140. A New Fear
Benji
“How do you know this for sure your highness?” Another man asks, looking just as disturbed as everyone else it seems.
Aside from the prince, I had no idea who these people’s names were. But I could tell that the two standing beside him were higher ranks than all the others. I watch as Derek and his father check to see if Shane was alright.
He looked a little worse for wear and I remember prince Zidane mentioning about him shifting. I frown deeply before it suddenly dawns on me. Of course, in just a few hours Shane will turn eighteen. Safina presses herself into his side more firmly, looking a bit worried with his condition.
Prince Zidane looks over to the masked man, who I have yet to still hear a single word from. Looking at him, or at least of what I can see anyways, he wasn’t much older than Oscar I would say, maybe a few years give or take. His long-braided hair reached just below his back. He was of average height, maybe just a few inches taller than my five foot ten. He wore nothing but black, pretty much like all the others in the Elite, but his attire was quite different.
The man looks to Zidane and nods his head once as if giving him permission for something. Zidane looks back to everyone and sighs deeply, something he has been doing quite a lot it seems.
“As most of you know, Arion here doesn’t speak.”
Everyone else now looks to him as he just stares down at the ground.
“But none of you understand the reason why that is.” He continues. “Arion was found by my father when he was just a little boy, around eight I believe?” He looks to the man for confirmation, who nods his agreement.
“My team knows that Arion isn’t normally from our kingdom and he was found wandering around in the king’s forest with no memory of his own. But there was one thing my father did know. Arion is a pure Grey wolf.” Zidane then looks to Safina, whose eyes went wide with shock, staring at the masked man.
“But, however, something had happened that he didn’t or more like was too embarrassed to let everyone know about.” Zidane becomes a little somber and I couldn’t help but feel that he was about to reveal something that none of us was going to like.
“A few years ago, he had gone missing. It was a little after my father had died. Both Zander and I went everywhere looking for him. You see, my father had adopted him, refusing to allow anyone to take him from his care. So, Arion is like an older brother to me and Zander. We basically all grew up together. But when he went missing you couldn’t imagine the panic the two of us had felt.”
Zidane looks back up at his Elite team, who were all very intent on listening to his every word. “We knew he was hurting as much as we were when father died, so at first we just thought that he needed some time alone. When three days had passed as we still couldn’t find him anywhere, we became very concerned.”
“Zander thought it was best to go looking for him. I wanted to go with him, but I was just eight myself at the time.”
He goes silent for just a moment and I couldn’t help but notice how the masked man named Arion clenched his fists to his sides, not once looking up from the ground.
“I still don’t know what went down that day, but my brother had burst into my room in the middle of the night waking me up, making me go with him somewhere that was hidden within the castle grounds. He kept refusing to tell me what was going on, only that I needed to stay quiet and to follow him.”
Zidane looks at us slowly. “You have to remember Zander was only the age I am now at the time this was happening. He was frightened and nervous, not understanding himself what was really going on. All he knew was our older brother was seriously injured without showing any signs of actual injuries.”
“All I know is that he had found Arion in the basement of the abandoned quarters on the outskirts of the palace grounds. I guess they left him there believing he would never have been found since the quarters hasn’t been used nor cleaned since my great grandfather’s time in reign.”
“It was the only place that hasn’t been looked at since no one ever uses it. Arion was unconscious, and he looked like he had been starved for days. It wasn’t until after we were able to heal him enough to realize that something else was wrong. It took us weeks to finally get it out of him of what had happened.”
The young prince took another deep breath and says, “Victor’s men had kidnapped him when he was grieving over father and used some sort of forbidden ritual to extract his wolf from his body and tear their bond.”
I stare at him with horrified eyes as everyone around me gasps in outrage and disbelief.
“How? I mean…how is that even possible?” Nami asks flabbergasted.
“I wasn’t even aware that could even be done.” Jason whispers, staring at Arion, who still didn’t look up.
“That’s why we never see him shift anymore. I thought the grief was just too much, even to this day.” Osmoses rubs his face in silent anger, looking away from the group as if in thought now.
My body starts to shake a little. Because there was a reason why the prince was telling us this story. And I had a horrible, sickening feeling of where it was heading.
“Arion’s wolf was stolen from him and he can never get him back.”
“Wait, how is that possible? Wouldn’t he have died from the extraction? And why did the Ambassador want to steal his wolf in the first place?” Safina steps up with deep furrowed brows as she asks this, first looking to Zidane, then staring at Arion.
We all go silent. My heart was pounding with fear of what his next words were going to be. I was dreading them, hoping against hope that he wasn’t about to say what I think he was going to say. But wishing as hard as I did at that moment…it was completely futile.