Pouring down heavily and accompanied with occasional lightning and thunder, the rain didn't seem like it would be ending soon. Shutting the car door with a more worried look, Vee looked around the empty highway. She was drenched from the rain but that was the least of her worries at the moment. They had found Tessa's car by the side of the road, window smashed in. it confirmed their suspicion about her being taken. She looked over at Derek who was at the other side of the road, addressing all the wolves of their pack that came out in a search for her.
No one was spared. The Alpha had ordered them all out in the rain to scour every inch of the town for her. "I don't care if you have to shift all through the night but make sure she's found and brought back safely" Derek ordered. His soaked clothes clung to his body and his long hair to his face. He had never been more worried in his life.
The wolves nodded before scattering into the woods, some shifting and some still in their human form. Whatever form they took it was going to be hard tracking her down because of the heavy rain that was masking any scents and washing away any footprints. Derek knew this hence the reason he was so worried.
"What do we do Derek? They definitely have her, the Black Lotus. What if…."
"Hey…" Derek cut the scared Vee off before she could say it. "Nothing is going to happen to her, we are going to find her and bring her back home safely"
"How do you know that?" She inquired with an unconvinced look. "I mean what if they found out she's been seeking them out and this is their retaliation?" She blurted out
Derek's brows furrowed, giving her a questioning look. "What do you mean?"
Vee sighed, she knew she had no choice than to tell him. "She's been seeking out their leader, searching everywhere for him with the aim of making him pay for Kieran's death. And I have been helping her"
"So that's why anyone barely sees her around anymore. How can you let her do something so stupid Vee? That's careless of you. You should have stopped her" He quarrelled
"You think I d…." The loud thunder interrupted her. "You think I didn't? I tried to but she was determined to do it with or without my help so I had to agree to help so I can keep an eye on her" She explained
"It doesn't matter right now anyway. What matters right now is finding her….alive. then we can talk about how foolish she's been acting. Get in the car" He said to her and walked over to the direction of the car.
***
Taking his hand away from the opening on his mask, Kreed opened his previously shut eyes. Tessa stared intently at his eyes and noticed something else she had been missing. He had the same blue eyes as Kieran. That was the second similarity she had noticed. She didn't think too much on it though. They had different scents, different voices and personalities. While he was cold, Kieran was sweet and funny, the sweetest she's ever known.
With that much obvious difference, the thought that they were similar never crossed her mind. "You might have already decided not to believe a word I say but I assure you, I speak the truth only" He started
"And is there a reason for me to believe you? I am held captive and bleeding too" Tessa pointed out.
"When you are done listening, you can leave. I don't intend to keep you here against your will. You are bleeding because you refused to want to discuss civilly and attacked me instead. You will heal"
"I don't care about any of that. I don't care that you don't want to keep me against my will. You threatened my pack and swore to end us all. You killed the man I love. Who in their right mind will believe anything you have to say?" She cried
"Fair enough" He bobbed his head. "But before you hate us completely and keep on believing that we are the villains here, you should know the truth….you all were told our clan planned a coup, an uprising, trying to take over as Alphas and to build back our dying clan by taking the pure blood heirs and Luna's and mate with them. I have to admit they thought it through very well before annihilating our pack"
"You are saying it's a lie?"
"While it is true that our clan was slowly dying out, so much so that we barely made a pack of two hundred, everything else told couldn't be farther from the truth" Kreed stated.
"Really? So what is the truth then?" Tessa questioned, not believing what he was saying or having any plan to believe what he was going to say.
"All we wanted was a chance to build back our dying clan and live in peace. I know you think that a clan as powerful as ours couldn't be content with living in peace. But that was exactly what we wanted, what we were taught as kids then, and that was what got our clan almost extinct and what eventually got us killed. A part you might not have been told about is your people had a law that forbade anyone from your packs to mate with anyone from our clan"
"And why would they do that?"
