Rising from the Ashes

Elenora was six when Vermont hurt her for the first time. She didn’t understand it. Not at all. She didn’t fear him, not yet. Not until his shouts turned to hits. He knocked her out that night. Beat her so badly she couldn’t move for weeks and shortly after eating became impossible for her. Elenora found her body couldn’t hold any food given to her. She’d always felt like she was burning from the inside out. Elenora despised it. It was the first time fire had come out of nowhere.

It lit up the kitchen shortly after Vermont and his mate, Tara, started to fight. He locked her in the cells shortly after that and things were never the same.

When she was fourteen, she remembers Vermont setting her on fire. He wanted to see if she’d burn, that’s what he said. She did. It was Tara who screamed at the sight You’ll kill her! They won’t forgive you for that Vermont, they’ll kill you and then I’ll be left with nothing but two corpses to clean up! That’s what Tara, her so called mother had said. She hadn’t tended to her wounds, hadn’t checked in on her the following weeks. Vermont had called the pack healer and insisted he only did what was necessary to keep her alive. Nothing for the pain. Just keep her alive. That’s what Vermont said.

When she was eighteen. He found out about the two people who dared to show her love. Grandmother May and Anthony. He had slaughtered both of them. Killed Grandmother May in the same house her deceased mate built her. In her own home. Tortured Anthony to death in the cells, like a common prisoner. A pack warrior, treated worse than a rogue.

Vermont forced Elenora to watch both of those deaths and managed to keep her daughters existence a secret up until the moment she killed Vermont.

Now, even in death, Vermont still managed to hurt her. According to Elder Thomas, her biological parents were killed just like Grandmother May and Anthony. He’d stolen her right from her crib. “He was wrong to tell you like that.” Alpha Bardrick’s voice hits her just before his face appears above her. His dark eyes seem to stare down at her, they seem to call out to her. Elenora stretches her limbs as far as they’ll go, nails digging into the snow, melting it with her heating skin. Winters passing slow and she can’t wait until its over.

“No matter how Elder Thomas informed me, the results would have been the same. I only wish you weren’t there to hear them.” The Alpha blinks at her, his frown deep before he loosens his tie and lays down on the snow before her.

She hadn’t said a word to anybody since leaving Elder Thomas’s hours prior. She’d walked everywhere, ate all of Mia’s ice cream and even some of the chocolate hidden under her clothes, and then she ran deep into the woods. She didn’t stop until she was sure she was lost in the wilderness, only then did she collapse. Only then did she scream to the skies. Elenora will find her way out, she always does. Elenora supposes that means she’s not really lost. “How are you not cold in those shorts?” Alpha Bardrick asks, as if to distract her from the news delivered.

“The cold never seems to affect me like it does others.” Elenora manages, trying to ignore the way the smell of the Alpha seems to surround her. It’s all she smells in fact. Him. He smells like he came straight from the woods. A mix between how it smells when the world cries and wood burns. It’s addicting. So very addicting. “Why are you here Alpha Bardrick?” He doesn’t answer, not right away.

Elenora closes her eyes. She could fall asleep here. Buried in snow. Wrapped in the smell of them. In the middle of nowhere. It’s almost like a dream. “I want to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine.”

“I didn’t need my mother to tell me when a woman tells you she’s fine, it is almost never true.” Humor is laced into his words, humor she doesn’t feel. In fact, she’s almost numb to everything. Maybe it’s the cold, the snow.

“I hear she was great.” When he doesn’t respond, she continues. His life is so much easier to talk about than her own “Her and your father. The former Alpha Bardrick had been my childhood hero’s.” Elenora chuckles a bitter chuckle “Used to paint him and I dreamed he might be the one to save me from Vermont.” Elenora shakes her head with another pathetic laugh “I was so pathetic.”

“For wanting a hero?” Alpha Bardrick asks after a moment.

“I wouldn’t have needed one. Not if I had stopped crying and fought. Maybe I wouldn’t have lost so much then.” Maybe Anthony would still be here.

“Or maybe you might be dead too.” The young Alpha is quick to say.

Elenora merely huffs and silence fills the air around them. Her mind goes to a certain rogue. The one she herself had captured. She might not be crying anymore, but that’s a problem she hadn’t faced. Not because she didn’t want too...well maybe a little bit because she didn’t want to but also because she’s not absolutely certain anything will come out of it. He could lie and she wouldn’t even know. Sure, emotions usually tell her when one is lying but sometimes those lie too. Or at least they get mixed up. “I hear your a lie detector. Is this true?” Elenora flinches the moment the words leave her traitor lips. She doesn’t want his help and she especially doesn’t want to ask for it.

