At Dawn, in the Forest

Aiden had come to her just before she went to bed. He had asked if she ate dinner and when she confirmed she did he relaxed. Aiden told Dawn that if she got another nightmare she was more than welcome to wake him up and told her how to find him. Dawn thanked him and tried to sleep.

It was hard.

Nightmares kept her awake, but she was afraid to bother Aiden. So she stayed up. Watching how the ceiling changed colors as the sun rose up. Dawn was happy when it was time to get up. Lying in bed reminded her too much about her recovery days in the lab. But with no clear permission, she could wander the packhouse during the night she stayed put.

Around nine in the morning, Dawn made her way downstairs and she could hear some uproar in the living room. Carefully she observed from the corner of the grand opening to the said room. It was her brothers. Caspian and Elias were roughhousing while Finn encouraged his youngest brother.

Dawn didn’t know what to think of it. Emotions roared inside of her. Emotions she couldn’t define. Eventually, it turned into frustration and she had to take her eyes off the scene in front of her. Just as she tried to sneak off, Aiden betrayed her presence and suddenly three pair of eyes were on her. “Good morning, Dawn.”

Aiden came from behind her and came to a halt when he noticed they weren’t alone. “And good morning to you all.”

The boys all greeted him back. Caspian and Finn looked with an uncertainty at their sister. They could see the jealousy and envy in her eyes. Elias hid behind his big brothers. The boy had no idea who this mystery sister was and the only impression he got from her was an angry one. It also didn’t help his mother bad-mouthed her in his presence as well.

Dawn felt offended by her younger brother’s actions and walked away as Finn tried to ask, “How did you sleep?...”

Dawn headed for the kitchen. They were setting up breakfast. She could feel how hungry her body was but the thought of having a group breakfast didn’t sit with her well. Turning on her heel she came eye to eye with Aiden again. “Where are you going? I believe breakfast is soon to be ready.”

“Not hungry,” Dawn muttered.

“Still, it might be good to join us.”

Dawn disliked Aiden for the first time since she met him. She didn’t want to see her family all together just to feel like an outsider. She didn’t like that confrontation. She didn’t want to see how Elias had taken her place.

At the same time, she couldn’t say no to Aiden. He had done so much for her. So ten minutes later she sat between her family members and pack members of the Red Wood Pack. That was the name of this pack she was currently staying in she had learned.

There were other reasons why she disliked sitting together for a meal besides her own family. It was the children of Larisa and Mateo who were the most annoying. Their eldest daughter, Lisa (sixteen years old), made fun of her often. Dawn had trouble holding the cutlery. It was the same problem as with the pen. She wasn’t used to the motions and holding anymore and had to relearn it. But Lisa found it apparently funny to see Dawn struggle.

Then you had her older brother, Lars (seventeen years old), and younger sister, Lyla (thirteen years old). Lyla copied what Lisa was doing and Lars just thought Dawn exaggerated her trauma and should just man up.

Larisa tried to scold her children for their behavior but it was futile. And today was no different. As Dawn had trouble cutting her eggs both Lisa and Lyla were mocking her and Lars rolled his eyes. Again her appetite was gone.

But the three little devils weren’t the most annoying encounter at the table. It was Rue. She had wept and wept all night. “My whole left side of my pillow case is now wet with tears.” Her words. She, apparently, couldn’t shake off the horrible stories she heard from her son about her daughter. Rue couldn’t believe people were so evil. “How can you possibly hurt someone’s daughter like that? I can’t believe it.” And this went on and on during breakfast, asking for attention from everybody. Larisa, Boaz and Mateo consoled her. But whenever they thought Rue had let the topic go, she went on about how she couldn’t sleep a wink because of the crying again.

Dawn turned away from her mother, having heard enough. She focused on her eggs again. “You know what is great with those eggs, those sausages. Trust me a great combination,” Max winked as he stuffed his mouth full again with whatever was still on his plate. He had already filled his plate twice full with the food displayed in front of them. “Thank the Goddess, I freaking love packhouse breakfasts,” Max said with a mouth full again.

Dawn learned that Max was in line to be the next Delta so he and the current Delta, Alistar, and some other trusted warriors could join packhouse meals whenever they wanted. Other pack members were welcome as well but most of them liked to have breakfast with their mates and pups.

It was dinner time most of the others joined, except for the warriors. They had their own dinner time, something about warriors needing to be close and bond over a meal so they could work better as a team. All of this sounded new to her. Dawn had no clue how things worked at her old pack. She couldn’t even remember the presence of warriors in her pack. She just nodded along when Max explained his absence during dinner time.

“You know, Max is right about those sausages. They are great,” Aiden confirmed from beside her. He sat next to her for breakfast, which was rare as he usually sat close to the Alpha and Delta.

“Of course I am right. I am always right!”

Aiden looked thoughtful. “Hmm, are you really Max?”

“Well, alright. Let’s put it this way. I am always right when it comes to food.”

