*Isla*
The girl standing before me is not what I expected.
Emery stands, slowly clutching the bars as she peers at me through the darkness. The lightbulb hanging from the ceiling flickers as I pull up a stool and sit facing her, crossing my legs with my hands knitted in my lap. Elijah said not to let her out. I wonder why? I guess I’ll find out.
I give her a minute to look me over. She doesn’t hide her curious gaze, unlike other people I’ve come in contact with lately. Hardly anyone looked me in the eyes during the Beta Trials, which was my first real event as Luna of the Alpha King. People shy away from me now, speaking to me only when I speak to them first, so on and so forth.
“Alpha,” I say graciously, bobbing my head to her in greeting. She doesn’t startle. In fact, her full lips twitch into what is either an impressed, or sinister, smile. I can’t tell which.
“Luna,” she says, but she doesn’t curtsy or bow. She grips the bars until her knuckles are white, like she’s trying to pry them apart.
“I should apologize for the King’s Beta keeping you down here without my knowledge or consent,” I begin, trying my best to keep my voice level as she stares at me with her huge, dark eyes fanned by thick lashes. “But I was told I shouldn’t let you out. Why is that?”
“What reason were you given?”
“I wasn’t,” I reply simply, tapping my fingers on my arm as I hold her gaze. She is young. So young. Her hair is thick and coarse and spirals around her face like an obsidian halo in the flickering light above our heads. She’s beautiful, too. Stunning, if I am being honest. No wonder Ben has been spending so much time down here. “I understand that my brother has been visiting you for a significant amount of time over the past–”
“Week,” she cuts in tightly, her teeth bared before adding, “Ben is your brother?”
“Yes, Ben is my brother,” I say, noticing the bite in her voice. She rolls her eyes away from mine, smirking. “Does that surprise you?”
“He never mentioned it.”
“What did you talk about then?”
She studies the wall for a moment before turning back to me and saying, “Nothing in particular.”
“Why can’t I let you out?” I exhale, trying to steer the conversation in the way I intended. I have to find out if this child–this Alpha–is a threat. Elijah thinks so. Even Ben hasn’t freed her.
“Because I will do what needs to be done to get back to my pack, even if it means physically breaking apart every wolf who stands in my way.”
A chill runs up my spine as I hold her gaze. “Who are you?”
“You know my name.”
“That’s not what I’m asking. Who are you?”
Her mouth twitches but she doesn’t smile. Instead, she slides down the bars until she’s seated, her head leaning back against the stone wall.
“Emery of Obsidian Temple. I have no last name. I am Alpha after my mother, Jade. She died ten years ago, so I took her title.”
“What happened to her?” I asked, sensing the hurt in her voice as she spoke her mother’s name.
“She was ill.”
“Why not take her to a healer?”
Emery stills, and for the first time I see a hint of the child that she is. “We didn’t have one, and the adults refused–” She swallows, steeling her expression back to a mask of pure ice. “Whatever killed my mother killed every other adult in our pack within days. Most of the children and infants were spared, but not all. I did what needed to be done to save the rest.” Her eyes flash with some long festering memory of what I can only describe as violence.
I heave a breath, knitting my fingers together as I look down at the engagement ring on my finger. “Why didn’t you seek help from a neighboring pack?”
“Because we would’ve been separated,” she says pointedly. I purse my lips, nodding in understanding because that’s exactly what had just happened to her pack. She leans forward, resting her cheek against the railing, her eyes still boring into mine. “You had quite the rise to stardom, Isla.”
I narrow my eyes at her, noticing the way her mouth curves into a smile. “Is this what you and Ben have been talking about–”
“Ben has been talking to me about his school. He offered to teach me how to read and write,” she says coolly. “Don’t think that just because we’re children that we don’t know what’s going on in the kingdom. You were a breeder. A nothing. Now you’re a Luna. If you can rule over this kingdom, why can’t I rule over my own pack?”
“Because you should be able to have a childhood. You should have someone who loves and cares for you, protects you. You’re far too young to be an Alpha, Emery. I am sorry that it was necessary for you to do so. It shouldn’t have been that way.” I’m not offended that she seems to have left out the part that I’m also a princess, but I wonder if most people are unaware of that detail. Does it matter?
“We were fine–” Emory interrupts my thoughts.
“You were living in a castle that is falling to pieces without proper healthcare and barely any food. None of you are old enough to shift, let alone hunt. You just told me you can’t read nor write. You were surviving, Emery, not ruling. I know the difference.” I swallow, trying not to let my emotions show. Why did I feel a sudden camaraderie with this young girl? Was it because I’ve spent the last year and a half constantly fighting, scraping by, just to prove I am something more than what everyone thinks I am? Just a breeder? A nobody, like Emery says?
