Chapter 119 Chapter 119: Mercy
Senna’s POV
I didn’t stop hating him. How could I?
I couldn’t. I never would. Just because Verity wanted to spare him didn’t make me suddenly forget everything he’d done.
Kalen stood a few steps away from the rest of us. His eyes were full of fear. He’d been saved by Verity, but barely. He shuddered. He couldn’t even look at Kalev he was so afraid.
The moment he’d let out his wolf, Verity had responded. Kalen’s wolf was small and weak. It wasn’t used to being let out. His wolf was way too vulnerable.
Verity had pushed against me. She felt the needed to protect Kalen’s wolf, even if she hated Kalen himself. I’d let her out. She’d had a stand off with Orrin and won. She’d made it perfectly clear that no one was to hurt Kalen’s wolf.
Which meant no one was to hurt Kalen.
Truth be told, I didn’t like this. I wanted him to die, just like everyone else. I’d intentionally let the island feel my wrath. The island had responded and sent a rock straight for his head.
But Verity wasn’t going to let anything happen to her. She’d made that clear. And I couldn’t cross her, even if I wanted to.
“Thank you,” Kalen said. It came out as a whisper.
“Don’t thank me,” I glared at him. “I don’t need your thanks.”
He balked. Then he nodded.
“So what then?” Korrigan asked, stepping forward. “We’re just going to let him off the hook because he has a flora wolf? That doesn’t seem right.”
“We’re not letting him off the hook,” I said. “But our wolves don’t choose their humans. It’s not his wolf’s fault that its stuck inside a sorry excuse for a man.”
Kalen flinched at my words. I saw him now for all that he truly was. A coward. A pathetic excuse for a man. He’d chosen the coward’s way out. He’d hunted his own kind because he was afraid for his own life. He disgusted me.
But Verity couldn’t let his wolf suffer. And I understood that.
I pointed at the corner of the cave. “Over there,” I told him. “You will stay on that side of the cave. You won’t eat unless we offer you food. You won’t speak unless we say you can. You don’t even get to sleep unless we allow it.”
Korrigan and Isolde came and stood beside me and Kalev. Kalen stayed across from us.
“And by ‘we’, I mean all of us,” I said, motioning to the people standing beside me.
Junie stood in the middle of us. She bit her lip. Her eyes flitted between the two sides, as though she was unsure of which side to go to.
“Junie,” I said, my voice firm.
“But he’s a flora wolf. Like me. Like us,” she said.
“That doesn’t make him a good person. He has a wolf he doesn’t deserve. We won’t hurt him because we don’t want to hurt his wolf. But let me make this clear, Junie. Kalen is not one of us. He’s not our friend. He’s not our ally. He’s just a person we’re letting stay here. We will all keep him safe. But he’s not part of this group.”
“So we’re just going to treat him like an animal?” Junie asked. Her face scrunched up.
“He is an animal,” I said. “He’s the worst kind of animal. He had no morals. No ethical code. He only looks out for himself.”
“But he said…” Junie started.
“I don’t care what he said,” I told her. “He’s done things that can’t be forgiven. And the moment we get off this island, he’s going to pay for what he did. I will call for his public exile. We can’t hurt his wolf, but we can cast him out.”
“What do you mean?” Junie asked.
“I mean,” I told her, “once the games are over, Kalen will go to Sector 7. He will go willingly. And he will stay there for the rest of his life.”
Junie flinched. Being cast out to Sector 7 was almost a sentence worse than death. The sector was poor and mostly wolfless. But I nodded at her. It seemed like a suitable punishment for Kalen. If I couldn’t kill him, then I could at least get rid of him and send him somewhere he’d suffer for the rest of his life.
“And my sister?” Junie asked.
“Your sister isn’t innocent. Mira has done some bad things too. But she will stay in Sector 6. You will have the choice, Junie. You can stay with your sister or come and live with me and Thistle in Sector 3.”
Junie appeared to weigh this. Then she nodded and came and stood beside Isolde. Kalen dropped his head. His shoulders slumped forward.
“To that side,” I said. He walked over to the cave wall slowly. Then he sat, covered by the shadow. Instantly, the moss all around him shriveled up and died, leaving him to sit on the cold hard rock floor. He drew his knees up to his chest. His head was still down. He didn’t dare look at us.
“You’re only alive because I’m letting you be,” I said. He nodded, still looking down. I was about to lay down more rules when I was interrupted by the sound of a loud horn. It echoed through the sky, and down into the cave.
Junie flinched at the sound. Kalen remained at the wall, his knees curled up to his chest.
“What is that?” Kalev asked.
We all stopped. A sense of dread washed over me. We all knew that sound. At least, Isolde, Korrigan and I did. We’d heard it before, during the last games.
“They’re calling us,” Korrigan said.
“Who?” Kalev asked. He looked to me. I exchanged a look with Korrigan and Isolde. Then we all glanced to the waterfall.
“That’s a signal from the capital,” I told Kalev. My voice was uneasy. “It means they want us to come the beach.”