200 He Didn't Understand Why
Ashleigh felt an anvil drop in her stomach, her throat was as dry as any desert, and her heart seemed to have decided that it was tired of remaining inside of her chest.
“The…the Alpha of… of Autumn?” Ashleigh struggled to form the words. “Alpha Tomas… why, why would you think he had the answers?”
Fiona looked at Ashleigh with care, she tilted her head to the side and smiled.
“Beat me.”
“What?” Ashleigh asked.
“You want to know about Cain and Tomas?” Fiona asked.
Ashleigh nodded hesitantly.
“Win my game, and I will answer all your questions about their relationship,” Fiona said.
Ashleigh swallowed and took a calming breath, as her senses returned to a calm state.
“I’m going to do that anyway,” Ashleigh smirked.
Fiona chuckled.
“Fine. Win my game, and I will tell you whatever you want to know about Cain and Tomas,” Fiona said. “And I will tell Caleb, that I accept you.”
Ashleigh’s eyes widened.
“Just, Caleb,” Fiona clarified. “I will not acknowledge you as a potential Luna until the pack does. But I will acknowledge you as a worthy mate to my son.”
Ashleigh bit her lip to hold back her reaction.
“Like I said,” Ashleigh said casually. “I was going to win anyway.”
“Can’t wait,” Fiona smiled, before turning and walking out of the locker room without another word.
Ashleigh held together her excitement, she walked out of the building without any reaction. When she was roughly a block away, she let the wide grin spread over her face, jumping up and down and dancing just enough to let out her delight.
Her celebration was interrupted by the phone ringing.
She was surprised by who was calling.
“Dad?” Ashleigh answered.
“Ashleigh,” Wyatt said. “Have you heard from your brother?”
***
“That makes seven,” Saul said, handing the binoculars to Axel.
“How is that possible!?” Axel growled softly as he brought the binoculars to his eyes and saw for himself what Saul had already confirmed.
Another empty pack.
This territory belonged to the Whiteridge Pack. They were small, less than two hundred in their number, but a pack of their own just the same.
Axel knew their Alpha, Kirnon. They had gotten to know each other over many years. They weren’t close, but Axel did consider him a friend.
Axel had been sent to Whiteridge by Wyatt many times. They were one of the few packs that, like Winter, also shied away from advanced technology. Using only basic electricity and a few odds and ends related chiefly to simplifying their work.
Winter kept in close contact with Whiteridge because of the leatherwork they had perfected over the generations.
Most of the armaments that Winter had used for many years came from Whiteridge, though, in recent years their relationship had grown apart.
Axel scanned the buildings, and the paths between them, there was nothing, no one. Not a single sign of life. The door of every home was closed and the lights were off, with no smoke from any chimney.
It didn’t appear to have been a sudden departure either. There were no signs of struggle or disturbances of any kind.
There were areas of the settlement Axel knew should be filled with equipment, but there was none to speak of.
“It looks like they just packed up and left…” Axel said. “But where did they go?”
“The others were the same way,” Saul said. “The report that Galen provided from his scout also confirmed no signs of struggle or harm done to the packs.”
“So, they just left? Abandoned their territory?” Axel asked, looking at Saul. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”
Saul looked back out at the settlement. He took a deep breath.
“Something similar. Once. Long, long ago,” Saul replied. “But this is not that.”
“How do you know?” Axel asked.
“Because,” Saul said, “there isn’t a pit with bodies nearby.”
Axel turned to Saul.
“What?”
Saul sighed.
“I was once sent to a place not many have gone,” Saul said. “A jungle in the human lands.”
Axel gave Saul his full attention. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
“I got lost, but a human found me. She took me back to her small village in the jungle. She fed me and her tribe let me stay the night with them. They danced and sang. They let me share in their joy.
“In the morning she was able to lead me out of the jungle and sent me in the direction of the pack I was in search of.”
Saul paused and took a deep breath.
“After a few days, I was to head back home. I decided I wanted to find the woman and thank her for her aid. So I retraced our steps and followed the scent of the people in the village, but it had grown weak.”
Saul swallowed and looked back towards the settlement of the Whiteridge Pack.
“When I made it there, it looked like this,” he said, pointing towards the settlement. “Empty, but undisturbed. No signs of struggle, no disturbances.”
“Where did they go?” Axel asked.
“I followed the faint scent of them… it wasn’t that far. Maybe a quarter of a mile from the village,” Saul’s eyes fell to the dirt below him. “A pit, large enough to hold every adult man in the village.”
Axel’s eyes widened and his heart began to thump wildly in his chest.
“What about the women? The children?” he asked with concern.
Saul shook his head.
“I found out much later that they had been sold like human cattle,” Saul said sadly. “A rich man from far off had learned that the land the tribal village sat on held significant value. But it was protected while the tribe remained.
“So, they sent in a team of people that convinced the tribe to leave the land. They offered them medicine, food, and anything they needed. Once they left the land, the men were killed, and the women and children were taken.”
“Why?” Axel growled; his eyes blurred with angry tears.
“Because,” Saul said, looking back at Axel with the same anger. “If every member of the tribe left the land and died away from it, it was considered abandoned. No longer protected as tribal lands. So the developer could buy it cheaply.”
Axel growled loudly, looking back at the settlement.
“As I said,” Saul continued. “This is not that.”
Axel shook his head in disbelief. Sometimes he didn’t understand why the Goddess wanted to protect these humans.
He lifted his eyes to the settlement, he imagined them there for a moment, remembering the last time he had visited.
His brow furrowed.
“Saul…” Axel called out softly.
“Yes?”
“Are we sure, this isn’t the same?” Axel asked.
“What do you mean?” Saul asked.
Axel stood up, staring at the settlement.
“Come,” he said.
“Axel, we can’t…” Saul argued. “It’s one thing to observe from a distance, if we enter their territory and investigate, it might be seen as an act of aggression.”
“Assuming they are alive to make the complaint,” Axel said.
He left the bushes they had been crouched inside, walking down the hill towards the Whiteridge settlement.
It had been almost a year ago that he visited, but he remembered Kirnon talking about it. Behind the warehouse where they stored the harvest, they had broken ground, planning to expand the warehouse.
But Axel knew they had never finished the project, a string of bad luck had cost them dearly. Animals kept dying due to disease; their meat spoiled; their flesh unusable.
It was one of the reasons the relationship with Winter had been strained. They couldn’t fulfill the orders that Winter had placed.
But, from the bushes on the hill above the settlement, Axel could see that the ground he had previously seen dug into was now neatly packed.
Saul followed closely, unsure of where they were headed, he kept his eye out for trouble as Axel seemed steadfast on his goal.
Axel stopped, Saul looked ahead and didn’t understand. All he saw was a freshly tilled garden.
“Is there something strange about this garden?” Saul asked.
Axel swallowed.
“It’s not a garden,” he said.
“Then what…” Saul started to ask but wavered as he looked once more.
Axel got down on one knee, reaching for the fresh dirt, but hesitated.
Finally, he swallowed down his fear
It didn’t take long to find the first body, then the second, and the third. At the fourth, Axel sighed and clenched his jaw.
Saul looked down at the red-haired man lying in the dirt, with an arrow jammed into his ribs.
“Did you know him?” Saul asked.
“His name was Kirnon,” Axel said. “Alpha of the Whiteridge Pack.”