Darkness

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I tapped my foot waiting for Conal to arrive.  Summer and Scarlet have assumed they’re usual places in trees out of site.  I turn and give a desperate pleading look at Scarlet’s tree.  How can one man be so cruel? I watch as his naked forum emerges from the bushes. 

“So I hear you rejected him” he says the second he comes into sight. 

“Yes I have fulfilled all of your requirements now how will you protect us?” I ask trying to change the subject.

“I said to banish him or step down, but you went above and beyond!” he says ignoring my attempt.  I growl a little.  “I must say I’m proud!”

“I never asked for your approval, now how will you help us?” I growl the last few words getting pissed off.

“How does it feel to be mate-less just like your pathetic mother?” he asks continuing to ignore my attempts.  This sets me off.

“It feels fucking wonderful and my mother lost her mate to Outsiders like you” I say.  I can feel my eyes change to black.  This only happens when I feel extreme emotions; it started a few days after I mastered everything.

“Yet she lives and functions properly?  Well they must not have been mates” he says looking away.

“They were, she tells me so; she loved and still loves him.  I don’t know what happened or how it did but she survived and even watched him get ripped to shreds!” I say trying to calm myself down before I Shift.

“Poor, poor you, fed lies your whole life, from your mom, sister, friends and whoever raised you.  All you have to show for yourself is a dead sister, depressed mom, being the leader of a Clan of Shifters and unthinkable powers!  What a hard life you must have” he says with as extreme sarcasm. 

“Did you call me here to torture me or are we going to talk about our agreement?” I ask trying to keep myself in check before I Shift and rip him to shreds.

“Ah yes the agreement, well you’ve held up your end of the bargain I guess I must uphold mine.  I will set up camps around your territory out of your patrols range and stop most of the humans” he says.  He disappears back into the bushes and I let out a roar of anger.  I HATE him!  Summer and Scarlet drop from the trees and I walk over to them.

“You rejected Seth to get rid of the humans?!?” Summer asks dumbfounded.  It’s not that simple.

“Yeah” I say trying to ignore her.  I start running home.  I feel the tears prick my eyes and I rub them away.  I run harder and faster.  I skid to a stop at my back door.  I fling it open and step inside.  I lock it behind me.  I trudge into the basement.  I walk into the prisoner’s cell.  I grab his shirt and pull his as close as his restraints will let me.

“You will tell me everything you know about that retched Clan or I will kill you as painfully as I can, right now” I say or try to; it comes out as more of an incoherent growl.  He looks into my eyes that I know are jet black. 

“I am a human.  The activists showed us what you did and what will happen if we don’t kill you all.  I was so angry I signed up.  We were taken to a large house two days drive northwest from the town we were in a few days ago.  There was something off about the speaker there.  Almost as if he was scared and he looked pretty beat up when he was onstage.  He told us the savages did it.  I doubted it.  They took us to training camps not far from there and we were given swords and bows and taught how to use them extremely well.  My troop was about to be launched into action before we ran into you” he explains.  I drop his shirt.

“What did the man on the stage tell you before you were shipped off to train?” I ask.

“He told us about the savages, how they rape woman and kill little kids, how they can change from human to an almost wolf like creature.  He showed us pictures, disgusting pictures of them in both forms and of some of the people they’ve killed.  It was completely horrifying” he says.