Chapter 5

I took a long look at the second man who had appeared as the alpha’s backup, recognising him as the golden wolf from the night before; his golden hair and brown eyes betrayed him so obviously. The Beta. His second in command would ensure I was no threat towards his alpha. Maybe I should’ve felt flattered he felt the need for assistance.

“Thank you, Christian,” Alpha Jackson said, his smirk still prevalent on his face.

Turning to me, his expression finally shifted to one that was cold and calculating, “now to business. Who are you?”

After a moment of silence, looking between the alpha and his beta, I finally answered, “Elise.”

“Elise what?”

“Clares.”

“And you were a part of the New Moon pack, is that correct?”

I looked at Christian with that look that asked is he slow? Before answering properly, “duh.”

The alpha looked at me with disdain and I fought back the smile that tugged at my lip, ‘Why bother asking? You’re just going to kill me anyway,” I retorted to that glare, not particularly wanting to reveal all my deepest darkest secrets to my jailer. 

“Kill you?” Alpha Jackson barked out a laugh that didn’t reach his eyes, “Now why would I do that when killing you would be a mercy?” He growled. He either hated the New Moon pack so much it extended to me, or I had done something personally towards him.

The growl in his voice made me want to bow my head, to offer up submission to the alpha, but I held strong, holding his glare despite my fear. He could go to hell. 

“Why trust a word ‘the likes of me’ would say then?” I spat at his feet, not planning to make this easy for him.

Alpha Jackson snarled at the action, but the beta stepped forward, surveying me, “Why were they chasing you? What law did you break?”

I let out a sharp growl at the question, at the assumption that it was I who did something to them and not the other way around. What law did I break? I hadn't murdered members of my pack. I hadn’t doused them with silver and wolfsbane to weaken them. I hadn’t killed their pups in their beds!

“I broke no law.”

“But you did not lawfully break from your pack.” The alpha chimed in with that statement, “You’re a rogue.”

Rolling my eyes I lay back on my cot, feigning some sense of ignorance as I tried to douse the anger that was growing inside of me. I clenched my hands together, hoping that would calm the shaking rage that was going to burst from me. I began counting the cracks in the ceiling. He was talking about the ‘separation’ ceremony to legally and respectfully leave the pack. There were vows about betrayal and sacrifice, duty and home, most people found it touching and typically didn’t break from their pack willingly, but an alpha could not force someone leaving to stay… Not unless they killed them.

“They wouldn’t have let me leave if I had.” My parents’ deaths were evidence of that. Alpha Fredrick hadn’t appreciated my father’s refusal of his proposals. He certainly wouldn’t have accepted them trying to crawl out from under his control.

“Why?” Alpha Jackson chimed back in.

I kept my mouth shut. Like hell I was going to give this asshole any insight into my life, my weaknesses, my family. I stayed looking up at the ceiling, even as a growl erupted from his throat. Twelve, twelve cracks so far.

“Why didn’t you shift?”

Still nothing.

He was getting angry now, and I didn’t hate to admit that I found it slightly funny. The big bad alpha, frustrated because a little rogue wolf wouldn’t answer his questions.

“Do you want to rot in this cell forever!” He almost yelled, losing his composure and Beta Christian placed a hand on his shoulder. Alpha Fredrick would’ve ripped the arm off of anyone who thought to control him. Alpha Jackson, however, seemed to welcome it, taking a deep breath and changing tactics.

“It must’ve been scary, at night, running with no wolf? I’m just trying to figure out that if you were so desperate to get away, why didn’t you shift?”

He wasn’t going to stop looking for an answer and who knows how quickly this good cop act would change? It might go from this to torture. My body shuddered thinking of my father, a supposed traitor to the pack, tortured with silver weapons and wolfsbane infused in his cell.

“Two words, Elise, and this will end.” Alpha Fredrick had purred into my ear, stroking my hair like a lover, but it just made me shudder, ‘two words. I can’t exactly torture my in-laws can I?”

“Wolfsbane,” I mumbled quietly, hoping that the answer would be enough. It was the only thing I could think of. 

Along with silver, the purple plant was the only way to shackle a wolf. The flower could be ground into a paste to be put in food, injected into the blood or burned as steam to fill the air. It wasn’t easy to get your hands on it, but powerful wolves with witches on their hands could gather it with no problem. It was particularly cruel, not only to force the wolf down but to poison the human too. 

“Wolfsbane,” he repeated after me,