Chapter 5
Before they retired to bed that night after a day of weapon practice and simulation training, Stone warned Rune, “Maeve and Fang want to eliminate you and asked for my help to do it.”
"Oh, really. I mean, I knew they would want to get even. Lolita even told me about it. But I'm surprised they would ask you to help them with me. I'll have to watch my back."
Stone nodded. "I talked to Lolita and she said that Fang is secretly trying to rally Caspian and Iris, two of the wolves in his pack, to his side, whispering promises of power if he takes over.
But when Xena strides past, all three of them simultaneously lower their heads without a word being exchanged. "
Rune laughed. "Do you think she knows what's going on?"
"Yeah."
"I'm not surprised. I heard Elon spends hours practicing his most intimidating howl alone in the forest, only to have it crack and falter the second Vesper, his pack member, throws his head back and releases a howl that shakes the treetops."
"I can see him doing that. Do watch your back. Night, Rune."
"I will. Night, Stone."
Then Rune entered her room and found a beautiful wolf blanket on her bed for the chilly nights. From her sponsor? Maeve didn’t have a blanket—or a sponsor. And Rune was thrilled for that.
Rune changed into her pajamas and covered herself with the blanket, so soft and warm. The bedspreads were white and thin. This time she wouldn’t have to turn into her wolf to get warm like last night.
Maeve entered the room and frowned at her. "I heard your sponsor delivered the blanket to you."
"Oh, I didn't know that for sure. I wondered where yours was. It's so nice and warm and soft too," Rune said, rubbing it in. Then she took in a deep breath and let it out. "Night, Maeve."
Maeve grunted and climbed into her bed.
Rune kept thinking about the baby and saving it, glad she had. She also thought about Stone, sitting on the rocking chair like he was at a movie, watching the scene play out and enjoying the entertainment.
Then she finally fell asleep at the late-night hour.
Suddenly, Rune felt a suffocating pressure on her face. She thought she was having a nightmare of epic proportions. She fought to breathe and realized her face was covered with a pillow. She tried to pull the pillow away, her mind half awake, but fading from the lack of oxygen.
"Die," Maeve said, "and I can have your beautiful wolf blanket as a souvenir."
Ohmigod, Maeve was trying to use her pillow to suffocate Rune! She struggled to pull it off her face, but Maeve was on top of her, and the girl was strong and heavier than Rune.
At one point, Maeve stopped pushing the pillow so hard, maybe figuring she had killed Rune. With a slight bit of air and her mind getting some clarity, though the pillow was still blocking her vision, Rune grabbed for the hilt of her sword underneath her blanket. She couldn’t find it.
Then she managed to touch the hilt with her fingertips, but it was just beyond reach. She scooted over a tiny bit and managed to grab it. She pulled it free from where it was under her wolf blanket before Maeve could react.
Maeve tried to regain the advantage and pressed against the pillow again. Before she was able to suffocate Rune to the point of blacking out again, Rune swung her sword and cut Maeve's arm.
She screamed out.
Rune shoved the pillow off her face, but Maeve tried to push the pillow onto her face again, one-handed this time. Rune cut Maeve's leg to make her give up her quest. Maeve cried out again and collapsed on the floor.
Her leg and arm were cut, but not badly. It seemed Maeve couldn't move from the floor if she'd wanted to, and she favored her limp arm, cradling it with her good arm. Rune stared at her. Had the sword made Maeve's limbs go numb?
Maeve screamed for help, saying Rune had tried to kill her. Rune just stared at her, figuring she was going to be thrown out of the program, not Maeve. Which meant Rune would get to return to her glen, which was a good thing.
Maeve was hardly bleeding, so Rune didn't know why she was making such a fuss. Rune figured she was doing it because she wanted to look like the victim instead of the perpetrator. Like Rune had just decided to cut her for no reason!
And really, if it was a case of her word against Rune's, it looked like Maeve was the innocent in all this. Sure, she had a grudge against Rune, but Maeve was the one who was injured, and Rune couldn't prove she'd nearly been suffocated to death.
"Come on, Maeve, it's not that bad!" They didn't have any first aid kits in the rooms, but Maeve's cuts weren't even bleeding any longer since she hadn't cut her deeply, and because they healed up so quickly.
Maeve tried to get up, but she couldn't move her one arm, and she couldn't stand. "You poisoned me!"
"What? No. There's nothing on the sword. And you tried to smother me to death!"
