Eren
The days were flying by and this little break would soon be over, but I was determined to try to enjoy what little time I could get alone on these patrols.
No matter how many wolves we had out the other night, none of them had been able to find who had crossed our border.
The punishment that everyone received was a monetary reduction in their salaries, but since I was an unpaid patrol member, I received ten lashings.
It had been two days now and my wounds were almost completely gone. Dane was finally starting to talk to me, but just a little. I knew he felt bad about my punishments, but there was nothing either of us could really do about it.
The patrols were now made up of two or more in groups that would cover a five mile area. Even though I was still younger than most of the guards in the patrol, I ended up getting paired with only one other.
Brian was a young guard who was trying to work his way through the patrol unit and up into the higher ranks of the guard. I felt a little bad at first for leaving him to patrol on his own, but I'm so glad that I did.
We had agreed to run in opposite directions and make trips cutting through our patrol area, but I couldn't help but widen my area to get closer to where I knew she lived.
The other night had been one of the best and worst of my life. Being able to be around Dylan and encountering her wolf were beyond wonderful, but having to experience her with my Uncle was so frustrating.
Dylan had always just been another girl, another wolf, someone of no consequence to me, but when my mother died and my Uncle became my guardian, things completely changed.
At first he would ask me about her in simple conversations when we were at home. Eventually it evolved into following her and making sure that she wouldn't talk with anyone in school.
When I was younger, it was easy to fall into the different roles that he wanted me to play. I was eager to please him and hear his praises for following his orders.
It wasn't until one day I came upon her crying in the woods that things began to change. Dane had insisted on going for a run and we happened upon her far from the pack house and the orphanage.
There was no way that she knew that we were near her, because there was no way that she would have let anyone, especially me, see her like that.
I had seen people cry before, I'd even cried before, but the way that she cried and sobbed, and asked why the gods had forsaken her was different. It was like nothing I had ever seen or heard before.
Dane sat there and we watched her the entire time she wept. At that moment, I realized that I had been at least some fuel for her despair and I began to hate not only myself, but my uncle.
What could she have done to make him want her treated like that?
I had my first shift at fourteen and I knew that I was one of the first people in my age group to get my wolf. I'm sure that she never imagined that I, or better yet, Dane would be out here watching her.
As she sat there on the cold, cool ground, I watched her small body tremble and shake with the force of the sobs. Her long auburn hair fell over her face and hid her soft ivory cheeks.
The urge to go over and comfort her began to grow the longer we sat there, and I wasn't sure if it had come from Dane or me, but the urge only grew the longer we watched.
Dylan cried so long and so hard that after a time, she ended up passing out right there in the dirt. I hadn't brought any clothes with me, and I was oddly grateful for that, because if I had them, I would have shifted and taken her home with me.
The moment those thoughts had filled my mind, I had resolved that I would talk to my uncle and refuse to do anything to bring any further pain to this poor girl.
Honestly I knew so little about her since she had no friends and didn't really associate with anyone, well ever.
We stayed watching her until she eventually awoke towards the late afternoon, and Dane had followed her from a distance, as she went to the orphanage.
That night was the first time that my Uncle had one of his guards discipline me for insubordination. When I had approached him about Dylan, I had at first thought he was in a bad mood about something that might have happened earlier in the day.
But after I explained to him what I had seen, he laughed at me for being so weak-hearted and took me out of the secret exit from his office to the barracks.
That night, was the first, but definitely not the last time that he had used his guards or Marq to teach me a lesson and try to put me in my place.
Not once, did he ever explain to me anything about Dylan or why he wanted her to be secluded. After that night, I went to him a week later, and told him that I refused to hurt that girl anymore.
This time he didn't punish me for my words, instead the next day at school he had instructed someone to beat up Dylan on her way to school and when she showed up, she was so bloody that it looked like she had barely survived the attack.
Later that evening, after I had eaten dinner with my aunt and uncle, he had asked me to join him for a walk. Uncle Rogan asked if I enjoyed seeing what disobedience looked like.
In that moment, I realized that he had given the orders to have someone do that to Dylan to show me just how much worse someone would hurt her.
