Chapter 17: My Plan

Sirius' POV

We were watching a nearby town because Orion ordered it, saying he had seen humans nearby. He had the idea of threatening Marien with something, apparently, with something that could hurt her. This wasn't going well; I was worried.

"I've finally been tasked with doing something useful," Altair murmured.

I just frowned while I was careful not to be seen.

"We have always been told that attacking another who is unarmed is not very good-looking."

"Don't start it," he whispered. "This is a dirty human that has been hanging around lately. They think they can come and take us whenever they want."

I remembered the evolved men controlled by humans. Yes, they used to take us and do experiments on us.

"Uhm," I looked forward, "I see..." But I still wasn't convinced by the idea.

Anyway, I had no choice. If I didn't do it and continued refusing to obey, I might fail to get Marien out.

Of course, I should never have brought her in the first place...

Altair ran, and I reacted, leaving after him.

I realized that a controlled evolved man accompanied the human. He was harassing a young one of our kind who had not yet gone through a transition, and since we were warriors, we had to protect our people from all these things.

"Stop the evolved one!" Altair ordered, and he launched himself towards the human.

I was amazed to see how he dodged a shot and, with a blow, the human fell unconscious. I was hit by the evolved man I was supposed to stop. I swallowed dirt in the attack, out of distraction, and began to growl, turning around and hitting him to get him off of me.

"The human must have control to wake this one up!" I warned while I struggled with the evolved man who was entirely out of his mind.

And then, he stopped. My attacker blinked a couple of times and jumped back with a surprised look. I turned, and Altair dropped the human after ripping the controller out of his pocket with his other hand.

***

"You didn't need to hurt him seriously, you know?" I commented as we returned to the fort.

He carried the human on his back, and his blood was dripping into his shirt. I had even gotten some stains for helping him take him.

"It's about time. You're late," Orion growled, crossing his arms from a hillside near the fort.

He led us back, and Apus and Antares chuckled as they noticed the human man waking up. They pulled him away from Altair as he began to complain of fear, seeing himself surrounded by callous men with cold eyes, who pushed him and played with him as if they were lions with their prey.

I looked down, clenching my fists so much that they shook. The man complained after another blow and fell. The claws of my companions disfigured his face. He seemed to look for mercy in me, and I had no choice but to take my eyes off him.

Maybe he hadn't been a very good person, but many human men just followed orders... Just like me.

"Enough," Orion snapped. "Let's see what our guest thinks."

Apus lifted the man off the ground with one hand as if nothing had happened and dragged him while he begged to be left.

We head to Marien's cell.

"Constrain her so she doesn't get distracted," Orion ordered Altair and me as we entered.

As soon as the door was opened, she was scared, and as Altair rushed to grab her, I did, too, not wanting him to be rough to her. Only by being close could I be sure of that. We both restrained her by the arms, and the others threw the man while he cried.

"LET GO OF ME!" Marien screamed.

I swallowed hard. Were they going to kill him? It wouldn't be something new. I had seen Orion kill without a flicker since I was fifteen.

Marien cried too, and I looked at my hands, which were holding onto her forearm, stained with blood. Oh no...

"Every day that passes," Orion spoke, "Sirius and Altair will hunt down one of your humans to kill them. Do you like that idea better?"

What?

The man continued to cry, but Antares grabbed him and broke his neck just like that, making Marien scream. I gasped for a second before reacting and letting go of my poor lady on reflex, fearing that they were going to do that to her in front of me at any given moment.

She was left curled up against the wall, crying and shaking. I couldn't help but look at her with concern. My heart was beating fast, but I had to regain my composure since Altair looked at me when he noticed I let go of her first.

"This time, he was one of those unfortunate who manipulated our fellow, but next time, it will be someone a little more innocent, understood?" Orion threatened her.

He gave the signal, and I recovered my cold face after passing the bitter pill. We went out, and the brothers pulled the body.

I heard Marien crying behind that door, and I gritted my teeth, wanting to scream, stifling a gasp of frustration.

Marien... My lady. I couldn't let them do that to her. I couldn't let her keep watching this, either. What was I going to do? What could I do?!

"You okay?" Altair asked.

I shook my head.

"Leave me alone," I growled and walked away.

I ended up on a tree branch, watching the horizon with a frown still on my face.

Marien should only see beautiful things. She should not have suffered abuse from anyone, either. She deserved to be treated with the delicacy with which someone would welcome a bird into their hands.

She had had slight marks on her neck, caused by Altair. They were no longer noticeable, which meant it wasn't severe, but she shouldn't have had a single injury, no matter how simple. She didn't even need any more mental wounds than she had from losing her parents.

I let out a breath and leaned my head against the trunk. I heard light laughter and turned to see them. They were around a campfire, cooking a venison.

"Hey," Orion called, "aren't you going to eat?"

"I think he's still stressed," Altair said. "He doesn't seem as well prepared as I am since not only is he younger, but he took quite a while to bring her, missing out on the fun here."

I growled, and they chuckled again.

"There are the showers," he mocked, "get in the cold water to make your tantrum disappear."

I continued looking at him from the top of the branch with annoyance. He shook his head and walked away.

He hadn't been like that before, but we all changed. That was a fact. Although, as far as I believed, we would change for the better. But what was 'better'? Doing what was good for our people even though it was sometimes bad for others?

I sighed and jumped down to approach the campfire. I couldn't stop thinking about Marien, but I had to keep up appearances for her. If they discovered that I had this strange sympathy for her, they could kill her. That was my biggest fear. I had to let things flow, or it would be worse.

If something happened to her...

"She hasn't touched her food," Antares said, returning with it in his hand.

"If she doesn't eat, she's going to die, and she's not going to talk," his brother argued.

"She'll have to," I assured, sitting on one of the logs after taking a bite of the cooked animal. "I don't think she'll let another one of her precious humans die."

"Ha," Orion mocked after ripping flesh from the animal's bone with his sharp fangs. "Since you've spent so much time putting up with her, you should know how to get her to talk."

"Indeed," I feigned confidence and even a little arrogance. "You have done well to threaten her with killing other humans." I rested my elbows on my knees as I watched the fire move with that wild nature of it, angry as I was at being restrained, "I suggest asking her if she wants to continue being guilty of the death of other humans, and I'm pretty sure she's going to say no. Although if she gets stubborn, we'll gladly go get another human."

"Good. No doubt you're in a hurry to kill her."

"I'm sick of this, that's all. I already want to go against those humans who want to attack us with toxins. I'm bored here."