Red & Silver

Chapter 32: Broken

The fabric that covered my cage was abruptly pulled away, and I squinted in the dim light of early dawn. As my vision adjusted, I could make out the features of the man who had uncovered me. He was in his 50s, tall, and strong. His blonde hair was streaked with white, and his clear blue eyes held a cold, cruel expression. A wicked smile played on his lips as he licked them eagerly as if he was about to devour me, making me tremble with fear.

"Ah, well, who do we have here...?" the man sneered, his voice oozing with malice.

I looked away from him, trying to ignore the icy grip of terror that clawed at my insides. Behind him stood three other men, one of whom was burly and bore a scar across his eye. I inferred they were the werewolves who had captured me. The sun was slowly rising, and as it did, more and more of my surroundings came into view. We were in a forest clearing, with cabins off to the far left. My cage was situated on a rudimentary plaza or city square, packed dirt forming a circle around a central pole.

As the light revealed more of the pole, I gasped in horror. Blood dripped down its length, pooling on the ground beneath it. And at the top... impaled through her abdomen, was the body of a woman. Flies buzzed around her lifeless form, attracted by the putrid stench of rotting flesh that filled the air. Her skin was discolored and bloated, her once-beautiful face now frozen in an eternal scream of agony. My heart raced in my chest, and bile rose in my throat as I stared at the grisly sight. I couldn't tear my eyes away, even as my stomach churned with revulsion. The woman... She seemed oddly familiar...

The sun finally emerged in full, revealing the gruesome scene before me. I could no longer deny what my heart had feared – the lifeless body impaled on that awful pole was Olga, Ylfa's mom. Fuck. My stomach churned with a mix of grief and horror. What had happened to her? "Hey, look at me!" the blond man shouted, snapping his fingers to get my attention.

"Who are you?" he demanded, but I was too horrified to answer. Tears streamed down my face as I thought about poor Olga, who didn't deserve such a cruel fate. The Ironfangs were truly monsters.

"How did you get this?" he continued, holding up the silver box I'd taken from Gabriel. But my thoughts couldn't break away from the grisly sight before me.

"She's in shock," a woman with black hair and an athletic build said as she approached the group. Her big black brows and serious expression gave her a commanding demeanor. The others made room for her as she came closer to my cage. She examined me, and then said to the leader, "She's a Hood. Beatrice's granddaughter."

"Is she?" the man replied, gripping the cage bars, his wicked smile predatory. "He mentioned her," he told the others. I wondered who 'he' was. "You must know, then," he continued, his voice low and menacing like a dagger slowly approaching my throat. "How the fuck do you open this shit box?"

"I... I don't know," I muttered, my throat tightening in fear.

The man's face twisted in anger and he shook the cage's bars violently. "Liar!" he shouted, making me glad there was a cage separating us. He shook the bars so hard that his hair became disheveled. He continued to rage, spittle flying from his mouth as he cursed me. Eventually he calmed down, passed a hand through his blonde hair and sighed. "Get her out," he ordered the others, impatient.

"You heard Skol," the big burly man with a scar on his eye said, opening the door to my cage.

I gaped, disbelief coursing through my veins. So, this was Skol? Skol, the ruthless leader of the Ironfang Clan, the werewolf we had been chasing for decades. Everything about him exuded power and cruelty, from the tattoos that snaked along his arms and neck to the unreadable expression in his eyes. Goosebumps covered my skin as I thought of Silver. Did he really have to grow up under the care of this vicious man? I couldn't imagine what it must've been like for him as a child, being raised by this... monster.