Rachel's Pov.
A silent breeze finds its way into the room, and nudged the fire on the candle wick gently. The old man cleared his throat and continued, "The alpha then chose me and two other people from my pack, he ordered us to find the source of the drought. I set out with partners, we searched through the whole desert but found nothing. Then we started visiting the other packs in the four corners of the desert. That was how we found the source of the drought."
"What was it?"
"I cannot tell you that now, it will be too dangerous for you to know. But all I have told you is tied to the reason we were attacked."
The old man got up and left the tent, minutes later he walked back in with a cup of water, "Are you thirsty?" he asked as he sat back down.
"Yeah," I took the cup from him and drank the water.
"Because of the drought, water became so scarce; the water you just drank is worth ten thousand dollars."
My eyes popped out in surprise, "Ten thousand what?!" I yelled
"Here, water is worth more than gold."
"And you have gallons of water with you…" I replied in awe
"Yes, in this desert, we are a walking goldmine."
"There will be more of that attack?"
"That, was just the tip of the ice berg" The old man stood up, he smiled warmly "Have no fear, no harm will come to you. Good night." he walked out of the tent.
The next morning, two hefty men from the pack woke me up from my slumber. "You are wanted in the meeting tent," One of them said as the two grabbed me by the shoulders and dragged me out of bed. I screamed and tried to escape from their grip but they had really strong fingers. They dragged me out of the tent, through the pathway then into another tent, and then they dropped me on the floor.
"What did I do?!" I yelled at the two men, they gave me no reply, they just slowly backed out of the tent.
"That was too rough," a familiar voice in the tent said, the person was standing beside the tenth and blending with the dark background.
I turned around to look at the people seated in the tent, there were five of them, the old man was among them. The all sat on chairs that faced me, I swallowed a saliva, 'Am I in trouble?' I said to myself in fear.
"We are here to discuss your fate," One of the person in the tent said, he was very fat for a werewolf, "Did I do anything wrong?"
"We don't know that yet, first the five of us and the Alpha are here to hear what your purpose here is."
'The alpha? Here?' I looked at the five people facing me, the old man couldn't possibly be the alpha, he is already too weak, and he will easily be beaten in a single combat by everyone else in this tent, including myself. The man next to him couldn't be the alpha, he was too fat and didn't have the charm besides he already hinted to not being the alpha. The other was shorter than me, there is no way anyone will follow him or take him seriously. The next person was a pregnant woman, there was no way she could lead in that condition. The guy standing by the tent, though I couldn't see his face, he looked too skinny. The only person fit to be the alpha was the guy in the middle, he was muscular, had a dark beard and looked tall enough, and when he spoke his voice was deep and intimidating. Instantly I crawled to him an prostrated myself, "Please alpha, I have done nothing wrong, don't kill me."
"What's she doing?" The man said.
"She thinks you're the alpha." The short one replied, then they all burst out into laughter. "Well you look alpha-ish," The fat guy said still laughing uncontrollably.
He was not the alpha? My heart skipped a beat, in my pack, calling someone else the alpha is the highest form of treason punishable only by death.
"Get up Rachel, there is no point doing that," the old man said, and I slowly got up to my feet, "and Aragon, I think it is time you introduced yourself." The old man added.
"I don't think that there is any point doing that, being that we've already met before." The skinny guy in the shadows walks out into the light, to my surprise it was the same guy I interacted with yesterday outside of the tent.
"My name is Aragon, and I am the one called Alpha."
My jaws dropped, Him? Not only was he the youngest person in the room, he looked the weakest. "I am sorry for giving your title to someone else, please forgive me."
"Have a seat, there is nothing to forgive my dear, we all make mistakes." I turned around and saw the empty chair few meters away from me.
"Why am I here?" I asked Aragon.
"We are in a critical point of our history, so we are very wary of strangers."
I walked to the chair and sat down, "So, you want to ask me some questions."
"Yes, even though Old man Patrick vouched for you, we still need to be extra."
'Patrick? That's the old man's name? What did he tell them?' My thoughts wandered, Aragon walked to an empty chair and sat.
"Where are you from?" Aragon asked, the air in the tent became colder, I felt the eyes of everyone in the tent bore into my eyes. At that moment I knew that whatever I say next will determine my fate with this pack.
"I am a werewolf, part of the moongrass pack, which is part of the kingdom of Epsilon."
They stared at me silently, as if I just spoke a different language.
"What the heck are you talking about?" The short guy said while looking at the others to get a confirmation that they heard the same thing he heard.
"The kingdom of Epsilon… one of the five kingdoms in the world and," It hit me right there, all my years of being alive, I've never heard about them, their pack, or any of the other packs old man Patrick mentioned earlier. I looked at them confused, "Where am I?" my question threw them off.
"We are the ones asking the questions, are you a spy from the witch?" the fat man replied.
"I am not a spy, honestly, I think I am as confused as you guys right now."
"Tell us about this kingdom of Epsilon," Aragon said.
"It is the only kingdom that shares a border with all the four other kingdoms, it's populated by werewolf and ruled by three alphas, it's relatively peaceful…"
"Enough of that trash!" The short guy yelled, "She is obviously the witch's spy, I propose we execute her to set an example for all the spies hidden among us."
"I am not a spy..." They all stared at me with eyes filled with suspicion, how exactly do i tell this people that I am as confused as they were?