My uncle had trapped me into being Dylan's foe because I had been stupid enough to show him a slight weakness.
For a time, I was angry at everyone. At her, myself, my uncle, but I knew that anger would do no good. There was no one stronger than the Alpha of this pack and he would get what he wanted one way or another.
Resolving myself to having to live out this life until I was old enough to finally leave was the only thing that helped me get through ever day here.
As time went on I learned how to make Dylan's life hell without physically causing her pain. It became a challenge to figure out how to cause her trouble without actually hurting her.
I knew that even though the things my so called friends and I said and did to her still caused her emotional pain, the fact that no one was causing her physical damage was the only sense of relief I found.
Dane would insist that we try to keep her safe in the only way that we could and even though he knew that we had no choice in the matter, he began to lash out at me.
One day Dane considered looking into Dylan's past to try and find out what her parents could have done to bring the wrath of my Uncle down on her.
I snuck into his office and went through everything I could find with her name on it, but i came up empty handed.
The next thing I did was follow him and his guards when they went to go and see her. It was odd to find out that he made frequent visits to see her when she lived in the orphanage.
We were able to do that for a short time, until one day Noel caught us. Though he didn't report us to my Uncle, he explained that Dylan had been relocated and I needed to make sure that I never followed my Uncle again.
Noel was one of my uncle's faithful personal guards, but in all the time I had known him I could tell that he didn't fully agree to my punishments, or the instructions to harass Dylan.
I knew that she still lived on the pack lands, but he made Dane promise to never follow her home. The poor girl needed to be able to feel safe somewhere and I didn't want to ruin that for her.
When she shifted in her wolf that first time, I was struck stupid, and when I came across her again, it took everything in me to not crumble to my feet and bow down before her.
Dylan was gorgeous, and when I saw her wolf, I knew that she was not just magnificent, she seemed like if she was made of, well, of magic.
There was an aura about her that I had never encountered before, and something about it made me want to just be in her presence.
Shame flooded through me when I saw how aggressive that her wolf had responded to me, and I wished that I could have explained everything to her in that moment, but I knew that nothing could justify my actions.
When my Uncle told me that we would be going to Dylan's house I was elated because I wanted to see where she now lived, but I was so worried that he would do something to make me harm her or worse, have one of the others hurt her.
I was on edge the entire time we were in her small comfortable house. I never thought that I would feel comfortable in such a small place after living in the massive pack house, but I had been so wrong.
Everything about her house was warm and inviting. The small touches all around the living area made it apparent that this was her home. I was so envious and happy for her that I had almost forgotten who I was there with.
With everything going on that night I had almost forgotten that we were supposed to be hunting someone, and when I realized just how close they had come to Dylan, I was flustered and distracted in trying to figure out how to keep her safe from yet another person wanting to possibly harm her.
It was so hard to leave her home that night, but Dane and I were spurred on with the desire to keep her safe from the outside threat. We had searched until dawn to find the intruder, but it was a fruitless endeavor.
Every day after that I had figured out a way to come and check on her, and I was glad to find Lecia with her on each and every occasion. I knew that they had just recently become friends, but seeing her happy filled me with so much joy.
Dane looked forward to our patrol tonight so that we could come out and see her yet again. I knew that he was fond of Dylan's wolf and was looking for an opportunity to finally meet her.
When we were just a few yards away from Dylan's house, we caught the familiar scent of my Uncle and immediately Dane went on alert. He crept around in the dark and tried to stay as quiet as possible.
My uncle's beast was a force of nature and he knew that if we got too close he would sense us. We finally caught sight of them emerging from Dylan's house and watched as she had followed him a ways away near some large trees.
Neither of us could make out what they were saying, but I watched her flinch as he pulled her towards him and whispered something to her.
Dane was livid and it took all the words I could think of to urge him to stay hidden and observe their little interaction.
In that moment, I decided, that no matter what happens next, I will figure out a way to keep Dylan safe from whatever my uncle has planned for her. I would find out what my uncle wanted or needed her for if it's the last thing I do.