“Of sorts.”

“Great, you can help question the rogue. Tell me if he lies to me.” Never mind if the Alpha lies as well. Alpha Bardrick’s silence gives her enough time to realize how that came out and her face flames up as she mutters an apology “It’s not an order. You obviously don’t have to help me I’m just asking-”

“I will.” Alpha Bardrick interrupts

***

Leaving Stonebridge, Elenora never thought she’d step foot in a pack again. She especially never thought she’d be in Vermont’s position. Not the prisoner but the interrogator. The difference between the two of them is Vermont smiled at the smell of blood. He laughed in the face of those who pleaded for mercy, cried out for release.

Elenora walks through with her head held high and her fist tightly clenched at her sides. Nails digging holes in her skin as she repeats the same thing in her head. I am not him. I am just here for answers. Not to kill. Not to torture. Not to torment. I am not him. That’s a lot harder to believe when she walks into the cell of the rogue she herself had captured. Her eyes move to the tools on the wall first. Tools made to inflict pain. Then her eyes find the rogue. He smiles at her from his chains, chuckling at what he sees on her face he flashes his bloody teeth her way. “Elenora Vancino.” She can’t help the way she flinches, the way she steps back and bumps into Alpha Bardrick. “You’ve spent your fair share of time hung in chains haven’t you?”

Elenora can feel the way Alpha Bardrick burns holes in the back of her head. Perhaps it was a bad idea to bring him along after all “Not often.” She lies and hopes Alpha Bardrick can’t tell without seeing her face.

Alpha Scott had chosen to hang him from the ceiling. He’s around a foot off the ground and he doesn’t look at all uncomfortable. Cocky somehow. Elenora remembers being in that position. She remembers the pain. She remembers appearing a lot more pathetic than this rogue does. This rogue looks like he’s on a vocation. If not for the cuts all over his body she might be inclined to think he was. “Tell me. What do you think Vermont’s favorite toy was to use on you? The whip or fire? If you answer I’ll answer one of your questions.”

“She won’t answer anything.” Alpha Bardrick growls from behind her. She doesn’t look. Doesn’t even breathe for a moment.

Instead she focuses on distancing herself from this position she’s found herself in. She focuses even harder on not throwing up. “You knew Vermont?” She finds herself asking, instead of what she should be asking about. Do you know the Rogue Alpha? If so, why is he interested in her? Why are rogues circling the borders to talk to her?

“I know him yes. A week before you got to me Vermont and I were laughing about the way you’d beg him t-”

“-Liar!” Elenora growls, not even needing Alpha Bardrick to tell her he is lying “Vermont’s dead. I know he is because I killed him myself. He burned in his own house, in the prison he made himself!” The rogues laughter fills the air.

“You’re sure he died? You saw the body yourself did you?” The rogues voice is that of a taunt. She shouldn’t have come. She really shouldn’t have come. He’s dead and if he didn’t die off in the fire he would’ve died because of the loss of his wolf.

“He’s dead.” Elenora glares at the rogue “Why are rogues circling the border?”

“You know why. They want you. What was the last thing you said to Vermont?” The rogue asks, and he looks up as if in thought. “Předobraz pekla?” How does he know that? How the hell does he know that? Only Vermont knows that because only Vermont was in her room that night. Vermont and her. Maybe somebody else was walking past her bedroom. Yes. That’s it. Somebody else was walking past her door and they heard. Must have been bar talk or something and word spread somehow to this rogue. That’s it.

“Elenora.” Alpha Bardrick’s hand, cold yet calming touches her own. “He isn’t lying.” The words are chilling and so very wrong. They have to be. They really have to be or else Vermont is alive and Charlotte isn’t really safe after all.

“He told me he killed poor May and dear Tony.” The rogue smiles “Who do you think it’ll be Next Elenora? Your rogue hating mate?” The rogue laughs, spitting blood at her feet “Or the fair skinned orphan you’re hiding? Charlotte’s her name, right?”

She freezes. Her blood that is before it warms up once again. Heat floods through her and she relives an old thought. Mia’s own words.

Sometimes you remind me of a bomb, Nora. She had told her. You’ve to hold you a certain way, treat you a certain way or else- Alpha Bardrick grabs her and somehow, he flies her right on out of the cells, away from the rogue.

She’s not at all sure if its worst or better.