Echoed Steps - ON HOLD

Chapter Five

“Thomas, please inform the pack of what you discovered.”

Thomas cleared his throat, his eyes never quite meeting Deryn’s. “Last night, I encountered Deryn Jones in the northern woods. He appeared disoriented and claimed he had just shifted for the first time. I noticed his wolf was... unusual.” Thomas glanced around the room before continuing. “Pure white. Larger than any wolf I’ve ever seen.”

~~Moonlight cascading over white fur. An elder wolf standing at the edge of a cliff, staring off into a distant horizon. “Your path is not like the others,” his voice said. “You carry something ancient within you.”~~

Deryn blinked, momentarily disoriented by the intrusion of Gwynfor’s memory. Hushed whispers spreading through the hall brought his thoughts back to his predicament. While many of the pack saw Deryn’s wolf and heard Alpha Aled’s announcement, there were still a lot of members unaware.

“After speaking briefly, Deryn suddenly left, claiming he needed to check on his parents,” Thomas continued. “I followed at a distance, concerned by his behaviour. When I arrived at the Jones residence, I found...” He paused dramatically. “I found Deryn standing over the bodies of his parents, covered in their blood.”

“I knew there was something off about him,” Gwynfor said.

The crowd erupted in a wave of gasps and angry murmurs.

“That’s a damn lie!” Deryn shouted. “They were already dead when I arrived!”

“I saw him,” Thomas reiterated. Deryn rolled his eyes as he listened to the manufactured emotion. “I found him covered in his parents’ blood. When I confronted him, he ran. Would an innocent man flee?”

“I ran because you set me up,” Deryn countered, turning to face the crowd. “I saw Thomas after a run in the forest. We talked until my wolf sensed something wrong. I ran home and found my parents murdered, arranged in their chairs like some sick display. And conveniently, Thomas appeared just in time to ‘discover’ me there.”

More murmuring spread through the gathering. The pack members looked to each other to try and gauge what the others were feeling. Deryn felt a whisper of hope as doubt flickered across some faces. Good, they weren’t all completely convinced by the lies just yet.

“And the white wolf?” Gethin pressed, eager to change the subject and quiet the whispering. “Will you deny that your wolf has unnatural abilities? Abilities that could draw dangerous attention to our pack?”

“Careful,” Gwynfor cautioned. “They’re fishing for information. They know some things, but they don’t know for certain what else I can do.”

Deryn heeded Gwynfor’s warning and chose his next words carefully. “My wolf is blessed by Arianrhod herself. His colour is rare, yes, but not unnatural.”

“Tell them, Deryn,” Thomas urged, feigning fear, but Deryn could see the cruel smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “Tell them about how your wolf can shapeshift and see through the eyes of other creatures.”

A ripple of shock swept through the hall. These were dangerous accusations, lies about abilities that went far beyond the normal wolf-human bond. Abilities that, if true, would mark Deryn and Gwynfor as something... other.

“Ha!” Gwynfor laughed. “I think someone has been reading far too many fantasy novels.” Deryn remained silent, but Thomas wasn’t done.

“Tell them about the mind-reading. About how you knew what I was thinking in the forest…”

“Ah,” Gwynfor conceded, a slight edge of panic slipping in. “Yes, well, he’s got us there.”

“He doesn’t know anything,” Deryn said aloud, sensing the crowd’s worry. “He’s guessing. Trying to get me to confirm it.”

Gethin’s triumphant smile told Deryn he’d fallen right into the trap. His words had been taken as confirmation.

“So, you admit it,” Gethin said. “Your wolf possesses unnatural abilities that could bring danger to our pack.”

“I admit to nothing, and certainly not these ludicrous lies,” Deryn said, but it was too late. The damage was done.

Gethin turned to address the assembled pack members. “The evidence is clear. Deryn Jones murdered his parents to conceal the dangerous nature of his wolf. He poses a threat not just to individuals, but to our entire way of life.”

“That’s absurd!” Deryn protested. “Why would I kill my own parents? They were everything to me!”

“Interesting,” Gethin interjected smoothly. “And yet, according to our healer who examined the bodies, Osian and Cerys Jones had been dead for less than an hour when they were discovered. An hour during which you claim to have been running through the woods with your new wolf.” He turned to address the crowd. “A wolf, I remind you all, that his parents were unaware he possessed.”

“He’s trying to make them think you lost control during your first shift,” Gwynfor whispered in Deryn’s mind. “That you killed them in a frenzy and don’t remember it.”

“I didn’t lose control,” Deryn said aloud, his voice echoing round the hall. “Gwynfor and I found a dead rogue in the forest. We took a look at it to report back in the morning, then we met Thomas on our way back.”

