Chapter 11
Stone was surprised when he saw Fang had vacated the room, his bags gone, his bed sheets replaced with fresh ones. He wondered if he was sent home for some reason that hadn’t been relayed to the competitors.
Then there was a knock on the door, and Storm hurried to open it.
Silas shook his hand, as if they were best friends. “The room coordinator ordered Fang to move to stay with Vesper, and I was told to come here.”
Stone figured Silas was going to be a spy for his pack, just as he figured Fang was, though Stone never talked to Fang when they settled down for the night.
"I’m really glad the room coordinator made the changes. A few of us want to help you and Rune win the last few challenges."
Stone raised a brow, not believing their change of heart unless he witnessed it himself.
Silas unpacked his bags. "Okay, look, at first, we were rooting for our own pack members."
"Which is understandable." Even though Rune and Stone were lone wolves, he still protected her, and she looked out for him, so he understood that.
"Right. So we want to help you both win. We realized after you began winning so many of the contests, and you were helping us get across No Man's Land, unlike Vesper, who saved himself and didn't care about anyone else, we needed someone who really cared about the packs."
Well, Stone wouldn't exactly say he cared about the packs, but then again, he wouldn't have let anyone die in No Man's Land, so he guessed he cared enough about them to do that. It wasn't just a case of believing they might be more successful in the challenge if they did that.
“Oh, and the room coordinator said that your sponsor, Ena, was the one who wanted me changed out with Fang.”
“Why?”
“There are gamer spies everywhere. I suspect one of them overheard Iris and me talking about helping you and Rune out in the challenges.”
"So who else feels that way? That they don't want Vesper to win?" Stone asked, if this wasn’t a ploy to mess them up.
"Most of us. Not Xena. She's just as awful. But Elon, Caspian, and Iris want to help. Iris was just assigned to be Rune's roommate. She's telling her what I'm telling you."
"Okay." Stone listened, but that didn't mean he fully believed it. Though he could understand that they wouldn't want Vesper or Xena in charge. Both were narcissists and only cared about themselves.
"So there might be more who are willing to join us then."
Then there was a knock on the door, and Silas got it. “Hey, Elon.”
Elon came into the room and shook Stone’s hand, all smiles.
"Yeah, for sure, we hope more are going to help you. Though they might still be too afraid of them to work against them."
"Unless they learned that the rest of you are in on this."
"Right," Silas said. "But we're not ready to ask them. They seem to suck up to them, like Fang, so we're keeping this on the down low."
"Okay." But then the problem was that Stone didn't really want to lead the two packs. However, to avoid having Xena or Vesper take charge of the packs, he realized he'd do nearly anything. He wondered how Rune felt about that.
He didn't want her left alone in the glen. He wanted her to be with him, ruling the pack. Then he smiled at himself. Or she would be in charge, and he was doing this with her. In any case, he wanted to be with her. Even if they started their own pack in the glens and ignored the other two.
The problem was he was afraid the others would encroach on their territory, just like Vesper and the others had gone to his glen and fought with him before Rune came to rescue him.
None of the three others who were here in the competition had taken part in that fight, but those with him must have been with Vesper’s wolf pack.
Stone already adored Rune, but these challenges had cemented their relationship even further.
Silas sat down on his bed. "So what can we do to help you both win the next few challenges?"
Elon joined him.
"Well, you know what Rune did with cutting the rope bridges."
Silas smiled. "Some were mad about that. Iris told us she was shocked but then thought it was a great move. No one was hurt, and the big thing was that Rune had allowed Lolita safe passage."
"Everyone is down on her." Stone wouldn't tolerate that behavior toward anyone.
Silas sighed. "Not really. We just don't stick up for her because of Xena or Vesper, depending on which pack we're with."
"You didn't help us with the pirarucu."
"Again, we were still trying to keep from being in trouble with them."
"Your girlfriend saved my butt out there, but don't think I like her any better," Elon told Stone.
"Oh? Why is that?" Stone figured she shouldn't have bothered, but even if they didn't like a pack member, they needed to play the pack leader game from here on out.
"Because she sent Pari home, and Maeve too."
"But it was okay for Maeve to try and smother her to death? And for Pari to hit her with rocks so the sandworm would take Rune out?"
