Taint, Time and Tangents✔️

≑ Chapter Thirteen

Cover on the Multimedia made by: Sierra_Alexsis (Sierra Lake)

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

 C H A P T E R    T H I R T E E N 

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

  

ISAIAH

If I could choose between hell or this place, then I'd rather choose hell and be consumed with flames than sit in this cramped room and talk with these people.

With the curtains down, the dim table lamp on the far corner was our sole source of light. The dilated pupils of the men around us reflecting the orange glow from the lamp's bulb just heightened my restlessness. The tension inside the room was almost tangible. My wolf was pacing inside me, disturbed and prepared for any fight that would erupt. 

"Drake Turner... Any idea on what happened to him?" a huge imposing man in front of us asked, his arms crossed across his muscular chest. His baritone voice rebounded on the walls, demanding full attention from us.

We were in a private room inside the principal's office concealed behind a computer-operated wall across his table, which never failed to astonish me whenever it opens. But despite its bizarre entrance, the room was small and dull. With only a single rectangular center table and few sofas here and there, it was certainly meant for few distinguished people. Few which included me, the Alpha of Fallow, my father and one of my uncles. For the Licorice pack, there was, of course, their Alpha, Keenan, his uncle, and his Beta, Tim.

It had been more than a year since the last time we used this room. The usual meeting place, a much spacious one, was located in the basement of this school. 

Yes, the school again.

To begin with, the school was situated at the middle of the territories of the two largest packs of North America, Licorice and Fallow. A 'No Man's Land', as they called it. Hundred years back, this was the battlefield in every war that had happened between the two packs. However, just a decade ago, a peace treaty was made by the then-Alphas and as a symbol of the end of the rivalry, this school was built.

Everyone thought that it would remain like that for long but not until two years ago. The moment Keenan and I received the title Alpha, whispers immediately hovered in the air about the beginning of another strife between the packs. With both our wolves visibly eager to kill each other, having those rumors were logical.

"He was seen dead in a deserted hallway this noon."

A hoarse voice who came from the corner of the room snapped me out of my musings. Looking up, I saw my uncle, a thin man on his forties, watching us with small discerning eyes.

"No weapons around, no signs of mutilation or any body parts missing... except for one." His eyes darted towards Keenan, suddenly apprehensive. "His heart. It has exploded... as if a hand pierced through his chest and crushed the heart into pieces."  

I took a brief look at Keenan who was seated at a leather couch across me. He was slouching, seemingly bored with everything. His coat was gone and the buttons of his long sleeves were opened, revealing a green thin undershirt inside. There was nothing peculiar on him except for those eyes that were focused on a glass of lemonade on his hands. I'd always seen them hard, emotionless and cold. But tonight, I saw them empty as if a great chunk of his life was taken away from him.