Steven exchanged a quick look with his mother and turned to Jen. “They weren´t needed.” He gently grasped Cora´s forearms and turned her wrists towards his sister. An intricate rune was sculpted on the iron. “See?”
Jen took Cora´s hands in a tight grip and closely inspected the pattern. Steven´s pack was just as dumbfounded; no one had bothered to pay closer attention to those markings after Jason´s first encounter with the cold metal. “Who gave you these?”
The young girl tried to pull her hands away but the Anders Alpha held on, her grip turning into a vice. “You are hurting me,” Cora´s voice trembled.
“Don´t play with me child!” Jen demanded, tolerating no more argument.
“Calm down Jen, she´s not going to be a problem,” Jason tried to intervene on the witch´s behalf but the Queen was beyond furious.
“Control your puppy Steven!” The female Alpha flushed in rage and glared at her brother, her hands clenched into fists where she had now dropped them at her sides. Joe took a step forward to try and defuse the situation but Steven put out his hand and held him back. He could feel Cora looking at him imploringly and he had the urge to placate her before she started crying and made things harder for herself.
“Just answer Jen´s questions as truthfully as you can and then you can rest,” he murmured softly at her, ignoring the looks shared between his parents. He already suspected what they were making out of his attempts at letting common sense prevail.
Cora stilled at Steven´s words and then gave a nervous laugh. “You are Jen?” She asked disbelievingly only to receive a slap on the cheek that almost sent her flying with its superhuman force.
“Christ!” Joe grabbed the Princess before she could hit the floor, a gash now bleeding profusely on her cheek. Steven stood frozen in place, not daring to make a single move. He wasn´t sure he would be able to stop himself from attacking his sister.
Lynn and Mark rushed to Cora´s side and Lynn took a clean cloth out of the satchel she was carrying. “Here, keep pressure on it.”
Cora took the cloth and brought it to her face, sitting down dejectedly on the chair Mark had pulled out for her. She didn´t seem shocked by the strike, not even a little surprised despite the fact that Jen had nearly sent her across the room with a single blow.
“This is going to need stitches,” Mark informed the rest of the room.
“It can wait!” Jen kept on. “Now let´s take it from the beginning. Who put these restraints on you?”
“My father.” Cora´s voice came out so small that even the Werewolves had to strain to hear her.
“She was held in a windowless room with minimum security and no amenities whatsoever,” Erin chimed in, her more blasé character making her unafraid of the so called Queen. The only authority she recognised was that of her Alpha anyway.
“Why did he have you imprisoned?” Jen continued her questioning.
Cora pulled in a ragged breath. “He said I shouldn´t be allowed to have so much power until I learn what to use it for.”
“What have you been using it for?”
“You wouldn´t believe me.”
“Try me.” Jen crossed her arms in front of herself, an obvious sign she was losing her patience again. Cora stubbornly ignored the warning looks from Jason. “What if I took those things off of you?” Jen pointed at Cora´s wrists. “Would that make you more likely to cooperate?”
“We both know you don´t trust me enough to do that. And even if you did, you wouldn´t be able to. They were sealed in place with blood magic. Only he can undo them.”
“That was the plan then? For us to believe that you are harmless enough and bring you in our home? And then what? He unspells the cuffs and you attack us from the inside?”
It seemed plausible and Steven cursed himself for not thinking it first, thus putting his family in danger. Jason saw the clouds gathering over his friend´s tense face and shook his head, not thinking the young girl capable of such scheme.
“If there is such a plan I´m not privy to it,” Cora confirmed his thoughts. They couldn´t sense a single lie in the tone of her voice and it was troubling them. Nothing of what came out of her mouth was making any sense.
“Would you be though? If you suddenly found yourself free, what would you do?” Jen was so sure Cora was about to murder them all in their sleep that she didn´t stop to consider Larson´s motives for such an action, or even the fact that the means to stop it was hanging from her brother´s belt. If that was their enemy´s plan, it was a lousy one.
“I wouldn´t attack innocent people, if that´s what you are asking,” Cora finally snapped.
“You think we are innocent?” Jen let out a cruel laugh. “We are monsters. We could tear you apart in the blink of an eye. And we would enjoy it. I myself long for your blood.”
“And yet, here I still am. Not all Werewolves are monsters. Just like all Magics are not evil.”
“A noble thought,” Moira Anders spoke for the first time. “It is a little naive though to place your trust in your enemies.” Her voice was kind and her entire demeanour soft and motherly. The witch looked straight into her eyes and saw the compassion her daughter lacked.
“You have done nothing to me. I do not consider you as enemies.” Cora´s eyes turned briefly to Jason and then rested on Steven. “You have been kinder to me than my own kind. It is not my place to judge you.”
Steven remained speechless, letting his sister handle the situation but inwardly itching to get Cora out of the room.
“Was that kind enough for you?” Joe pointed at the Princess´ cheek where the blood had seeped through the cloth, staining it red. The girl shrugged. “You are not afraid.” Joe observed.
“I´m afraid of hate, not of people. Hopefully, I haven´t done anything for you to hate me yet.”
“Are you going to?” John cut in.
