Ruby's protector

Chapter 7

I turned around to see a familiar face. It was the same guy who had been there with Lucian the day the Blue Sky pack was raided upon. I had only gotten a peek of his features, but since I had a retentive memory, I could remember him right away.

Sierra had informed me that he was Lucian’s closest aide and his full name was Beckett Watterson. He was a childhood friend to both Lucian, his late brother (Atlas), and Gina. And from the aura he was exuding, he would be a Beta, no less.

“I clearly wasn’t,” I spoke in my defence.

Blue eyes matched against blue eyes as we stared down at each other.

“Beck!” Timothy called out, quickly running to hide behind him, using Beckett as a shield to defend himself from me.

“I hope you don’t think that you’ll be able to survive for the second time if you try to kidnap Timothy again.” Beck said to me with a rude tone.

I was so close to tearing my hair out. Why did everyone think I was involved in this kid’s k********g?! I had no clue about it until that day!

But from the way Beck and Timothy were looking at me like I was the biggest villain in their stories, I doubted they would believe me if I told them I had nothing to do with the k********g.

And I wasn’t going to let myself get bothered about that. Besides, I didn’t actively need them to believe in me. Only Lucian’s opinion of me mattered to me.

I had to make him believe I was a good person, who was worthy of living, so he would protect me.

“You two can think whatever you want. I’m outta here,” I spoke with a lax tone as I meandered around them to leave the library.

Unfortunately, luck was not on my side as the first person I bumped into after leaving the library was the head maid, and she was holding a big wooden spoon in her hand.

“Aren’t you supposed to be filling up balloons?!” She whacked the top of my head with the wooden spoon. “What are you doing here?”

Ow!

I pressed down the top of my head as I cried out, “I was just taking a break! Why do you have to be so violent?”

“You still have the guts to talk back to me?” She raised the spoon for the second time, but I was quick enough to dodge it, running away before she could hit me.

Fuck, did she have to hit me so hard? Who even hits people with wooden spoons? I hate this pack!

* * *

“You’re not going to attend the party?” Sierra asked me as she saw me turning in for the night.

I frowned deeply. “You do know that the celebration is in honour of the destruction of my original pack, don’t you?”

She made a ‘duh’ expression. “I do. But we don’t have to wear the maid’s uniform or serve anyone at the party. It’s going to be a buffet service and the party is going to go on all night long.”

Was she trying to convince me to attend the party? If she was, then she was failing miserably.

“I find everything about this pack disgusting. Killing people and celebrating it is the most awful thing ever.” I said, about to walk into my room, but Sierra stopped me as she placed a hand on my shoulder.

“I used to think this way too,” she started to say, and I just knew I was in for a long ass back story.

“My original pack was also destroyed by this one. I think I was around eight years old at that time. None of my family members survived and I was taken captive. I thought my life was going to be extremely horrible, judging based on the rumours I’d heard about the Blood Moon pack back then.

“As you can see now, my life isn’t ‘horrible’ per say. I later found out that some members of my pack had killed innocent civilians from the Blood Moon pack and we all paid the consequences for their actions.” Sierra said, and I noticed that her story was sounding so similar to mine.

The only difference was that her original pack had killed people, while my original pack only kidn*pped a child. Nevertheless, we still served the same sentence.

“Alpha Lucian wasn’t the Alpha of the Blood Moon pack then. His father was. And the habit of massacring other packs who offended them started way before Alpha Lucian’s reign and his father’s. All packs are known for something. This one is known for asserting dominance through ruthless methods.

“If the Alpha one day decides to pardon a pack whose members offended them, what do you think would happen next?” Sierra asked me.

Another pack would do the same. They would think that the Blood Moon pack has gone soft. More packs would begin to cross the line and disrespect the Blood Moon pack, making the pack lose its power and dominance.

I didn’t say any of this out loud though.

“You know the answer already, don’t you? Some people are born into duties they can’t change and others are born into duties that are changed for them. The two of us are part of the latter.” Sierra said with a meaningful look on her face.

I felt like my heartstrings were being strummed at. I’d never thought of things that way before.

“Instead of steaming anger in your heart against the people that wronged you, why not just accept that things have changed and try to live with it?” Sierra suggested.

Things had changed so much from the way they used to be. And I had unconsciously decided not to let go of the past. But how could I?

After all the hard work I put into my reputation, my life, my future. Everything was destroyed in an instant by a butterfly effect that had nothing to do with me. I couldn’t just decide to forget about the past and move on.

Even though I hadn’t been treated like a princess by the Willow family, they were still the only family I knew. The memories I had of my real parents had all blurred out now. All the memories I had in semblance to a family was pertaining to Alpha and Luna Willow and also Jonathan.

“You’ve managed to move on and forget about the past, but that’s not something I can do. It’s not something I would even do if I could. This anger… this fear… it’s the only thing I have now.” My voice dropped along the line of speaking.

As though Sierra could understand my unsaid words, she nodded her head and backed away from me.

“Alright then. Give it time. If you need me tonight, I’ll be at the party.” Sierra said with a wink.

I smiled weakly. “Good night.”

I stepped into my room and shut the door immediately afterwards. As I laid down to sleep, Sierra’s words kept on replaying inside my head.

“Some people are born into duties they can’t change and others are born into duties that are changed for them.”

How annoying.

After a while of turning and tussling with my bed, I decided to go out for a stroll to tire myself out so I could fall asleep. My legs led me to the garden behind the pack house. It was a pity that such a pretty garden was located in a vile place like the Blood Moon pack house.

I was about to return to my room after walking around for a bit when I heard the sound of two people talking.

“Are you sure?” The first person said. I recognized the owner of the voice in an instant to be Lucian.

“Certainly. I’ve never seen rogues like that before in my entire life. It was a new breed in a different league.” The second person said. This was Beck!

I quickly hid myself behind a tree to eavesdrop on their conversation. Rogues? New breed? No way I was letting this information slip through my fingers.