Chapter 4 - Banished From The Pack

Chapter 4 - Banished From The Pack

Georgia continued on her way, not wanting to stay too long in the forest, she withdrew her phone from the hidden pocket of her dress and continued on the main road, following the arrows on the map. She ran for another few hours until she had reached her pack’s land. It was already past 4 AM, and she continued walking through the woods to arrive at her parents’ house faster. Their house stood a few hundred meters away from everybody else in the pack, surrounded by thick woods and almost secluded from the community. But this was because Georgia was born, her parents decided to build a home far from everybody else to conceal her secret, but as part of the pack still, they did not completely break away from everybody. Everyone knew their existence and acknowledged it, but no one remained close enough to them. Her parents feared that she would be found out.

“No,” she ran as fast as she could when she saw in the distance the bright fiery flames consuming her home.

“Mom! Dad!” she shouted. She could not see them outside the house, she looked around, but there was no trace of them.

“No, no. Help! Mom?! Dad?!” tears pooled in her eyes blurring her vision on the dancing flames that seemed to rejoice at her despair. She circled the house but there was nothing the flame did not touch. She turned and jogged into the woods that led to where the villagers were mostly situated and saw a few of the houses burning as well. Her fellow pack members were outside, crying, yelling for help, while the others held buckets of water splashing on the fire while some of the pack soldiers searched the vicinity, looking for the perpetrators, who must have done this act.

Georgia remembered to pull the blindfold back to her eyes when she noticed some pack soldiers enter the woods. 

“Help us!” she yelled, getting the attention of the pack soldier who then attended to her home immediately, buckets of water were being thrown at the flames, but it seemed to be burning endlessly.

“Have you seen my mom and dad?” she asked them as people also came, pooling in to witness the burning home. The roof had already collapsed, and the wooden walls and upper floors were quickly being consumed by the fire, like a sweet treat they had been craving.

Tears soaked her blindfold and her knees buckled while she leaned her back on a tree trunk for support. She silently prayed and hoped that her parents were alive, probably somewhere in the village, they must have gone to help the others, or perhaps evacuated. 

But she knew they were gone, she was only denying it to herself. 

She held her arms out in front of her, sobbing, and looking for a person to ask, and when her hands caught one, she asked again, “Have you seen them? My parents, they must be around.”

“I’m sorry, we did not see them” the woman replied.

“No, they must be somewhere,” Georgia insisted.

“Georgia, we don’t know what happened, the Collows, and the son of the Doyles, were also unable to flee from their burning house, the elders' home was not spared either, they were not saved, they were trapped and… gone. I’m sorry.” the woman said, holding Georgia’s hand in an attempt to comfort her. But no one in the village was close enough to her, she was more of a stranger that they just happened to know.

Men ran all over the place to fill their buckets to extinguish the fires that were consuming not only Georgia’s home but the others as well. They put a collected effort to ensure as well that it would not spread to the forest behind them. 

The dawn had caught up and it was becoming more evident to her senses the smell of burnt wood and ashes on a pile. She sat on the ground facing the humble house that once stood to protect her and cradle her from the dangers of the world, now turned to charred debris and smoldering fragments that were hitting her nose, scratching her airway like a poisonous gas she was inhaling.

The morning sun was now peeking from the mountains, clearing the clouds, and striking its light from the gaps in between the feathered leaves of the trees above. Georgia knew she was already left alone, the villagers of their pack must have returned to their houses and saved what they could salvage, but for her, there was nothing left. 

The attendees of the Royal Tryst had just returned when the sun had fully shown itself in the sky, worry etched on their faces, and cries were heard from those who were affected. The news had only reached them later after the dawn, but even if it had earlier, there would be nothing they could do. 

No one in the village knew what had caused this disaster, but the attendees of the Royal Tryst had someone in mind, the reason why this had happened. 

Men and women, young and old, flocked to the woods and saw her on the ground. Devastated.

“You! This is your fault!” Fiona, daughter of the Doyles family who were weeping for their only son’s death. The Collows, and the son of the Doyles, and the senior elders of the pack who were housed at the elders’ home were identified as casualties, for now, but there were more that they were searching for.

Those who stayed in the pack village had no idea what Fiona was talking about, but the attendees of the Royal Tryst agrees with her.

“We were punished because of you!”

“What are you talking about?” a woman asked her.

“She disrespected the Alpha King, and so he ordered to sanction our pack. He was mad for what she did, she had rejected him!” her finger pointed at her while everyone had the same reaction as the guests at the gathering.

“And now this is what we got. They burned our houses, and my brother’s gone. What else would be taken from us? Because of her impertinence! Now we are being punished,” her voice cracked as she held back the sob that was trapped in her throat. 

“Is it true you disrespected the Alpha King?” the Alpha of the Woodbrick Pack, a man in his mid-50s, white streaks evident on his hair, stood with authority and rage. His voice was deep and accusatory. 

Georgia remained silent, taking in the accusations being thrown at her, but she thought, ‘They must be right, it is my fault, and we were punished, they burned them, our house, my parents. The Alpha King must hate me so much that he had to kill my parents, the ones who gave me life in this world.’

Her head remained looking at the ground she could not see, “I did not mean to disrespect the King, I —”

“Yet you still did! You have endangered the pack! Because of you people died!” the Alpha shouted at her, his hand moved to the burnt house and the families affected as if Georgia could see them.

In a slow and guilting manner, gritting his teeth in anger, he added, “Including your parents. You killed them with your insolence.” 

He took her arm and forced her to stand, his grip was tight and painful, but Georgia had no energy to fight back as her thoughts were flooded with guilt, blaming herself, that it was her who killed her parents, that it was because of her, the people who had raised her, loved her, and protected her from the evil world are now gone.

 “You do not belong here. A murderer has no place in my pack.” The Alpha let her go, pushing her in the process, causing her to stumble on the ground.

“Leave. Now. I do not want to see you anywhere near my pack.” 

“N-no, please. I have nowhere else to go, please.” 

She begged but her pleas fell on deaf ears, that even the person she had treated as her best friend — Layla, had abandoned her on the spot, believing that it was indeed Georgia’s fault that her parents’ house was also caught on fire so she did not stand up for her but only watched from the crowd of people that surrounded her.

“M-my parents, just please let me find them, and bury them if they are gone.”

“They’re gone,” the Alpha said, looking at the house that was no longer recognizable. “You should be ashamed to even face their bodies, it was you who killed them and yet you beg to bury them. I would not let a murderer’s hand touch the bodies of my pack members, they shall taken care of by my men with honor. Now be gone.”

He then gestured for the appointed soldiers of the pack to take her away and throw her beyond the pack’s land territory, where she had run rogue, grieving, and helpless while thinking of the danger that lurked around her with the secret she was hiding.

Wiping her tears, she muttered to herself, “I need to leave.” 

Now that she is a rogue, she knew that there was no hope for her anymore, in the region where werewolves dominate the population, she would be a prey— always on the run, always on a hide, with nowhere to go.

So she decided to go to the Northern Capital of the country where the majority of pure-blooded humans live and work. Perhaps, in there, she would be safer, she could have a bigger chance to live. Werewolves are everywhere in the world, co-living with humans, but she had bet on a chance to live freely and be at peace, hoping the Northern Capital could hide her from the power-greed of werewolves.

She set her eyes on a journey to the North, completely leaving the perilous life in the Western Region–where the rejected Alpha King rules.