes on me.
The fresh mounds outside the city informed me of how many deaths had occurred in the recent attack.
The men at the gate were reluctant to acknowledge me.
They stared ahead, like some child’s imitation of a guard.
It was good that they still kept their open door policy throughout the day though; there hadn’t been too much of a drastic change, yet.
I dismounted my horse and left it tied at the undertaker’s. It was quiet even for the afternoon. There should’ve been shops open, people walking about, but there was no one. It was a town in hiding. I finally understood what Skerrig meant when he said that the town was haunted.
I came to the jail. It was closed and Tom wasn’t even in.
That in of itself was odd. He’d been the sheriff as long as I could remember and he didn’t sleep late.
I scratched my beard and looked back up and down the street.
There was at least one good thing here, no posters in sight on the noticeboard.
Nothing to incriminate Feyra. But I still didn’t know enough about them to understand if they were as innocent as they made themselves out to be. I would need to ask them both questions.
A loud whistle pierced the air and I grabbed my head quickly. It was shrill and painful. I backed off the verandah, falling down the side. I began an anti-melody in my mind, blocking out the noise so that I could hear clearly.
Built on a curve, the main street was curved with the jail at the apex. I watched both entrances of the village. Coming through the rear entrance of the village was a legion of Lady Skol’s guards. Fifty of them. Men on horses with lances. A man at the front was blowing a dog whistle.
Shit. I scurried around the back and hid on the opposite side of the building. I turned and ducked back down the rear side of the buildings, running the distance of the main street back to the undertaker. I came around the side and watched them arrive.
There were fifty exactly. Armor shining, horses proud, but not all of them were guards.
At the front was Tom the sheriff, Jem the Mayor, and a host of other locals.
They were leading the battalion of men. An Inspector of the Guard was talking with them.
At this distance I couldn’t hear them, but I knew enough from other villages that had converted after a prolonged period of resistance.
The guards were taking over.
I swore again, looked back at the entrance and my eyes bulged.
Feyra was leading Roman and Agatha through the gates. She spotted me hiding by the wooden barn and directed them towards me. I’d spent too long with the wolves this morning.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, riding up to me.
“Shhh,” I hissed. “Get down. Off the horses.”
“I will not–”
I pulled her from the horse, then moved onto Agatha. Time was of the essence, I ignored the girls protests and dragged them along with the horses behind the building, hoping that no one had seen us.
“There’s guards here,” I said. “We’re in danger–”
I looked in horror as the gates began closing. It was a trap!
“Would you mind telling us what’s going on?” Feyra demanded. “First you disappear in the night–”
I shushed her with a finger. I felt a surge of power come from within her. She was definitely waking up. “Be patient. You’ve no grounds for demands yet, youngling.”
“Youngling?” she blurted.
Roman laughed, but his face was concerned with what he was watching. “What did Skerrig say?”
“Worse than what we thought,” I replied. “The feral werewolves have been targeting Doraj more heavily than we realized. I can only think of one reason for it, but it doesn’t make sense. They’ve kept Skerrig and his pack away whilst attacking though.”
“Really?” Roman said, surprised.
I nodded and he didn’t say anything. He turned back to the guards, watching them in a new light.
“The gates closing is a new rule. They must’ve been open while the guards were patrolling and–”
“What’re they putting up?” Roman asked, gesturing with his head.
The sound of nails driving into wood echoed down the street. A man stood on the verandah of the jail putting up posters. Posters that I already recognized from this distance. I turned, looking at Feyra, but her face was just as curious as Roman’s.
She didn’t know she was wanted. More questions to ask.
The legion began breaking up, men moving single file up and down the street. I could see the gatekeepers with the guards now. I turned back, the gates were unmanned. “We need to hide,” I said. “Quickly.”
Before either girl could protest I took the reins of their horses, led them to the back door of the undertaker’s, and put them in the barn.
Roman came last, “They’re checking the town. I just heard a few of them getting descriptions for you.”
My veins turned cold. I’d brought everyone into a trap.
