Isaac, I, and members of the small council stood in front of a crate delivered to us minutes ago that had grown men vomiting in their stomachs. The younger councils were used to seeing this type of gruesomeness that stood in front of us.
In the crate, there were two severed heads in the box. The heads of the two agents we sent to scout Pack Hollins. Their heads had been chopped off sloppily around the skin of the neck and the blood and skin had lost their lively color.
They were two young men that were devoted to my service and did not falter in their loyalty. My next thoughts were having to tell the families of these two young members how their sacrifice.
Isaac nudged me with his hand to get my attention. His other hand was covering his mouth from the stench. Everybody left in the room was doing the same to avoid the decomposing smell. He pointed at the mouth of one of the young men and I saw the corner of a piece of paper hanging from his teeth.
I sighed and reached forward, pinching the corner of the paper and trying to tug it out of the man's mouth, but it wasn't budging. The teeth clenched on it was putting to much pressure for the paper to move. I had to do something I didn't want to do, but I needed that paper. I took a deep breath and held it as I removed my hand and reached down to lift the top lip of a dead man to retrieve the paper. The skin there was cold and felt like putty, not reacting to my finger touching. It creeped me out, not having to touch something this long dead before. And it felt even crueler that it was my men that died for my cause. This was my fault.
I decided to try to lift the teeth that were securing the paper in place and that worked better than the lip idea. I was able to slip the paper out of the man's mouth and it was folded in half and previously wet with stains of blood. I didn't want to know what killed my men, but this one was bleeding in his mouth before he died because that white paper was mostly red.
I had to take a breath and had temporarily gotten used to the smell of the decomposing heads and it allowed both of my hands to unfold the paper and read the text inside. I read the text allowed.
"Alpha Weston.
We do not appreciate the unannounced visit from your men.
They had to pay the price for your actions and now we understand how you play.
If you wanted to pay a visit, you could have sent us a heads up.
Guess we'll have to send you two back.
We'd love if you kept us in mind.
-Your friends,
Alpha Clyde.
-PS: This is strike three."
I reread the letter twice over, trying to see if I understand what was happening correctly. Blood was spilled and he was threatening in his letter. If this was war, I honestly wasn't ready for it at all. The last line was what was haunting me.
"This is strike three."
The room was silent as if was waiting to see what I would tell them to do. I had to not panic right now and be level headed for my leaders. "Put the defense plan into effect, now. Commander, I need you to rearrange the training schedules for everybody as a lot of warriors will be in the rotation for patrols. And have the draft prepared." None of this was anything good.
The two council members left without a word, scurrying out of the room, only me and Isaac left to take care of the crate of heads.
"What now?" I asked Isaac, seeing if he had any idea of what to do next.
He shook his head for a moment and shrugged, "The only thing left is to give them proper burials."
"We have to cremate them. We don't even know where the rest of their bodies are." I admitted. They could have already been burned, they could have been left in the Pack Hollins. This was becoming a bigger problem than I had originally thought.
"Hopefully, they aren't in different crates on their way here." I sighed, the last thing I needed was more crates of body parts I had to explain to the Pack and why they were preparing for war.
I heard a quiet shuffled behind me, "Alex, I-" a soul-snatching gasp came from behind us. I turned around and saw Ke'aysha there, wrapped in a blanket standing in the doorway. Her eyes were wide and terrified as they landed on the crate on the table. I remember seeing this look on her before, but this time I didn't kill them. Well, not with my own hands, anyway.
I moved forward towards her, trying to cover her vision from the grizzly sight in front of her, but she still looked horrified. I heard Isaac slam the box closed behind me, and it brought Ke'aysha's to my hands that was still holding the bloodied paper and there were unexplained corpse juices on my fingers from the prying of the paper. Ke'aysha screamed and stepped away from me, not wanting to be touched by my cursed fingers. I went back to put the letter down and ask Isaac for a favor, "Go calm her, please. I'll tell the news to the families involved." He ended up doing the grunt work last time and I figured now was a time to carry my weight with him.
He nodded and closed the door behind him as he left, going to try to fix another mess caused by all of this. I stared at the note and the crate and those words bounced around my head.
"This is strike three."
"This is strike three."
"This is strike three."
I was horrified at the sight I saw. Isaac and Alex were standing in front of a crate of two decapitated heads. Heads that have long been dead and were gray. Dull. Lifeless. I had sudden flashbacks to my family's death and how I had found them. Dead. Gray. Lifeless.
Alex tried to step towards me, but I was in too much of a shock to let him get close to me. This blinding panic took over me. First one major news and now this. This was too much to handle. Alex saw that he scared me and sent Isaac to me. I still stepped away from him, not knowing how to process and take all of this. Why the fuck are there heads in a box?
Isaac closed the door behind him and approached me carefully as if I was a scared dog. I stuttered, trying to get something out and comprehend something, "W-w-what-"
He shushed me, trying to calm me down, "Alex had nothing to do with them. They're just props to use to scare us."
I shook my head, knowing he was lying to me to make me feel better. They looked just like my family to be props. I was finally able to string a sentence together, "Did he do that?"
Isaac shook his head, able to get close enough to touch my arms and help me to stop shaking, "No. He didn't kill those people. I promise. He had nothing to do with it, Princess." I was a bit relieved to hear that, but I still couldn't calm down. "Have you eaten anything yet? Are you hungry?" He asked me. I shook my head, not wanting to think about food after witnessing that in front of me, "How about a cup of hot chocolate? I can make a good cocoa mix." He bragged.
I decided to take the distraction, wanting to get my mind off of everything and wanting everything to stop momentarily. I didn't have any bad memories of hot chocolate. Isaac gave me a reassuring smile and rubbed my back as he led me to the kitchen, my covers still wrapped around me, trying to disappear into comfort again.
YOU ARE READING
The Mute Mate
Werewolf~~~*Complete*~~~ Alpha Alexander Weston is a ruthless killer when it comes to ruling his pack. No one should ever double cross him and death and destruction were common in his wake. He was to be feared by those around him and was prone to getting...
