"Those are quite serious wounds. What kind of monster would torture children like this even if they did kill someone?" Elias shook his head in sadness as he saw the state both Isaac and Erica were in.
Just taking a glance at them made it abundantly clear of the numerous inhumane tortures they were subjected to but it was only when you feel what is happening inside their bodies that you can finally paint a picture of how 'intensive' the whole experience had been.
"I see that the old Hunter has finally gone senile. This wasn't done specifically to make them suffer or because he particularly enjoyed it. He just did it because he had the power to. He is too dangerous to be left alive, Satomi." Elias said to Satomi who was mixing a few exotic herbs she had collected over the years and was grinding them to a paste to help speed up the healing process.
"I know that all too well and if young Derek can't find him before the Hunters do, I will step in at that point and ensure that he dies." She paused for a bit and went back to grinding the herbs.
Even if she abstained as much as she could from the rest of the and practiced the way of the Buddha to detach her heart from worldly attachments, a wolf was still a wolf at the end of the day.
She hated conflicts, abhorred the act of taking a life even more, but the fact remained that she was a wolf first, an Alpha at that, and a Buddhist practitioner second.
Having the power to stop the senseless killings from continuing further and yet deciding to do nothing is an act of hypocrisy. And why she won't deny that she spent most of her life being a hypocrite, even her hypocrisy had a limit it could not go over.
"I don't like this, Satomi. Not when the young ones are embroiled in the thick of it. It reeks of a bad omen." Elias said with a frown which Satomi complimented with a tired sigh of her own.
"We can't discern the flow of nature, Elias. Fighting against it is an even more foolish attempt. We simply do the best we can and leave the rest to the universe to judge us on our karma."
She took the mixture she just made and moved over to where the two betas were resting and started softly applying it all over their body.
"Fortunately for them, their body, despite its worst state, has started fighting the wolfsbane in their system. Once it clears, half of the healing would have already been done."
The both of them left the room that now smelt of thick herbal medicine and arrived at the living room where Derek who was almost completely healed up sat anxiously for the last hour with Tristan and Malia keeping him company as they laid together in one of the longer chairs.
Hearing her footsteps, Derek immediately stood up and asked anxiously. "Are they going to be okay?"
His mind couldn't rest easy, not when he had yet to know the state of his betas.
"They are already recovering but I have no idea of how okay they might be when they wake up. The mental traumas and scars are still there so that will be one of the things for you to look out for."
Satomi took her time and patiently explained everything that had been done to them while he had watched most of it and was forced to hear everything, hearing the true extent of how much both underwent, Derek was both half broken and half incensed that the only thing his brain could easily comprehend was that he wanted nothing more than to kill Gerard.
Derek sank back into the chair he had been sitting on and clutched his head. "Am I that bad of an Alpha that I can't even protect my betas?"
Satomi put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from descending into a downward spiral. "It's not because you are a bad Alpha, it's just that you are not that experienced. Your actions so far show just how much you care for your pack. Unfortunately experience isn't so easily gotten in an instant, but instead through the passage of time."
Derek digested her words and bowed his head in gratitude to her. "Thank you for everything you've done for me and my pack. I will try my best to pay back this favor."
"Don't worry about such things now. Take your time and completely heal until you know you are ready to go after Gerard." She gave him her advice but it was ultimately up to him on how he wanted to do so.
Derek went ahead and found a room for him to sleep in and temporarily forget everything that had happened to him over the previous week.
With Derek gone, Satomi turned to the two young cubs who were minding their own business and asked.
"How do you feel?" She asked with a soft smile on her face while Elias walked out of the room and ruffled Malia's hair as he left them alone, much to the girl's consternation.
"Us? I don't see why we shouldn't be fine. We were not the ones who was almost killed by their own grandfather." Tristan said in confusion, not understanding why she asked that when she could tell they were okay.
"I'm not asking how you specifically feel." Satomi said and watched in amusement as the two of them stared at each other in apparent confusion before they turned to look at her.
"Can't you just ask what you want to ask in a straightforward manner like normal people do?" Malia complained but Satomi said nothing and just walked over to them and bent down to reach their reclining height.
Seeing her doing that, they immediately wanted to sit up straight but she stopped them and looked them in the eyes before nodding to herself.
"If you can't think of a reason why you shouldn't feel okay, that means there's nothing wrong with you. Just continue taking care of each other like you've always have."
Her words confused them a whole bit but she left it at that and kissed them both on their foreheads before leaving.
She gave them a reminder as she left. "Do be good children and keep an ear on those two unfortunate children. They will need their Alpha when they wake up."
After she left, the young couple stared dumbly at each other wondering what she had meant earlier with her words.
"Gah! Let's forget it. She would have made it clear if it had been something important." Malia's frustration peaked and decided to throw whatever Satomi said to the back of her mind. Tristan silently agreed and did the same as her.
.....
[Allison Argent POV]
Allison sat quietly in her seat as her father drove them home. He had been on the phone with a few people telling them to call him if they find his father.
"You don't have anything to say?" She heard her father say after the silence got unbearable for him.
Allison sighed and placed her head on the headrest and absentmindedly stared at the roof of the car.
"Grand-… Gerard said that the relevance of the code only applies if he decides it should. Is that the same with the other Hunters in our family?" Right now her mind was very clear unlike before so the question easily flowed out.
Chris frowned for a bit but shook his head. "No, it doesn't. The code represents a line we can't cross and we enforce it not only on supernaturals, but also on Hunters who break it."
She tilted her head to look at her father. "And it's our job to make sure the others follow the code… which is also why Kate walked freely after what she did, because Gerard was the one who enforced it."
Chris ran a hand through his hair and muttered under his breath. "Basically."
Hearing her father's admittance, she asked again. A crucial question she needed him to answer. "So not all werewolves are bad? If we only hunt those who prey on innocents, then there are also those who don't, right?"
"Allison." Chris' voice went dark and he sent a glare her way. "Just because they haven't killed an innocent person doesn't mean we should associate with them, least of all befriend them." He gave her a pointed stare as he said that, a look she understood.
She saw her father's hard stare that warned her to abandon a specific thought he knew she was having.
Allison didn't react to it and just continued. "I don't think I will feel much of anything if I were to kill someone now, werewolf or human." Her words alarmed him but she didn't let him interrupt.
"I want to continue my training under you and learn all there is to learn about the Argent Family and supernaturals."
"And then what?" He asked tentatively.
"I will act on the code, and then my conscience. I will hunt those who hunt us and kill those who prey on the innocents. You're right. The code is a guideline, but it's not the only guideline that can be followed."
Chris felt conflicted as he watched his daughter speak, understanding that she had grown up but he wasn't there to experience it. He didn't know what type of experience influenced her growth and he wasn't there to guide her through it.
It was a painful thing for any parent to experience, especially when it's their only child.
"And your 'friends'? Tristan and Malia?"
Their stares held together until Allison shrugged nonchalantly. "The same thing. I will hunt them if they hunt me…"
"… And if they don't?"
Allison put on a thoughtful expression as she mulled over it. At the end of it she just smiled slightly and answered with the conclusion she arrived at.
"If they don't? Then there's no need to change it then. Change is inevitable, true, but sometimes it's better if things remain as they are."
What it meant for her and her father who listened to her words, the result for it will only show itself later in the future.
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