stupid. I walked out of her cell and started down the tunnel toward the exit. I felt her search for purchase on my shoulders, and I knew she was studying the intricate caverns, trying to commit them to memory. When we walked out into the cold night air, she started shivering. Well, tough luck. The weather was harsh up here, especially at night. We were wolves, so we didn’t feel the bite of the freezing wind as it howled through the trees. She’d have to grow a thick skin if she wanted to survive, both emotionally and physically.
“I’m cold,” she whispered.
“Sucks for you.”
“You’re not going to take me in front of your pack naked…”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing. Are you gonna complain about it?”
She hesitated. “I’ll get frostbite… Please, it hurts.”
“Stop whining and pleading. It’s not sexy,” I grumbled. I liked her better when she was silent.
“I’m not. It’s just… so cold. How are you wearing only a T-shirt?”
“Werewolf, honey. The elements don’t affect us like they affect your kind.”
She nodded. I carried her through the village, knowing full well that she was taking advantage of the full moon to look at the wood cabins, the sheds and the workshops we’d built over time. It didn’t matter. She wouldn’t be able to escape even if we set her free. There were only wolves in our community, and anyone would immediately smell her and bring her back. And if she did escape, that would only prove that she was an idiot who didn’t value her life. She would get lost in these mountains and woods in minutes, starve, or get eaten by something just as terrifying as a werewolf. She wouldn’t last a day out there. As I climbed higher and higher, leaving the cabins behind, she started squirming.
“Uncomfortable?”
“What do you think?” Was there a bit of a bite in her rhetorical question? It amused me. “I’m cold and… and… Ugh! I can’t even form coherent thoughts. All I can focus on are my extremities freezing.”
“I’ll make sure to put you by the fire.”
“Fire?”
“We’re burning Chase’s body, as we do with all our dead. We wouldn’t want some random humans to start digging on our territory and discover werewolf skeletons. Your kind had this nasty habit of poking their noses everywhere. They don’t respect borders, they don’t respect mother nature. They don’t care that a mountain is hard to climb because, maybe, they shouldn’t fuckin’ climb it, or that a forest is too deep and dangerous to be explored. They just do it. Take what they want, leave only pain, destruction, and garbage behind.”
“Is this why you live up here?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean we’re protected, does it? Your family crossed our border. They shot my brother down on his own land.” I turned to one side and spat on the ground. I hoped that she could feel how much I hated her for having the same blood flowing through her veins as Chase’s killers.
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying you’re sorry, bitch. It doesn’t mean shit.”
“Tell me more about your… people.”
I smiled. “My people. My pack. The Woodwards, named after our late father. Our ancestors used to live in the caves hundreds of years ago. It was a harsh life. Once they started coming in contact with your kind, they also started adopting their tools, modern technology, and little by little, they came out of the caves and built wood cabins in the gorge. We still use the caves to store food, supplies, and we bathe in the hot spring. And now, we use it to host you.” I snickered. “You have your own private chambers.”
“Except I can’t get out of my cell, and I have to shit and pee in a bucket,” she grumbled.
I kept climbing and climbing until I reached the funeral site. It was past midnight, the moon was high in the sky, not a cloud in sight. The pack had gathered upon a cliff overlooking the village, the mountains, and the deep, dark forests. Near the edge of the cliff, they had already built the funeral pyre and placed Chase’s lifeless body upon it. They’d been waiting for me and for the bitch who they knew was going to pay for their Alpha’s death. We were all their Alphas, and losing Chase was a huge hit to our pack and to the dynamics between me and my brothers.
“Here we are. Ready?”
“N-no,” she whimpered. She was about to start crying again. Good. Everyone present wanted to see her suffer.
I walked