His Wolfless Bride

CHAPTER 11: What's Next?

The Prince Ultima and his men depart from our views, taking my packmates' morale away and putting their future in limbo. I already have a depleted morale and an undetermined future before they arrived, but they made me worse coz Umber is suffering right in front of me.

Tears trickle from my eyes as his pitiable state drubs me in every area it can. I slide my filthy, bare feet closer to him. He weakly growls the instant my palm brushes his bloody, brown fur, but because of the silver chains, he could barely move. I wanna remove the chains off him, but that will only worsen his situation, our situations. Umber doesn’t recognize anyone. He’ll only kill all of us here.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry I got so scared that I wasn’t able to do anything for you. I thought I was ready to die, but… but I realized I wasn’t. I chose to live so I just stood and watched.”

I rest myself on Umber’s body to feel Captain Haile’s presence. His fur is ragged while his skin is cold, entirely different from what I remember of him. His jagged breath keeps on weakening and his irregular heartbeats are dangerously slowing down.

I’m gonna be amazed if he survives this condition, but I also can never accept that he might die. There must be something I can do! As long as Captain Haile is still alive, I can still try to save him!

While the others are pulling the dead bodies to one side of the area, Claudette and Naomi are being escorted to a cube-shaped shade several feet from where Umber is hitched. Following them are the lickspittle members of our pack. I don’t understand why they still need to behave obsequiously towards those two when they’re already stripped off of their power and authority. Well, I guess, they've just become accustomed to being lickspittles.

I know I’m unwelcome to come closer to their circle, but I have to seek answers from anyone who could possibly explain what’s happening to Captain Haile and how he could be saved.

I’m still a few steps away when Naomi’s glare greets me through the narrow gap in the threadbare curtains. Some also mimic their former Alpha’s action, but I refuse to be affected. My curiosity and my desperation to save Captain Haile is bigger than any of their hatred towards me. I push the curtain aside with my knuckles so I could see them better.

“How dare you come in here?!” Claudette hisses.

If I’m not going through so much distress about Captain Haile’s situation, I will do whatever I can to anger her more. I have so many insults to hurl at her now, and she’ll absolutely won’t be able to chew each of them. But then again, insulting her won’t make my problems disappear.

“I wanna know what did the Prince Ultima do to Captain Haile. Why did Umber act so violently and why didn't he recognize anyone all of a sudden?”

Naomi hits her clenched fists on the wooden table as she yanks up from the wooden chair. “You don’t have any right to know! He’s not your mate anymore! He rejected you! He’s mine! Why don’t you just shut up and die!”

I raise an eyebrow at her, making her face redden more. I counter, “As far I know, he isn't your mate yet. Your parents still need to do some desperate rituals to the Moon Goddess before your improbable dream gets the chance to happen.”

They say that if two werewolves feel an electrifying sensation when they kiss or sometimes when they stare at each other’s eyes, then they’re mates. If that electrifying sensation deepens and becomes love and passion, they’ll be labeled as ‘destined mates’. If the electrifying sensation doesn’t escalate to love and passion, then they could opt out of their connection by rejecting their mates. If this happens, the Moon Goddess will allow them to find and choose a new mate or what others call the ‘chosen mate’, whose bonds are more powerful and stronger than the destined ones. But in the case of Captain Haile and Naomi’s relationship, I’d like to call it the ‘forced mates’. That term has never been used before, but it’s the most suitable term for them if they ever get married. They aren’t destined and their feelings are very one-sided. If two werewolves aren’t destined mates or chosen mates, their society will do some rituals to ask the Moon Goddess to make them mates. Since I haven’t witnessed how this ritual is being done, I’m not sure how the Moon Goddess will be responding to it. Sometimes, I just wanna believe that some are just using the Moon Goddess as an excuse to do whatever they want. One best example of a ‘forced mate’ is our former Main Alpha and our former Luna. I heard they didn’t love each other when they got married. Claudette just got pregnant and Marcellus, being the next-in-line Main Alpha of our pack, was forced to marry her to avoid dirtying his reputation. Now that I think about it, it makes me wonder if they really love each other now or if they’re only acting like it.

“I’ll go once I get the answer I want,” I say.

When Naomi attempts to storm closer to me, Inang, a retired Beta and the oldest member of our pack, grabs Naomi’s arm. Inang makes a weird sound with her pouted, wrinkled mouth while shaking her head in disapproval. Naomi shoves her grip on her, then glares at her. When Naomi’s glare is pivoted on me, she grunts and flumps back to the chair.

Inang motions for me to come closer, so I do, but still make sure that I retain some distance from Naomi and Claudette.

“The Prince Ultima loathes Captain Haile so much that he doesn't quickly kill him even if he can. He wants to make him suffer, so he puts him under a curse.”

“A curse?!” Both Naomi and I yell at the same time.

Naomi immediately relaxes her widened eyes while mine remain wide.

“Is he that powerful that he could use black magic?” I ask.

“He’s strong and powerful, but he can’t really use black magic,” Inang responds.

Before my confusion augments, Inang adds, “All werewolves born or married to the royal family are given a 'special gift' by the Moon Goddess, which they can only use once in their lifetime. And the Prince Ultima used his ‘special gift’ against Captain Haile today.”

