So It Shall Be Done

Zara

“Are you Jeanette?”

The woman looked startled, surprised that I knew her name.

“Who are you? What do you want with me?” she asked, retreating into the wreckage of her homemade sniping tower.

“We’re friends of your daughter Quinn,” Alex said, his voice gentle.

Jeanette’s face drained of color, and she started to shake.

“You’re…not…one of ~them,~ are you?” she asked, her fear escalating.

Alex and I exchanged a puzzled look.

“Who do you mean?” I asked.

“The monsters who took my daughter? Who invaded my home? Who forced me into these woods?”

I studied the older woman.

Her clothes were ripped and shredded, as if attacked by something with sharp claws.

Her arms were covered in scrapes and scars, likely from a fight.

Some of the scabs looked fresh, probably from the fall she’d just taken inside her tower.

“Alex, can I borrow your knife?” I asked.

He nodded and pulled a long machete from his leather sheath.

Jeanette gasped, the shiny blade reflecting in her wide, terrified eyes.

“What are you going to do to me?” she asked.

Tears streamed down her face; she was clearly expecting the worst.

“Relax,” I said, trying to soothe her.

I took the knife from Alex and sliced off a piece of my twill shirt, revealing my midriff.

After putting the knife away, I slowly approached Jeanette.

She whimpered and tried to get up, but her leg was trapped between two heavy beams.

“Stay away from me!” she screamed. “Don’t hurt me! I don’t want to die!”

~Quinn wasn’t kidding about her mom being paranoid.~

This woman was as jumpy as a rabbit.

I tried to grab her arm, but she kept yanking it away.

“Will you hold still?” I said, frustrated. “I’m trying to help.”

The word help seemed to register with her, but she looked at me suspiciously. As if she didn’t trust me.

“Those wounds on your arm look bad,” I said. “I just wanted to clean them up.”

She glanced at her right arm. Blood from one of her open wounds had started to trickle down to her wrist.

With a grimace, she held her arm and looked up at me.

I knelt down and wrapped the piece of cloth tightly around her wound.

She looked at me, puzzled, as I cleaned up the blood with the torn ends of my shirt.

“No...you can’t be one of them,” she shook her head, “you’re too kind.”

“Were you attacked?” I asked.

She nodded silently.

“Do you know by whom?” asked Alex. “Did you hear any names?”

“It was wolves,” said Jeanette, her voice filled with fear. “I didn’t hear any names. Just orders.”

“What did they say? What did they do?” I asked.

“First, I want to know a few things,” said the trembling woman. “Do you really know my daughter?”

Alex and I nodded.

“Yes. She’s one of my best friends,” I said, giving her a comforting smile.

“And she sent you to find me? Me specifically?”

I wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Well...not exactly...” I started.

“We were asked to find you,” said Alex confidently. “Our supreme commander told us to do it for your daughter’s safety.”

I couldn’t help but admire his eloquence. There was something about his dignified demeanor that always impressed me.

“I should’ve known Quinn wouldn’t ask for me herself,” she said, looking down. “Tell me,” she asked, “is she okay?”

Her eyes were filled with worry.

Quinn hadn’t told me much about her mother that was positive. But the look on Jeanette’s face showed that she still cared deeply for her daughter. And if anyone deserved to know the truth, it was her mother.

“Your daughter is in serious danger,” I said. “If you don’t help her, she might die.”

The words hit Jeanette hard.

She started to cry.

Alex looked at me, unsure.

~Did I say too much?~

But I nodded at him.

I was confident that I had told her just enough.

Alex came over and helped me lift the heavy planks of wood trapping her legs.

We each took an arm and helped her stand.

The gallant Beta offered Jeanette his sleeve to dry her tears.

She seemed to be wrestling with a lot of complicated emotions.

“Alright then,” the woman said urgently through her tears. “Take me to my daughter.”

Anthony

I was dead.

I had to be dead.

This felt like the death I had seen in battle.

Not the quick, painless kind, but the slow, torturous kind.

The kind of death that dragged on.

The kind of death where you could feel every bit of life leaving your weary body.

The kind of death reserved for the worst of creatures.

~Slow...agonizing...all-consuming...~

Of course I was dead. How could I not be?

The last thing I remembered was the fangs of my mate’s imposter, sucking the life out of me.

And where was I now?

Surrounded by dirt.

Soil on all sides.

Only worms for company, their cold, slimy bodies against mine.

My men must have found me. They must have seen that the imposter had killed me.

They must have thrown me into this shallow, dirty grave.

Without a coffin.

Without even a shroud to cover my body.

No ceremony.

This is how they treated their leader?

Was I their beacon of hope? Their guide out of their narrow-minded, timid lives into a world of prosperity?

Their savior from the mundane?

How naive they were.

Because I had dodged the death they must have been eagerly anticipating.

I had been brought back to the world of the living.

Or had I ever really died?

I wasn’t sure.

But that didn’t matter.

What mattered was that I was back.

And as I dug my way out of the dirt, past the worms, through layers of nature’s waste, I pondered on that fact. Every part of my dirt-filled mind struggled to understand how I had beaten death’s finality.

This self-reflection ended when I ran out of earth to dig through.

I was no longer in the cool darkness of the ground.

It had given way to light. At first, it stung, like a swarm of tiny needles poking my skin.

But soon, it breathed life into me.

My eyes fluttered open, and I saw its orange and red hues burning brightly through the bare treetops.

Now there was no doubt.

I had cheated death.

Hours passed as I rolled in the dirt and grime, struggling to stand.

Then, like a wobbly toddler, I got to my feet, shifting my weight between my legs to find balance.

Soon I found my rhythm and started to trudge forward through the forest.

And that’s when I heard his voice for the first time.

What a powerful voice it was.

A commanding baritone, laced with wisdom, but also a hint of wickedness.

Not blatantly evil, but the kind of cunning found in all great leaders.

The ability to manipulate, to make masses carry out their will.

It felt like I had been brought back from the dead for that very purpose.

In my past life, I couldn’t be controlled.

I was too ambitious. Too domineering.

But death had humbled me.

I was ready to take orders from those who knew better.

But who were those who knew better?

I felt their presence but couldn’t put a name to them.

No…not ~their~ presence. ~His~ presence.

~Anthony. Listen carefully to what I say.~

~Your life has been spared because it hasn’t fulfilled its purpose.~

I didn’t know whose voice echoed in my spinning mind.

But I knew that I would obey it.

If I didn’t, I felt my body would soon return to the ground.

“Did I die?” I asked the voice.

~As you teetered on the edge between life and death, I pushed you back into the earthly realm.~

~Don’t worry, Anthony. You won’t face your next mission alone. You’ll be joined by another. One who, in your previous, unenlightened state, you might have seen as an enemy.~

~Now, she may be your ally.~

~An ally?~

The word sounded appealing.

But could I really trust anyone after my mate had betrayed me?

My subordinates thought so little of me that they tried to bury me without the proper ceremony.

The idea of having a partner in this second chance at life seemed necessary but risky.

~You will go to the house of Shadow Moon Pack. There, you will find the Alpha’s mate. She will be waiting for you. This descendant of my own bloodline will give you the duties I intend for you both. Now go. Time flies.~

“Yes, my Lord Matheius.”

His name felt strange on my tongue.

I had heard it before, but never in this context.

But he was my God, and I would do his bidding.

I would find Quinn. She would be my master.

So it had been said. So it would be done.