Aiden laughed. “That’s true.”

“So, here,” Max put one of them on Dawn’s plate. “Really, try it.”

Just as Dawn was ready to stick her fork in the sausage she could overhear Mateo and Alistar talking to each other about her. “Do we have more witnesses, Alistar?”

“I am afraid not, Alpha.”

“Nobody knew about her?”

“Nobody, Alpha.”

Dawn ignored her food and asked, “What’s going on?”

“That’s no way to speak, Dawn!” Rue chided. She didn’t care what her mother had to say and she could see how Larisa tried to tell Rue it was fine.

“We are discussing your case, Dawn,” Mateo explained patiently. “In two weeks we have to appear in front of the council about your status but also about the investigation regarding Dr. Willow and his lab. And we have a concern relating to the witnesses we have…”

Dawn furrowed her brows. “I don’t understand.”

Mateo sighed. “We have no witnesses who can testify they saw you there in the lab and have seen the experiments they were conducting on you.”

“But-but you have me, isn’t that enough?” Dread slowly crept its way through Dawn's body. She could feel something bad was about to happen. She could feel it in her stomach. She knew deep down the answer to her question and it frightened her.

“Unfortunately, no. You aren’t enough. You are biased and were drugged with wolfsbane for a long period of time and we know that can cause hallucinations.”

“But what about the others who were rescued?” Dawn became desperate.

“Well some of their stories align with yours, but most of the experiments they did on them were different from yours…”

Dawn couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This couldn’t be true. Why didn’t they believe her? Why didn’t they support her better? She thought things would have been way better after being saved but turns out it’s not the case. Her hands shook with anger. Her eyes burned.

“Don’t you believe me?” Dawn’s lip trembled.

“Of course we do, dear,” Larisa immediately reassured. She looked with great concern at the distraught girl in front of her.

“We do everything in our power to make your case as strong as possible, Dawn. As we speak we are trying to get a confession out of Dr. Willow and Dr. Klein but they are both not budging,” Mateo tried to reassure.

Dawn’s head shot up. “Dr. Willow is alive?”

Mateo looked at Alistar and Aiden. He noticed the mistake he made. “Uhm, yeah. But like I said-”

The saddened anger turned into fury. Dawn’s eyes were set to kill. Her shaking hands turned into clenching fists. “I get to kill him,” She whispered.

“Pardon?” Alistar asked.

“When he is found guilty – and I am sure he is – I get to kill him,” Dawn raised her voice. It was ice-cold and sharp. Silence fell around the table. Concerned looks were shared across the seated people.

“Alright, how about all the people who are not involved make their way outside? Breakfast was done either way,” Larisa suggested kindly. Her voice was leveled and warm. She knew what she was doing. Lyla and Lisa didn’t want to go at first but did leave after a pointed look from their mother.

When everybody had left, only the Alphas (minus Rue), Beta, Delta, Max and Caspian, and Finn were present in the dining room together with Dawn.

“I am afraid our justice system doesn’t work that way, Dawn,” Mateo tried to reason with the angry and traumatized young woman in front of him.

“I don’t care. I get to kill him.”

“If you do, the council will punish you.”

“I don’t care.”

“Dawn, you should care. This is about your future,” Aiden told her softly. “We will make sure he will be punished accordingly.”

“And then what? What will happen to him?” Dawn huffed.

“The council will have to negotiate with the human justice system and together they will come to a suitable punishment. But as it looks, for now, they will probably lock him up in a maximum security prison. For how long is not clear yet.”

The tricky thing with Dr. Willow was that he was human. The werewolf community couldn’t independently decide what was going to happen to him. This was already told to Dawn once before but she hadn’t listened then. She was busy tuning out Max and Caspian as they were overwhelming her then when she told her story.

“That’s not enough! I get to kill him in the way I see fit!” Something awakened inside of Dawn. Her fury grew and grew, giving light to a part deep hidden in Dawn. “Max has already killed Jack! I get to kill Dr. Willow!”

“Max only did that out of protection for you. His kill was a heat-of-the-moment event. It was justified by the council. But you going against the ruling of the council will not be forgiven, no matter the circumstances,” Mateo tried to reason again.

Boaz carefully stepped forward and put his hand on Dawn’s shoulder. “Please, my little monkey, get this wretched idea out of your mind.”

Dawn shrugged her father’s hand off. “No! You don’t get it. That man should at least get half the pain I felt and then be put six feet under the ground!”

“We hear you Dawn-” Aiden now tried to calm down Dawn, only it was futile. “No! You don’t hear me. You don’t understand!” The fury grew bigger, Dawn's breathing picked up, and her vision got blurry. She shook her head in an attempt to shake the feeling off. She could feel something changing inside of her.

Dawn stood up trying to get comfortable. “Dawn? Are you alright?” She could hear from afar. She couldn’t focus on her surroundings. And then her body started to move on her own. Her shoulder snapped and a loud cry of agony escaped from her.