WHAT THE NIGHT TOOK
1322 Words
The Golden Knight Pack never slept.
They learned that lesson the night everything was taken from them.
William Smith stood alone in the war chamber, one hand braced against the stone table carved with old territorial lines. Torches burned low along the walls, their flames flickering as though even fire feared disturbing him. The air smelled faintly of iron and smoke—ghosts of a past battle that never truly left.
Maps lay spread before him, marked and re-marked over the years. Borders shifted. Alliances rotted. Enemies learned to hide better.
But Shadow Blue never disappeared.
William’s fingers curled slowly into a fist.
He had been sixteen when the screams started.
Not battle cries—those he could respect. These had been different. High, broken, panicked. The sound of wolves dying where they stood, cut down in their own homes. The sound of children who did not understand why running wasn’t fast enough.
Ninety-six.
That number lived in him like a second heartbeat.
Ninety-six pack members slaughtered in a single night, their bodies left where they fell as a message. The Shadow Blue Pack had not come to conquer territory. They had come to erase a name.
Golden Knight.
William remembered blood soaking into the ground beneath his knees. Remembered trying to stand and being dragged back by hands slick with red. Remembered his sister’s small body going limp in his arms, her eyes glassy, her breath stuttering out while he screamed for help that never came.
Lena had been six.
He never spoke her name aloud.
A knock echoed through the chamber—sharp, deliberate.
“Enter,” William said without turning.
Lucian Vale stepped inside, posture rigid, expression controlled. He had been younger then, too. All of them had been. War aged wolves faster than time ever could. Lucian stood by him that night when his parents and sister were taken away. His father has trained both him and Lucian since they were six though Lucian is older.
“We caught someone,” Lucien said.
William finally turned.
“A Shadow Blue male,” Lucien added.
“Crossed the eastern line under cloaking scent. Sloppy.”
“Where?” William asked.
“Below,” Lucien replied. “Holding cells.”
William nodded once and reached for his cloak. “How long has he been conscious?”
Lucien’s mouth tightened. “Long enough to realize he made a mistake.”
They walked through the corridors in silence, boots echoing against stone worn smooth by generations of command. Wolves bowed as William passed, instinctively lowering their gazes. He did not acknowledge them.
Respect was assumed. Fear was earned.
The holding cells sat deep beneath the packhouse, carved into bedrock during the earliest wars. This was where enemies learned truths they never intended to give.
The Shadow Blue male was chained upright against the wall, wrists bound above his head with silver-laced restraints. Blood crusted at his temple, his breathing labored but steady. He lifted his head when William entered.
Defiance flickered in his eyes.
William almost smiled.
“So,” William said calmly, circling him. “They still send boys.”
The male spat blood onto the floor. “Go to hell.”
Lucien stepped forward, fist already clenched, but William raised a hand.
“No,” William said softly. “Let him speak.”
William stopped directly in front of the prisoner. He studied him the way one studied a weapon—assessing strength, flaws, usefulness.
“What’s your name?” William asked.
Silence.
William nodded. “That’s fine. You won’t need it long.”
He turned to Lucien. “How many times has Shadow Blue tested our borders this month?”
“Four,” Lucien replied. “This makes five.”
William exhaled slowly. “They’re getting bolder.”
The prisoner laughed weakly. “You’re not untouchable, Golden Knight.”
William’s hand moved without warning, striking the male across the face hard enough to snap his head sideways.
The chains rattled violently.
“I survived your pack,” William said quietly. “You don’t get to speak to me.”
He leaned closer, his voice dropping. “Who sent you?”
The male coughed, blood trailing from his lip. “You think killing me will stop anything?”
William straightened. “No. But it will remind them.”
He nodded to Lucien.
Lucien stepped in, delivering a precise blow to the male’s ribs—not enough to kill, enough to break. The scream that followed echoed down the stone corridor.
William watched without emotion.
Pain had become a language he understood fluently.
“Again,” William said.
Another blow.
“Again.”
By the fourth strike, the male sagged against the chains, breath hitching.
“Alpha Jack,” he gasped. “He sent me.”
William’s eyes darkened.
Alpha Jack. Ruler of Shadow Blue. The same Alpha who had ordered the s*******r and called it strategy.
“Why now?” William asked.
The male laughed weakly. “You think he fears you? He wants to know if you’re still bleeding.”
William stared at him for a long moment.
Then he said, “You can tell him this.”
He leaned in, voice lethal and low. “I never stopped.”
William turned away. “Finish it.”
Lucien hesitated. “Death?”
William paused at the doorway. “No.”
Lucien’s brows furrowed.
“Send him back alive,” William said. “Broken enough to remember. Let Shadow Blue see what crossing my land costs.”
Lucien inclined his head. “As you command.”
As William walked away, the screams followed him—but they did not touch him.
Nothing did.
Above ground, the moon hung high and unforgiving, bathing Golden Knight territory in pale silver. William stepped outside and inhaled deeply.
Shadow Blue thought he ruled through rage.
They were wrong.
He ruled through patience.
Through restraint.
Through the promise that when he finally moved, there would be nothing left standing on the other side.
Unbeknownst to him, fate was already watching.
And it was waiting.
Looking at the moonlight shining bright on the peak of golden knight he mind drifted back to that same night everything started.
He could still hear his mother's voice
“Go ahead son, take Lena with you”
That was the last words he heard his mother say before they took her away, he wanted to run after them but seeing his mother's face, she smiled at him as they took her away.
As much as he wanted to chase after them he still had his siblings to protect and he promised his mother he will.
He could still see his mother's sweet smile, the kind that makes all his worries go away.
Still he couldn't protect her, his father was attacked on his way to sign a treaty.
Turning around he ran and ran as fast as he could, when he opened the door he found Arin, his younger brother and elowen, his younger sister but he searched around but he couldn't find Lena. The youngest of them all.
“Where's Lena?” Arin asked only eight at that time, and Elowen 12.
Bending down he saw the look on Elowen's face, tears already forming in those beautiful eyes that resembled their mother's.
“Where's mom?”
Those words felt like a blow instantly suffocating him.
“I'll go get mom and Lena, stay here okay?” He reassured with a smile and Arin so young nodded but Elowen understood and immediately bent down to console Erin.
“Mom's with Lena and William will go get them” she said before giving William’s arm a tight squeeze.
And just like that everything else felt like a blur.
Closi
ng his eyes he shook off the memory before wondering if he'll ever get to see Elowen or Erin again.
He hasn't heard a word since they left abroad three years ago.
- Writer