"In your dreams."
That's what Rune was afraid of. That Maeve would claim Rune had injured Maeve and that she hadn't done anything to Rune.
"Push your alert button," Rune finally said, thinking Maeve might really need medical attention.
"No. I'm not leaving the games!" Then Maeve began screaming again.
Rune heard footfalls heading toward their room. She wished she could say goodbye to Stone and explain what had happened before they removed her from the games and returned her home to her glen.
Suddenly, two men threw open the door, wearing uniforms of white, part of the security staff at the gaming facility.
"She tried to kill me!" Maeve screamed at them, crocodile tears streaking her face and dripping onto her pajama shirt, all a big performance.
"She suffocated me, and I was trying to get Maeve off me before she killed me."
The guys didn't say anything to her or Maeve and carried Maeve out of the room. Rune guessed then that they were taking her to medical to check out her wounds.
Rune was afraid she would be in so much trouble.
She didn't think she would ever be able to get to sleep after the horror she had experienced.
Plus, she thought they might come at any time to grab her and send her home.
But she finally fell asleep, exhausted from the late hour and what she'd gone through.
When she finally woke the next morning, she realized Maeve hadn't returned to bed. Rune thought she would be bandaged up and dropped back off in the room. But her bed was empty.
Had she gotten worse during the night? Despite what Maeve had tried to do to her, Rune hoped not. Maybe they'd put her in another room because the two of them didn't get along.
But Rune still figured she was going home.
Rune got dressed and packed her chest, and then a female staff member knocked on the door and called out, "Your advisor wants to see you."
Rune opened the door, and the fae smiled at her. "Then you can eat breakfast."
"And be sent home?" Rune asked.
The woman shook her head.
Rune didn't know if that meant she wasn't being sent home or that the woman couldn't believe what she'd done to Maeve.
When Rune knocked at Ondine's door, she said, "Come in, Rune."
Rune opened the door, went inside, and shut it.
Ondine was leaning back in her chair, considering her. "Take a seat."
Rune sat on one of the comfortable chairs, nervous that she might end up staying but be punished for what had happened last night.
"About last night—"
"Maeve tried to suffocate me," Rune explained. She wasn't going to cover for her.
"Right. We have it all on video."
And they let it happen? What was wrong with these people?
"I'm sorry. No one was monitoring your room when Maeve attacked you. We have all the video recordings. We checked them over after we heard Maeve screaming and saw that you had cut her with your sword."
"I didn't have any other way to stop her."
"I agree. We certainly would have intervened and removed her from the game. I'm sorry you had to experience this, but I'm glad you were able to use your special sword to stop Maeve."
"I didn't realize the sword had that kind of power."
"None of us did."
"Will Maeve be back in the game then?"
"No. Not only because she tried to kill you, but also because her leg and arm are still paralyzed, and she can't use them for a few days. She tried to eliminate you permanently. But you eliminated her in a way that would let her live out her life knowing what she did, and that she was thrown out of the program because of her own traitorous actions. If you are to rule a pack, you can’t kill off the members, or you won’t have anyone to command. "
Rune still couldn't believe that they had security videos monitoring the rooms but hadn't seen what was going on when Maeve was trying to kill her.
"For your information, the people responsible for monitoring the videos have been reprimanded and sent home without pay. It won't happen again."
Well, that was good.
"The video will be shared at the morning meal so that everyone will know why Maeve was eliminated from the program and maybe even why you are a dangerous fae to target.
Maeve will watch it with her family at home, under her pack's care.
That's all. Go have your breakfast. Oh, and you won't be having another roommate since the number of females is uneven. So for now, you have a private room."
"Lolita can join me at any time."
Ondine smiled. "I'm glad you've befriended her. She deserves it.”
After seeing what had happened with the first challenge and the situation between Maeve and Rune, Star Gazer said, "We'll have to choose the winner to bring the warring packs together. They have agreed we have the final say."
"Aye, of course, sister, as it should be," Moon Gazer said.
"We cannot just choose Rune or Stone because we favor them over the others."
"Nay. If they have what it takes to bring the packs together, it will be based on their own merit. We will not interfere with the selection process."
Star Gazer sighed. She thought both wolves stood a chance, but being lone wolves also put them at a disadvantage. She could see the other wolves easily partnering up to eliminate their competition, and the lone wolves faced greater risk. Especially after what Maeve had done to Rune.