Smoke and Mirrors

Sapphire Ragna Nightborne

The wolf despite fighting for breath tilted its head in confusion as I uttered those words. Its chest moved up and down at an increased pace as it tried to get air into its lungs, its eyes rolled back in its head before a voice caused me to stop.

“Enough.”

It was not a shout but a command filled with authority, not as much as that of an Alpha but still that of a high ranking wolf. I watched as the wolves stopped their attacks and moved to the side to make way for whoever uttered the command. The male who emerged from the shadows was tall with a strong build, scars decorated his arms, a clear sign of a warrior. My eyes focused on the tattoo that was exposed on his upper bicep, third in command, so these men weren’t the low riff-raffs I thought they were but nevertheless, I could not drop my guard, I had already seen the kind of behaviour even high-ranking wolves practiced and condoned.

“State your name and pack.”

His eyes were hard as he spoke with a business-like voice. This was just formalities, they were going to bring us to their Alpha no matter what I said, I had done the same thing myself in the past. I dropped the wolf from my hand who struggled to get up taking deep breaths as he went to join the rest, I did the same with the wolf under my foot. I stepped forward in front of Chloe as I looked right at the eyes of the male before me, he stared into mine as well waiting for me to break the gaze first but I did not, breaking the gaze first would indicate weakness and fear, that was what I was taught by my father when he trained me. I nudged at Chloe who peeked past me to stare at him, it took only ten seconds before she broke the gaze.

“Chloe Black, Black Blood Pack…”

Her voice trembled as she spoke, and for good reason. At the mention of her name and pack, the wolves began to growl, hackles raised, teeth bared as they began to advance towards us again. Chloe’s breathing began to quicken as her nails dug into my side, I looked straight at the male in front of me.

“Stop them now. The law states that if you find any packless wolves in your territory, you have to allow them to speak, free of personal judgement before taking them to your Alpha.”

He raised an eyebrow before bringing his palm up to stop the rest, they growled in slight protest before retreating to their previous positions.

“You seem to know a lot about the law. Now it’s your turn.”

I wanted to snarl at his words, it brought back bad memories from my past whenever I tried to justify my action, he sounded mildly curious about my knowledge but it still reminded me of the condescending way the elders used to talk to me.

“Sapphire Nightborne, Blackwater Pack.”

I saw various pairs of eyes widen as they took in my name and pack.

“Sapphire Nightborne? Daughter of Xavier Nightborne and sister of Alpha Female Cordelia Blackwater?”

I hated it when people referred to me like that, it was always, ‘The previous Head Commander and Warrior’s youngest daughter’ or ‘The sister of the Blackwater Pack’s Alpha Female’. It was never ’Sapphire Nightborne , the Blackwater pack’s Head Commander, and Warrior. I was always acknowledged for who I was related to, never once because of who I was and what I had done.

“Yes.”

His eyebrows rose again at my cold tone.

“I thought the entire pack had been wiped off.”

There was a pang in my heart as he spoke those words. This statement was one that I will never get used to hearing.

“Well, it seems that it is not the case.”

My words caused his lips to quirk up to form a small smile as I gestured to my entire body. That small smile lasted for a fraction of a second before disappearing as he continued his interrogation.

“What is your business here?”

Chloe began to open her mouth but closed it quickly when I squeezed her arm.

“We will only speak to the Alpha of this pack.”

Always speak directly to who was in charge, never rely on others to carry your words for you because you might never know how they would twist them to benefit their own agendas.

“Very well then.”

He gestured to his men who went back into the dense forest, the clanking of metal caused a small growl to leave my lips as they come out with shackles in their hands, I knew that they were once again just a formality to show that you were not a threat but they still rubbed me the wrong way, I raised my eyebrow at Brendon before he smiled again and waved his hand at his men who put away the shackles. I refused to be put in chains again, I had just gotten out of my previous ones.

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“It must have been hard for you when Damien attacked your pack.”

His voice was caked with sympathy and pity, I hated it, I hated how the wolves who were very content to attack me just mere minutes ago now treated me like a porcelain doll that was going to break at any moment, they looked at me with pitiful and sad gazes that they taught I did not catch.

We were now walking through the dense columns of trees towards the southern side of the pack where Brendon, the third-in-command, told me their Alpha was waiting for us. I kept my silence as I walked on, Chloe clinging on to my arm, she on the other was not treated with the same care as me, the wolves that walked around her still gave her contemptuous looks and bared teeth that caused her to hide her face in my shoulder.

“What was your role in your pack?”