“A dead rogue?” Gethin asked, eyebrows raised in mock surprise. “Where exactly was this body, you claim to have found?”

Deryn opened his mouth to answer, then realised – the body. He had left it where it was. In the confusion and horror of finding his parents, he had completely forgotten about the dead rogue.

“On the edge of the northern territory line,” Deryn said, knowing how weak it sounded. “Near the old lightning-struck oak.”

“Convenient that no one else has reported this body,” Gethin remarked. “We’ll send a party to investigate, of course. But in the meantime...” he turned to address the assembled pack, “We have more pressing concerns. The evidence before us suggests a troubling scenario. Deryn receives his wolf – a white wolf of unusual power – and that same night, his parents are found dead.”

He walked slowly around Deryn, his voice carrying to every corner of the hall. “Osian Jones was our Lead Warrior for twenty years. A formidable wolf. Not someone easily overcome, unless...”

“Unless he wouldn’t fight back,” someone called from the crowd. “Unless it was his own son.”

Gethin nodded gravely, a mocking sadness on his face. “A parent’s love. Their fatal weakness.”

“This is insane!” Deryn shouted, desperation clawing at him. “My parents didn’t even know I had shifted! How could I have killed them as Gwynfor when they didn’t even know he existed?”

A terrible silence fell over the hall. Deryn realised too late what he had admitted.

Gethin’s smile was razor thin. “So, you confirm they didn’t know about your wolf. Interesting. The first shift is a momentous occasion for any wolf. Most would run straight to their parents with such news.” He leaned in closer. “Unless, of course, there was a reason not to tell them.”

“I was going to tell them in the morning,” Deryn said, hating how his voice sounded hollow. “It was the middle of the night, they had long since gone home and I didn’t want to wake them.”

“Or perhaps,” Gethin continued as if Deryn hadn’t spoken, “the shift wasn’t as controlled as you claim. Perhaps this... Gwynfor... took over.”

~~Sudden coldness. A white wolf, generations ago, standing alone against a pack that sought to destroy him. The bitter taste of betrayal. Whispers of “monster” and “unnatural” echoing through an ancient forest.~~

Deryn’s breath caught. The memory felt more real than the current moment.

“How bloody dare he!” Gwynfor said indignantly, taking Deryn by surprise.

“No,” Deryn shook his head vehemently. “No, that’s not–”

The lie was so outrageous, so completely contrary to everything his parents had been, that Deryn was momentarily speechless with rage.

“Don’t let them provoke you,” Gwynfor warned. “That’s exactly what they want – to make you lose control, to make you shift in front of everyone.”

“We have all heard stories of first shifts gone wrong,” Gethin addressed the crowd now. “Of wolves too powerful for their humans to control. Rare, but not unheard of. A white wolf – a blessed wolf – would possess power beyond ordinary limits.”

“He’s got them,” Gwynfor warned. “Look at their faces.”

Deryn did look, and what he saw chilled him. The faces of his pack – the people he had grown up with, worked alongside, broken bread with – were hardening with suspicion and fear. They were looking at him not as Deryn, the quiet, unremarkable pack member, but as something dangerous. Something other.

With tremendous effort, Deryn swallowed his anger. “My parents loved me. I would never have harmed them.”

“Then how do you explain the blood on your hands when I found you?” Thomas challenged.

“I was holding my mother’s hand,” Deryn said with a tremor in his voice. “I was saying goodbye.”

A few sympathetic faces appeared in the crowd, but they were quickly silenced by hard looks from Gethin’s supporters.

“I didn’t kill my parents,” Deryn repeated, his voice cracking. “I would never hurt them.”

“Not intentionally, perhaps,” Gethin conceded with false sympathy.

“He’s trying to provoke us,” Gwynfor warned. “Don’t let him.”

But Deryn felt his control slipping. The grief, the fear, the injustice of it all; it was too much.

“If I were going to kill anyone,” Deryn said through gritted teeth, glaring at the Beta, “it wouldn’t have been my parents.”

The threat rang through the air, subtle but clear.

Gethin smiled coldly, pleased to have been gifted such an opportunity. “And now the accused threatens the Beta before the entire pack. Are there any here who still doubt his guilt?”

Silence answered him. Not a single voice raised in Deryn’s defence.

“And yet, despite such a threat, I am prepared to show mercy. You will be subject to a temporary binding of your wolf until the full truth can be established, and until you can prove control over your wolf.”

Binding. The word tasted sour in Deryn’s mouth.

“And if I refuse?” Deryn asked, though he already knew the answer.

Gethin’s expression hardened. “Then we must consider more permanent measures to protect the pack. A wolf who cannot or will not control his power is a danger to us all. The white wolf will be separated from his human and bound to the service of the pack, under my direct supervision.”

There it was – the true purpose of this charade.

