A Match of Monsters

Chapter Twenty-Three

Winter. The endless freeze that was darker than heartless, for nothing could be seen of a heart to begin with. There was no frost of a re-frozen landscape within the Alpha's eyes. It looked more like she had never melted in the first place.

Her soul was as old as the northern ice slopes, just as cold and carelessly cruel. This female cared for nothing but herself and her legacy – not even the mate that now stood at her shoulder. She had survived many mortal lifetimes, carefully growing in strength and patience as she had manipulated the powers around her from her cover of shadows. She had carefully acquired all that she now had, and she would let nothing – not humans or dragons, enemies or allies – stand in her way.

Without speaking a word or making a sound, the Alpha told all of this to Elain. Her eyes glinted like polished stones, and were as pale and distant as the night stars. They gave away nothing that the Alpha did not put there for Elain to see, and the human girl was captivated – enraptured – by all that she saw. The age and experiences that the new Alpha lived through made her mind alien to the young human's.

Fascinated despite her fear, Elain looked more and more. Until she began to experience flashes of the werewolf's life. Mostly shattered sensations such as sounds and smells, but occasionally she would see something and become able to piece together the fractured memories.

Elain did not even realise that she was whispering what she experienced under her breath until the Alpha pulled her hair back and cuffed her lead so strongly that the human's ears rang and her vision swam as she coughed up a mouthful of blood. Wiping the red liquid off of her chin with the back of her hand, she warily regarded the wolf in front of her.

Obviously, she was not meant to see as much as she had, after all. Maybe the werewolf Alpha was not as untouchable as she'd first appeared. She wondered what that meant for her now, would they treat her better or worse for it?

"So, the Little Human has found our Pack Mind. Is she truly so eager to join her betters?"

Elain swallowed heavily, but kept silent. She did not truly believe that the question had been addressed to her, and she'd rather avoid getting struck again if she could help it. She felt that she was dancing on the edge of a cliff, with only rules she didn't know stopping her form falling.

Her only response was to move her gaze from the Alpha's. Quickly lowering it until the evenly clacking nails as they tapped out an ominous tune against the aged wooden armrests.

The Alpha hummed speculatively to herself for a long moment before opening her mouth again. "If the Little Human cannot answer such a difficult question as that, then maybe we should ask it a simpler one to start off with. This one, I believe, will be impossible for it not to answer; what is your name?"

Elain jerked and whimpered when she realised that this was the first time the Alpha female had addressed her directly, and how she had almost come to expect the inhumane treatment to continue after being exposed to it for two days. But she couldn't not answer the Alpha, no matter how wrong it felt inside to give the werewolf anything. Even a name. the dilemma inside of her head clearly carried through into her voice, her mind to tired and still dazed from the powerful female's strike to come up with a false identity. She could feel her determination begin to fade as she complied, words cracking out of her lips that she had not heard or thought since everything had begun two weeks ago. "Elain – Elain Gatherer."

"Good." The Alpha purred like a very pleased, very deadly feline. Her voice was as soft as finely spun silk and as sharp a newly forged steel blade when she spoke again. "Now, time for another one. Where do you come from?"

"The Fine Tooth Mountain Range." Elain attempted to deflect the question, giving as vague an answer as she could think of while under the Alpha's command. But with the building silence between them, and how the Alpha's cool glare penetrated her to her soul, she soon gave in and responded how the female wished. "The hamlet of Nor Drake."