Elon didn't say anything to that. Then finally he said, "She could have just knocked Maeve out. She didn't have to put her out of the game."
"Maeve was smothering Rune, and she didn't have any choice. What would you have done in her place?"
Elon was quiet.
"The same with Pari. You saw the wounds on Rune's face.
Pari was either trying to knock her out or make her cry out to alert the sandworms so they would devour her.
Any way that you look at it, Rune had no choice.
She didn't have to save you or Iris either.
She could have just reached the forest, dealt with the wraiths, and headed for the Hawk Fae Kingdom.
You sure have a warped sense of reality. "
Elon shut up then.
"And she's not my girlfriend, if it's any of your business. We're both lone wolves so we have something in common, just like you do with your packmates. Oh, and I didn't see Vesper coming to your aid, by the way."
Elon didn't say anything about that. What could he say? Vesper was only there for himself, and if he could, he would make all his pack members, and the others, lose the challenges.
The next morning, they all met with their advisors, and Ondine tsked at Rune. "So you sent another team member packing."
"I wouldn't have if Pari hadn't tried to kill me. Besides, I didn't know if she would be out of the game or not if I had a dragon remove her from No Man's Land."
"I don't see you attempting to kill your competitors, only make it more challenging for them—such as with the rope bridge adventure.
If they hadn't been fighting each other on the rope bridges, they could have made it to the other side and had a chance to search for the idol themselves, every one of them.
But instead, they chose to fight one another, trying to get rid of their competition. " Ondine shrugged.
“True.”
"So in a way, it was karma. They made the choices they made.
We could see you just wanted to get to the other side of the river, but Pari was trying to pull you off.
Because you helped the others across the other side of No Man's Land, you proved you could help others in need and not leave anyone behind. Pari was another matter."
"I didn't want anyone to get eaten by the sandworms."
"Right. A life-or-death matter became important to you. Not just for yourself, but for the others you helped. They should be grateful that you did, but they're not. They still resent you and Stone."
"Because we're different."
"Aye. Which is the crux of the matter. You may not gain alliances from your charitable actions, but the rest of us see them, evaluate them, and score them. So your effort was not done in vain."
Rune nodded, glad for that. Though she would have done so anyway.
She still thought that she had more of an ally in Iris now.
But it didn't really matter, as she knew she was loyal to her pack, and if they wanted to get rid of Rune, they wouldn't stop trying.
She thought they were more afraid of Stone, even though Vesper wasn't afraid of confronting him.
"Go have your breakfast. The next game will start after that."
When Stone met with his advisor, he leaned back in his seat and said, "Well played.
Vesper thinks he won by beating all of you to the other side of the forest on the way to the Hawk Fae castle, leaving even his own pack members behind in peril.
We can't help but admire both you and Rune for helping the others, though they seem to regard you both as the enemy. "
"They have to see someone as the villain."
"They have the other pack to see in that way. But they seem to be targeting the two of you. I'm sure if they sent you both home, they would concentrate on fighting the remaining pack."
"More power to them, but I'm not going home any time soon."
"And Rune?"
Stone laughed. "She will probably outlast all of us."
His advisor smiled. "Keep up the good work."
"Thanks." Now that Stone had an idea of what was the way to go about the challenges, he was ready to take on the next one, in the right way, again. He guessed his advisor didn’t know how the dynamics were changing between him and Rune and some of the other wolf fae, but there was no sense in sharing that information until they knew for sure the others weren’t lying to them.
He headed into the lunchroom and saw Rune eating by herself, but she was having a gourmet feast of salmon, hash brown potatoes, and carrots. Then, when he went up to the buffet, the woman there shook her head. "Take a seat. You'll be given something to eat there."
He smiled. That meant he was getting a treat from his sponsors for his performance yesterday. This time, he didn't care what the others thought of him and Rune. He took a seat next to her and eyed her meal.
She raised a brow. "What happened to us not sitting with each other?"
"My roommate told me we were boyfriend and girlfriend. We might as well make it official."
She chuckled. "All right by me."
Then Stone explained what Silas had said to him.
“Hmm. I’ll believe them about helping us when I see it,” Rune said.