Sovereign
1109 Words
```Chapter 5
"What the f**k!"
Farkas and Lupe screamed at almost the same time.
"Who was that?" Lupe asked, already going into hysterics.
"Don't know. Hold on…" Farkas replied.
He took a deep breath, and in a booming voice.
"Whoever you are, I command you to return to this cave right now!" His voice boomed through the whole forest.
An unusual silence fell as the birds and other nocturnal creatures stopped making their sounds. In the silence, Farkas could hear the person running.
"I ask you to stop." He infused more command into his voice.
The footsteps continued moving away rapidly.
Farkas looked at Lupe with a look of dismay on his face.
"Definitely not a Blood Moon. He would have obeyed your command." Lupe assured him.
"Must be your pack then." Farkas said.
He sprang up, intending to chase down the peeping Tom. But Lupe held him back.
"Don't, please. I'm already dead enough as it is. Don't make me deader."
"What?" Farkas asked.
"Just leave him. It will look like I set an enemy on my own pack member." Lupe said in an unnaturally high voice.
She leaped up, pushing Farkas away from her.
"The penalty is death. I have to stop him before he reaches the pack."
Lupe's voice was teary when she said this. Without another word, or a glance back, she took off into the forest, which has resumed it's plethora of night sounds.
Farkas sighed.
He listened to her footsteps fade away into the distance, then got up heavily and started making his way to his pack.
He knew what Lupe was talking about. The penalty for treason in his pack was death too.
But she was the beta's daughter, so she should be safe, right?
____ ___ ____
Wrong.
This is so wrong! Lupe thought as she ran.
She could barely see the back of the man that had caught Farkas and herself. And the gap was increasing by the seconds.
Curse the moon! She thought.
Lupe had not cursed at the moon many times in her life. But she was going to die if she did not catch that guy before he reached the pack…
….so who cares?
"Hey!" Lupe shouted, waving frantically.
But she did not detect even a hint that the guy heard her. He continued running just as fast as ever.
"Stop! Please! I got to explain! You've got to understand!"
Nada.
The guy continued running. Soon, he was a dot in the distance.
Moments later, Lupe could not even see his back again.
She collapsed on the floor and broke into sobs.
Curse the moon. She said in her mind again.
____ ___ ____
Ralph and his party had nearly reached home when he realized his daughter was not with him.
"Where's Lupe?" He asked the person behind him.
"She was right behind me…" the guy replied, looking surprised when he saw no Lupe behind him.
Ralph's face instantly screwed into an expression of worry.
"I told her attending the meeting was a bad idea. Where's she now? She may be lost. She has never gone there." Ralph muttered worriedly.
"Shall I go look for her?" The man asked.
"Yes. Please do." Ralph replied, grateful.
Thirty minutes later, he was in his home, pacing around. Many things ran through his mind.
He thought maybe his daughter had come to harm, seeing the enemy does not respect peace times.
Or maybe, she was simply lost in the forest.
But in either case, she was in danger. The forest was no place for the weak, especially at nights.
Soon, the man he had sent came in. He was panting like he ran all the way there. Ralph instantly got very worried.
What had happened?
"Where's Lupe?" He asked, not even allowing the man to catch his breath.
The man did not reply to his question though. He had a weird smile on his face. It unsettled Ralph.
"Remember the time you voted for my father to die because he had accepted help from the enemy?" The man asked with the weird smile.
"I asked you a question…" Ralph was in no mood for games.
"Oh, I'm coming to that, chill. The votes were tied on the matter. And you were the only one that had not voted. You held his life in your hands, your vote!"
Ralph suddenly got a premonition.
"Don't." He said quietly. He did not know what he was asking the man not to do. But he knew whatever the man was getting at would not be good for him.
"Don't tell you where your daughter was?" The man sneered.
"Don't do whatever it is you want to do." Unconsciously, there was an undertone of plea in Ralph's voice.
"Why shouldn't I? My father accepted help, and had to die because of it. Your daughter was having s*x with the enemy's alpha, and…"
"What?!" Ralph screamed.
"Yep. That's treason. And you know the penalty."
Ralph acted instinctively. But the man smoothly dodged his attempt to grab him.
"It's no use keeping me here, beta. I've already told the alpha. He's just waiting for Lupe to return so he can confirm if there is a man's scent on her."
The man laughed mockingly.
Ralph glared at him. There was so much hatred in his eyes.
"You will be dead when all these has passed." He whispered audibly and rushed out.
He has to reach his daughter before she reaches the pack.
He walked as fast as he could without it appearing something was wrong. He put on a tight face so no one greeted him.
Then he saw the alpha. His heart skipped a beat. The alpha was waiting near the official entrance of the pack grounds.
Ralph's mind worked fast. But before he could turn and try another way out, the alpha had already seen him.
Gonzalo called out to him and they greeted cordially as if nothing was wrong. Casually, Ralph asked Gonzalo what he was doing there but Gonzalo just brushed it off.
Ralph got an ominous feeling. Just what had the man told Gonzalo? The alpha was not even ready to tell him what was up.
He felt a sense of urgency greater than any he had felt in his life as tried finding another route.
"You can't come back to the pack." He told Lupe as soon as she was within earshot.
"They already know?" Lupe asked, distress evident on her.
"Yes. You will have to go to the Blood Moon pack while I pretend you're dead. Come on. Let's know if we can reach some form of agreement with Farkas."
```
- Writer
