The Red Wolf's Daughter (Book 3 Part 2: The Making of the Siran)

Chapter 25

I entered the tent with Giselle and Caroline right behind me. I stayed silent and stared at the man before me while he looked at me too, eyes wide and filled with hope and relief as if he was happy that I wouldn't allow Cooper in the tent with us.

"You're her," the man said and lifted a bit as if he wanted to stand but couldn't because he was tied to the post. "You're the one that saved me."

I nodded. "I am," I confirmed. "Are you hurt?" I furrowed my brows and took another step towards him, making sure that he was safe and well.

"No," he said and shook his head. "Uncomfortable, but I am not hurt."

"Who are you?" I asked and raised an eyebrow.

"Reece," he replied and bowed his head. He cleared his throat and shifted on the ground, looking uncomfortable. "Reece Fraiser."

Giselle stiffened a little behind me at the sound of his last name, but she didn't say a word. Her heart skipped a beat before it started to pound faster, and I paused and looked at her to see that she looked slightly pale.

"Are you ok?" I asked and raised an eyebrow in question, and she hesitated and nodded before she cleared her throat.

"I am," she confirmed and nodded again. "Frasier is just not a name that we want to be associated with..." She trailed off and cleared her throat again before she shifted on her feet. "Is that why you didn't answer Cooper when he asked you?"

Reece hesitated but nodded, looking slightly guilty and downtrodden as if there was no way he would be able to stay in the camp. "Yes," he confirmed. "I am surprised that he didn't recognize me, but it had been over three decades, and I grew up into a man."

I looked at Giselle and then at him before I looked at Giselle, confused as hell but also angry. "Explain."

Giselle cleared her throat and gestured to Reece. "His father had almost killed the whole pack on more than one occasion," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "The last time that it happened, Cooper banned all of them from the encampment. They've all been marked as dangerous, but I guess, for some reason, it didn't hold on him."

"It did," Reece said and looked sadder, and pain flashed through his eyes as if he remembered the pain of that night. "I have just grown a beard to cover it and started to wear clothes that had a higher collar."

"Hold up, what?" I asked and looked at Reece before I looked at Giselle, shocked and appalled but also disgusted. "What does he mean?"

Giselle sighed and cleared her throat while she shifted on her feet. "He means that they were branded as traitors," she said softly. "They're usually branded on the face or neck if there is a case in which Cooper should not kill them."

Anger boiled in the pit of my stomach, and I pursed my lips in disgust. "And Cooper does this?" I asked, my voice turning darker while my anger spiked, and Giselle hesitantly nodded. "How long has he been doing this?"

"For a while now," she admitted softly while she looked away from me, not able to meet my hard gaze. "We've tried to stop him, but..." She shrugged and grimaced. "Do-"

"Do not tell me to not go hard on him," I said, interrupting her. "He's hurting fucking innocent people because he thinks that they are bad." I gestured to Reece. "Cooper branded a child, a fucking child for whatever mistakes his parents made. Reece is still an innocent, and to be frank, I am surprised that he still is."

"We've tr-"

"Well, you haven't tried hard enough," I said, interrupting Giselle, knowing full well that she was trying to defend her actions with Cooper. "I don't know if Cooper is under a fucking spell or not, which is why it makes it harder for all of you to go against what he says, but this shit ends now. What he is doing is making it so that it is harder for an innocent to stay innocent. One of these days people in his group are going to turn against him in the worst of ways."

Giselle hesitated before she seemed to shrink until she looked smaller than she was. "I know," she said softly. "There have been rumors or whatever, and he doesn't listen to anyone." She paused and cleared her throat. "Can we talk?" she asked and looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "In private?"

"We can," I said and nodded.

Caroline pressed her lips into a thin line before she opened her mouth.

"I'll tell you later, maybe," I said, interrupting her while I looked at Caroline through the corner of my eye. "Unfortunately, it seems to me that she needs to talk to me without anyone because I have a slight connection with him, and I'm probably gonna get warned to not act like my mother and blow up in his face."

"Mother?" Reece asked and furrowed his brows. Confusion filled his eyes while he looked between us before his gaze landed on me. "What do you mean by that?"

"Ya... Long story short, I am not from this timeline," I said and rubbed the back of my neck. "My mom is someone important and is dead as a doorknob here..."

The anger slowly diminished, but I could feel it under my skin, and all I wanted to do was act like my mother and give him the tongue lashing that he deserved. I couldn't believe that he decided to order this, to order the branding of a young child when he didn't know if he would turn out like his family or not.

Reece blinked and blinked again, not knowing what to say.

"My mom's the red wolf?" I asked and raised an eyebrow. "I look like a carbon copy of her."

"There aren't that many pictures of her, Ky," Giselle said softly, and I looked at her. "There are only a few hidden ones. Her name has been mainly hush hush, more so than Adennette's."

Rece looked between us and then at me. He narrowed his eyes and studied me, and I raised an eyebrow and waited for his verdict. "Is that where your powers come from?" he asked, finally, and I had a feeling that he believed me.

I shrugged and grimaced. "Not the glowing spear," I admitted. "I don't know where that comes from, but the fire barrier that I created around you afterward was a part of it."

"It wasn't just the spear glowing," Reece said. "You were glowing." He furrowed his brows and looked down while he thought about that day. "And, I think I was glowing too," he said, his voice turning breathless and soft. "It felt as if it was chasing away the demons that had taken control of my body and were pushing me to hurt someone, someone innocent and become someone that I wasn't."

"What do you mean?" I asked while I furrowed my brows and cocked my head while I studied him.

"I'm not a fighter," Reece said, honestly with a shake of his head. "I volunteered to help out that group because I thought it was a good way to get out of it. I wanted to plead with Cooper to let me back in because I didn't do anything wrong. I was only eight and couldn't shift." He shrugged and grimaced. "I still can't shift, and I do want to know what that feels like."

I furrowed my brows further, confused. "What do you mean that you can't shift?" I asked. "Have you shifted at sixteen like you should?"

Reece nodded in confirmation. "I did, but that was the only time I could shift without no-" He caught sight of something behind me, and I turned around to see Giselle shaking her head, silencing him.

She stopped as soon as I looked at her, and her cheeks grew red. "We can discuss that later," she said. "I don't think Cooper will tell you, but you are going to have to know so that you can stay safe."

I furrowed my brows and tucked my head closer to my chest while I thought about the battle. "Does this have to do with the fact that the people in wolf form looked crazy?" I asked, finally. "Like crazy and feral?"

Giselle hesitated but nodded. "Yes," she said, her voice barely above a whisper and having that hesitance in it. "There's more to it, but yes, they are crazy and feral."

"They don't have an actual leader," Reece supplied, ignoring Giselle's warning look. "I think you will learn more about that later and not right now." He looked at Giselle before he looked at me. "Just make sure that you don't shift when you are here. It's not safe."

But it might be for me... I thought, keeping my face blank and fighting the urge to shift into my wolf form. All I need to do is make sure that I eat gum before I do so. If so, then I could find out what's happening and save them from themselves.

I could make sure that no one else becomes feral...