Saturn

Luna V

Hadley glared holes into the man's skull. She had heard the faint sound of voices outside her cell door, but nothing distinct enough to figure out who he was and why he was so infatuated with bothering her. With the help of her wolf, his scent would be a hint as to his rank in this pack. Without it, he was just a man. A human wouldn't notice anything different between him and one of them. He was built like an average human male, maybe slightly over six feet tall with touseled brown hair. Black lines of ink peeked out from under the sleeve of his t-shirt.

He wanted to get close to her. She wanted anything but that. She did not trust him, nor did she really trust anyone here. Something about him made her distrust him more. He was too nonchalant about this whole ordeal, but he seemed too concerned for the life of a rogue than he should be. "Let me look. We can do this the hard way if you want."

Hadley knew a fight with him was a lost cause, especially without the aid of her wolf. She knew this, but the words left her tongue before she could stop them. "Bring it on then."

The male looked surprised for only a moment before he closed the gap between them in mere seconds. He snatched her wrist from in front of her wound. Hadley yanked her arm in a weak attempt to get it away from him. He raised his eyebrow with a confident twitch of his lips.

"I told you to leave me alone," she snapped. She moved back as far as she could from him with her wrist still held. He reached for her shirt, where the blood stain has grown slightly larger. Hadley stopped him before he could lift it, holding his wrist tightly. Her nails dug into his skin.

"Are you deaf?" They were at a standstill now, each of them holding the others wrist in an unwavering stalemate.

"You don't have a choice in this, Hadley. You don't have a choice right now, when you're here." The male almost showed a moment of pity but it was masked by his irritation with her putting up a fight.

Hadley sneered. "Don't talk to me like that, like you have some sort of superiority over me, you sick bas-"

"You only have one choice to make," he began, "You are on the verge of being put to death for trespassing on pack territory and threatening the life of the pack's Beta male."

Hadley's expression didn't change but her eyes wavered for a moment to his wrist. Her nails were drawing blood and it slowly ran down his arm. She wasn't surprised they wanted to kill her. She was a rogue after all, and they were pack dogs with a disgusting affinity for 'purebred' wolves.

"I have decided to give you a chance-- to offer you a place in this pack. With training, you could be a warrior. You would no longer face hunger or the elements. You would be protected by this pack."

"Why would I want to do that?" Hadley spat. "Pack wolves killed my family. A pack is nothing more than brainwashed wolves falling to their knees in front of power-hungry males. Who are you to offer me a place here? This offer offends me." She turned her nose up in disgust.

The male released his hold from her wrist, prompting her to do the same. She surveyed the damage. A few semi-circle marks on his wrist that leaked the smallest amount of blood. Weak.

He took a step back from her. "I want to apologize for that; what the pack did to your family. I do believe there has been a mistake... or a misunderstanding." His gaze flickered to the floor for a moment. What was he getting at? "I am Xavian, heir to Alpha of Saturn Pack. I dug into the story you gave of your parents. We have no record of their deaths."

Hadley's body tensed. She was in the hands of her parents' murderers. Of course they would want to kill her. That part made sense. She pushed her body further into the corner, away from the monster standing in front of her.

"There was no misunderstanding," she said lowly, her words full of venom. "I watched them die. Their threats, your threats, fell on my young ears. I was scared for my life. There was no way I would ever forget what I experienced. Your pack murdered my family in cold blood for nothing more than their lack of pack affiliation."

Xavian's face showed a smallest amount of sympathy, but he kept a tough exterior. He collected his thoughts. "Their names, what were they?"

She debated if she should even bother telling him their names-- what good would it do. Finally, she mumbled, "Vera and Bryan. Evans."

Xavian nodded and turned to the door. "Thank you. Someone will be in to look at your stitches shortly." With that he opened the door with his palm and left. Hadley sat huddled in the corner, her thoughts racing.

☾

A doctor came in and checked her wounds, cleaning them gently with a cloth and placing bandages. They offered her clean clothes and allowed her to use the toilet with their back turned, blocking the camera for her privacy. The interaction was brief and minutes later, the same old lady from before brought her food. A guard stood inside the door and watched as she was spoon fed some sort of porridge.

She kept it down better this time, and curled up in bed and fell asleep. When she awoke again, she had been covered with one of the blankets and a plastic cup full of water was left on the sink for her. After a thorough sniff, she decided she was safe to drink it and sat on the bed and she sipped it slowly. The room was illuminated only by the barred room at the top of the wall. The ceilings were too high to see what was outside the window, but given this was a basement level, there was probably nothing of interest.

The walls were made of concrete, floor to ceiling. The floor was hard concrete covered with thin carpet squares. The ceiling looked like thick plaster. Hadley had no choice but to sit here and stare at nothingness. This was the first time she was bored in a long time. Each day was usually filled with worries of where her next meal would come from, if she would encounter any enemy wolves, or when the weather would get cold and she would have to stay in her wolf form for the season. Wolves had better survival instinct than humans, and allowing her wolf form to take over had gotten her through many cold winters. It had been easier that way. She wished she had her wolf now. It was lonely here and she needed someone to help her decide her next steps.

Death or life in the hands of her family's killers. What a choice.