6. DEMANDS

HELENA’S POV

It was refreshing to see Elder Conri get disorganized at the news of his son. I had did all my research throughout the time I was absent from the pack and knew that the youngest son was his weakness. I didn’t even need to do much, all I pulled was a string to pull him out of his out to the place where he would likely get bitten by luring him with the truth about his dead mother who got killed by his father.

He jumped out of the house at the letter and got himself bitten. That worked for me as my leverage to get Elder Conri and other tribes’ elders to give me the throne. They are very strong when it comes to their solid decisions and I have to hold one of the strongest elders as a hostage for them to have split opinions.

One thing was sure, even if the youngest son gets recovered, he will harbor hatred towards his father for killing his mother, so it was like killing two birds with a stone. If I will be getting anything done in the pack, I have to cause disunity among the elders by using their closest weaknesses, which I happen to have all thanks to my thorough preparations before making my moves.

I finally went with Elder Conri to visit the said isolation center where everyone, including his son, were placed to reduce the rate of infections in the pack after Elder Boris gave his words and a signed agreement that I would be the queen as requested as long as I fulfilled my own part of the deal. The snarling sounds that were coming from them as they growled, drooled and tried suppressing the urge to shift was concerning and disturbing to people who went there for the first time, including me.

Elder Conri could not hide his sorrow and desperation as he saw the popping green veins on the body of his precious son. If not for the quick intervention, he would have run inside the isolation cell to embrace the kid who was in an obvious state of pain, but his frustrated state only made me snicker. He would have no choice but to obey whatever I ask for, at least for now, because I am well aware that he’s not a force that can be easily subdued, he’s a tough meat on his own.

Once the wave of this mess passes, he will be back on his feet in no time and he will use all the resources he has to make sure to oust me from the palace. So, before something like that happens, I have to solidify my stance in the pack.

Immediately, he rushed to meet me where I stood observing the situation and pestered me to do something fast about his dying son. “Why are you standing still when you are here to help out? Please do something before something drastic happens”, he panicked and I closed my eyes to breathe out the pent-up air in my lungs before proceeding to help out.

After a thorough inspection of the victims to see the state of the infection and the rate at which it had affected them, I noticed that whoever was treating them was doing a good job because the older ones were calmer. They had trained their bodies not to react to the itchy feeling making them edgy and popping veins that could provoke the urge to shift.

I asked them to lead the way to the pack’s hospital where I gave out instructions on how the treatment would go and everything needed for the procedures.

“I cannot do anything without the help of my secretary, you will have to bring her here”. I paused to inform them and Elder Conri yelled for her to be dragged there that instant, which caused me to raise my brow.

“Dragged here? You have to give the same respect you give me to her. She’s not like your regular maids and the only person she serves is me. No one here has the authority to order her anyhow, so you had better escort her with respect”, I stated firmly, and he didn’t even waste time before apologizing and instructing his men to escort her to the hospital with the uttermost respect.

Secretary Han was brought to me with the treatment suitcase in her hand and I instructed every doctor and nurse to heed to whatever instruction she gave them.

“Firstly, we will be setting them on anesthetics and using whatever means to guard yourself from being scratched or poked by them. You have to be healthy in order to treat them” Secretary Han commanded strictly.

Her aura was different from mine even though we had the same goal. She was someone who didn’t have any time or space for insult or ridiculing. If it were left to her, she would have taken Draco by the throat when he ordered me to be thrown in those shabby quarters, but she had always respected my decisions and wouldn’t do anything to ruin my plans.

Thankfully, the hospital was big enough to accommodate all the infected wolves, so we began the treatment by injecting all of them and chaining them to their individual beds. Secretary Han finally brought out the vials where the antidote were stored.

Elder Conri was getting impatient at what was taking that long and wanted to barge in when I announced that the priestess tribe would have to carry out the separation ceremony, to their surprise. They had thought it was just a small process that would take a few hours and the wolves would be fine so they could oust me, but I made sure to unravel the process, to them one after the other, since I already knew their motives.

They had done so many things in the past, so canceling a signed agreement was just a cup of tea for them. I didn’t place my bet on the written agreement.

“What do you mean the separation ritual? Why do you need to carry that out? This is not what you promised!” one of the elders countered, but I countered with “I never promised anything except curing them to begin with, so what do you mean?” making him shut his mouth immediately.

I went on to inform them that the separation ritual was to disconnect their wolves from their human forms because if they get treated with their wolves still intact, then they will die. The urge to shift would be so great and if they shift, they would die.

“How are we going to take away their wolves? It’s not like we can tear off their wolf form from them?” the Elder of the sixth tribe questioned.

“The Priestess will take away the powers of their wolves, so even if they do shift, they will be powerless and won’t be able to use their powers. The powers of their wolves trying to self-cure is contradicting the virus which is targeting their wolves. The loophole that is between their wolves’ powers emerging as they shift is the pathway the virus needs to get to their hearts. There is no way they can ever beat the fastness as they shift because it occurs in the twinkle of an eye. Now, if the spirit of their wolves is not present, there will not be any loophole even if they do shift because it is still them, nothing extra is taking place” I tried explaining as simply as possible, but judging from their expressions, they still didn’t get what I was saying until the leader of the fourth tribe helped me out by stepping forward to explain further.

“What she meant was that, as a wolf shifts its powers to use its extraordinary abilities, there is always an open portal that calls the wolf out of its hiding place within them. In this process of shifting, the portal radiates so much energy and is left open until the shifting is completed. The wolf power is then poured out while the human power is sucked in so they can be able to function well as a wolf and not human, but if this wolf power is taken away, then the human power will not be sucked in when they shift. Although they will shift to their werewolf form, they will just be like an empty shell and have the qualities of their human forms intact”, she explained, and everyone released a long “Ah” as they understood what I meant now.

Elder Conri didn’t even allow everyone to digest the explanation before telling me to proceed with whatever I wanted to do then, since we already knew the way out. His desperation was taking the better part of him and that was my own joy. The more desperate he is, the greater the upper hand I have, because he will have no choice but to obey all my instructions.

“How soon can we have the separation ritual?” I turned to ask the leader of the fourth tribe who was still standing beside me and she hesitated for a while before giving her response of “Seven days, but I can speed everything up to five days”.

Another round of protest, aroused from Elder Conri, who tried to charge me for being a scammer and liar who just wanted to manipulate the pack, but the secretary was swift in blocking the attack and a hard push from her landed the elder on his behind, making him growl in pain.

“You don’t get to treat me shabbily, I am your savior here. Also, while we wait for the five days, I want my coronation done within that time. It will be possible, since the pack is rich enough to take care of anything related to it”, I asserted firmly.

They didn’t know what they were in for or whom they were dealing with, even though I was supposed to be shredded to death for coming back to the pack, they had no choice but to worship me because I came back as their savior.