The Life seeking letter
792 Words
RYKER POV
“These are the trails of what we found,” Derek, my beta said leading towards the damaged pack house of the winter pack.
Fire had burned everything to an unrecognizable ruin.
The air reeked of death and the metallic scent of blood mixed with the sickening smell of charred flesh.
Winter Pack members' bodies lay bloodstained on each other, their lifeless eyes wide opened horrifically.
My jaw clenched.
“How did this happen?”
“After we left, we had reach the border and saw black smoke trailing from the pack, we rushed back but it was too late, everyone had already been slaughtered, including the two guards you left behind and Alpha Gideon had burnt to ash.”
“The letter?”
The silence that followed was deafening, save for the eerie whistle of the wind through the scorched ruins. Derek bowed immediately, his shoulders trembling slightly under the weight of my gaze.
“I'm sorry Alpha, it was gone before we arrived here.”
My eyes darkened, a cold, predatory anger flooding my veins. I slowly crouched down, the heat of the smoldering debris warming the soles of my boots. Reaching into the soot, I picked up the silver cufflinks of Gideon's shirt—the only metal that was left unburned in the cruel fire.
My fingers tightened on it, the sharp edges biting into my palm until I felt the bite of pain. Even though his death made me pleased a little, dying so fast won't make him go through the psychological pain I wanted him to feel.
He deserved to rot in endless torment! Death by fire was too quick, too merciful for a murderer like him.
Earlier, I had sent Derek to bring back the mysterious letter Gideon had stolen from Lola. I need to know whatever message was inside even though I didn't know who gave me.
And now, that vital piece of the mystery was gone, reduced to ash or stolen by a ghost. Neither of them can I answer.
“Who on earth did this?” I asked in a loud dry voice that echoed off the crumbling stone walls of the ruined pack house.
“We have no clue Alpha! But we saw this strange black mark on the dead bodies.”
“Lead me!”
My feet moved fast, crunching over the glass and debris. With a swift pull, Derek turned over a pale man's body, the dead eyes staring blankly at the sky, and pointed at a black cut mark on the back of his neck.
I leaned in, the stench of decay hitting me full force. I rubbed two of my fingers on the charred, oozing mark and brought them to my nose to perceive the smell. It didn’t smell like singed flesh or ordinary fire. It smelled of sulfur, rot, and a suffocating darkness that made Aries howl in primal disgust.
My eyes widened in horror.
“Black magic?”
Derek froze, his face also pale with horror, blood draining from his skin.
“What—”
“That's forbidden! Who could have used it?”
The realization hit me like a physical blow, sending a chill straight down my spine.
Black magic. The very words felt like a curse on my tongue. It was an abomination, a direct violation of the ancient laws of nature and the werewolf council.
To touch it was to forfeit one's humanity, to invite a rotting darkness into the soul. For centuries, anyone practicing the dark arts had been hunted down and executed without mercy. To see it used here, with such devastating, ruthless efficiency, meant we were dealing with a monster of unimaginable power.
My mind raced, piece after piece of the puzzle violently crashing together in my head.
Gideon was ambitious, but he was also a coward. He wouldn't have had the power or the knowledge to wield black magic himself.
Unless...
A sickening thought took root in my chest. Gideon may have been working with the person. He was a pawn in a much larger, deadlier game.
He had stolen that mysterious letter, likely on the orders of this dark magic practitioner. But once Gideon's usefulness ran out—or perhaps because I had discovered the theft—the master decided to cut the strings.
The person came back to wipe him and all his pack members, leaving no witnesses, no evidence, and taking the letter back with them.
They hadn't just killed the Winter Pack; they had erased them from existence to bury a secret.
What could be the mystery of this life seeking letter? And who is using black magic?
“Let's head back!”
I gave one final order and mounted my black horse.
- Writer