"Fear. They wanted our pack to slowly die out. Our mere existence was a threat to them. They thought if we grew our clan, we would turn against them and take over. So because of that fear they forbade anyone, especially pure blood wolves from mating with any wolf from our clan. So we were forced to have a clan pack. A pack solely for us Direwolves clan. We were forced to turn humans, build a relationship with them and then mate with them…but the more we did that, the lesser we had pure blood Direwolves…" He paused when thunder began clapping continuously and the intensity of the rain increased.
Tessa looked down at her still bleeding palm, taking in all he was saying. She thought he was either a good liar or he was mixing a little bit of truth with the lies. She felt his shadow envelope her and looked up just as he bent down in front of her, wrapped his hand around the stake and pulled it out of her palms. She winced in pain as more blood rushed out. "It should start healing now" He commented, going back to his seat.
"So what happened next?" She asked, trying to the get the feel of her fingers.
"Well, seeing as it was getting worse, our clan leaders decided to have a meeting with the Alphas and appeal to them once more to abolish the law. They held the meeting and it didn't end the way they thought it would but our clan leaders kept pushing and pushing more than before but still nothing. Seeing how our people were appealing more and more without giving up, they became afraid. Afraid that they would get desperate and plan an uprising. So they made plans of their own and then sent a letter to our leaders, calling for a meeting that they were ready to reconsider and that they should come with the strongest and best male they had to get a proper look at our people. It seemed fishy I know but our people were desperate and thought nothing of it at the time, they were just too happy to be getting what they deserved" He explained
Tessa could see his eyes getting darker, housing more and more sadness and heartbreak as he progressed on with the story and that began giving her mixed feelings. She was determined not to believe what he was saying but at the same time, deep inside her, she couldn't help but wonder 'what if it was true' "What happened next?" She asked calmly, that was the most calm she had been all night.
"They did just that, rounded up the strongest males in our pack and took them along to the designated location at the appointed day of the meeting. Your town, your pack, your underground meeting hall before it got destroyed to what it is now"
"How do you know about that place?" She asked with a curious and surprised look.
"I know a lot of things" He replied and then continued his story. "Our people were the first to arrive. That was how excited they were. They waited but no one was showing up. Their excitement slowly began to fade and their hopes slowly crumbling as they started putting together the pieces. It was a setup but before they could do anything about it and escape, the hall was sealed shut from the outside with no way of escaping. They immediately began to panic but they couldn't react in time as gases of wolfsbane, mistletoe and mountain ash was immediately released into the hall. They listened from outside as our people coughed, wheezed for air and cried from the suffering and effect of the gas but did nothing. They waited till they were sure they were weakened enough and then opened the doors, got in and set them all on fire, watching them all burn to their deaths" He stopped and then tilted his head to the floor.
Tessa stared speechless, not knowing what to say or what to think. As much as she didn't want to believe, it didn't stop her from being affected emotionally be it the truth or lies.
"That wasn't the end of it…" Kreed looked back up at her. "After all the threat wasn't eliminated fully. With our strong fighters who would have caused a resistance now ash, they assembled themselves, formed a united pack, an allied army and marched to our territory and massacred every single one from our bloodline and clan, men, women, mothers…not even the kids were spared. They massacred our whole clan, down to every family…now tell me, how are we the villains in this story?"
"I….I…I don't believe you" She spoke quietly, not believing her own words.
"These weren't just my people but your people too" He stated.
"What?" She uttered with disbelief, confused at what he was saying. "What do you mean?"
***
Alpha Darius paced about worriedly in the main hall in front of his seat, coughing hard. He heard footsteps approaching behind him, getting closer. He wasn't worried about it until he felt a hand on his left shoulder, he was about to turn but wasn't fast enough. The stake pierced into his heart through his back. His eyes widened with shock, staring down at his bleeding chest. He felt his heart beat slowing rapidly as the stake remained buried inside it.
At that moment he wasn't worried about himself. He was worried about Tessa more. He didn't have the chance to know if she was alive and neither did he have the chance to protect her longer if she was alive. He wished he could see her once more as he dropped to his knees and then fall to his side, doing nothing but feel life slip out of him.