“Then you know what defeat feels like,” she whispers. I nod, sensing the hurt in her voice.
“I do, but that’s not what this is–”
“I won’t allow my pack to live within the ranks of the rulers who killed off our pack decades ago–”
“That was a different time. Before the current Alpha King’s time–”
“What has changed? Is he not roaming the packlands dismantling packs as we speak?”
“That’s different–”
“It’s not,” she says softly, her voice breaking. “For forty years my pack has lived in secrecy because of one king’s greed.”
“I won’t disband your pack,” I say with force, standing up. “I have no intention of separating you from your friends and family. I have no plans to see that you’re assimilated into other packs, either. You’re an Alpha, but in order for me to release you from this cell so you can be reunited with your packmates, there are things that must be made clear and rules you must follow,” I begin, crouching in front of her where she’s still slumped against the bars.
“First, you will remain close by. There’s a housing complex being built within the village near the castle that will be completed in less than two weeks time. You and your pack will have a home. You will be supervised, and all of you will be in school,” I say firmly. She stares at me, unblinking. “You will have access to food, to healthcare. And you,” I say, leaning in until we were nearly nose to nose with the bars separating us, “will train with Maddox, your King, when it comes to being an Alpha. You will learn the laws and expectations for not only your pack but the kingdom as a whole. You will personally train with Elijah in matters of combat. You and your chosen few pack members will go through warrior training together. When you’re twenty-one and come into your wolf, you will be allowed to move out of the castle territory. You may go where you choose.”
I rise to my full height, looking down on the fierce young girl who had Elijah cowering enough that he locked up her in our dungeon. “If,” I continue, “you go through the training program I laid out without breaking our trust, you will be given your own territory to rule. Your own lands. Your old lands. The rightful lands of the original Obsidian Temple pack will be yours.”
Her eyes perked up, shining in the dim amber light.
“Yes, your old territory. It will be yours to do with what you please, as long you continue to swear allegiance to your king. Those are my terms.”
“And if I don’t agree?”
“You will,” I say, then turn on my heel and walk away, the keys to her cell still clutched in my hand as I walk back up the stairs.
* * *
I sigh heavily as I stand next to Ben on the train platform. Wellington has its own train, of course. It’s a very fancy establishment. He’s minutes away from being whisked away to his future, and he’s mad at me. But, I’m also mad at him, so there’s that.
I steal a glance at him, noticing the fire in his eyes. He won’t back down and apologize for keeping Emery a secret. It’s not even that he kept her presence a secret that’s bothering me. It’s that he thought I’d be unfair to her, ruthless even. At least, that’s what I’m assuming. He won’t speak of it.
“I made her an offer,” I begin, keeping my eyes trained on the trees on the other side of the tracks. “She is still their Alpha and will be reunited with her pack as soon as possible.”
“What were the conditions?” he asks, his voice clipped.
“An education for all of them, but especially for her. If she’s going to continue to be their Alpha, she needs to know what she’s doing… and how to read and write,” I say, glancing over at him. I catch his smile before it vanishes. “She’ll remain in the castle territory until she’s twenty-one. You’ll be able to visit her whenever you come home during the holidays.” I smile as he blushes, but I don’t say anything. I do wish, however, that if Ben is going to start going girl crazy that he’d choose someone who can’t kill him with just her stone-cold stare. Emery is not very nice, and she does scare me a little, and I am very much looking forward to an uneventful rest of the year.
Being the Luna isn’t easy, especially without Maddox here.
“Thank you, Isla. I’m… sorry, for not telling you about her.”
“It’s okay,” I smile, reaching out to gently squeeze his arm. We both turn as the train pulls into the station. Ben sighs as he lifts his duffle bag and slings it over his back. I frown, knowing I’m going to have to help him carry his heavy trunk onto the train, but then I hear a voice cut through the sound of the train whistle.
“Alpha Maddox?” Ben says, his face lighting up. I let out my breath as Maddox appears, sprinting up onto the platform. He’s a bit out of breath, which tells me he’s been running as fast as he can to get here before the train leaves the station.
To say goodbye to my brother, who he loves almost as much as I do.
He throws his arms around us both, squeezing tight.
“All aboard!” we hear a man shout.
“Good luck,” Maddox says, shaking Ben’s hand, then pulls him into another hug. “Have fun. Don’t study too hard.”
“Study hard,” I correct, hugging him tight. “We’re coming up to visit during the autumn equinox holiday.” A rush of grief hits me. It will be months before I see him again. I squeeze him a little tighter before letting him go.
Maddox helps him load up the trunk, and that is it.
Maddox takes my hand as the train leaves the station.
“We have a lot to discuss,” Maddox breathes before pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“You’re in a lot of trouble, Maddox!”
He smiles, chuckling slightly before roping his arm over my shoulder and leading me off the platform, toward home.