"I did my best to save everyone."
But did he? Or he only wanted to save Eoin no matter the price?
It was a cold winter morning when Aksel was dragged out from his bed in the middle of the village. He was confused, not knowing what was happening, but then he heard the word murderer and knew everyone had learned what he had done.
It was the first time someone had killed a member of the tribe, and the entire village gathered to see what his punishment would be. Most likely, he would be tied to a post and whipped until he was more dead than alive. But he was not afraid.
From the moment Aksel picked up the knife, he never once regretted what he did. His mother always had bruises on her face, and the tribe always turned a blind eye to her suffering because her mate, Aksel's father, was the leader. Sometimes, when his father got drunk, he would also get a beating.
He did not care that his people called him every word under the sun. His mother was safe, and his father would never harm her again. It made him happy to know he protected her. While the new leader and the elder of the tribe debated what Aksel's punishment would be, his mother, Tajiana, stood in the crowd, her eyes fixed on the snow. She looked like she had been crying. His uncle, Ned, his father's brother, was next to her, an arm around her waist, and he was saying something into her ear.
It was custom among his people that the family of the male should take care of his mate and offspring if something were to happen to him. Aksel and his mother were going to live a better life in his uncle's house.
Ned was the only living relative from his father's side and was a good man. Unfortunately, he had never found his mate and lived alone in his parents' house. When he was not in the village, he was out in the wild hunting. Ned was the best hunter in the entire valley they lived in, and Aksel hoped he would be like his uncle one day.
Aksel waited to hear what his punishment would be. The new leader would probably strip him of his high rank, and he would most likely become the lowest rank male in the tribe, but it was still better than living with his father. He would work even harder than before and show everyone that he was not just a murderer, that he did it to protect his mother. And one day, when the tribe forgave him, he would, once more, rise in rank.
It did not take long for the elders and the new leader to let everyone know what Aksel's punishment was. Not only he would lose the rank he so hard worked to obtain, but he was also going to be shunned from the tribe.
A low buzz started ringing in his ears. He was going to be shunned, cast out from his tribe.
It was worse than being sentenced to death.
He would be a lone ocxoa male without a rank, tribe, or family. Not only that, but all the tribe would learn his name and what he did so that no one would receive him.
No female would want to be his mate.
Aksel had thought he had done the right thing by protecting his mother, but not anymore.
Ned, who always had a warm smile and was willing to help anyone, looked at Aksel as if he was bad blood. As if he hated Askel.
He wanted to say he was sorry, but the words refused to come out. He felt sick and dizzy. The new leader was saying something to him, but he could not hear. The buzz in his ears was too strong.
One by one, the children and the females of the tribe turned their backs on him until only his mother and the males remained. Aksel wanted to ask the leader to let him stay until the snow melted when his uncle picked up a stone and threw it at him and hit him in the head. Blood ran down his face, and he stood there looking at the male that taught him how to hunt or who had been there when he turned twelve, and he could finally shift into a wolf. The first time was always painful, but his uncle guided him, and when he saw the pride in his uncle's eyes, he asked the Gods why he wasn't his mother's mate.
Aksel forced his racing heart to slow down, and slowly, the buzz stopped.
Ned clenched and unclenched his fists. His broad shoulders shook with anger. "You are no longer my nephew. If, by some cruel joke by the Gods, our paths cross each other in the future, run as fast as you can, for I will do to you the same you did to my brother. Come, Tajiana." His tone was cold and filled with hatred.
Ned turned his back on Aksel and went into his house. Aksel felt like he had been stabbed in the heart with a hot rod.
Tajiana lifted her grey eyes and looked at her son. She appeared as if she wanted to say something to Aksel, but Ned's voice came from the house. "Tajiana!"
She turned on her heels and went to Ned's house. When the door closed behind her, Aksel had never felt more betrayed and hurt in his life.
