Chapter 236

Almara’s Pov

Cathy’s word hang in the air which increasingly becomes thick and closes in around us. I suddenly find it hard to breathe and every inhalation brings with it the stench of death. I pull myself away from the cell, suddenly unable to bear the sight of Robert lying like a crumbled heap of meat on the ground.

The sight, the smell, it all repulses me. I try to keep the bile from rising in my stomach, but being as pregnant as I am my refluxes aren’t as strong. I retch over in the corner. My entire body shakes as I empty whatever contents are left in my body, realizing it’s been too long since we’ve had a proper meal.

I feel something cool touch the back of my next and my breathing evens out. “You okay?” I hear Arthur ask in a soothing voice. I notice it’s his hand that’s cold, probably from gripping the cool metal of the cell. Though then my skin starts to crawl and I realize those bars are in close proximity to Robert and for some reason that becomes too much.

I roll my head and his hand falls from my neck as my spine pops and cracks. “I’m okay,” I say, though I’m not, not really. Arthur doesn’t need to read my mind to decipher that.

“Can you explain what happened, exactly?” Arthur asks looking at Cathy. It sounds like he’s rekindling his authoritative power.

Cathy wipes the tears from her eyes and pulls herself up from the floor. She nods, but takes a minute to find the words. Arthur begins to massage my shoulders and the tension melts down my back.

I realize this is the second beta that Arthur has lost, not to mention the hundreds, probably thousands, of soldiers out on the field and yet, he’s holding himself together for the sake of sanity. I admire my husband so much in this moment.

All this loss, and he grieves for those gone, I know he does but he doesn’t let himself get lost in it. Not while there are still people to protect and a mission to accomplish.

“Some familiars came in and said one of us needed to die, that the body was going to be presented on camera where you were doing the interview so the wolves back home knew the defeat was real,” Cathy speaks like she’s reading a script in her head, not really focused on what’s going on in front of her but only what she can remember.

I think of Arthur and I in the camera room, no dead body came through. Neither Zayne nor his sidekick sent anyone with that kind of message. It’s possible it was all prearranged, but no body made an appearance while we were in the room.

Then, I think of the one bear-like familiar that did come in. How he whispered something into Zayne’s ear. But even Zaye didn’t know what that familiar was going to tell him, I could sense that much. So, there’s no way Zayne gave that order.

“Of course, we all got ready to fight. Instantly this is when your parents were seized and taken out of the room. The familiars said they just made the choice easier for us. It would either be e, Robert, or Grace,” A single tear rolls down Cathy’s cheek.

“Where’s Delfino or Edward?” Arthur asks still sounding very business-like.

Cathy shrugs, “They went with the familiars that took your parents, I think they wanted to make sure they didn’t get killed,” She looks at us weakly, “They said they would be back, but they’re still gone.”

“Then what happened?” Arthur asks, kneading deeper into my shoulders.

“The one familiar, I don’t know it’s name, but it was like a bird or bat and it started to swat at me. I tried to fight back, but I was taken my surprise. That’s when Robert called out that he would sacrifice himself,” Cathy shakes her head and closes her eyes like she no longer wants to see the images her mind is conjuring up.

We give her a moment and after some time she takes a sharp breath and continues, distancing herself from the words she speaks. “The familiars fled from me and went to Robert. I didn’t know what to do. I froze, I-” Cathy’s voice cuts off and she burrows her head and starts crying again, I cry with her.

I can’t imagine standing back and watching someone else die, for you ad know there’s nothing you can do but listen to their wails and cries.

The doors split open, the wooshing sound causing Cathy and I to jump in our skin. Arthur turns and protectively puts himself in front of me.

Zayne, Delfino, and Edward walk through the door. I think the fact that the familiar is outnumbered and that Delfino and Edward are supposedly on our side is the only reason Arthur doesn’t lunge at them. Cathy backs herself into the wall as though she could sink right into it.

“What is the point of this?” Arthur barks, commanding the attention of those that just walked in.

Delfino is the first to notice Robert as he nears the cell. I see the clicking of his cheekbone, the hardening of clenched jaw. “I don’t know,” Delfino says trying to walk a thin line of communicating to us that he had nothing to do with this while also trying not to let on his disapproval.

“You expect me to believe that?” Arthur asks, his voice rising.

“We can assure you, this was not our doing,” Zayne says barely glancing at Robert’s body, “I wish I could take the credit,” he snickers. Arthur lifts his paw to strike down on Zayne, but Delfino catches it.

“Enough,”

“No!” Arthur roars, “I’ll say when it’s enough. This was not part of the plan. A member of my pack is dead and no one can tell me why or who did it,” Zayne eyes Arthur up and down like he’s a spectacle under a microscope.

“Arthur, you’re in our territory, you really ought to expect that your rules of fairness don’t hold out here. If one of my own sought out to kill you or one of your members here then so be it. You’ll all end up dead soon enough anyways,”

“Let’s go to your cells before this becomes a blood bath,” Edward interjects.

“I wouldn’t mind a good fight, right now,” Arthur says and lowers his head.

“That doesn’t seem wise considering your pack here, not to mention you are outnumbered” Defino hisses at Arthur.

If we’re to keep up appearances, then on the surface yes we appear to be outnumbered, or maybe we really are until something gets signed and our temporary truce is made.

“Let’s go,” I say. We’re not avenging for Robert’s death right now, not yet at least.

Delfino and Edward put us under lock and key, all while Zayne eyes us suspiciously, paying special attention to how tight the chains around us are which Delfino takes extra precaution to ensure they’re tightly fastened.

Delfino and Edward le us through some back hallways, similar to the tunnel-like walkways we first went through when we arrived.

Finally, we’re brought to the same dungeon we were kept in when Delfino first made us the proposition. The room without a camera. I wonder if Zayne knows this room exists.

When we’re in in the cold, damp, cave Delfino unlocks the restraints on us. “We are sorry about your friend,”

“Why did you leave them?” Arthur barks.

Delfino keeps his calm and pulls out a scroll secured with a red ribbon, “There was nothing we could do that wouldn’t give ourselves away. We thought your friend would be able to defend himself. We went to make sure your parents were unharmed and to write this up,” Delfino holds the scroll between his bony fingers and Arthur snatches it out from his hand.

Cathy and I lean over his side and all of our eyes quickly scan it’s contents. In elaborate and flowing cursive is the temporary treaty outlining a truce until the common enemy is defeated. There is to be no attack or maltreatment of either side done by the other or the treaty immediately ceases to be valid.

“Once this is signed, we can organize our retaliation plan and ensure nothing like what just happened to your friend happens again,” Edward says and holds out a feathered pen.

Arthur and I dip the pen in ink and scratch our signatures on the papyrus sheet.

The moment I lift the pen from my final ‘a´ the door to the dungeon opens.

“Well, what is going on here?” Zayne asks, his eyes glued to the treaty.