Chapter 42: Answers and Questions

"Tell me, great Silver Heart warriors, what has you attacking these Princesses?" Beta Richard Stewart asks, his head tilted to one side.

"Her small witch friend killed one of our own." Answered the Silver Heart Pack's Alpha.

"Without reason?" The male, Richard, questioned.

The Alpha snarled. "In the heat of battle." She ground out.

"Ah."

"The witch tried to take Lady Polly, who is now protected by the Silver Heart Pack, along with her daughter Princess Ellie." The female Alpha countered.

"Yes." Richard rubbed at the back of his neck. "I know of your Pack. You offer sanctuary to abused women, but I do not think Lady Polly would qualify..." Richard flicked his eyes between the female Alpha and where Dolores and Ellie stood. "Nevertheless, I do not believe Princess Ellie wants or needs your assistance at this time."

"But!—"

"But," Richard spoke over the Alpha. "You and your Pack may take Lady Polly. She seems to want to leave with you, unlike Princess Ellie."

"And what of our fallen command? The female Alpha insisted. "The witch must pay."

Richard shrugged, his palms facing up as he looked around him. "I do not see a witch. I suggest you let this lay with the battle."

"We will have our revenge on the witch. Mark our words." The Alpha promised then directed her warriors to retreat into the darkness with a haunting whistle.

Dolores lowered her bow to her side, taking the arrow and placing the shaft back into her quiver. The wolves arched and shifted back into males before her. Their thin outline faded back and forth between yellow and red. The beta Richard Stewart adjusted his gaze to the Silent Maw Pack Survivors.

"And you?" Beta Richard asked.

"We want Princess Dolores to give us answers." One male answered among the Pack. "The truth."

Dolores straightened as the males turned and looked at her. One brow raised on beta Richard's face. Ellie came to stand beside her, gripping the sleeve of her hunter's tunic. Looking down at her sister Dolores saw the tears filling Ellie's eyes for the last surviving members of her Pack.

Turning her sights onto the males, she marks their worn clothes and sunken eyes—Ellie whimpers beside her, and Dolores sighs. These males are nothing more than victims desperately searching for answers behind the deaths of their friends and family.

"Please, Lo," Ellie cries. "Can you forgive them and their blind rage?"

Dolores weighed the cost of forgiveness, realizing that they were heading to the Grey Tail Pack she would need the numbers. Removing Ellie's grip on her tunic Dolores took a steady step towards the Beta Richard Stewart, stopping beside him so that she too stood in front of the Silent Maw Pack survivors.

"I will answer truthfully to the questions I know and forgive the rudeness you have shown my family and me tonight." Dolores declared, her tone full of authority. "If you swear your allegiance to my sister Princess Ellie."

Dolores lifted her chin as the male survivors glanced at each other, a quiet mummer between them. The corner of her mouth kicked up when she overheard one ask why she wanted them to swear allegiance to Ellie and not her.

"What do you say?" Dolores breaks the werewolves' hushed discussion. "Will you follow Princess Ellie?"

"Yes!" They shout in unison.

Dolores smiles widely, seeing their aura beam a soiled yellow—this must be because of her royal blood, her chosen blood, why she must be able to see a wolf's rank. These males turned to Rogues before her, but they reverted to their true Omega selves once she gave them an order.

Dolores gestured for Ellie to stand beside her, lacing her fingers with Ellie, hoping to send her the strength that Dolores had found. Ellie took calming breaths as the Silent Maw Pack survivors knelt before them, one fist over their hearts.

"Ask you questions, and believe what Princess Dolores answers." Ellie shakingly commanded.

Dolores kept her head high as she answered the survivors' questions, knowing that even she didn't know everything. Finally, they asked the question that seemed to haunt them all.

"Did you kill Jakobe?" An unseen voice asked.

"I did not," Dolores said simply. "After he attacked the Sage Jasper and me, he was taken into the late King's custody and committed suicide."

The males silenced, bringing an ere stillness to the woods around them. The quiet sent a chill down Dolores's spine, compelling her to ask her own question.

"Do you know why Jakobe and your other Pack members attacked us during the Hunting Festival?"

"The Prince," a male survivor began. "Or the now Alpha King Adam promised to help us find the truth about the massacre of our Pack and that you and the Sage knew the answers."