“Is there a way to break the curse?” I ask, hoping that there is.

Inang nods and a breath of much needed air flows into me.

“But it isn’t easy,” she says.

“That’s fine! Tell me how?” I insist.

Naomi softly sniggers, then mockingly asks, “What can a wolfless Omega like you can do?”

Biting my words will never work for the likes of this woman. So I set my chin up and square my shoulders as I direct my dead serious eyes at her. “Something that a rankless werewolf like you can’t do.”

Naomi and Claudette growl. Canines protrude from their smudged-painted lips and red furs blanket their arms. But before they can fully transform into their wolves, Ruby and Scarlett, Inang lulls the tension.

“Killing her wouldn’t make our situation any better. We all need to work together to get through this tough time,” she says.

“She’s not needed,” Naomi grunts. “We can manage without her.”

Inang makes that same weird sound again while gently tapping the table. Simple gestures, which manage to calm the mother and daughter down. Their sharp canines and their silky red furs recede from view. These two are really good at provocation and when their target is provoked, they’ll also be the first ones to lose their tempers.

Inang turns to me again and says, “To answer your question, there are two ways on how to break the spell. The first one is for the spell-caster to wholeheartedly retract the curse himself, which is close to being impossible. The Prince Ultima loathes Captain Haile. There’s a little-to-nothing chance he’ll forgive him. And if ever the Prince Ultima does forgive Captain Haile and retract the curse, the Moon Goddess will curse him instead for neglecting to properly use his ‘special gift’.”

My shoulders slouch as a heavy sigh escapes me. The first option is out of the options, which only leaves me with the second one.

“What’s the other way?” I ask.

Nervousness latches onto me the longer Inang studies me with her droopy, sharp, dark eyes.

That nervousness amplifies when she finally speaks, “The last option is to kill the curse-caster himself before Captain Haile dies.”

My eyes widen as my shoulders draw out.

Kill the Prince Ultima? That’s a crime! If I kill Prince Giannis, sure, I’ll save Captain Haile, but Prince Giannis’ mother and soldiers and probably the other packs who are loyal to him will undoubtedly come after me!

“What? You look defeated now?” Naomi says, apparently enjoying my fear.

I swallow hard when Inang voices out the same thoughts as mine. She says, “This is the reason why all of us must work together. We can’t only kill the Prince Ultima, we must also kill everyone who’s loyal to him. That’s the only way we could save our entire pack, including our leaders who are detained. The only question is, who’s willing to initiate the first step?”

Everyone gets quiet, but every pair of eyes are aimed at me. After treating me like I’m some kind of garbage, they now want my help?! Unbelievable! I understand that I’m desperate to save Captain Haile, that's why I’m considered a candidate to make the first move, but the former Main Alpha and his officials also need to be rescued. Where are their families who benefited from their corruption?

I direct my eyes to Claudette and Naomi and before I could even say something, Claudette defends herself and her daughter from my inquisitive stare.

“We must intelligently plan our actions and perfectly execute them. My daughter and I can’t get close to the Prince Ultima. He won’t trust us. Someone who doesn’t look suspicious must be the one to go.”

She doesn’t deflect her stare from me the entire time she’s speaking, making her motive crystal clear.

After some time of queer silence, she adds, “Marguerite is the best choice.”

This woman just wants to eliminate me and she’s not making any attempt to hide it. Prince Giannis is a skilled fighter that even Captain Haile couldn’t win against him. However, if I’m to kill Prince Giannis, I’ll avoid a fight and outsmart him instead. That’s my only chance to succeed. Regardless of whether Claudette wants me to fail or not, I’ll prove to her that I’m not as useless and as weak as everyone thinks I am.

“To reward your sacrifice,” she continues. "If you succeed in killing the Prince Ultima, I’ll give Captain Haile back to you.”

“Mother!” Naomi protests.

“Silence!” Claudette interrupts. “Our options are narrowing. Inang is right, we need to work together to survive.”

“But why Marguerite?” Naomi asks in disgust. “There are others who don’t look suspiciously dangerous to the Prince Ultima.”

“That’s true,” Inang says. “But unlike Marguerite, the others don’t have an outright reason to kill the Prince Ultima. Now, if you still don’t want Marguerite to do the job, will you do it in her stead?”

Great question that doesn’t receive a response. Naomi purses her trembling lips to imprison whatever dull-witted words that are aching to get out of them again.

It’s my obligation to save Captain Haile. His safety and his future with me are more than outright to bravely take on this ill-fated mission. However, I have to make sure that I’ll be saved too once I kill Prince Giannis.

“Fine,” I say. “I’ll go. But make no mistake. I’m only saving Captain Haile. So, once I kill the Prince Ultima, you need to finish the rest of the job and save the others.”

A relief grin stretches on Claudette’s face. “That’s a deal,” she says. She taps one of her lickspittle’s back and motions for him to move out of the chair. It doesn’t take a split second for the lickspittle to vacate his chair. Surprisingly, Claudette waves her pale hand for me to sit on the now vacant chair.

She says, “Sit right here, so we can carefully discuss our entire plan.”