It always surprised me at how little other packs knew about me, Damien did not know about me and now Brendon, I would understand if they could not tell who I was from my appearance because despite my numerous visits to other packs I had never been able to sit down and talk to the Alphas and such as I was usually running around training, but what got me annoyed was that they could not even tell who I was even from my name, after all my years of service at least recognise my name. I sighed as I looked at his curious eyes and decided to throw him a bone for his constant effort at small talk.

“Head Commander and Warrior.”

He stopped when he heard my words causing one of his men to comically walk into him. He stared at me in amazement and just stood there as he tried to process what I just said. It was always the same reaction no matter who I told.

“You are the Blackwater Pack’s Protector?”

I nodded my head slowly at his words as the poor dear tried to wrap his head around the whole thing.

“But Alpha Ryder mentioned nothing about you at our last meeting, I admit he danced around the topic when our Alpha enquired about his recent victories but he never really went more in depth into the subject.”

Of course he wouldn’t, I always knew that no matter how much he told me he was proud of me and that he valued me as a member of his pack, he was still ashamed at admitting that a female had saved his hide more times than he could count but I would always nod my head and thank him for my sister’s sake and reminded myself that he is, or rather was family.

I simply shrugged at him before continuing to walk ahead, the faster we meet the Alpha and get moving the better. Brendon continued to stand there for a while before he jogged up to me, easily matching my strides.

“That’s incredible! That means that you are the first female Head Commander and Warrior in a hundred years.”

Of course, I was. Not many women were given the chance to be trained like how I was, they were stopped by the patriarchal reign of their Alphas who decided that a woman’s role was to give birth and take care of the young, I was lucky that my father thought differently.

“The only female that I have ever seen fight as close to your standard is Angel.”

That peaked my interest, a female had been given more than the basic defence training. That was something I had not heard of in a while.

“Who?”

Now I was the curious one with the question.

“The Alpha’s sister.”

He waved a hand at the subject as if it was a secondary matter before he continuing to bombard me with questions. Gone was the stone-faced third-in-command whose voice dripped with authority, he had now been replaced with a small child who had just found a new toy.

“How did you take the training? Who trained you? How long did it take for you to rise up to your position?”

I, being the gracious person I am, answered many of his questions till I managed to make out small houses in the distance.

They were, however, blocked by a line of guards who were acting as a barrier between us and their pack, two men with even larger builds than Brendon’s stood in front of them with arms crossed and for some reason, my heart began to beat faster and I could hear Chloe’s doing the same.

We reached the line of guards in no time, they stood unmoving with faces blank of any emotion or expression. The two men advanced towards us, my body instinctively lowering into a crouch before Brendon gripped my arm, I straightened back up, a lowered stance would signal my hostility and would probably make this exchange more unpleasant than it already was.

I had just relaxed my stance when one of the two men locked eyes with Chloe causing her to whimper, my hand tightened around hers causing the male in question to growl before running towards us at full speed. I put myself in front of Chloe before growling at the male rushing towards us, he had already shifted into a large chocolate-brown wolf and was barrelling towards us. I cracked my neck from side to side before lowering my stance even more.

“Sapphire, no!”

I ignored Chloe before shifting to meet the male head on. We snapped at each other as he tried to get to Chloe, I growled as his claws swiped at my front legs causing blood to mat my black fur, I head-butted him before clamping my jaws around his throat to throw him to the ground, I held him there before Chloe’s sobs caused me to slightly loosen my grip on the wolf who I saw was staring right at Chloe, still trying his best to get to her.

Already? What were the chances of that?

I released my grip on the wolf who rushed straight towards Chloe, she ran towards him before throwing her arms around his large head, the wolf licked her tears before running to the forest. Moments later a man with tanned skin and hair that did not seem to know if it wanted to be brown or blonde emerged from the forest. Chloe ran towards him at full speed, their lips crashing together as he lifted her and spun her around. They were quick, I’d give them that.

Someone cleared their throat causing the happy couple to break apart before they died from the lack of oxygen. Chloe looked at his face before looking back down at her feet, pink dusting her cheeks, the male in question smiled at her reaction before using his hand to tilt her head up to stare into her eyes, slowing leaning down for a kiss.

This time it was I who made a sound, I snorted causing the couple to snap out of their pink little bubble, Chloe smiled sheepishly at me as I shook my large head. She was most probably safe, being the mate of a high-ranking wolf, but I was still the outsider here so my safety was not as quite secured as hers. She had all the time in the world to stay and look at her mate but I had to get out of here quickly and move on.

“They seem happy.”

I turn my eyes from the loving couple and my heart skipped a beat as they landed on the owner of the voice. He was no doubt the Alpha, authority, and charisma were just radiating off him in waves but that was not what made my heart skip a beat, my heart did so because when our eyes met it was as if it was just the two of us standing here. It was the same feeling I felt when I first looked into Damien’s eyes, but yet it felt so different… it felt right.