Broken Bonds

“We have to find out who the traitor is.” It felt like a year passed since Talon said those words to Rey on that day at the meadow. “The pack is slowly falling apart as everyone blames everyone and I can’t let it happen.” He confessed.

“Do you have a plan?” Rey asked him.

He did. He wanted to plant false information and wait for someone to take a bait, but who would have thought he wouldn’t even get an opportunity to do so. As she stared at the destruction in front of her, only one thing was clear: the time had run out.

Rey was a healer, not a fighter.

The first time she ended up in the middle of a battlefield, it was because of the sheer power of adrenalin running in her veins. But it refused to come to her just yet and her legs trembled as she stood in the middle of yet another one.

Alivia did warn them that the humans were coming soon, but no one could be prepared for how soon it really would be.

Talon took the initiative and started giving orders right after she finished her story. He howled for the guards to come back to the village as he deemed it to be a place where they would stand a better chance at winning, opposing the whole damn forest.

The insecurity of when made it impossible to risk getting his people inside the secret hide-out, so he ordered for all the children, old people, and everyone else not willing to fight to hide inside one of the houses.

It was a risky move, especially if the enemy would manage to set the house on fire, but it still was better than letting them roam free. He couldn’t put a guard in front of each house, there wouldn’t be anyone left to fight.

Of course, his plan wouldn’t just magically come alive. A lot of these people needed help to get inside the house, and Rey volunteered to be one of those who helped them. Brynn almost suffered a heart attack and tried to stop her, but Rey was too stubborn to let her.

Maybe she was only half a werewolf now, but she was still quick enough to outrun Brynn: “Go to Elaine. She doesn’t know anything. She is going to need someone by her side. I will come as soon as I can.”

Brynn yelled something after her, something that sounded awfully lot like a curse word, but Rey was too far gone by that point to listen.

They were already way too lucky. Alivia’s warning gave them a head-start, but that luck would run out sooner or later and it did.

Rey wasn’t surprised that the humans came before they managed to get everyone to safety, but she sure as hell was terrified.

Why? You may ask.

For she found herself standing in the middle of the battlefield with the old lady selling necklaces covered behind her back, and neither of them had any weapons.

Rey didn’t know what to do. A handful of wolves created a protective circle around them as they too understood the severity of the situation, but they couldn’t protect them forever. The house wasn’t too far away, but no matter which way she looked, wolves and humans were fighting for their lives.

The humans came ready. Rey had to give them that. Their weapons sharpened, some tips made to be extra painful when stabbed with.

She stared at these hate-filled faces. She never even met any of these people. Never had a conversation with them, never did anything to offend them. Never done anything to hurt them. And she was sure the majority of Talons pack had it the same.

Yet here they were, their only goal to annihilate every one of Rey’s kind simply because they were a bit different from each other.

She could understand the fear of seeing a man turn into a bloodthirsty monster, as humans liked to view werewolves, but they didn’t ask to be born as werewolves. And if they did nothing to hurt anyone, was this much hatred really justified?

A gasp escaped her as a human stabbed Mac with his weapon. The wolf howled and staggered a bit, but he managed to retaliate.

Even worse than Mac was Talon. So many humans surrounded him, it was almost impossible to see him properly, but he was standing, and everything was going to be well if that wouldn’t change.

Rey’s eyes left Talon, and she focused on her own mess. They needed to get out of there. The wolves did their best to hold the guard, but Rey knew they would fight a lot more efficiently if they didn’t have to worry about the two mice in the lion’s den.

But what could she do? Without any weapon and without her ability to shift into a wolf, they were as good as dead if they were to leave the protective circle.

Maybe her brain would come up with a good solution, but it didn’t get enough time to do so. One of the wolves was fighting two humans at the same time and as he concentrated on the first one, the other used it as an opportunity to get around him.

Rey stared at the man, a knife above his head, ready to plunge it in her chest, and she had absolutely no idea what to do next.

She could step aside, but that would result in the old lady receiving the final blow, and Rey wasn’t about to let that happen. She watched the man, counting the seconds remaining till he would reach her and with terror inside her, Rey realised, she wanted to live.

For the first time in three years, the pain, she felt in her heart, was weaker than her will to stay alive. But was it already too late?

No, it wasn’t. Because her knight in shining armour arrived just in time and maybe he was missing a horse, but he brought something way more valuable with him.

The man was almost in front of her when a strange gurgle came from his mouth and he fell to his knees. S stood above him, a bloodied knife in his hand.

“Have you lost your mind?” He yelled at her. “What do you think, you are doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing!” The last she saw of him, he was safe inside the house with Lia by his side.

He had to decency to shrug and said: “Someone had to save your sorry ass.”

“Here,” he tossed her another knife, he pulled out from under his shirt. “Don’t hesitate to use it. We are getting out of here.”

S stayed in his human form as he led them through the crowd. The weapon still strong in his grip, a look of pure determination on his face. He looked more like a man than a little boy.

A part of Rey was so damn proud of him and the other one utterly terrified he had to go through this. He was barely thirteen years old, and he just had to either severely injure or kill the man. They didn’t have time to check.

Rey on the other hand looked like a total idiot. Her hands were shaking so badly, she would drop the knife before she would stab anyone with it. But sue her, not everyone was born to be a fighter. Her time would come later, when it would be her turn to heal those injured. If she were to live long enough.

The howls and growls of pain were coming from every direction and Rey’s legs buckled as the door closed behind them and two hands wrapped around her neck before Lia cried out: “You really are a total idiot, aren’t you?”

Under normal circumstances, Rey would disagree with her, but maybe it was finally time to admit the truth.

The fight didn’t last for a long time afterwards. The humans managed to do some heavy damage, but with the wolves already warned about them coming, they didn’t stand a proper chance.

In the end, only a couple of them remained alive. The majority of the pack wanted them dead, but Talon decided to let them go home after their injuries were treated. He said it was one thing to kill someone in self-defence during a fight, but this would be straight-up murder.

Rey agreed to be the one to heal them. And who knew, maybe the alpha’s mercy would result in their eyes more open. Maybe they would finally see that not all werewolves were monsters.

There were several injuries in Talon’s pack as well, but nothing that couldn’t be handled by Brynn. With Lia’s help, of course.

Talon ended up being in the worst shape out of all of them. A huge scar now covered half of his face and there were plenty of cuts and bruises all over his body, but he was going to heal. They all would.

Rey was in the midst of carrying Brynn’s healing potion’s out of their wagon when the older woman stood in her way. Her face was pulled into a painful grimace, eyes full of sorrow, lips slightly trembling.

Rey rushed to ask what the problem was, but Brynn was faster: “Rey, I am so sorry.”

“What happened?” Rey asked, doing her best not to drop the bottles. She had barely ever seen Brynn so undone.

One bottle did fall to the ground and shattered into pieces as Brynn opened her mouth and whispered: “It’s Elaine.”