“Can’t we just leave?” Agatha asked. She looked between us like we were fools.
“That gate needs at least two men to operate the winches. Along with directing horses out and the fact that it’s daylight, no, we can’t just leave. We’d be seen. Then we’d have a whole battalion of men on us,” Roman said.
She crossed her arms and frowned. But she genuinely looked afraid. Maybe they did know they were being pursued?
With the horses hidden, we were able to move more freely between the buildings. The guards were searching them haphazardly. The disciplined city guards were lost here. We were able to dodge them with little effort, but it was nerve wracking. I couldn’t help but be afraid for Feyra the whole time.
I’d been reaching out to her since seeing her, and she was still shut off. But I could feel her power. I could feel the surges in her growing. The closer we came to the full moon the higher her chance of shifting would happen.
Whether she knew it or not was another thing.
We continued in this way for an hour or so, making our way slowly up towards the jail house. Roman wanted to see the paperwork, and I hadn’t been able to think of any good excuse for him not to.
We finally got to the rear of the building, hearing the talking coming from within. I could hear both Tom and Jem speaking to another man. The Inspector of the Guards. “You can argue every time,” he said. “But your people have voted it.”
Tom swore. Jem was more desperate. “But as mayor, I can veto all of their voices. You are not wanted here.”
The boards groaned and the figure of an enormous man stood in the window. He was a large and imposing figure, much taller and wider than the men before him.
“Lady Skol rewards those that join her empire. But those that refuse, or those that become rude, have other problems occur.” He walked up to them now, standing over them.
“We have things you’ve never seen. If you think a few feral werewolves are your only problems then keep going and let me surprise you.
Because next time we won’t come to your rescue. ”
Roman’s face was dark, I knew mine would be the same. We began making our way back to the undertaker’s. We had to wait until dark to make our escape. In the meantime, we’d wait in the barn.
I moved ahead and did a quick check, inside and out, then motioned for them to join. They all filed into the large barn and we commenced waiting. There was only an hour or two of light left.
When it was time to finally go, we readied the horses and got the girls on them. We would be quick. Roman and I would open the gate, let the girls through, then sever the ropes, locking them in their own walls.
We left the barn and began moving slowly, sticking to the shadows of the walls and outer buildings.
We made it to the gate and Roman and I both put the guards to sleep with quick blows to the head.
A makeshift guards’ cabin was behind the wall, a light inside showed the glow of a sleeping guard.
We climbed the ladders quickly and began opening the gates slowly and quietly.
When they were open, I signaled for Feyra to bring the horses through.
A bar of light lit her up.
The guard was exiting his post to talk to his friends. “Hey did you guys think–”
We all stared at each other for a split second. Surprise on all faces, even in the darkness. The guard began breathing heavily, but doing nothing. His whistle was in his shaking hand.
“Y-you guys can’t–”
I lunged from the platform down onto him as he finally brought his hand up. Pinning it against his body, I brought him into the dirt with me. Rolling over the jagged stones, I maneuvered the whistle from his grip, then once it was loose, wrapped my arm around his neck and began choking him.
His eyes bulged, staring up into our group.
Roman locked off the gate on his side and came down to help me.
The girls watched us still as statues. The guard’s strength began to wane.
I crushed my arm tighter into his neck, I strained harder.
He kept kicking, kept fighting. He produced a knife from his pocket and brought it down into my leg.
I grunted, biting my lip to not yell, as Roman broke his hand to take it.
My wolf inside howled to come out, to tear the man to shreds.
I withheld and decided to end things quickly.
I adjusted my position and snapped my arms upward quickly, breaking his neck.
He went slack.
The girls looked at me in horror. I stared at Feyra staring at the body. Slowly, too slowly, she looked up at me. I was a monster now. No longer something she could love.
My heart felt punctured. I’d lost my fated mate. Maybe it would be for the best.
The horses whinnied nervously. We had to get going. The light still spilling over six horses and two women, and now the dead body with us.
There was a whimper.
We all turned in horror at the small boy on the trail watching us.