Chapter 257 The Scars We Wear
Chapter 257 The Scars We Wear
Ryker shoved the guard away and didn’t say a single word as he stormed up the stone stairs, heading back outside.
Lyra walked right beside him, her heart thumping against her ribs, her mind completely racing as she tried to piece together the image of that empty cell and the young guards who had been forced to lie to their own Alpha.
They found Dax in the dining hall, standing near the fireplace. He was nursing a glass of dark liquor, staring into the flames like he had a lot on his mind.
The moment the doors flew open and Ryker marched into the room, Dax didn't even turn his head, he just took a slow sip from his glass, almost rolling his eyes in annoyance.
"Dax!" Ryker roared. "Get the hell away from that hearth and look at me right now!"
Dax set his glass down and turned around, crossing his arms over his chest with a scowl. "What is your problem now, Ryker? You just got back from the human town, you already bit my head off in the library over the book girl, and now you're bursting in here screaming like a wild animal. I'm tired of the tantrums."
"Don't you dare play dumb with me!" Ryker shouted, stepping directly into his brother's personal space. "We just came up from the prison block and the cell is completely empty, Dax. Sylvester is gone. The guards outside told me you explicitly ordered them to stand post and lie to my face, telling me the human was sedated! Why did you let the prisoner out?!"
Dax scoffed. "Oh, of course! The cell is empty, so automatically it’s my fault! You come back here and instantly assume I’m a traitor to my own bloodline! I didn't let the damn prisoner out, Ryker! The man actually ran away!"
"Ran away?" Ryker let out a harsh, sarcastic laugh. "He was locked behind silver-reinforced iron bars, guarded by twenty-four-hour shifts! A regular human doesn't just slip through the lock and run away into the night, Dax!"
"He wasn't acting like a regular human!" Dax yelled. "You weren't here, brother! You were off playing cozy romance with your Luna while the rest of us had to manage the fallout! Midnight hit, and that human started getting completely tormented. He looked entirely possessed, Ryker! His eyes were rolled back, his skin was freezing cold, and he was screaming in some ancient language while trying to physically hurt the guards on duty! He was tearing his own flesh apart!"
Dax shrugged. "I had to step inside the cell myself to try and fight the man down before he killed someone. But he had some kind of unnatural strength. I tried to restrain him, but the man severely injured me and ran off into the lower tunnels before the backup guards could even block the gate!"
To prove his point, Dax didn't wait for Ryker to speak before he reached down to his right arm, violently rolled up the thick sleeve of his flannel shirt, and thrust his forearm directly at them.
"Look at it!" Dax shouted. "See for yourself if I’m making up fairy tales!"
Lyra stepped closer, her blue eyes widening in horror.
Running down the length of Dax’s muscular forearm was what looked like claw marks.
The skin was heavily bruised, swollen, and the deep cuts were still a little fresh.
Lyra got close to the scar, her fingers trembling as she reached out, gently trying to touch the edge of the bruised skin without hurting him. "Oh my god, Dax... that looks horrible. What did he hit you with? Did he have a weapon?"
"His bare fingers," Dax muttered. "It felt like hot iron dragging through my muscle. He wasn't human in that moment, Lyra. I’m telling you, the man was completely possessed by whatever dark magic he brought back from that witch village."
Ryker, however, wasn't nearly as sympathetic.
He glanced at the bloody forearm for a split second, his face remaining entirely hard as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Cover it up, Dax. You’re lying to us."
Dax snapped his head up. "What?"
"I said you’re lying," Ryker stated flatly. "There is absolutely no way a cuffed, weakened criminal would be capable of fighting his way out of a silver cell if you had just let him stay behind the bars where he belonged. Even if he was throwing a tantrum, the silver lines would have kept his magic suppressed. The only way he could have touched you, let alone injured you, is if you unlocked that gate first and let him out into the open hallway."
Dax pulled his arm back, violently rolling his sleeve down. "That is exactly it, isn't it, brother? You don't ever believe a single word that comes out of my mouth! Right now, I don't think it will make any difference what I say to you! You blame me for every single thing that goes wrong inside this pack house!"
Dax stepped closer to Ryker, pointing a trembling finger at his chest. "I take full care of the entire pack in your absence, I run the border patrols, I keep the walls standing, and this is what I get? The moment you roll back in you blame me for Rex losing her mind, you blame me for Sylvester escaping, you blame me for every single thing that is going on here, don't you?!"
"I don't blame you blindly, Dax," Ryker growled back. "I know you. And I know the reckless things you do when you think I'm not looking. There is absolutely no way Sylvester would have run off or found the strength to fight a trained warrior like you if you did not release him from that cell first. So tell me plain, brother, why did you release the prisoner? What were you hoping to do before he turned on you?"
"He did not overpower me because I let him go!" Dax yelled. "I did what I did to protect the rest of the pack! The man was running crazy and I had to take care of him myself! I don’t need you standing here scolding me like a child after I spent three days bleeding for your pack!"
Dax let out a hiss and looked at Lyra. "I guess you're the only one who has any actual sense among the both of you, Lyra. At least you looked at the injury before calling me a traitor. I am completely tired of staying here listening to him scold me like I’m some child."
Without waiting for his brother’s response, Dax turned on his heel, grabbed his glass of liquor and stormed out of the dining hall.