Chapter 29

There was a storm before every battle, and every fight.

Another one was approaching. The storm was fierce and relentless, with strong winds that bent the trees nearly in half and heavy rain that drenched everything and anything. The sky was dark and ominous, with flashes of lightening illuminating the grounds outside. The deafening thunder heightened the sense of danger and urgency.

It was a reminder that plenty of werewolves were going to die before the night ended and the sun rose tomorrow.

I stared outside, watching as trees hurled in the garden and light faded from the sky.

A sudden knock forced me jump and my heart to sink. I turned around while my hand went to my chest. There was someone at the door and for a moment, I thought it was Nicholas, until I opened the door and found another man.

His face resembled a lot with Malik's. I could tell easily he was his brother.

"Thank you." I whispered while taking the tray of lunch away from his hands and closing the door on my way back inside the house.

It had been a few hours since I woke up all sore and drained. From my window, I had seen several cars drive in and men walk into the house all day long. There was one coming after the other one and it made me curious to what was happening.

Why did Nicholas wanted me to stay inside the room?

With the storm brewing in the sky, I could tell there was going to be a fight among the werewolves and that his pack was going to attack another one tonight. But why? I could never understand why Nicholas needed to attack other packs, or why he had attacked the pack I came from.

Everyone knew and understood they couldn't threaten Nicholas reign in the Silvertail's Pack. He was the strongest among the werewolves anyone knew about.

I sat down at the edge of my bed, filling my grumbling stomach from whatever sandwich had been made. By the time I finished lunch, I was full and bored to death.

There was nothing to do inside this room except to sleep, shower and eat. I couldn't even walk much or get a fresh breath of air as there was a nail drilled into the edge of the window in the room. It stopped the window from opening more than an inch.

I looked back outside, killing time while watching men gather around the house. Several voices reached up to my ears, but I couldn't make sense of any of the words they spoke. From a distance, I could even hear men walking across the hallway of the room I was in.

As the weather grew worse and the time ticked by, I found men shifting into their wolf form and gathering in groups. They were all large wolves, different shapes and sizes, some seemed even more terrific than the others. But their shifting caught my attention and reminded me of what Nicholas told me last night.

He didn't shift until eighteen.

It was not common.

Werewolves began to shift when they first turned eight or nine. My brother shifted when he was seven-half and everyone else did somewhere after their eighth birthday.

The storm outside mirrored the storm inside me, and I couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen. My chest tightened. It was similar to the feeling I got before Nicholas and his pack attacked at the pack house, the night where Evan and his friend were brutally killed by him, the night where he saw me and yet didn't kill me.

Another knock.

I snapped out of my thoughts and stood up on my feet before quickly rushing to the door.

Upon opening it, I found Malik with his brother near to the door. His brother stood on the opposite side of the wall, looking around.

"The Alpha has informed me to tell you that we'll be leaving soon and there'll be no one in the house asides from Khalid. He'll be here at all times, with you. The Alpha has suggested for you to stay in your room, but if you'd like to step outside, you can once the men have left this house." Malik explained to me, his tone stern as usual.

"Where are you going?"

"With the Alpha."

I nodded, "And where's he going?"

He barely looked up at me, "That I cannot tell," he shook his head slightly. "If you need anything, you can tell Khalid. And the Alpha has also strictly warned that you should try to run anywhere."

I rolled my eyes, "I won't. Where's he? Did he leave?"

"He's about too." He responded after a long pause. With that, he stepped back and walked away while his brother remained near to the door, barely meeting my eyes either.

Why were they all so—timid to their Alpha? That kind of submission, even as an Alpha, required something of great to be committed from his side. What could've he possibly done for them?

I closed the door after taking another glance outside. The house was emptying from all the men who had come in here, to meet with the Alpha. I could tell Nicholas hadn't slept after last night as there were voices all day.

I had distracted him, and he became distracted.

Looking back outside, I found wolves, in their wild form, scurrying into the trees and disappearing. One by one the entire pack of wolves was gone and then, after that, there was nothing but silence.

The constant howling and growling had stopped. The chatting inside the house had also stopped along with the loud engines of some of the cars that had driven out of here.

The storm outside was reaching a crescendo. All of the light from the skies had gone, covered with nothing but darkness.

I bit the inside of my cheek while hoping nothing bad to would happen, to anyone. It was terrifying when everyone in the pack house was killed that night and barely anyone was left alive. I didn't want to experience it again, or feel any of the dread and panic.

Some time passed by, slowly.

When the thundered roared in the dark sky, my heart sank to my stomach again and I began to pace around in the room to keep my thoughts diverted. I couldn't sit and wonder what was going to happen.

Exhausted from the silence, I opened the door and stepped outside to have a word with Khalid. Hopefully, unlike his brother, he could at least talk to me and keep me occupied.

"So, where are you from?" I asked, standing against the railing of the stairs and folding my arms across my chest.

He looked up and said nothing. Nothing.

"Is Malik your brother?" I rose a brow. "What's with the silence? It isn't like you're going to get killed or something if you speak with me?"

I couldn't be sure about that. Nicholas once killed a man purely because he spoke with me and let me run away after I told him I was pregnant. He showed me pity instead of killing me and in return, he was killed.

Khalid didn't speak a word the entire ten minutes I was standing outside. I sighed and headed back in while leaving the door of the room open. It made me feel less suffocated. Just as I went in, I heard a snap and then a few more odd sounds.

My brows furrowed.

Did they return? Was Nicholas back? It hadn't been a long while. Just an hour or two. I wasn't counting the minutes.

Upon hearing the sounds, Khalid rushed away from his post and headed to the nearest window which was across the hallway. It showed the entrance to the house, and the driveway. I rushed behind him, wanting to see who it was, or if Nicholas had returned.

Hopefully, not injured.

Who was I even kidding? He couldn't be injured or harmed. His body was made of steel. Even after shooting him with a silver bullet, it didn't affect him—at all.

"Who's there?" I asked while taking a peek outside.

"You should return to your room." Khalid responded, finally saying something. "I can smell unfamiliar wolves circling around the house." He looked back outside.

We found a brown wolf, drenched in rainwater, rushing across the garden, running toward the back yard of the house where there was an entrance. It only took me a second before I recognized the wolf.

It was Asher's—my brother's friend.

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