Defiance

08.

Chapter 8

E L Y S I A

There was a knocking on the door. Correction - a banging. I rose from the bed, pulling the blankets away and rubbing my eyes.

"Wake up you wench!" The voice was most definitely Seline. If possible, she sounded as if she hated me more than she hated me yesterday. How was that possible?

I pulled myself outside of the bed and walked towards the door. Behind her, the sun was barely up but the snow had been falling all night. Seline was so good at ruining sleep. When I opened the door, she stepped in immediately and pushed me aside.

"Get ready. You're leaving. Beta Aldric's taking you back."

"What?" I asked, rubbing my eyes. Did I hear that right?

"You heard me. Get ready or just leave in that gown and die. But you're leaving. Right now."

"W - Why?" I asked. "What did I do wrong?"

"It doesn't matter. We have collectively decided we rather die than accept a witch's help. You're lucky our Beta is not his father. Otherwise, you'd be dead right now."

"I - What did I do wrong?" I asked her asked, completely confused. What was going on? What mistake could I have possibly made? I did everything I said I was supposed to. The back of my mind, however, was relieved. I would miss the dresses, the food, and the warmth. But at least I would see the wolves again. They weren't worth the necessities. But even a bigger realization hit me - they were going to send me back rather than kill me. That's something I would never hear from wolves.

"Did you hear me the first time?" Seline hissed. "You're going back to your burning village."

"Burning village?" I asked.

"So you haven't heard? Our Beta send a legion of wolves to set fire to the witches' homes to your village for hurting the Alpha's daughter. I want them to try and hurt one of our own again." Seline smirked.

I couldn't believe it. They set buildings on fire to the village of the Mae Coven. There were children, elderly, so many innocent people that also lived in the witches' homes. It was because of me. They were all suffering because of me. My heart wanted to scream. I stared at anger at Seline. The guilt would eat me alive.

"How could you do that? How could you set fire to homes? Not every witch played a role in hurting your sister! I understand what the witches did was wrong but burning down the homes of innocent doesn't make you right!" I snapped.

In the next second, Seline stepped into the cabin and pushed me back.

"You expect us to do nothing when they hurt the Alpha's daughter. They tortured her. She was a child -"

"So you go ahead and kill other children?" I snapped.

I watched her claw move towards me and I stepped back the last second. She struck in the air and if I hadn't moved, I would add another claw mark to my injuries.

"Seline!" It was Aldric's voice. Both of our attention went to the wolf at the door.

"You should ask her what she said," Seline hissed.

I turned to Aldric. Even in the brisk early morning, his eyes were glistening. He looked terrifying and beautiful at the same time. Even more, he looked angry.

"I heard what she said," was all his response.

"Your witches knew the consequences of hurting my wolves for centuries. For hurting my sister, they are lucky I didn't burn every inch of that village to the ground."