Chapter 24 Zemirah.

Chapter 24 Zemirah.


Zemirah

The drive back to the pack house took two hours, Fernandez drove. I sat in the passenger seat with a cloth pressed to my shoulder, watching the blood soak through, the wound was deep but clean.

Tasha's knife had gone in at an angle, missing the bone. I'd be sore for weeks, but I wouldn't lose the arm.

Sloane rode in the back with Tasha, neither of them spoke, Tasha stared out the window, her wrists bound with zip ties Fernandez kept in the glove box. She'd stopped crying somewhere around the first hour, now her face was empty, like she wasn't bawling her eyes out like an hour ago.

Fernandez glanced at my shoulder. "You need to go to a hospital."

"I need to finish what I started."

"You can't do anything if you bleed out and lose blood, because you'll lose energy too."

I didn't argue because he was right, but I wasn't going to a hospital here, I didn't want anyone to think they were doing me a favor, and I wasn't going to give the council a reason to say I was weak.

"There's a clinic," I said. "Near the pack house, one of our wolves runs it, she'll patch me up quickly without being suspicious."

Fernandez nodded, then he pressed the gas.

\---

The clinic was small, one room, two beds, and a counter full of supplies. The wolf who ran it was named Hattie, gray hair, thick glasses, her hands shook when she wasn't working. She didn't ask questions, she just took my arm, cleaned the wound, stitched it closed, wrapped it in bandages, then she gave me something for the pain that made my head feel floaty.

"You're lucky," Hattie said. "Another inch and you'd have had nerve damage."

"I'm lucky."

She looked at me over her glasses. "Your father used to bring you here when you were little.
When you scraped your knees, or a bug bit you, one time you fell out of a tree and broke your arm, he carried you in by himself, he wouldn't let anyone else touch you."

I didn't remember that.

"He loved you," Hattie said. "In his own special way."

I looked at the bandage on my shoulder. The blood was already soaking through.

"He sold me to a monster."

"He made a mistake, a terrible one at that but he loved you."

I stood up, I felt really dizzy, the room tilted, I grabbed the edge of the bed and waited for it to stop.

"Thank you, Hattie."

She nodded, then I walked out.

\---

The council meeting was called for noon.

I had three hours, and I spent them in my father's study, alone,the room still smelled like him, leather and coffee and something else, I couldn't describe.

I sat in his chair, the leather was cold against my back.

Fernandez knocked and came in without waiting for an answer.

"Tasha's in a holding cell, Julian ordered guards to surround it, and no one goes in or out without your permission."

"Where's Sloane?"

"In her room, I posted guards there too."

"Do you think she's a threat?"

"I think she's been playing all these games longer than any of us knew, so I'm not taking chances."

I nodded, my shoulder ached, the painkiller Hattie gave me was wearing off.

"The council is going to ask questions," I said. "About you, us and about why the Phoenix Alpha is in their pack house."

"Well, let them ask, cause at this point, I don't care anymore."

"They're going to try to eliminate you."

"I'm not leaving until you tell me to."

I looked at him, he was standing by the window, the light behind him, his face in shadow.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you're not ready to do this alone."

"I've been alone my whole life."

"No. You've been lonely, and there's a huge difference."

I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't say anything.

\---

The council was already seated when I walked in.

There were seven people, Miriam was there, at the far end of the table, her gray hair pulled back, her hands folded in front of her, Eldridge sat across from her, his face pinched, like he'd been sucking on something sour.
The others, I barely even remembered their names.

Julian stood by the door, he nodded when I came in.

I walked to the head of the table, though I didn't sit, the chair was still pushed back from the last meeting, that was the last time I'd been in this room.

"Tasha Williams is in custody," I said. "She's confessed to killing Alpha Aurel, she'll stand trial in three days."

Eldridge leaned forward. "Damn, where did you find her?"

"At an old mill, south of here."

"Who else was with her?"

"No one, she was there alone."

"And the Phoenix Alpha, what was his role in this?"

I kept my face still. "He provided assistance, transportation and security."

"But you're aware he's not a member of this pack."

"No, he's not."

"Then why is he in our territory? Why is he in this building?"

Miriam spoke before I could answer. "Eldridge, the girl, brought her father's killer to justice.
She's sitting in front of us with stitches in her shoulder, please be kind enough to show some respect."

"Respect isn't the issue, the issue is an outsider—"

"The issue," Miriam said, "is that we have a murderer in our holding cell and no Alpha to lead us, therefore everything else can wait."

The room went quiet.

Miriam looked at me. "Sit down, child, you look like you're about to fall over."

I sat.