~~A flash of ancestral pain. A wolf, bound and broken, screaming silently as his spirit was torn apart. Generations of suffering compressed into a single, horrifying moment. The memory of spiritual amputation.~~

Deryn shuddered, understanding now that this was more than just his personal fear.

Horror washed over him. Separation was an ancient, forbidden ritual – the forced splitting of wolf and human, leaving both in a half-life of perpetual agony. It had been outlawed by Alpha Aled’s grandfather. That Gethin would even suggest it showed how far he was willing to go.

“Severing is forbidden by pack law,” Deryn said, struggling to keep his voice steady. “Only an Alpha can authorise such a punishment, and even then, only in the most extreme cases.”

“These are extreme times,” Gethin replied coldly. “And in the absence of the Alpha, I speak with his voice.”

“Speak with his voice?” Deryn interrupted, alarm bells ringing in his mind. “What happened to Aled?”

Gethin’s expression darkened. “Alpha Aled and Luna Nerys have taken ill. Until their recovery, I serve as Acting Alpha.”

“They’re gone,” Gwynfor realised. “Aled and Nerys are gone, just like your parents.”

And suddenly, the pieces fell into place. This wasn’t just about Deryn or Gwynfor. This was a coup. A calculated takeover of the pack, starting with the elimination of those who might stand in the way. His parents. The Alpha and Luna. And now him.

“Ill with what?” Deryn demanded. “The same illness that killed my parents?”

Gethin’s eyes flashed with anger and something else.

“Fear, perhaps?” Gwynfor quipped.

“Your sentence,” he continued as if Deryn hadn’t spoken, “is decided. You will be taken to the dungeon to await the binding.” He gestured to the guards. “Take him away.”

As the guards moved to seize his arms, Deryn caught Thomas’s eye. There was no remorse there, no hesitation, only cold calculation. This had been planned for a while.

“This isn’t over,” Gwynfor promised, pushing into Thomas’ mind as they were marched from the hall. “We’ll be back. And when we return, they’ll pay for what they’ve done.”

Deryn said nothing, watching the guards approach him and revelling momentarily at the uncertainty in their eyes. But deep inside, where the twisting grief burned hottest, something else began to take root.

“They want me,” Gwynfor said flatly. “This was never about you or your parents. They killed them to get to me.”

“Where is Alpha Aled?” Deryn demanded again, louder this time, addressing the crowd directly. “Does no one else find it suspicious that he’s conveniently absent during a trial that proposes to overturn one of our most sacred laws?”

“This again?!” Gethin rolled his eyes and looked to the crowd, but uncertainty was rippling through the gathering. These were not stupid people, merely frightened ones. And frightened people could be led to see reason if approached correctly.

“Think!” Deryn urged them. “Why would I kill my parents, then just sit with them waiting to be discovered? Why would Gethin propose binding, or worse, severing – a punishment forbidden by our Alpha – unless he knew the Alpha wouldn’t be here to stop it?”

“Enough!” Gethin roared. “Guards, take him! The binding will take place at moonrise.”

Two guards moved toward Deryn, but they hesitated, glancing uncertainly at each other. Deryn’s words had found purchase.

“I’m not the threat here,” Deryn said, standing his ground. “Ask yourselves who benefits from my parents’ deaths. Ask yourselves who benefits from a bound white wolf under their control.”

Gethin’s face contorted with rage. He had lost control of the narrative. “TAKE HIM!” he bellowed.

The guards closed in, but their movements were reluctant.

“Now, Deryn,” Gwynfor urged. “While they’re confused. We run – now!”

But before Deryn could move, the great doors of the hall burst open. A figure staggered in, bloodied and barely upright.

It was Cynog, the Alpha’s advisor.

“Treachery!” the old man gasped before collapsing to the floor. “The Alpha and Luna... dead... coup...”

Deryn felt a whoosh through his ears.

~~Fragments crashed together, blood on ancient stones. A ritual interrupted. A white wolf standing against darkness, bearing the weight of a prophecy older than the current pack. The sense of a cycle repeating, of a destiny that could not be denied.~~

Gwynfor's roar seemed to echo both in the present moment and across generations.

The hall erupted into chaos. In the confusion, Deryn felt Gwynfor surge forward, taking control of their shared body. The transformation was instantaneous, his white court clothes shredding as the huge white wolf emerged with a thunderous growl.

The crowd recoiled in shock and horror. Many had never seen a white wolf before, and Gwynfor’s size and presence were formidable. He used the moment of stunned silence to leap over the guards and bound toward the open doors.

“Stop him!” Gethin screamed, but it was too late.

Gwynfor was through the doors and racing down the corridor, faster than any normal wolf could move. Behind him, the sounds of confusion and shouting faded as he burst out into the night air.