“It doesn´t matter what I say if you think I´m going to anyway.” Cora´s eyes returned to Jen, pleading her to contradict her words.
“Enough with this!” The Queen snapped. “Luckily for you, you are a strong bargaining chip. But make no mistake. The moment you stop being useful, I´ll slit your throat myself.”
“Whatever you think my worth is? You are wrong.”
“We´ll see about that.” Jen turned to Mark and Lynn, eager to order them around. “Go patch her up. I´m going to make sure her new room is ready,” she smirked and stormed out of the council room.
“Come on sweetie,” Lynn urged Cora to stand up. “Let´s get you cleaned up.”
“I´ll better go with them then.” Mark looked at Steven and waited for an affirmative nod before he followed them out the door. He didn´t like following Jen´s orders.
“Could your Betas give us a moment alone?” Moira asked Steven when the two healers and Cora left the council room. Steven dipped his head at his pack and they fell out of the room quietly. They had far more respect for Moira Anders than for her daughter.
“You too, Jason,” the Alpha commanded, exasperated, when he saw his second hesitating.
“I won´t stray too far,” the younger man informed him.
“Don´t I know it,” Steven murmured, giving an involuntary fond smile as he watched his friend´s back exiting the room.
“Is there anything you need to talk to us about?” John inquired once the door clicked shut.
“Like what?” His surly son turned to him.
“What your father meant to say is that, if anything bothers you at all, we are here for you,” Moira intervened, shooting her husband a chastising look.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Steven argued.
“Look at your parents,” Joe took a more immediate approach. “They complement each other so effortlessly and all because their love for one another allows them to work together and follow each other´s instincts. Could you imagine the amount of power they would have if they were true mates?”
“Or if one of us was an actual witch?” Moira thought what her
brother had left unsaid.
“There is no such thing as true mates.” Steven´s stubbornness on the matter was familiar to them all. “And even if there was, I saw what losing them did to my sister. I want nothing to do with it.”
“Yes the pain is unimaginable,” Moira agreed. “But being alone and shutting out every person that tries to get close to you can be just as painful.”
“What do you want from me mom?”
“I want you to be happy.”
“I am! I have my family and my pack. I don´t need anything else.”
“And if that something else stumbles upon you?” Joe asked.
“I´ll cross that bridge when and if it comes to it.”
“It hasn´t yet then,” John clarified.
Steven shook his head at him. “Is the inquisition over? Am I free to go?”
“You are dismissed.” Moira stood up showing her full height and watched her son leaving the room, his head held high. She sighed in both disappointment and pride at his tenacity.
The moment Steven left the council room he let out a relieved exhale and deflated. He didn´t go too far though, colliding with Jason when he turned around the corner of the long corridor.
“They are right,” the Beta stated, his arms crossed in front of him.
“Have you been eavesdropping again?”
Jason frowned. “I was making sure you weren´t in trouble.”
Steven rolled his eyes and bypassed his friend who just trailed after him.
“I understand why you wouldn´t want to talk to your parents about this but-”
“There is nothing to talk about,” Steven interrupted.
“Please... Like I don´t know you.”
“She´s not my mate.”
“Okay.”
“I´m serious.”
“Sure,” Jason dismissed forcing his Alpha to stop walking.
“She´s not my mate! I feel drawn to her, I can´t hide that. Not from you... But it´s different.”
“Different how?” Jason started moving again and Steven followed.
“It´s mostly curiosity. Who is she? What can she do? Is she evil or good? I can´t really explain it.”
“Alright. I´ll drop it for now. But I´ll keep an eye out just in case. She seems too innocent to actually be innocent, you know?”
“That didn´t make much sense but yeah... I know. Do the rest of the Betas suspect anything?”
“No, I don´t think so,” Jason shook his head. “They are weirded out but mostly by what they are picking up from your emotions. They don´t know what´s going on.”
“Keep it that way until I figure this out.”
“Done.”
The two men stopped outside the Prince´s room.
“And get some rest. Training tomorrow, seven hundred hours.”
Jason groaned and bid his smirking Alpha goodnight before he disappeared into his room.
The infirmary was nothing more but a large storeroom where Mark and Lynn were keeping their supplies. Werewolves were able to heal themselves from non-magic wounds and if any Human needed treatment they would visit the public healer and not the royal ones. If Steven´s pack members liked to occasionally chip in, it was no one´s business but theirs and at their Alpha´s discretion.
Cora was sitting on a high table placed in the middle of the room still holding the cloth over her wound. She was looking at Lynn, who was threading a curved needle a few feet ahead from her, with trepidation.
“Okay, this is going to sting.” Mark removed the cloth and cleaned the cut on Cora´s cheek pouring a clear liquid over it. The Princess hissed as the diluted blood ran down her chin to stain her white dress even more. Mark pressed a clean cloth over the wound, waiting for Lynn to get ready.
“Is that antiseptic?” Cora pointed at the small bottle Mark was holding.
“Yeah, why?”
“I didn´t know stuff like this still existed. My people have been using only herbal substances for years.”
“We are kind of hoarders. With so many Werewolves around we don´t get to use these things often enough so it´s easier to keep a large amount in storage. Can´t Magics heal themselves?”