The other males picked up stones and threw them at Aksel. He barely registered the pain. Blood ran down his face and bare chest. He had taken his father's life, and the tribe punished him for it.
When the last stone was thrown, the males retired to their homes until only Aksel and the new leader remained.
"I know why you did it, but by killing him, you became like him." Aksel felt as if he could not breathe. He was just like his father. The leader kept talking, "When I will let the other tribes know that you are now a cladhaire, I won't tell them why."
Cladhaire.
Cast out.
Rogue.
Aksel shifted into his wolf and ran into the woods, never looking back. The following months were a blur in his head as he remained in his wolf form and hunted when hungry and slept when tired.
He grew resentful of his family of his tribe, but then one spring day, he met someone that changed his entire life. Eoin.
Kara finished the pear and glanced at Aksel. "Then why are you helping the Necromancer?"
Kara was very observant.
"To save a friend," Aksel flicked her nose.
Eoin had been more than a friend. He had been like a brother, and he and his father had welcomed Aksel into their simple home. Eoin and his father were lumberjacks and barely had enough to eat. Aksel never wanted to burden Eoin or his father, so he used his skills as a hunter to put food on the table.
When the war between Nordor and Litus started, Aksel and Eoin fought side by side. Until the day they cornered the Necromancer in his tower.
"To save a friend," Kara repeated. "I might not have known you long, but I thought Caesar was your friend. What about Shaun? Or Lady Mina? Commander Jayden was our King. You are the same as the Necromancer." Kara was so disappointed she was not trying to hide it.
He was not only the same as his father but also the same as the Necromancer. His uncle had been right, he was bad blood.
He never wanted Caesar or Shaun to die. Caesar was the first to receive him with open arms when he became part of the Wolf Army. No one cared that he was a claidhaire. For the first time in many years, he was among his kind, and they welcomed him.
The Wolf Army became his new family.
When Commander Jayden joined the war, and the ocxoas recognized him as Uzgaia, Aksel feared that he would be thrown on, but he became the right hand of Commander Jayden.
"I know I am, and I am trying to undo my wrongdoing."
"How, by letting the Necromancer beat you until you are bloody pulp? That won't bring Caesar or anyone else back." Her eyes shinned with unshed tears.
"I know."
Kara stood, went to the washing bowl, got a rag wet, and returned to Aksel. "You have blood on your face. Stay still while I clean you."
The rag was cold on his face, and his body ached from the beating he had received earlier, but he was used to it. In a day or two, he would be all healed.
Kara was gentle as she washed the blood away. When she was ready and forgot about the low-life that got her pregnant and threw her on the streets as if she was just nothing, she would find a male worthy of her and her unborn child. He would make sure of it.
"By trying to find out what the Necromancer and the Order plan to do next. Not everyone would be so calm about finding out that I provide information to the Necromancer. I am a traitor and a coward."
Aksel had been present when the seal on the Necromancer's tower was placed. He was one of the few people who knew how to remove it and passed that knowledge on to the Order in the hopes he would save Eoin. But as he betrayed Commander Jayden, so was he betrayed.
"You might be one, but I don't think you are a bad person. When the Necromancer appeared in Athea, you were the one to take Lady Ivy, Shin, Xander, and me into safety and alert Duke Hugo of the danger."
"But I failed to let others know what was happening, and because of me, they are dead."
He watched from a safe place how Herron, Andres, Einar, and Arald tried to get Commander Jayden out of Athea, but the gates protecting the city were already closed. Demons descended upon them. Herron and the rest fought hard, but then undead knights rose from the ground. Aksel could not stand to see how those he considered his brothers were being butchered, so he turned on his heels and left to find the Necromancer.
Kara returned to the washing bowl. "I have the hope that they are not dead. That one day, we will see them again."
Aksel gritted his teeth. Caesar and Shaun were dead. The collars they wore around their necks kept a part of their soul trapped inside their bodies. That was how the Necromancer controlled them. But once the collars were removed.... "We will," Aksel lied.