The chair was warm, like my father's warmth, or maybe just the memory of it.

"The trial will be fair," I said. "Open to the pack, Tasha will have a defense and she'll be allowed to speak, after that, the council will decide her fate."

"The council decides," Eldridge said. "Not you right?"

"Yes the council decides."

He sat back, his eyes were narrow, watching me.

"The trial is in three days," I said. "Until then, I'm requesting that the council grant me temporary authority to manage pack operations, patrols, defenses and communication with neighboring territories."

"Request denied."

Miriam turned to Eldridge. "You don't speak for the council."

"I speak for myself, and I say we don't need a child running things while we wait for a trial that's already decided."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means Tasha Williams is guilty, everyone knows it, this trial is a formality, and the only reason we're having it is because Aurel's daughter wants to play Alpha."

I stood up.

The room went still.

"I don't want to play Alpha," I said. "I don't want to be Alpha, I never wanted any of this, but my father is dead, his killer is in a cell, and someone has to make sure this pack doesn't fall apart while you all sit in this room and argue about who gets to sit in that chair."

Eldridge's face reddened.

"You want to be Alpha? Challenge me right now, in front of everyone." I pulled the knife from my belt. The same knife Tasha had used on me. I hadn't cleaned the blood off. "We settle it the old way, whoever wins leads and the loser surrenders and walks away."

No one spoke.

"Because that's what this is about, isn't it? Not what's best for the pack or who's strong enough to take it."

Eldridge looked at the knife then at my shoulder, where the bandage was showing under my sleeve.

"You're injured."

"I assure you, I can still fight."

He didn't move or reach for a weapon, he just sat there, his face red, his hands flat on the table.

"I didn't think so," I said.

I sat back down, put the knife on the table in front of me.

"The trial is in three days, until then, I run things, are there any objections as to why I shouldn't?"

The room was silent.

"Good."

\---

Julian walked me back to my father's study.

"You shouldn't have done that," he said.

"Which part?"

"Challenging Eldridge, he's not going to forget that."

"I don't care if he forgets it, what I care about is that he stops blocking or challenging me."

Julian stopped at the door. "You've changed."

"I had to."

He looked at me for a moment, he nodded and walked away.

I went into the study.

Fernandez was standing by the window, exactly where I'd left him.

"I heard," he said.

"Of course you did."

"Eldridge is going to be a problem."

"Eldridge has been a problem since I was a child, he will never not be a problem just because I threatened him with a knife."

Fernandez turned from the window. "Then we have to find another way."

"We?"

"You're not doing this alone."

I sat down behind my father's desk, it had become my desk now, for the next three days at least, it'll be my permanent place.

"I need to talk to Tasha," I said. "Before the trial."

"Be rest assured, she's not going to tell you anything."

"She might because she's alone, frightened and scared, betrayed by her mother, she's got nothing left to fight for."

"Or she's exactly where she wants to be."

I looked at him. "What does that mean?"

"It means Tasha planned everything else. The murder, the escape, the trail she left for us to follow, she planned this too, maybe she wants a trial, so she can have the opportunity to stand in front of the pack and say whatever she's been waiting years to say."

I hadn't thought of that.

"I still need to talk to her."

"Then I'll go with you."

"No, I'll go alone."

He didn't argue, just nodded.

\---

The holding cell was in the basement of the pack house.

It was cold and damp, the walls were made of stone, the floor was dirty, and the door had iron bars with a lock that hadn't been changed in fifty years.
Two guards stood outside, they stepped aside when I walked up.

Tasha was sitting on a bench in the corner, her wrists were still bound, and her hair was still uneven, the knife-cut edges sharp against her face.

She looked up when I came in.

"Have you come to gloat?"

"Nahhh, far from that, I've come to ask you something."

"Alright then, ask away."

"Why did you want me to find you?"

Tasha tilted her head. "What makes you think I wanted you to find me?"

"You left a trail, the shoe, the half-eaten food, the cabin, the mill, it just shows you really wanted us to follow you."

Tasha smiled, It was the same smile, Cold and empty.

"I wanted you to see me, really see me for who I am, not the girl who hurt you when you were little, not the stepsister who was always grumpy around you, the person I am."

"I see you." I said softly.

"Do you? Because everyone else in this pack looked right through me especially our Dad, then it spread to the council.
The wolves who were supposed to protect me don't even respect me, they saw my mother, they saw her ambition, her schemes, her hunger for power. They never saw me."

"So you killed him."

"So I made a way for them see me."

I walked to the bench across from her and sat down.

"The trial is in three days, you'll get to speak. You'll get to tell your side of the story, but the judgement is in the hands of the council"

"And what do you want them to decide?"

