I glance at the little girl. She’s hysterical, bawling into her hands. Surprisingly, we’re all hesitant to approach her; she’s just so small.
I’ve killed prey much bigger than her, yet I can’t bring myself to lay a hand on a human child who resembles a toy.
My grasp loosens on the boy’s shirt. For some reason, his selflessness has made me warm to him. He may be human, but he was prepared to sacrifice himself so his sister could go free.
I had a sister once. She never made it through her first winter. We would have had the same age gap too. The boy looks ten, and the girl five, and it was a mental image I didn’t need.
I should not beempathizingwith these little monsters. A bunch of their people attacked my pack. I should dispatch of them, but I can’t.
It looks as if they truly were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The little girl has a basket of wild berries.
They were just searching for food. They have no supermarkets anymore. All the food that once filled their shelves has long since spoiled.
I drop the boy, and Rosie rushes to his side. “Brother...”
The way she addresses him as ‘brother’ feels like a lance to the heart, and I have to look away. “Where do you live?”
The boy’s still trying to catch his breath. They look like peasant children, wearing dirty rags and patchy clothes.
They’re poor. There’s no mistaking it.
But I won’t be fooled by their humility. Not yet, anyhow.
Thank the moon it was me who tended to them instead of the alpha. They would be dead right now.
He’s not as merciful as I am.
“J-just by the river...” the boy replies, gasping.
I angle my face so I can get a better look at him. “How many others?”
He seems to understand my question as he goes on to say, “Just me... Rosie... Mom... and... and Dad. So, four...”
Just one human family. No huge settlement. Good.
Blood doesn’t have to be shed after all.
I kneel down to the boy’s eyes level, spying a reflection of my silver eyes in his huge brown irises, and I truly resemble a monster.
Rosie whimpers against him, too afraid to look at me now.
She’s just lucky my alpha was busy at his meeting. They both are. Now their parents don’t have to grieve for them.
“Go back to your parents. And I suggest you all find somewhere else to live, preferably a place with more humans. It’s suicide living alone in this world without the reinforcement of your pack. There iswarlooming between our species, so find a settlement. You are safer in numbers...”
Why the fuck am I giving survival advice to the enemy? If my alpha were here, he’d hang me.
Still. No child or pup deserves to suffer.
I don’t want to spare them only for them to die later.
The boy nods quickly, letting me know that he’s heeded my advice.
“Now go!”
He scrambles to his feet, taking his little sister’s hand, then runs off into the forest.
A huge weight lifts from my shoulders.