Alex awoke with a start, his breathing hard and his heart racing in his chest. For a brief period, he found himself helplessly trapped in the cobwebs of his nightmare, as if he had only awoken from a dream within a dream. After a while, his mind instinctively recognized that the sun had set, as the room's little window no longer let in any light.
He also observed that he was no longer bound, that he had been cleansed of the filth and blood, and that he had been treated with herbal remedies to cure the worst of the wounds, judging by the different scents his nose had picked up. He was also dressed in cleaner and warmer clothes and had most of his upper body bandaged.
Slowly, he attempted to sit up until he was able to lean his back against the wall for support. When the door opened, he tensed up. Bracing himself for whatever was going to happen, Alex clenched his battered arms against his wounded side.
"How are you feeling this evening?" Alpha Redmane, who was with a young woman who had been there the other night, came in.
Alex nodded, his gaze drawn to the young woman who immediately took her spot behind the alpha. Her red hair reminded him of summer, and her artfully scattered freckles against her pale complexion made her look like something out of an old photograph.
"I hope you've been well taken care of."
Alex remained silent, without responding in any way; there was no nod this time, no shake of his head, no change in his demeanor.
"Come on, wolf, I thought you'd figured out that you could trust me by now." When Ales still refused to speak, Alpha Redmane turned and told the young woman to step outside.
"Yes, Alpha." The young woman obediently said, and walked out of the room.
"Now it's just you and me."
"I wasn't afraid of her. If that's what you were thinking when you asked her to leave," Alex eventually spoke. "You're the red wolf," he said, as if that was more than enough of a reason for him to refuse to speak with or trust the Alpha, and not because of the young woman.
However, now that he thought about it, he wondered why the alpha had assumed it was because of the woman.
"Fair enough." Alpha Redmane then smiled and nodded. "And, to be completely fair with you, we did chase you down and your human companion with the intention of killing you. But you have to understand that we mistook you for one of those poachers."
"Poachers?"
"They call themselves merchants. They catch beings like you and me."
"Nara," Alex said, his jaws clenching as he whispered the name.
"You know her."
"She was a scheming bitch."
Alpha Redmane smiled once more. "We've been trying to catch her, and have even set up bait points in the forest to attract her attention. However, she and her gang of scumbag poachers have been pretty clever and have been dodging the traps."
"In that case, you'll have to set up a more sophisticated trap, one that she won't be able to detect as a trap."
He agreed with a nod. "You're right. And that's exactly what my beta and her special team are working on at the moment."
"You have a female beta?"
"Everyone in my pack gets a fair shot at becoming something," the alpha responded nonchalantly. "You haven't answered my question. How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling better, I guess," Alex responded glumly. He trembled as his mind raced back to the pain he'd endured, and he willed himself not to think about it.
"Good. I was hoping you'd be up for a talk."
" Okay."
"Do you think you'll be able to eat something? Tanya had left some bread..."
Alex shook his head, immediately regretting it as it left him queasy. "Could I please have some water instead?" he asked.
Alpha Redmane gently lifted his head to assist him in drinking from a tin cup. "My pack has questions, and transparency is important around here. Therefore, I'm going to have to ask you a few questions."
Alex barely nodded, wishing he knew if his answers would end his life or extend it, so he could be careful with the information he'd be giving Moorland's so-called rogue alpha.
"Though I don't imagine you're ready to go back to sleep just yet," Alpha Redmane added, a friendly tone in his voice.
Alex sighed. "It feels as though I've already slept for a lifetime."
"Good to know. That suggests my daughter's experimental medicinal tea worked." The alpha smiled as he placed the cup on the wooden table beside the bed. "She'll be pleased."
Alex sighed once again. "How long was I asleep?"
"After we've stitched up your wounds? Two days," Alpha Redmane said with a shrug. "I'm glad to hear you're feeling better. But, I'm more than relieved to learn that you are not one of Nara's men. You and your human companion are not poachers."
"No. We're not," Alex answered quietly.
The alpha searched for clues that he was lying, but the blue eyes staring back at him were clouded with grief but devoid of evasion.
"As I have said, my pack wants answers. It's not every day that we come upon an unconscious pup in the river."
"You found me in the river?"
