'With these bare hands, I am going to twist his head from his neck,'
It was the only thought that rushed through my head as my hands wrapped around the shivering figure of my sister, shuddering in fear.
"No," She said.
"No, please no," She was whimpering.
Erica looked up at me, her eyes filled with tears, "He-He said I am to be there by 8...Amara, I cannot," She cried out.
"I know, my love. You won't have to,"
How can she? Erica hated him. We all hated him. He was a beast. An ugly beast.
She was only 19, while Jacob was in his mid-thirties. The mere idea sent chills down my spine.
He would kill her after using her. He always did that.
The Alpha Jacob of the Seraphic pack was well-hated and well-resented. The alpha was nonetheless famous for the way he treated his pack. Under his rule, Women are not allowed to turn, unless for the first time on their eighteenth birthday, in the close space of their homes. Because turning into a wolf meant power and women...well, they were supposed to be powerless. He would often say in his sermons that fate made a mistake and he was correcting it, and thus women would not and never turn, or they would be killed. He was also famous for killing of older wolves if they shed hair too much or coughed too loud than his liking, and with Red berries being a forbidden fruit, that any wolf dared to eat would be stoned to death. Because only the Alpha could eat it. After all, it was his favorite food. People wished in secret, that the Alpha had died from the overdosing of berries but unfortunately, that had never happened. The Alpha had never found his mate. Probably because the fates had decided a wolf like him did not deserve the sacred bond of love. So, Every once in a while, Alpha Jacob would walk around the city, Choose a she-wolf for himself, and she was obliged by law to spend the night with him. Rejecting the law meant death, and if the Alpha didn't like the woman enough, she would be killed. If the Alpha was bored of her, she would be killed. So, it was a kill-kill situation.
Years of yearning, of pain living under the Alpha, with no help from other packs nor any resilience from inside the pack, It had made us bitter. All the wolves were pathetic, soulless, and honorless, to let a man like Jacob rule over them for years. He was feared. He was to be feared because he was a beast, and that was the thing about beasts. They are ruthless and evil.
We didn't even talk about him in private, fearing he would hear. While we all wished his death in our hearts.
I tried to calm the urge to burn a hole in the dear Alpha's head, squeezing my hands to my side. I grabbed her face, to make her look at me.
"I will not let him get to you, you understand!" I told her, holding her eyes. I knew I won't. I was sure my eyes were bloodshot. She nodded her head.
"Come on, lets talk to father," I told her.
I entered his room. Father, William, was quietly reading a book sitting on his bed. I told him what happened. He was stunned, as if a bucket of cold water splashed on him.
It was a time of misery in the Seraphic Pack, and today the fury had unleashed upon their home.
"I am sorry my child!" Father said patting Erica's head, "I am helpless, I am frail," A tear fell down his cheek.
Father was in his late forties, not too old for a wolf, but the fights had injured and weakened him. He was once, a delta in the pack and protected the north Western borders. His legs were bruised in a fight and running was now a far cry. The day this happened was my birthday. He was removed from his position and now worked as a local sales man for a merchant, in the central market. I sold my paintings to help him financially.
"Father, I won't go," Erica whispered, still horrified, still shaking.
"But Erica...They will kill you," Father replied.
"Dad!" I said, surprised, how can he suggest she go? I know he was scared she would be killed if she denies, but she would be killed either way.
"Death is better, Father!" Erica cried.
"We will leave!" I said, my hands clasped by my side, balling my dress, "We will go rogue,"
"Amara have you lost your mind," Erica whispered, "We will be left homeless, helpless!"
I frowned at her, "Isn't that how we live right now? Homeless and helpless? With no protection what so ever? I don't care! I will not bear that man's tortures anymore!" I cried,
Erica was up on her feet, trying to silence me by putting her hand on my mouth.
"Please Amara, Don't. He would come,"
I jerked away her hand."He is not all hearing, He is not the fates. An Alpha is to protect his pack, to lead his people towards betterment, towards peace, but this excuse of a man, he does not deserve us, does not deserve our loyalty, our serve!"
"But Ama-," Father began but I interrupted him, "Erica does not deserve this Dad! I don't deserve this!"
"But where will we go? That too if we could go! The Deltas would catch us, and we would all be killed," Father said.
"Erica is going to die anyway, won't she? I am willing for the familiar fate too Dad. It's better to die running, than to bear the pain of losing her! It's you who has to make the choice!"
I was too blinded by anger to realize the consequences, to realize that running was never an option and could never be. Going rogue was not an innovative idea in the Seraphic pack. Now and then a few people were hanged in the central market for having too much of the Alpha's tortures, and thus were labeled as traitors.
"Amara, please calm down," Father said, his voice breaking, his heart paining. The realization that both his daughters are going to die, the realization that he failed to protect them as a father, the realization that he failed his mate, his wife.
"Father, I cannot! I have had enough," I whispered. "Every day I see people being killed, being tortured for crimes as normal as coughing,"
I sat down on the bed next to Erica.
"If we won't leave! We put Erica's life and her future at risk, but if we do leave, there is a chance that we can live. And I am going to take that chance. Not everyone trying to run is caught Father, and you know that," I said, indicating to the time when father had set free a few people himself.
He would tell us that when no other delta was with him, or near him, and he would catch people trying to leave, he would let them.
Father sighed loudly, "Fine! We'll leave now."
*****