Chapter 3 The Prisoner

“I beg your pardon, Alpha, but what do you mean by interrogating a prisoner? Do we have one?” I try to catch up with him as he heads out of his tent without even giving me a proper explanation of his plan. All I can do is follow him at the moment and hope that he will answer me.

I caught glimpses of other lycans when they saw me following a few paces behind the alpha. Everyone is always busy in this pack, bringing along food, cooking, making garments, and cleaning. Training is done outside and at the far end of the territory where they can move freely. 

When we were nearing the pond, I paused, looking at the alpha in wonder.

He notices me stopping and turns to my direction. “Come.” He beckons me to follow him. Soon, he starts to jump into the pond. I quickly run to follow him, plunging myself deep into the pond.

I see my alpha underwater and follow him when he starts to swin under and behind the stone wall that hides our territory from the hunters. When we emerged once more, the roar of the waterfall before us almost distracted me from hearing Alpha Lupert. 

“Belle, over here.” He is already standing on puddle stones while he awaits for me to get off of the water. I do not wish for him to lose his patience with me, so I quickly head over to swim to shore.

We stick our backs against the moss covered walls as we pass through the giant waterfall and finally into the outside world of the territory. What met us out in the woods was silence. There is not a single trace of life around us aside from the inedible plants that our pack planted both to hide our scent and to poison intruders if they are not careful.

When we hunt, we have to head for the farthest side of the territory that’s almost near the borders of humans. Usually, one of our own would venture too far and would get caught by the hunters. If not caught, then they are killed and their corpses would be displayed outside of their gates to serve as a warning to us.

Despite the rapid course of the water, our land was slowly dying. There are no bees or butterflies to pollinate the plants. I say that in about a year and a half, our resources will soon dwindle and our pack will soon die of starvation if we cannot transfer soon.

We could head north, but we are not entirely built for the cold. The south is too hot for us, especially the lycans. The east is where the hunters are, while the west leads to a forbidden domain. Our pack tried to send some lycans to investigate the area, but none of them would come back. If they do, they will come out in pieces. It sounds gruesome, but we can only assume that there's a stronger creature there than the lycans. Because of it, Alpha Lupert forbids us from heading west in fear that we might somehow upset the creature living there, which only leads us to one place to linger—the East.

“Alpha, where are we going?” My curiosity is killing me the longer that my question remains unanswered. What’s more is that we are still on the move with no fixed location in mind.

The alpha sighs. “While one of our men was hunting for food, he happened to see this…human.”

“Is it a hunter?” 

The alpha starts to climb uphill at a very swift rate. I had to act quickly so I wouldn’t lose him. I guess that he isn’t just called an alpha for nothing. He is still strong and agile despite his growing age.

“Sort of like that.” He confirms after we make it to the top of the mountain, overlooking the pack’s territory. All we see are greens and blacks down there. They are a combination of rot and greens. “Look at this. It is all almost gone. Soon, we are going to die of starvation if we cannot look for a new place for our people.”

“But we still have water. Maybe we can still salvage the lands.” 

The alpha laughs at my futile and weak suggestion. “Who do you think we are? Gardeners? We are carnivores! We hunt preys. It is not our job to nurture nature!”

“Yes, alpha. I understand, but don’t you think that we should try to do something? By prolonging the life of our home, we can offer more-”

“Is my beta telling me what to do?!” His eyes are piercing, making me afraid to even make eye contact with him.

“No, alpha. I’m sorry.” I immediately lower my gaze.

It was a bad idea for me to even think that he would welcome my opinion. What was I even doing? I just got this job and I am suddenly getting way ahead of myself. The alpha was never known to be the forgiving type, which is what made me surprised when he did not scold me and instead placed a hand on my shoulder as if to comfort me.

“It’s alright. You were only thinking about the sake of the people. But you are right at some point. We are doing something, or at least, you will have to.” He starts to climb down to the other side of the mountain to a place that I recall as the cave where we keep prisoners or lycans who are disobeying the law. 

Why did the alpha bring me here? Did I do something wrong to be locked up? 

I knew it. He is irritated about what I said a while ago. He’s probably going to keep me in here for at least a few hours.

“Relax.” The alpha laughs at me upon seeing my face. “I am not going to lock you up in here. I am here to show you the human.”

“It is here?” I dusted the back of my dress as I continued to follow him to the cave where we keep our prisoners. 

A few lycan guards comes to greet us - and when I mean us, I just really mean the alpha. 

Like I said before, it is going to take a while for me to be respected in the pack.

“Greetings, Alpha Lupert.” They say in unison, bowing at him in respect. About four guards are standing by the entrance of the cave prison, making me wonder just how valuable this human is.

I mean, four guards just for a cub? This is insane.

“Is she eating?” The alpha asks.

“No. We even cooked her food and offered her clean water. Nothing worked. She’s just too afraid of the lycans. She won’t even look at us.”

“Typical of these humans. Always so afraid. They don’t even know that we are afraid of them more than we are afraid of us.” He starts to look back to be. “Give the beta her food. She will deliver it to the girl.”

“What? Why me? I’m also one of you. I doubt that she would even-”

“But you are not like us, are you? At least not physically.” He quickly adds the last part, as if he is afraid that I might be offended. “Belle, among all the other lycans out there, I can only assume that she would trust you because of your…lack of lycan physical qualities.”

“Yes, alpha.” I quickly submitted to his words. One of the lycan guards heads over to me to hand me a coconut bowl of cooked fowl and a clay woven cup filled with water. I took them wordlessly while feeling the Alpha’s gaze on me.

I turned back and began heading towards the cave, not sure of what he expected me to do after I delivered the food to the said hostage.

I am doing this for the pack. That’s all that matters, right? I kept these thoughts playing at the back of my head over and over, especially when I happened to finally enter the cave. Everything is dimly lit by torches at the walls of the cave, and I am grateful that I do not have to borrow the eyes of my wolf for it.

The cave has multiple channels which all lead to different chambers that separate the prisoners. I arrive a fork end and one of the guards posted there starts to give me instructions as to which prisoner I am supposed to deliver that food to.

“Head straight. The prisoner is just at the end of this cave.” The lycan guard instructs me. I give him my thanks before I follow the path that he suggested me to take.

As I got closer, my ears happened to pick up a soft whimper, and soon I heard a cry. As I got to the end, I realized that the cub that the alpha was talking about was, in fact, a human child.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t just a human girl. 

I have run countless times around the boarders of the hunters to scout and observe their movements. I have seen their leader’s face when he barks an order at them to kill my people.

Some nights, I would look through one of the windows and look for the man that I loathed so much for being responsible for the deaths of many lycans. Sometimes, he is at a meeting, talking and planning about easier ways to kill us. Other times, I see him playing with a young girl, who I assume is his daughter.

And that daughter of his is now here, being held as our prisoner.