Patrick draws a breath. Hunter remains calm, his eyes fixed on Raven. I step forward.
The sour smell of urine and defecation pierces my nostrils, and it appears her potty hasn’t been changed.
There are scraps of food on a plate before her. A plate she hasn’t touched, and it looks as if she’s starving herself.
I stop several feet before the bars of her cell, keeping a safe distance between us. She isn’t chained after all. Nothing is stopping her from lashing out at me.
She doesn’t glance up. She keeps her head bowed, her posture stiff as she ignores us. She probably assumes we are more of the alpha’s cruel guards coming to torture her.
I catch sight of her fingernails. They’ve all been torn off. Most squeal at the first fingernail, but she has kept her mouth shut.
Pure willpower.
The alpha may not be willing to kill her just yet, but he will maim and scar her, and the anger boils in the pit of my stomach.
He won’t touch another hair on her head.
“Raven.”
Deafening silence fills the room after I say her name. Patrick and Hunter draw a unified breath.
Raven has fallen absolutely still.
After a while, she finally lifts her head, settling her flaming blue eyes on me, and I take a step back.
I’ve pissed her off.
“Don’t call me that...”
I raise my head defiantly. “Why not? It’s your name, right?”
She rises shakily to her feet and stumbles toward the bars, baring her blunt human teeth. I spy those canines. I’m aware humans were once predators themselves as they were hunter gathers, but her teeth are nothing compared to a wolf’s.
While her teeth are designed for tearing into meat, she also has a set of molars too, which are used for grinding up plant-based foods.
An omnivore. That’s what she is.
I don’t fail to see the hostility in her eyes. It radiates off her in waves, so powerful, so pungent, I have to take another step back.
I’m just thankful she doesn’t have an arrow this time.
She narrows her eyes, tipping her head slightly to the left so she can get a better look at me.
“I know you...”
I smile. It appears she’s remembering the night we first met, when she shot me and I fell into the moon pool.
I’ve been meaning to thank her for that. I never would have met Luna and gained Silver.
“Long time no see. I bet you thought I wouldn’t have survived that night after you shot me.”
Her jaw locks into place, the reality that she failed to kill me twisting her pretty features. I try not to take it personally.
Of course she sees me as an enemy right now. But I plan to change all that when I befriend her over the next couple of days.
Who knows when war may strike again? It’s always there, rearing its ugly little head like a black shadow of death, but not anymore.
No more blood will be spilled. No children or pups will have to suffer.