Chapter 16

Sybil’s POV

The calamity yesterday had subsided. Dead bodies were dragged out and amongst them was the soldier who fell off the balcony.

Upon seeing him I straightened my already ramrod back, breath hitched in my throat. A General walked forward and peered at the bodies of the soldiers. He kicked the soldier I killed and turned to face me.

“Where did you find him?” He asked the floor soldiers who were angry at the loss of their comrades.

“Behind the pack house, he seemed to have fallen down.”

The girl from last night was here as well. I watched as she shifted from one foot to the other, how she pinched her fabric and kept running her free palm up and down her skirt.

Staring at her made my heartbeat increase rapidly, thudding like the hooves of horses in war. I should look away for my sanity but I can’t seem to find the ability to rip my gaze off her. At the back of my mind, a voice niggled persistently that if I looked away she might rat me out. For all I knew my gaze could be the thing keeping her in place.

“We believe he must have attempted to fight one of the spies but then fell off.”

The general chuckled, “he’s not a nova in the army, soldier.” The man spat and I inched back. The ice in his voice suggested that he was somehow close to the dead soldier.

Bloody hell

What if the dead soldier was his son? Had I fallen yet again into the hands of another general who wanted me dead? This time they would do more than stab, they might actually take my head off.

The pain had subsided, and what was there was merely a scratch. Earlier today, this morning, Eve had been the one to check again.

She ran to me when we were alone and lifted my dress just to check it, “confirming that I’m not dreaming about it,” she had said.

All werewolves had healing abilities, but a normal werewolf with a knife to her stomach wouldn’t recover so fast, the healing process of werewolves were completely biological, what I, however possessed, seemed like magic.

If I could call it that.

“I believe he was killed, even before the attack.”

Literal stone stopped right in my throat, my eyes burned on the girl but she was avoiding my eyes.

“Why do you keep looking at her?” Aria demanded and I waved it off with some words I didn’t register.

“No one would have hurt him.” The general went on, “It is not his first time in camp. He was raised in a place like that his whole life.”

The one time I took my eyes from the girl was to check for the rogue alpha. He hadn’t made an appearance since the event and waiting for him was like waiting for an impending doom to come, do its damage and leave. So I couldn’t exactly relax till he came. Not that he would protect me, but his brutality would make him end the interrogation quickly.

They somehow believed that the spies were aided by someone inside and since it couldn’t be their most chivalrous soldiers it had to be the maids.

Like were they for real?

“Who saw Azin last night?” The general directed his question to his companion.

“You keep staring at the girl, why?” Aria insisted by my side.

“Which girl?” I feigned ignorance.

“Lily of course, you look like you want to hide her away.”

I did want to hide her away, away from the interrogation and the prying eyes of the general that could make her throw me under.

Lily, her name was as soft as her. Black hair, doe eyes with full cheeks giving her the sexy cute girl look. The type of beauty that men wanted to possess her for.

‘Well, that sexy cute girl is going to rat you out.’ My wolf reminded me and I shook my head to veer off my thoughts and focus on the girl.

“He was going to meet one of the servant girls.” A soldier answered and I heard my heart beating in my ear rather than in my chest.

Sweat pooled at my back as the girl darted her gaze to me. The first time she had met my gaze since our summoning by the general.

“Don’t be scared,” I mouthed to her, there was no way to tell if she read my lips because her terrified eyes were fixed on mine.

“And which slave did he plan to take to bed?” The general spat.

I shut my eyes, clenched my fist and the drumming of my heart was the only identification that I was still standing and breathing.

“He didn’t say,” the soldier answered, “though he did make mention of her being very shy and beautiful.” I could imagine other obscene profanities that might have followed that speech. I bet he talked about how he was going to forcefully take her.

It hadn’t occurred to me to look at the faces of the slaves alongside me. They were beautiful, some more than others. Their hardship had hardened their features, giving them a more prominent look with hard eyes that had experienced more horror than good. Then it was clear that the only girl with innocent beauty was Lily.

The general dragged her out by the arm and shrieked back, like a tortoise retreating into its shell. Her neck shortened as her head came down.

‘It’s over Sybil.’ I mentally prepared my mind, feeling the hot tears stream down my cheeks. ‘I was going to die, at least I did one good thing before going. I hope Marylyn will be fine. I believe she would make it even without me. She was the best big sister, always trying to help despite her circumstances.”

As I thought of that, every meager memory we shared together came rushing to the forefront of my mind. The little food we broke and shared, hugging each other at night and crying after dad left, lying on her shoulders to feel the warmth of another werewolf, to feel the love from her skin.

“When did Azin meet you last night?”

The tears poured now, and I barely stood upright with my knees already turning jelly.

“He didn’t meet me.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to—what?” I cut myself off and peeled my eyes open to Lily.

“What are you sorry for?” Aria asked and I barely answered her, too focused on the girl before me.

“What did you say?” I was glad the general asked because I was going to ask the same question.

“He didn’t meet with me.” Her knuckles turned as white as snow as she repeated, “I never met him last night. If he was coming to my room, he didn’t make it there, you can ask my roommates.”

Lily maintained a leveled gaze with the General, her eyes watching him in fear, but not of getting caught but because of how tightly he held her. To show him that she wasn’t challenging his authority.

“Did the soldier make an appearance in the room?” He asked the girls and they shook their heads collectively.

“To be honest we didn’t know of the attack till this morning, General.”

He shoved Lily back to the group and then regarded us. “One of you here has betrayed us. After we sheltered you, cared for you, and offered you immense pleasure, tell me, who is it?”

Immense pleasure he said, what a stupid fuck. Buying women as slaves and fucking them was an immense pleasure to him. He must be sick in the head.

‘They are all sick, especially the alpha.’ My wolf added and I couldn’t agree more.

“If you know who did it, provide the person and you’ll get heavily rewarded.”

The general was really dumb, so he believed that because of his measly reward I would out the person even if I knew? How silly.

“Don’t bother your strength, no one would say it.” Eris walked out with his alpha beside him. He looked mad, like the god of war, going to slay every life in its path.

The look sent a shudder down my spine and I physically trembled.

“We will discover who the traitor is and when we do, they will wish they had died that night.” Eris looked at the soldiers lined on the ground. The spies had hit a great deal. It was the most dead bodies from Death’s army that I had seen.

“Return to your post,” he tilted his head towards our direction for the slaves to leave.

Aria immediately took my hand and whispered, “Are you okay? How’s the injury, I really think huh should have seen a doctor.” Her voice was not low enough because Violet and Death swerved their heads in my direction.

“I’m fine, it’s nothing.” I took her hand and urged her inside along with me.

“Be careful, the soldiers will have their eyes on each and every one of us,” Eve threw her hands on both our shoulders as she said.

She slapped our shoulders and then bid us goodbye, not before sending a glance my way.

The person I wanted to have a chat with was Lily, but I would have to wait to capture her alone. Right now I was happy to be alive and breathing, albeit in terror.