~Kade~
Everyone was running around like chickens with their heads cut off. With all of this manpower and high-speed research, we still hadn’t figured out a single fucking thing. It had been a week since Justin told me that Nathaniel knew about me and Layla, which meant that she was In danger. The only thing keeping my feet on the ground right now was knowing that they hadn’t put their plan in motion. As long as the plan wasn’t executed, Layla was safe.
I ran my hands through my hair and tugged as I watched the pile of paper on my desk.
The whole living room had been turned into a workstation with tables filled with books, papers, rolls, and computers. We had our best warriors on break from training to help with finding information about Nathaniel’s plan. There had to be something linking back to where it all began. There was always a starter point, a story that explained why everything happened; an origin story, and I was hell-bent on finding it.
“Cara?” I growled in frustration, and she looked up at me with a scowl.
“Still nothing, Kade. There is nothing new here, it’s all the same crap about Layla’s ancestor and the powers she had!” She yelled in annoyance.
“There has to be something! We need more!” I shouted and slammed my hand down on the desk. “And if there is, we will find it,” my mother scolded.
“Maybe this is it, maybe there is nothing else to find. We’re looking for an easy answer as to why but what if there isn’t one? What if it’s all really simple,” Anna said and held up two books in her hands as she looked around.
Everyone was silently watching her, the warriors watched me warily as Anna and I locked eyes. She sighed and continued. “What if they just want what everybody wants? Power. They want to be superior, not to blend in or live amongst others; they want to be the only ones in power.”
“A whole pack can’t be in power,” I said. Anna’s brows furrowed, and her eyes lowered in thought. “I don’t think they were supposed to. It’s all about a leader, right? Justin, you told us about your so- called king; he has everyone in line under him and they follow him blindly. They believe everything he says and they never question his judgment. I don’t think that the Emberclaw clan as a whole wants power; I think he does. Nathaniel will use the Emberclaws to take over, and then he will position himself as king and leader of them all,” Anna said.
“One person can’t rule an entire species,” Mason chimed in.
“They can if the option of defiance is death,” Justin said. Everyone turned their heads and looked at him. He stood still next to the computer.
His eyes blackened with anger, and he tapped his fingers against the computer.
“Is there something else you want to share with us?” Anna asked, crossing her arms over her chest. She hadn’t been completely on board with letting Justin out of the dungeon. He was, after all, the one that lured Layla to the Emberclaws, even if I was the one who drove her away from us.
“King Nathaniel has a ritual. On every full moon, he gathers all those who have opposed him, defied him, or in any way shown disloyalty to his leadership. They gather out by the river. All of those who are to be sacrificed are dressed in white by the king’s servants beforehand. Their hands are dyed red, and black charcoal marks are drawn on their temples. They walk in a line down past the spectators who are all eager to see them receive their punishment, and by the waterfall, on a rock that leans over the water, Nathaniel stands ready with the sacrificial knife. After that, one by one, they are called up to accept and receive their sentence.”
Everyone stared in shock at Justin after hearing about the ritual. Anna’s jaw was on the floor and Cara gulped as she stepped closer to her mate.
“And nobody does anything to help them?” Anna asked. Justin slowly shook his head, his lips pressed together in a thin line, and he looked away in shame.
“No, we didn’t do anything to help anyone.” He seethed.
I narrowed my eyes and stepped around the desk. Justin looked up and watched me as I walked over to him. He straightened his back and lifted his head to a strong stance.
“What counts as disloyalty?” I asked him, my voice lowered two octaves, and my nerves were tensing in anger.
“Kade,” I raised my hand to keep my sister quiet. Everyone felt the tension rising. Justin was standing his ground, but his eye jerked, and his shoulders tensed. It got quiet, and all I was waiting for was his answer, as was everyone else, even though nobody wanted to hear it. He was ashamed, rightfully so, over what his king had done and what nobody had tried to stop. In my book, standing idly by and watching people get killed is the same as yielding the knife yourself.
“Talking back, refusing to follow orders, crossing the border, questioning the king’s leadership, breaking rules; the question isn’t what will get you killed, it’s how do you survive another day as a person you don’t recognize,” Justin said and took a step closer.
His jaw clenched, and our starek-off was getting more tense with each second.
He questioned his own involvement in the pack, and that was good but nevertheless, I don’t think a loyalty like that easily dies.
The warriors stepped closer, Cara and Anna looked between us, and Mason was standing behind me. “Boys, take a breath and step back,” my father said and walked up next to us. Justin refused to waver; he knew that I was judging him, and I could tell that he was judging himself as well. Eventually, his head fell an inch and he took a step back.
“I’m not looking for pity; I’m looking for a chance to do what I should’ve done a long time ago.” “And what’s that?” I asked.
“To stop Nathaniel.”
“Why now?” Mason asked and stepped up beside me.
Justin looked at him, his eyes pierced into my brother’s and slowly turned to me.
“becuase of Layla. She reminded me of who i was before I fell under his reign, giving her to him was the final straw and something I will regret for the rest of my life. I want to make it right; I have to bring her home.”