“No,” Cora shook her head, “it takes a large amount of power for someone to heal even the simplest wound. I´ve never heard of anyone with the ability to do so.”
“Can you?” Mark raised his eyebrows in question.
“I never had the chance to figure it out.”
“Why not?”
“I know everybody thinks I´m very powerful but, truth is, my powers are tethered to my emotions. I never trained, never learned how to control them.”
“You seem very well educated for someone who has spent so long in isolation.” Lynn walked over to them, needle in hand.
“Too long,” Cora nodded. “And I had books. It was the only form of entertainment I was allowed in there.”
“That was awfully kind of him,” the redhead said as she poured some antiseptic over the needle.
Cora snorted. “He didn´t do it to be kind. He used to say that, although I was a big disappointment, there might be a chance for me to atone. If the time comes to strategically marry you off you should at least try not to embarrass me by being stupid.” Cora said the last part mimicking her father´s voice and shuddered at the thought of having to go through with a forced marriage.
“But you kept reading anyway.”
“Instead of doing what? Staring at the four walls for years? As long as I had books I could pretend I felt free.”
“You didn´t have any visitors?” Mark asked.
“Someone was leaving me water, food and books through a gap under the door. Or clothes when I outgrew the ones I already had. Your Alpha was the first person to walk through that door after... So long,” she trailed off and they took pity on her, letting the conversation go.
“Let´s get this over with. Hold still.” Lynn removed the cloth from Cora´s cheek and fresh blood oozed out.
“How does it work anyway? Two Alphas in the same pack,” the Magic Princess asked.
“We are not one pack,” Mark replied only to be silenced by Lynn´s sharp glare.
“This is nothing we should be discussing with her,” the redhead said and turned back to Cora. “Now hold still.”
At the first pierce of skin Cora flinched and tried to move away.
“If you don´t stay still this is going to leave a bigger scar than it´s supposed to,” Lynn warned.
“Come on, it will be over soon.” Mark took Cora´s hand in his and she instantly calmed down.
“All done,” said Lynn after a few moments of silence where the only thing that could be heard was the disgusting sound of needle piercing through skin. “You are ready sweetie. Try not to touch it and get it infected. I will remove the stitches in five days.”
Cora looked down at where her hand was still grasped tightly in Mark´s. “Why are you people being so nice to me?”
“Like you said,” Mark shrugged, “you haven´t done anything to us.”
“And our pack doesn´t like being cruel without reason.” Lynn winked at the younger girl making clear she wasn´t mad at her previous questions regarding the pack.
“Why is she so angry?” Cora vaguely asked but no one needed clarification.
“She didn´t use to be,” the female healer shrugged.
“She lost someone she loved very much,” Mark further explained.
“Haven´t we all lost someone or something during our lives? What gives us the right to take it out on the rest of the world?” Cora murmured, mostly to herself.
Lynn considered her for a few moments while cleaning the needle and restoring the supplies she had used. The young witch was a really sad person. If anyone had any right to be angry and distrustful it was her, but so far she had only showed thoughtfulness and caring. Lynn didn´t think it stemmed from naivety but rather from an inherent kindness, so rare these days. The only other person the redhead knew to always put so much faith in
people was Steven. Perhaps that could explain the things she saw between them when they first entered the lair. But even her Alpha had hardened after too many close calls and betrayals. Lynn wondered what it would take for the Princess to break. She had suffered through enough bad situations to last several lifetimes and yet there was a gentleness about her that certainly didn´t warrant Jen´s hatred.
“Nothing... Nothing gives us that right,” Lynn finally responded.
At that moment the door burst open, slamming onto the wall with a loud clank. Mark dropped Cora´s hand and Lynn took a few steps back from the table when they saw Jen walking into the room.
“What´s taking you so long?” The Werewolf demanded.
“I just finished. Let me get her a painkiller for the headache that will surely come and she is good to go.” Lynn moved towards the selves but Jen didn´t let her go far.
“That won´t be necessary. I´m not gonna let you waste your supplies on someone like her.”
Mark and Lynn exchanged a look and the man opened his mouth to protest when Cora spoke up. “It´s alright, I don´t need one. I can handle a little pain.”
“See? She can handle pain,” Jen mocked and then turned to Cora. “Come with me.”
Cora hopped from the table and followed the Alpha to the door. “Thank you,” she turned to address the two healers a final time. Lynn nodded her head and Mark raised his hand in a silent goodnight.
Jen led Cora through a maze of corridors towards the east side of the building and stopped outside a heavy wooden door.
“This is your room,” she said and opened the door pushing Cora through.
The room was windowless, a small fireplace burning in the wall across the entrance. The crackling sounds of wood were resonating and providing a cosy atmosphere but Cora wasn´t fooled. She could feel the stifling air and the chill lingering in the atmosphere, all signs that the room had remained sealed for a long time. It was another prison. The only other furniture was a small bed covered with a threadbare blanket, and a scarce amount of candles on an end table.
“I tried to make this as homey as possible. Who knows how long you will stay here... I didn´t want you to get homesick,” the Queen smirked. “Enjoy your stay.”
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