"If you wanted answers, why did you attack?" Dolores bit out, her skin beginning to stretch with fury from that attack.

"We do not know!" another male answered. "We only know that Jakobe could not wait for the hunt to be over and went with a small group of us to find you and the Sage."

"After we heard of Jakobe's death," the first male quietly began again. "We overheard the Silver Heart Pack warriors and their plan to search for you, Princess Dolores. So we followed them."

"We offer you our deepest apologies, Princess Dolores." the unseen voice calls, and the entire Pack lowers their head to the ground. "What Jakobe did...how he tried to find answers, he was wrong."

Dolores lets go of Ellie's hand, walking to the bent survivors of the Silent Maw Pack. She bends over the first male gingerly, touching his shoulder. He raises his head, and Dolores smiles, helping him to his feet. The other males follow suit, and Dolores purposefully smiles at every survivor before her.

Dolores steps back, and Ellie comes to join her bringing Dolores's attention to her.

"Lo, you have saved them, thank you," Ellie whispers. "They should not swear their allegiance to me, though." She adds. looks at the last surviving members of her Pack. "They should be loyal to you, Dolores."

"No, my Ellie," Dolores says without a second thought. "These are your people, and you are their Alpha. You will need their strength and protection.

Ellie abruptly hugs Dolores, sending her stumbling in surprise by the embrace . Laughing, the two girls hear a slow clap sound behind them.

"Well, that was something to see." Beta Richard Stewart amused a toothy grin on his mouth.

Dolores had almost forgotten he was still here, with him being more of a statute than a male. She turned towards him, not knowing exactly what to say but thinking she should probably start with thank you.

Opening her mouth to say that very thing, a sparrow crookedly flew down from a tall tree, landing on her shoulder, followed by Thomas, who remained carrying her mother.

Dolores's mother practically jumped from Thomas's arms, running to Dolores and Ellie, squeezing them both around the neck. Dolores felt tears fill her eyes and embraced her mother back.

"Since we're all here now." Richard bellowed, breaking up Dolores's family reunion. "I feel like now is the perfect time for me to introduce myself. Since no one is trying to kill anyone anymore," He added with a wink.

Dolores raises a brow, her senses on high alert as Richard begins. She knows he is the beta of Adams Pack and needs to be cautious and weigh his words in case he is a spy for the new Alpha King.

"As you now know, I am Beta Richard, and my Alpha Roman Hawking asked me to find you, Princess Dolores."

"Why," Dolores coldly asked.

Richard smiled. "I was told that the Sharp Claw Pack deliberately leaked the whereabouts of the Princesses and their mothers to the Silver Heart warriors."

"The Sharp Claw Pack is our brother Bryans Pack," Dolores stated.

"Yes, and Prince Bryan is now Alpha of the Pack and wanted the loyalty of the Silver Heart Pack, so he betrayed you." Richard's last word came at slow and stabbing.

Dolores attempted to hide her shock. She didn't understand why after everything that had happened, Bryan and the former Luna Queen Elizabeth would betray her. She supposed she shouldn't even be surprised when the entire Royal family, aside from Ellie, have been treated with such contempt. Especially the two older Princes.

Dolores bits at her thumbnail, trying to piece together the puzzle, debating her next move. Even though she no longer fears her brothers anymore, she still doesn't have the power to overcome them. Each has powerful Packs loyal to them, where she has none. No, the best thing for her to do is act the part. Be the weak, scared girl she once was.

"I believe my King, my brother, will protect me, and I do not think my brother Bryan would do such a thing." Dolores naively says, dismissing Richard’s tale. "They are my brothers, and I, their sister."

Richard huffed an enduring chuckle, looking at Dolores like she was a young, innocent, ignorant Princess precisely the way Dolores hoped he would. Richard bent his head slightly before speaking once again.

"So, Princess Dolores, where to know?"

Dolores's brows inched up her forehead. "Are you accompanying us, Beta Richard?"

Richard looked at the werewolves behind Dolores. Her sickly mother, her younger sister, and the starving survivors of the Silent Maw Pack, along with the now sparrow and crow hovering above them.

"Yes..." He carefully began. "I believe you are in need of my protection."

Dolores sucked in her bottom lip at his arrogance.

"So, where are we going, Princess Dolores?"

"Back to where it began...The Grey Tail Pack."