"Floating and half-dead. From experience, anyone who's left for dead is usually not our enemy," Alpha Redmane assured him in a friendly tone.
"*Usually* not your enemy, so you *do* have enemies," Alex said carefully.
"Of course. The poachers!"
"I see. Well, thank you… for saving my life."
The alpha walked across the room, then dragged a wooden chair to the middle. He sat down in front of Alex and watched him thoughtfully. "When we first saw you, I actually thought you and your human were not from around here. You were dressed differently. But then I told myself that, perhaps, what you were wearing was Velaris's latest fashion."
At the mention of the city, Alex's throat went immediately dry. "No. Harper and I are not from around here."
"Harper! Is that the name of your human companion?"
"Yes…"
"And your name?"
"Alex."
Alpha Redmane smiled and offered his hand to him. "Nice to meet you, Alex."
He looked down and stared at the hand in front of him before he slowly and carefully reached for it, shaking it slowly.
"Where are you and Harper from?" The alpha peered at his face, trying to read his expression.
Alex thought he couldn't say Seattle without having to explain the city, so he just went on to say, "Not from this world."
Alpha Redmane's eyes lit up. "You're from the new world!"
"Ye-yes, the new world." Alex shifted in the bed, pleasantly surprised that the motion didn't send waves of agony through his body.
"And what brought you here?"
"Harper and I came here to find and bring back…" he paused and swallowed. He looked up at the dark sky through the window, trying to hide the sudden guilt in his eyes. "…my brother. He was deceived by a powerful mage and was tricked into coming here."
"And were you able to find him?"
He nodded. "Yes. But Nara… the poachers tricked me. I thought they were going to help us. He sold us to Gillen instead," he added with a sigh.
"You and your brother were sold as his fighters, and your human companion as his slave," Alpha Redmane said matter-of-factly.
"You know him?"
"I do," he said with a humorless smile this time. "How did you end up in the river? Did you lose and fail to bring honor to his house?"
Alex slumped back in his bed. "He made me fight my own brother."
"But you refused to fight…"
"Yes. In a way, yes..." A melancholy expression appeared on his face as he raised his head. "We had a plan in place for our escape. But then something happened, and things got out of hand."
"I'm aware of the collar that Gillen particularly designed to keep his fighters under control. How do you think you'll be able to escape if you can only shift during your fight?"
"We were meant to shift before entering the arena. We were supposed to return to the Casa in our wolf forms and break down the wall for the others."
"The others?"
"The slaves, the sitter, and the other fighters who wanted freedom more than winning Gillen's fights."
"Hmm... but something didn't go quite as you had planned." Alpha Redmane seemed to have read his thoughts. "Your brother ended up killing you."
Alex didn't want to confirm it because he wanted to believe that Luca's rage and hatred toward their father for the way he had treated Lucas was the cause, but he couldn't lie to himself, for he knew that Lucas was in a lot of pain because of him.
He shook his head. "If only he had stuck to the plan. We would have gotten everyone out of there. We would have all arrived in Moorland. And we could be searching for Gwinifer right now."
"Gwinifer?"
"Yes, she's the only person we know who could open a gateway to the new world - our world. She may also be able to assist us in reaching the Moon Queen to ask for a royal pardon.”
"Interesting..." Alpha Redmane muttered. He looked at Alex for a moment, then he craned his neck toward the door. "Please call my daughter?"
"Right away, Alpha," someone from behind the door replied, and Alex soon heard footsteps leaving.
"I think you should rest after this. Maybe we could talk afterward."
"Thank you," Alex said, not trying to hide his relief, but he thought the alpha should understand how distrustful he had grown after what Nara had done.
Soon after, they heard faint footsteps approaching the room. Alex figured it was the alpha's daughter. But why would he ask for her? Perhaps the alpha wanted him to try yet another alternative medication that his daughter had concocted.
They heard a light knock on the door, followed by the sound of the knob turning, before the door opened and the young woman went in, setting something on the tiny table that was already crowded with medicinal plants.
Alpha Redmane rose to his feet and gently pulled the woman over to stand next to him.
"Alex, meet my daughter －"
A sliver of a smile pushed its way onto Alex's lips as he looked up at the woman. He could feel that his smile didn't look genuine because he had no reason to smile...
" －*Gwinifer*."