Chapter 49 Casualties
ELIJAH
I was in my office, having the worst day possible, when Hazel stepped in. I had been looking for something my father gave me a while ago but I couldn’t find it for some reason. It was always in the top drawer of my desk and now that I actually needed it, it had disappeared.
It had been his most prized possession and he gave it to me when he was dying. I may not have had a very good relationship with him because of how stern and strict he was, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still my father. He had taught me everything I know today and he hadn’t neglected his duties. Without him, I wouldn’t have ever been able to rule over this pack.
I heard Hazel’s footsteps approaching me but my mind was far off, so I didn’t look at her.
“Elijah.” I heard but my head didn’t move for some reason.
“Elijah!” That still wasn’t enough to wake my brain up.
“What is it? You don’t have to shout.”
She sighed and shook her head, dropping a file on my table.
“What is this? If it’s bad news, please take it away. I’ve had enough for today.” I pushed the file back toward her.
But she pushed it back to me.
“I think you’ll want to hear this bad news.”
I looked at her and sighed.
“Just read it to me. I don’t think I have enough brain power to do all that.”
“Golden Shadow has been attacked.”
My brain paused before my ears sent what they’d heard to it.
“What did you say?”
I got up immediately and grabbed the file, flipping through all the pages without necessarily looking at one for more than a second.
“I said Golden Shadow has been attacked and—” I raised my hand to silence her as I read through the file.
When I was done, I sank back down in my chair in despair.
“Everybody is dead.”
“We’ve rounded up the injured but things aren’t looking good. None of them are in good condition to give a firsthand detail of the attack.”
That wasn’t what was important right now.
“How many survivors and what’s their present state?”
“We rounded up over a hundred.”
The way she paused, I knew there was a catch. There just had to be.
“But what?”
“But forty are dead already. And the remaining numbers aren’t looking good.”
I hated this next question I wanted to ask.
“How many children died? And are there any child survivors?”
She couldn’t answer that, which meant I knew the answer.
“What exactly happened out there, Hazel?”
Golden Shadow was quite a distance from my kingdom. They were partially a district on their own because of their population and ability to live independently. During the last census, we had counted almost a thousand people living in the pack. And now, that had been reduced to a hundred initial survivors and then sixty, of which no children were among.
I knew there were pictures in the file but I couldn’t bring myself to look at them. I felt responsible for this. I should have protected my packs.
“We think it’s them, Alpha. There is no wolf on earth that will tear a man apart with his bare hands unless he is possessed or using dark magic.”
The words she said made me open the file immediately and flip to the pictures. The first picture was of a man torn equally in half, the contents spilling over the floor and it took me a lot to drag my eyes away from that and move to the next page.
It wasn’t any better. More gruesome pictures of children’s corpses as they littered the ground. I could see how the ground was covered with blood and that was when I had to stop looking.
“This was a bloodbath, Hazel.”
Why do bad things always happen during my reign? Why wasn’t it my father who had to deal with all these issues? He would have known perfectly well how to handle all this.
I felt responsible. I knew the Antil Cult would try to attack again but I didn’t warn the other packs. I didn’t take the necessary actions to keep my people safe.
“Don’t blame yourself. You had no idea this was going to happen,” Hazel blurted out like she could read my mind.
“You see, that’s the main issue. I knew this was going to happen and I can’t even deny it. When the Elders and people start demanding answers for what happened, what will I say? What will I tell them? I can’t deny knowledge of the Antil Cult’s agenda against me.”
There was no one else to blame aside from me. I had known about them and what I should have done as an Alpha was to take the necessary steps to keep everyone safe, but I didn’t do that. Instead, I spent my time on other things.
Adriana crossed my mind and as I tried to put thoughts of her away since this wasn’t the time.
“You’re right. I shouldn’t blame myself. I didn’t start this, I didn’t put myself in this situation.”
Because if Donald had not treated his daughter like trash, I would never have found her on that run. And if I hadn’t found her, he wouldn’t have imprisoned me, which led me to get out and punish him. That punishment was what led to the series of events I was now dealing with.
“We’re going over there.”
“Where? Where are we going?”
“To see Donald. He has to pay for what he has done.”
Maybe I’ll just take one finger. Or the whole hand. Depends on how much back talk I can take. I didn’t know he was involved with the Antil Cult when I confronted him. If I had known, I would have been very careful with the way I dealt with him.
We marched out of the office.
“Get the men ready, tell them that—” I paused when I saw Adriana coming down the stairs and walking up to us.
“Hey, are you going out?”
I nodded and looked at Hazel, trying to get her to distract Adriana. I had more important things to do and I didn’t want to tell her where I was going. She would just hear later that I’d killed him.
But then I couldn’t lie to her. I couldn’t look her in the face and lie to her.
“We are going to… We are…” Nothing was coming to my head. What should I say?
“A meeting. We have a meeting at a nearby pack,” Hazel saved me.
I don’t know if Adriana knew we were lying but she just nodded and walked away.