Hope Springs

“What do you mean that I’m the sacrifice?” I asked, “Why do they want to sacrifice me?”

Raven didn’t reply and I felt myself to begin to grow more frustrated. She couldn’t just say something like that and then clam up and not elaborate anymore. A snarl escaped me and I clapped a hand over my mouth. Since when was I this easily agitated?

Finally Raven began to speak, “I don’t really know the specifics, I just...I just know that they want you to be the sacrifice they never really elaborated to me, and now I know why.” She paused for a few moments and then continued, “I think that they think that your blood has some special property or something, I’m not really sure.”

“Keep going,” I urged her, “What special property do they think my blood has?” She might be onto something.

“Uh...I don’t know,” Raven answered slowly, “Maybe they think that your blood can make them immortal or give them enhanced powers? I’m not sure though but-”

“No, no maybe that’s it.” I sent an apologetic look in her direction, “Sorry for interrupting you Raven but I think that that might be right. What if for some crazy reason they think that because I’m a stupid “white wolf” that they think that my blood is somehow different than everyone else’s. But why would they think that? Did they have any books that you can think of Raven?”

I realized that I was asking a lot from Raven but I felt like I was onto something. What if for some strange reason Loup Chasseur did think that my blood was more special than the average werewolf’s just because I was a “white wolf”.

“Um....There was a book in the library. It detailed the history of Loup Chasseur,” Raven said slowly trying to formulate her thoughts. “I...I don’t remember all of what the book said because I just glanced over it but Loup Chasseur originally started out as a cult who worshipped Fenrir, the Norse wolf god. They had dedicated shrines to Fenrir and had a few altars dedicated to Romulus and Remus from Roman mythology.

“Apparently every full moon they would sacrifice a white wolf and gain some sort of power from it but one full moon something went rock and half of the villagers died, or something like that. Since then they’ve been looking for the perfect wolf I guess, to sacrifice and get the powers.” Raven shrugged, “I don’t know it sounds utterly ridiculous out loud but, maybe they are returning to their cultist roots or something. I don’t know it just sounds completely and utterly ridiculous.”

“Maybe they hope that by eliminating the only white wolf that is known that they will somehow cause chaos in the werewolf world,” Hadley suggested, “But that sounds as ridiculous as Raven’s cultist idea. Maybe we are overthinking this just a tad.”

I bit my lip, maybe we were overthinking it but their motive couldn’t possibly be that simple. The basement door slammed open and Samara stalked down the stairs coming to a halt between Hadley’s cell and mine. She glanced between the two of us for a moment.

“You two up,” Samara said, and the cell doors swung open. Hadley ran out of her cell and straight into my arms, her body shaking with sobs. We stepped out of my cell and I glanced back at Max who was still unconscious.

I was beginning to grow worried but I had to have faith that he would be okay. Samara led us out of the basement and back into her office and Hadley huddled closer to my side as Samara took a seat behind her desk.

“You still haven’t figured out why we took you,” Samara stated and the two of us nodded. I doubted that we would ever figure out why they were targeting us. “Well you must have theories.”

“We do,” Hadley whispered and Samara urged her to go on. “My theory was that it was to cause chaos in the werewolf world and another theory we had was that you guys were going back to your cultist roots. You guys started as cultists didn’t you?”

Samara laughed, “Not even close. We didn’t worship Fenrir or Romulus and Remus, that was just a cover story made up in case people got too curious like your friend Raven did. It was a way to weed out those who belonged and those who didn’t. Loup Chasseur started after a massive wolf massacred a whole village, killing the people with no remorse. A nearby village had heard of the carnage and took up arms to protect their village and avenge the fallen, and imagine their shock when it turned out that it really wasn’t a wolf at all but a man who turns into a wolf and who has no control over their bloodlust.

“They had hoped to kill the man before he could have children but alas, they were too late. He had already had ten children before they had finally killed him. It-”

“So is that why you captured us?” I interrupted, “Is it still revenge for that village that the werewolf had massacred?”

Samara sighed, frowning. “Are you really that dense? Of course it isn’t but we are trying to make sure that it can never happen again. If we kill all werewolves a village can never be hurt that way again.”

“That’s genocide,” I pointed out, “And that doesn’t even make sense! Why hold onto a vendetta for that long? Logically you should have gotten over it and killed your quota of werewolves for the rest of all time.” I sighed, “No there has to be some other reason why you are doing this. What is it?” She didn’t reply and I snarled, slamming my hands on the desk. “Tell me!”

Samara smirked, “So that’s what it takes to get a reaction out of you. Just to not answer your questions and when answering to not have the answers be completely logical.” A snarl came from me once more and she groaned. “You aren’t making this any fun at all Trinity.”

“Cut the crap grandma and tell me why you are making my life as horrible as it can possibly get.”

“Oh stop being dramatic Trinity, really your life hasn’t been that horrible. The motive is revenge. Your father...He killed Jeanine’s siblings. Was it in self-defense, who knows? Because they aren’t alive to tell me.” Samara finally said, “Don’t give me that look Trinity, he killed my children so it wasn’t like I could trust him to tell me the truth. His Alpha should have kept him under control but he didn’t so I took care of the problem before it could happen again.”

“So you killed my father so your revenge should be satisfied,” I pointed out.

“Unfortunately once you have killed it’s hard to stop killing, besides the Rogues want your pack eliminated. I am only aiding them in the process.”

So that was it. At first, for Samara it had been about revenge but she had killed my father, my real father so her revenge should have been satisfied but she liked killing. She liked making others suffer but if she still wanted to somehow punish my real father for his mistake she would have just gone after me instead of the whole pack. But she went after all of us. She was doing this for the Rogues.

We had been focusing our attention on the wrong enemy. We should have been looking out for Rogues but Finley’s note hadn’t given us any indication of that unless he didn’t know that Loup Chasseur had partnered with Rogues.

And Raven had given us wrong information again. Did she know that Loup Chasseur had partnered with the Rogues?

“You have questions so ask them,” Samara said, “I have things I need to do.”

“Did Raven know that Loup Chasseur had partnered with the Rogues? Did Finley know?” I asked and Samara sighed.

“Neither of them knew, it’s been kept under wraps so far but that will obviously have ended. Any further questions?”

I couldn’t think of anymore and even if I could I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know the answers. This whole thing had become so twisted and there were so many secrets and lies, things that none of us knew about. But now we knew who our real enemy was.

The Rogues.