Defiance

Interlude

INTERLUDE;

"Do you think we did the right thing?" Freya hasn't bitten her fingers in years, but today, she couldn't stop, couldn't stop the way her whole body seemed to hurt - seemed to fight her - seemed to feel uneasy. She knew she should be happy; the witch was gone but it felt as if she had done something horrible.

When Freya was a child, her mate had died at the hands of a witch. Though Freya had been too young to feel the full extent of the pain, for two years she had become bedridden and sick. Her wolf refused to come out. It was Aldric that picked her up, even though he was only eight and had lost his mother. He slowly started to take care of everyone - his father who had been unable to perform his duties since his mate died, his baby sister, who had just been born, and her - Freya.

Freya distinctively remembered the way he used to feed her food because all she could do was cry; he would stay up with all night and give her the medications for the pain. He did the same for so many other wolves in the pack. He took on pack responsibilities at such a young age - he learned to heal the way healers do, he learned how to plan battle plans, he read military books, he took care of his people with everything he had. And to Freya, Aldric was the one that reminded her of her power - she was a future Moon Priestess - the white wolf - Freya had so many responsibilities to her pack. Her life still had meaning even if her mate was dead. Through the years, they slowly came closer. Everyone knew how they would end - lovers. Aldric would be Alpha and Freya would be Luna. Aldric was cursed to be mateless and Freya's mate was dead; They were destined for each other.

However, through the years, the war was only crueller to Aldric, slowly closing him off and caging him to become a perceived monster, but he never crossed any limits. It was his mother, Freya thought; his mother raised him to fight with righteousness, ethics and morals. She taught the Alpha to do the same but when she died, the Alpha lost all the goodness in his heart. Aldric, despite his cold and terrifying exterior, was far more good than bad.

Which was why she questioned her decisions so much. Did they do the right thing?

"Hell yes! There is no way I was going to stand that witch for another second. Look what he did to me for calling her a whore," Hunter snaps angrily, pointing to his bruised face. "She's not in his life anymore - that's the important part -"

"Do you think we did the right thing?" Freya repeated, staring at all of them. Eye to eye. The feeling was growing stronger, it was making her shake her right leg up and down. It was guilt, she realized.

It was guilt.

She had seen him. She had seen the way Aldric's eyes seem to cry out; it was as if the world crashed before him. What had the witch done to him? Freya had seen Aldric run around, spend the past month looking for her despite the April rainstorms. He didn't eat, he didn't sleep. He ran in his mortal form, wolf form - he looked at every inch of the forest, he even went back to the village in secrecy.

Freya had never seen him like this. He would spend his mornings making battle plans and training the wolves; when he was done, he would look for Elysia. Freya saw him wait in the Vani Cabin night on days his body couldn't keep up with him anymore. It was nearly impossible to drain a werewolf out but Aldric - between his responsibilities for his pack and finding Elysia was going to burn himself out.

She's going to come back, he'd say to her. It had been a month though.

The Alpha said it was temporary. His son would be fine in a few months; let him feel some pain. The angrier Aldric would get, the more he would hate the witches, the Alpha argued. But Aldric still looked for her and this morning, Hunter found him collapsed on the ground in the east side of the forest. What had the witch done to him?