Take my hand please

The inside of the cave smelled of death.

Huge chunks of stone began to tumble from the walls, their heavy impact against the ground seeming to make everything around tremble. The structure was about to collapse. The chamber I'd emerged from was nothing more than a pile of rubble behind me. The secrets inside were sealed for the future, but that was no longer my concern.

I had already achieved what I wanted.

“What else should we do? We can’t carry both!” That shout, coming from afar, made me hesitate the second I was about to start moving.

Look at this. It seems I was the only one there with the business completed.

“What are you talking about?!” another male voice asked, alarmed “We can’t just…”

"And what are you going to do? Carry her on your shoulder with your broken arm?! Because I certainly won't fall behind either, just because you chose to slow down!"

Increasingly intrigued, I approached the voices, the surrounding din perfectly masking the sound of my footsteps. That place was a veritable labyrinth, and I doubted those two idiots arguing even had any idea there was a passage in the direction I was going. Not that I thought they'd notice my presence there, even if I were right by their side. They sounded too desperate for that.

And when I finally found an angle where I could see them, I understood the reason.

Two men stood there. One seemed to be holding his own broken arm as you would a newborn. The other had a woman in his arms, her long blonde hair covering her face and her neck drooping, as if she had fainted.

I knew them, of course. Leon Vitale and Sean Madlock were their names. Both were what some foolish wolves mistakenly called princes. Future alphas of their packs. But that wasn't what caught my attention.

Because, just a few steps away from them, was another woman.

She hadn't had the privilege of being carried so gently, though. Her body, covered in bloodstained clothing, lay stretched out on the ground, her face pressed into the dirt. I could see bite marks appearing on her ankles, where the skirt of her dress didn't cover. If it weren't for the way she was moving her hands, trying in vain to crawl closer to them, I would have thought she was dead.

“I’m not saying I can carry her!” Madlock defended himself “But… We can’t just leave Daphne here! Can’t you carry her? Hold one in each arm or something…?”

“What do you think I am?! A fucking pack mule?!” Vitale, whose voice was the angriest, spat out “I’ll be stuck with triple the price and we’ll never get out of this place fast enough! Besides, I’m the only one capable of carrying Rosie! Saving the heroine of our pack depends on me!”

As if agreeing with them, the walls trembled even more, and pieces of the cave ceiling began to shift as well.

“But…” the coward swallowed hard “We can’t…”

“We can’t do anything more for her!” Vitale looked at the woman on the ground and, even from a distance, I could feel his contempt “She’s just dead weight now! And she brought this on herself! Trying to hinder Rosie when she was destroying the beast…! All the packs could have been doomed because of her envy! She doesn’t deserve us risking our lives, especially Rosalind’s, to save her!”

Harsh words for someone who was talking about his own sister, definitely.

"I know, but..."

“There is no ‘but’! She is a disgrace to my father and a disgrace to our lineage! She should be the one to resolve this, but, as always, she has been nothing but useless! Look at Rosalind, this is all because of her! Because she is never able to help anyone!” He turned his back on her, seemingly unaware that he had stepped on her fingers in the process “Her life is not worth the same as Rosie’s. Let her die knowing that she never tried hard enough for her own pack and that it took its toll! And may the Goddess have mercy on her corrupted soul.”

“Leon…” was the only sound she produced, a weak and broken stammer that was barely audible “I… I don’t…”

"Quick! This is going to fall apart any minute! Are you going to keep wasting time with her and end up hurting Rosalind even more?!"

“No. Of course not.” Madlock shook his head, his doubts seeming to have vanished now that he had been pressed “I only regret having to break the promise I made to your father that I would protect her. But, you’re right, she’s the only one to blame for things ending up this way.” He turned his face away, as if he didn’t even want to see the woman on the ground anymore “I’m sorry, Daphne. I hope the Goddess will be merciful when she punishes your mistakes and… That you can forgive us. It’s for the good of all the packs.”

"Stop wasting your time! Rosie needs to see a healer as soon as possible!"

“No… Please…” even though it sounded more painful than ever, the woman still tried to murmur, her arm outstretched towards the two men as they ran off without looking back.

Cowardly bastards.

“Please…” she sobbed, her almost lifeless body now completely still “It was me… Not her…”

As I approached, I could see the mess she was in. There were four or five dead creatures near her. Monsters the size of ordinary wolves, with their bodies twisted and their mouths gaping open, revealing more than a row of teeth. These were the things her small group of heroes had come to confront. The demons they had vowed to exterminate to protect all the wolves of those lands.

Remembering that almost made me laugh. The woman lying there was practically a corpse, but there was another one behind her. The thing the packs considered the monster of monsters. The beast that had ravaged their lands for the past year.

Before, it had taken the form of a stone creature, what some thought was a deformed wolf. But now, it was just a lifeless statue lying nearby, pieces of its rocky body crumbling along with that cave. Those two cowards should be proud of themselves. They thought they had won.

Idiots.

A frightened gasp caught my attention. Only then did I realize the girl had finally seen me there. Her eyes were the only thing capable of moving, but I saw the terror in her expression as she stared at me. I was still in my armor, but the mere sight of my helmet seemed enough to send her into a panic. I even thought she might beg.

But instead, Daphne Vitale simply relaxed, as if her body had finished dying.

“Just… Kill me… Already…” she murmured, tears welling in her violet eyes, though her frail voice still managed to sound determined “At least… I can… See my mother… Again…” Her eyelids began to close slowly, her neck drooping as if expecting my attack.

I couldn't help but smile.

And when I took off my helmet to get a better look at her, suddenly her eyes opened completely again.

“Looks like today really isn’t your lucky day, princess.” I murmured, lowering myself until our gazes were almost at the same level “They seem to think you’re no longer useful, but they’re wrong.”

As the cave began to completely collapse around us, I caught her in my arms. The sudden movement seemed too much for her. Her eyes rolled back in their sockets and her neck fell back, meeting my shoulder. But even so, I wondered if she was able to hear my last words.

"I still have big plans for you."