Red Riding

02

MAYBE I SHOULD have looked at least a little bit afraid as those words echoed about the office.

A weak halo of light from the windows surrounded Father's figure as he looked at me from his seat. He didn't seem at all fazed—if anything, a bit expectant. None of the Elders deigned to speak, which was surprising as they were always the first to give an opinion, truthful or not. Maybe they were as taken aback as Mother was, her hands quivering in her lap as she glared down at the black scroll on Father's desk.

Or maybe they were waiting for me to say something.

My gaze levelled with father's, and I wondered if he was thinking the same.

But I had nothing to say. Mother and Father had been making decisions for me my whole life—as the Alpha's only daughter and the future heir of the Nachtstern family, I already had a path paved out for me to walk down. It was only during these five years that the pressure of the eyes on me had relieved, turning to the war effort instead. And yet I still wasn't even allowed out of the manor.

I had been three when I first set foot into the outside world. The city had been lively then, and definitely beautiful. I had understood why it was called the City of Moon: the glass of the buildings and skyscrapers which fingered the azure skies glowed blue like an eternal moonlight was shining upon it and the little lights which glimmered above resembled the night sky scattered with a million stars. But that had been when Father had recently succeeded his own father as Alpha, so doubtful pack members meant danger, something Father hadn't realised until that Lycan had had me at gunpoint, a silver bullet loaded and ready to fire.

Apart from daily walks and small chats in the garden with Gethwine or recovering patients from the hospital ward, I hadn't been allowed out since. Even the Beta's daughter had more to offer the pack than I.

To expect me to obey my father's commands was easy, but the questioning look from my father now made my stomach churn uncomfortably.

I opened my mouth.

"They can't do this to us," my mother interjected suddenly and shattered the silence, her voice reiterating powerfully around the office. My father's attention moved to her almost reluctantly. I wasn't sure if I was meant to feel relieved as Mother snarled, "You can't let them do this to us."

I was fairly sure that was the first time she had stood up to my father about anything.

The Alpha of the Nachtstern pack reclined back in his seat, assessing my mother. "This is not a choice anymore, Cassandra."

I didn't know when the last time my father had used that name was. Mother clearly remembered, her teeth flashing as she glared back steadily.

"Not a choice?" she grit out. "Look around you, Damian." My father stiffened. "Does this pack not look like a choice to you? And yet you're prepared to throw everything here away for a chance to become their slaves."

No one in the room interrupted her. I sucked in a sharp breath.

"Five years," she pressed on, her knuckles turning white as she balled her hands into fists. "All our lives and faith dedicated to a war that has lasted us five years is now rendered powerless in your hands because of this—this piece of paper? Can you bear the weight of that responsibility?" I hung my head as my mother continued, "A Treaty is not worth our time, Alpha."

She sounded almost hysterical, the edge of her wolf ripping out from the fierce green flames in her irises. Mother had led teams of both professional and half-trained nurses into the hospital wards and emergency rooms scattered around the city to tend to dying patients—no one knew what the war had been like for her.