ELLA
“That’s Arnold Trout—the sole survivor of the Trout clan, and one of the transporters who took the twins in,” Chaz tells me from the corner as we stand at the edge of the immortal bar.
“They’re rallying behind him,” he says close to my ear as one man talks about the old, reputable lycan highlanders’ clan who must have been the butchers.
“They didn’t get the memo?” I whisper.
“Oh, Kane made sure the video hit all the heads of families, but it takes a little while for word to really travel down to all the individual clans across the globe. It’s not like we can put a blast on the internet,” he points out.
Arnold Trout is an idiot.
“Why pick a fight with the lycans when he knows who killed his family?”
“Because he might not know. It’s not like Kane sent the blast to the Trout household,” Chaz points out.
“Well then. I guess it’s time to inform the locals.”
“Ella, don’t—”
His words are cut off as I walk over to Arnold Trout and slam his face into the bar before pulling him back and punching him hard enough to knock him out.
The bar goes deadly quiet, all eyes cutting to me and narrowing.
“Do you have any idea who you’re dealing with, girl?” a dark user snarls, a small orb of power circling his hand.
“Arnold Trout, a member of the recently dispatched Trout family who have been aiding and accepting money from the slave rings your queen recently broke up. Didn’t you get the memo?”
A few confused looks are exchanged.
“This man dragged our own kind into a prison of horrors and torment. His family allowed our kind to be torn apart. The slaves didn’t just die, they were recycled for certain projects, becoming mindless drones in an army that’s rising against our queen. Meanwhile, you’re all sitting around, planning a war against lycans who had nothing to do with that massacre. That massacre was a message to everyone in this region. More will come. Feel free to side with as many traitors as you want when the queen returns to reap the rest of the traitors.”
The same man steps into me, though everyone else seems to move in behind me. His eyes widen a little like he’s surprised by the quick shift in the air.
My eyes flash silver as I smirk. “Do you know who you’re dealing with?” I drawl.
He stumbles backwards, no longer confused now that my eyes are telling him the truth.
Several people drop to a knee, which is weird. No one at home ever drops to a knee. Maybe we’re more respected over here.
“The Trout family were traitors with the rings?” someone asks as I start dragging Arnold toward an enraged Chaz.
“The family tree has been trimmed. This is the last of it,” I call out, letting Chaz do his really cool power of zapping us halfway back around the world.
When we’re back in the forest of Pine Shore, he looks at me like he doesn’t know me at all.
“What the hell was that?”
“That was me not being little anymore,” I tell him dismissively as I wait for him to leave so I can execute phase two of this plan.
“Ella, what the hell is going on with you? You don’t just walk into bars and announce to people the queen is massacring—”
“Why not? Right now, I bet those people are planning a trip over to stand behind us so
they aren’t next, simply because the princess just caught them rallying behind a man they didn’t know was a traitor. More soldiers. We could really use more soldiers, trust me.”
“That’s not how you think. That’s Slade!” he snaps.
“Good,” I say as I start dragging Arnold by his foot.