A Valuable Piece

Evelyn’s gaze switched between the two men. She couldn’t make head or tails of the situation. A long line of questions came to her head. Where was she? What were these people? How was she here? She thought deep… she thought hard trying to recollect how she had got to this forsaken place.

‘Yeah, the last thing that I remembered was that weird circle. That dude in a white shirt talked about summoning. Don’t tell me…’

Even if she had discerned it correctly she could not believe her own reasonings! By no means it was easy for her to believe all of this.

The man in the white man signalled a wolf behind him. As if by some magic he turned back to a human as particles of white light shined from his body. He pulled out a sword from somewhere as he looked at Evelyn with a sight of scorn.

Evelyn could feel his killing intent as if he would kill him if he had been given the chance to. What had she done to buy his animosity? Evelyn had no idea.

“No…,” she shook her head as if wanting to deny the reality. If this was a nightmare she wanted to wake up already!

Evelyn fumbled as she tried to get up. Her legs were shaking out of pure fear… the fear of death.

Evelyn shook her head as she pulled herself away, her body brushing against the floor. Seeing her panicked sight the mysterious masked man turned his head only to find a wolf under Alpha Steven bringing him his sword.

Evelyn pulled herself away trying to run. She scanned the room for any possible escape routes. There was only one exit to this ballroom and it was a large one.

‘If I make it out from there…’

She ran towards the door but several wolves came in front of her grunting and showing their teeth. They were not going to let her go so easily. Unless she wanted to become wolf prey she had to find a different exit!

But, before she could realize she was pulled by her hair.

“Ugh, it hurts,” having long hair had certainly become her bane in this situation. The man dressed in white grabbed her by her neck and slashed her to the ground with unimaginable force.

*thud*

Her skin slapped the floor. She could hear her whole body scream in agony!

The pain she was experiencing was not something to joke about. This white-shirted man was too strong!

But she forgot all of the pain in her body when she felt cold metal against her neck. The fear of death gripped her heart. She was more concerned about life and death than some mere pain.

At the moment it was like she was handled like a hen about to be killed and turned to chicken meat. The man had pinned her down and he was strong so no matter how much she squirmed she couldn’t escape his grasp.

“Let me go,” she cried but to no avail. The man swung his sword to end her life.

What kind of situation was this? She was still in her white bridal gown and it will now be splashed by her own crimson blood. Will she become the food of these wolves?

“Wait!” The man wearing the mask cried causing the other one to halt with his sword. It stopped just a few inches away from Evelyn’s neck.

“Yes, Alpha Ken? Is it that you want to enjoy the glory of killing her instead of me?” The man asked as he smirked.

But Ken only shook his head. “That is not what I meant.”

He sighed as he continued. “If you kill her now you would be acting foolishly”

He raised his shoulder to shrug as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.

“What? Foolish? She is the greatest threat not only to your pack but also to the whole werewolf race itself! You understand that don’t you?”

Ken nodded.

“Yes, I understand. But if we kill her, we would only be getting rid of the threat. When in reality we can use her life as a hostage to bring those humans to our knees! She is a bargaining chip of unimaginable value. Tell me, Alpha Steven, don’t you want the humans to be at our mercy? Don’t you want to prove that the werewolves are the most superior race of all and our moon goddess the true primordial deity?”

The room fell silent. Steven went silent too. He couldn’t have any replies. Ken’s worlds were like thunderbolts to the group of werewolves present in the ballroom.

Since no one talked, Ken decided to continue.

“I hope you understand what value she has amongst the humans,” he said.

The other werewolves in the room had transformed to their humanoid form as they were lost deep in thought. They hadn’t thought it out till now but his word indeed had a point... They indeed weighted them. What’s more? Ken being the summoner of the girl himself, his words had a lot of weight.

The werewolves had the goal of killing Evelyn from the very start but with the masked man’s intervention, they were having second thoughts.

Steven nodded.

“Indeed what you say has worth, but neither you nor I can decide it alone as it involves the fate of the entire werewolf race. So we shall do this by a vote of the alphas of the respective packs.”

All in all, there had been 36 werewolf packs that had been accumulated here for today’s summoning.  Some majors, some minors but every one of them had their own alpha leading the pack. But they were just spectators. Alpha Ken, the masked man who was probably also a werewolf, was the only summoner.

Ken turned around. There was an air of serious around him as if to show that he meant no jokes.