The Wolf Within

Chapter 18: The Storm

Toni's PoV:

I stood by the window of my room, my back to the door. Outside, the rain pelted down, slamming itself against the window. I shivered and held my arms against my chest, hoping to keep the cold out. It didn't work.

I was alone, the heavy silence only broken by the loud thunder. It had woken me from my sleep, dragging me from a happy dream and into the violent noise of the storm. Although I had never admitted it to any one other than Celina, I was terrified of thunder.

There was a loud crack of thunder, paired with the lightening. It lit up the room, the static light turning everything a ghostly shade of white. I recoiled, deciding to turn on the lights and close the windows -- maybe I could distract myself.

As I crossed the room, my bare feet flinching against the cold stone, I heard a noise from outside the window. Not the storm — it was fighting, people crashing and shouting and growling. I ran back to the window, ignoring my fear, and looked out to see what was happening.

The darkness hid whatever was making the noise, obscuring the fight in shadows, but I could hear it clearly. I shook with fright, my hands quivering before me, and pulled the curtains shut as fast as I could.

I didn't want to wait and see what was happening -- I was sick of having secrets kept from me. Instead, I ran out of my room, my night gown fluttering behind me.  

The corridor was almost as dark as outside my window, the shadows seeming to swallow me whole. I could faintly hear the fight through the walls, but otherwise it was silent -- the whole pack was asleep.

My breath came out ragged and loud, escaping my lips like a fugitive. Everything was cold against me, even the carpet under my feet. When I reached the bottom of the stairs I closed my mouth and focused on calming my racing heart. Fear stirred in the pit of my stomach. A noise -- a crash -- came from in front of me. 

I pressed myself up against the wall; I strained my ears. Silence, then another noise, louder than before. I jumped, my eyes wide in the shadows of the stairway. The noise got louder and more distinct, so I edged open the door, revealing a sliver of the next corridor. 

A sickly, pale light slid in from the c***k in the door. It flickered, the candlelight getting brighter as whoever held it got closer. I could see a shadow cast against the wall, the figures of two men and something held between them.

They were hauling somebody -- dragging them along by the arms. I could just about make out the long shadows stretching up the wall before they appeared, blocking out the light entirely. 

"Let me go!" The prisoner cried, his voice weak and slurred. He struggled a bit, his limbs flailing out, before one of the men hit him hard.

"Shut up already!"

I watched them leave, shocked at what I'd seen. Who was the prisoner, and why were they being treated so badly? I tried to sniff the air, to see if I knew the person, but all I could smell was something sickly sweet and unfamiliar. I shuddered.

When they were about to round the corner, I crept out and followed them. My heart pounded and I knew it was stupid, dangerous, even, but I had to know what was going on. Quietly, I slid along the corridor, sticking to the darkest corners, and staying just far way enough that they wouldn't be able to smell me strong enough. So long as I could just about see them as they turned the next corner, I figured I wouldn't be found. 

I followed them through corridor after corridor, through doors you would normally just ignore, and watched as they stupidly forgot to lock the doors behind them. I guess they wanted to make it quicker for themselves when they had to leave, or maybe they just wanted to minimize the noise they made, but it was no trouble following them when they left every door unlocked behind them. 

Soon we were heading downwards, into the bowels of the pack house. I'd never gone past the bottom floor, but by following the two wolves and their prisoner I was able to sneak down a cramped set of spiral stairs and into what looked like a dungeon. I waited a few minutes before I followed them down the stairs, and when I did I didn't leave the staircase, I just stood, cloaked in shadows, and watched.

The prisoner, a sick looking man covered in blood, fought less and less as we neared the dungeons. By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs he had completely stopped fighting, and his shouts were too weak to really be called shouts. I understood why nobody else had woken up, especially with the noise of the storm to drown out the struggling.

I couldn't help but pity the prisoner, even though he reeked of blood and that sickly sweet scent, and I was struck by a burning desire to know what he'd done.

The dungeon was small and dingy, with about twenty individual cells. There were no beds, no furniture at all in any of them, and as we were underground only the dim, fluorescent lights overhead provided any light. I shivered, the stone wall I was pressed to cold against my skin. 

The wolves unlocked the cell at the end and threw the prisoner in, letting him fall to the ground. They slammed the door behind him and locked it fast. I watched as they stepped away, one to a seat where he kept guard, the other to lean against the opposite wall. The key, hanging from the taller man's belt, glinted in the harsh lighting. Silver. 

I sucked in a breath. There was only one reason why they would have a cell lined with silver. I took one last look around the dungeon, my stomach recoiling, and found the eyes of the prisoner. He seemed to look right at me, his eyes searching, but he didn't say anything. Before he could, I raced back up the stairs. 

I knew, even as I sped quickly, quietly away, that I would have to go back. There was no way I would let this go, there was no way I was letting this be a secret from me. I had to know what was going on. When I got to the top of the stairs I broke out into a full sprint, no longer having to worry about them hearing me. 

By the time I got to my bedroom, I was out of breath and scared. What kind of secrets were being hidden from me? Was the Fortier pack safe?

I collapsed into bed, no longer worried by the storm, and tried my best to sleep.