"I want them to do what's right."

Tasha laughed. "There's nothing that is right, only what people can live with."

She looked at my shoulder.

"I hurt you."

"Yeah, you stabbed me."

"I wanted to see if you'd fight back but you didn't, you just stood there and let me."

"I knew you couldn't kill me."

"How?"

"Because you're not a killer, you're did something terrible and don't know how to undo it, there's a difference."

Tasha's face crumpled, the emptiness cracked and tears spilled down her cheeks.

"I didn't mean to," she whispered. "I just wanted him to listen, I just wanted him to see me, he was not listening to me and then the knife was in my hand and he was bleeding and I couldn't take it back."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry."

"I know you are."

I stood up. Walked to the door.

"Zemirah."

I stopped.

"Are you going to let them kill me?"

I didn't answer. I walked out of the cell and didn't look back.

\---

Fernandez was waiting at the top of the stairs.

"Well?"

"She's scared and alone.”

"Does that change anything?"

I thought about Tasha's tears.
The way she'd said I'm sorry like she meant it.

"No," I said. "It doesn't change anything."

\---

The next two days were meetings.

Meetings with patrol leaders, the treasury council, the elders who wanted to make sure I wasn't going to destroy everything my father had built.
Well I just sat in my father's chair and listened and nodded and made decisions that would affect every wolf in the pack.

Fernandez stayed in the background. Didn't speak unless spoken to, didn't offer opinions unless I asked, he was good at that, being there without being in the way.

On the second night, he found me in the study, I was looking at the map on the desk, I'd seen it a hundred times.

"You should sleep," he said.

"I can't."

"The trial is tomorrow, you need to be sharp."

"I know."

He didn't leave.

"What are you going to do?" he asked. "About Tasha?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do."

I looked at him, he was the man who had saved me out of Detlef's territory and who had stood beside me while I walked through fire.

"I'm going to let the council decide," I said. "And whatever they decide, I'm going to live with it."

"And if they decide to kill her?"

"Then she dies and her blood be on their hands."

He nodded, like he already knew.

I turned back to the map, the borders and the territories, this was the world I was supposed to lead.

"After the trial," I said, "you should go back to your pack."

"I'll go when you tell me to."

" That's why i'm telling you now."

He was quiet for a moment. Then: "Why?"

"Because I can't do what I need to do with you here, i can't be the Alpha this pack needs if I'm leaning on you every time things get hard."

"C'mon, that's not leaning, that's surviving."

"Same thing."

He walked to the door and stopped.

"I'll be at the trial tomorrow," he said. "After that, if you want me to leave, I'll leave."

I didn't turn around.

He left.

I sat in my father's chair and looked at the map and tried to remember who I was before all of this.

I couldn't.

\---

The trial started at dawn.

The council sat at the table, Tasha sat in a chair in the center of the room, her wrists bound, her face pale, her mother was not in the room, it was how I wanted it and I'd made sure of that.

I sat at the head of the table, not in my father's chair because I couldn't bring myself to feel it.

Miriam opened the proceedings, she read the charges and listed the evidence, she also called the witnesses.

I didn't speak because I didn't need to.
The case was clear, tasha had confessed. The knife matched the wound and after being traced meticulously, the journal matched the timeline.

When it was Tasha's turn to speak, she stood.

"I killed Alpha Aurel Williams," she said. "I planned it for months.
The whole plot, I wrote about it in my journal, I bought the knife I used from a trader in the southern territory, I walked into his study at midnight and I cut his throat."

The room was silent.

"I'm not sorry I did it, I don't know what came over me."

She looked at me.

"But I'm not sorry he's dead, he was a very weak Alpha, a terrible and bad father, he sold his own daughter to save himself, the pack is better without him."

Miriam looked at me. "Do you have anything to say?"

I stood.

"No."

"Then the council will deliberate."

They filed out, I sat in my chair and waited for their judgement.

It took an hour.

When they came back, Miriam's face was gray.

"We've reached a decision," she said. "Tasha Williams is guilty of murder and she is hereby sentenced to death."

Tasha didn't flinch, she just looked at the floor.

"She will be carried out at
sunset," Miriam said.

The room emptied.

I sat alone with Tasha.

"You didn't speak for me," she said.

"No."

"Why?"

"Because you didn't deserve it."

She nodded, it was clear she understood.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes."

"Will you be there? At sunset?"

I looked at my stepsister, the thought of how she always wanted to be in the spotlight filled my mind.

"Yes," I said. "I'll be there."

She closed her eyes.

I walked out of the room.