02. A WOMAN WITHOUT FEAR OF DEATH

TEMPEST

I grabbed the woman by her clothes and yanked her around.

"Who do you think you are to grab me like that?!" She spun on me in anger, shaking off my hand.

"What child died? Who are you talking about?!" I started raising my voice, shouting and drawing eyes.

"She looks crazy... who is this woman?"

"Isn’t that Tempest, the old Beta’s daughter?"

"Didn’t Tempest die in that attack?"

"The boy... tell me about the boy, please..." my voice was shaking.

I grabbed her by the lapels again, ignoring the whispers, the pitying looks, the shock at my filthy, disheveled, unhinged state.

"Was he a pup with blond hair and green eyes? Just tell me already!"

"Y-yes... the Alpha’s bastard..." she answered, stepping back, staring at me in fear while my face twisted with pain, disbelief, denial.

"No, no, there has to be a mistake, this isn’t true, it isn’t true, I’m hallucinating, wake up, Tempest... wake up!!!"

I clutched fistfuls of my hair and dropped my head.

Something was breaking in my mind piece by piece, and when I heard the Luna’s voice, I shattered completely.

"What’s going on here?" I lifted my head as people stepped aside and she appeared.

"You... what are you doing here?" she said, eyes wide, glancing around like she was scared.

Pain and disbelief gave way to a rage that blinded me.

"Where is my son? Tell me where you and that bastard Knox hid my pup!"

I lunged at her, swinging the chain in my hands, drowning in fury.

All I could think about was my boy, everything I endured for him, and now... no, no, I refuse to accept it.

"Where is my Nath, you bitch?!" I yelled at her.

"Protect the Luna from that rebel she-wolf! Protect the future Alpha!"

Before I reached her, she stumbled back in horror, screaming and shielding her belly, and several warriors tackled me.

They threw me to the ground without mercy and started beating me while I fought and screamed like a madwoman.

Nothing hurt more than my soul. Sobs clawed up my throat, torn raw by deep screams.

My mind only heard his cry at birth, the softness of his tiny hands around my fingers.

I only got to feed him from my breast once.

"Give me back my son, please, give me back my pu…Aaggrr!"

Something slammed into the back of my head with a dull, heavy blow.

My vision went dark and I hit the dirt.

My nails raked grooves in the ground as tears ran, clinging to a consciousness that was slipping away.

I blacked out from their brutal attack, and when I woke, I was already sentenced.

*****

"Hurry up, this is too dangerous!"

"Make sure you cut her up enough so the blood draws them..."

I heard voices far off, then closer as I came back.

I started thrashing when I felt my hands and legs tied tight to a wooden frame.

I was exposed, bleeding out as if crucified.

Through the slit of my swollen eyes I saw her, the Luna, sheltered by the trees, watching while her warrior lackeys prepared me like an offering.

That’s what they wanted.

"Why...?"

It was the only thing I could get out past my strangled throat.

Pain, rage, helplessness... then a total disconnect. Nothing mattered anymore.

"Why did you take him from me if you didn’t want him?... I loved my son... I was going to take care of him..."

Goddess, why did you punish me like this? What did I do so wrong?

I choked on the blood rising in my throat as the bindings on my hands bit tighter.

My head hung limp as footsteps came closer.

I cried without control, rough sobs breaking from my lips, shaking me from head to toe.

I couldn’t take it... not anymore...

"Leave us alone for a moment." Her voice rattled in my ears like a rattlesnake. She sent the two warriors off into the trees.

"Luna, we’re outside the pack’s borders. This area is dangerous. If the Alpha finds out..."

"I thought we had a deal, Gregory. Don’t blow it," she warned, all arrogance.

Nothing of the meek, kind woman she pretended to be for the pack.

I heard boots move off and lifted my gaze to meet hers.

Hate caught like fire, eating through my gut. I wanted to tear her to pieces with my teeth.

Not a shred of remorse in her eyes, only delight.

"Oh please, don’t look at me like that. I did you a favor raising that spoiled brat... what a pain," she clicked her tongue.

"The best thing that happened to him was that accident..."

"You did it..." My voice came out accusing.

I knew it as surely as my name is Tempest. "You killed Nath..."

"Hey, don’t go around accusing people without proof," her mocking tone dropped as she came closer.

"Accidents happen. Just like you slipped out of that rockslide today and attacked your pregnant Luna... your son died poisoned."

She knew how I escaped the cabin; she planned it all to get rid of me too!

"No, no. Knox could’ve brought him to me. He knew I could cure him!"

My hands twisted in the bindings, but I couldn’t break free no matter how hard I fought.

"Why would he, idiot?" Her smile hardened.

"By the time he got there, it was too late... nothing to do. And if he’d told you he died, he’d lose control over you."

Blow after blow, the hard truth weighed more than I could bear.

"My baby was just a pup. How could you do that to him... how could you be so cruel..."

The trembling words slipped through my teeth.

I didn’t want to give her the pleasure of watching me cry, but the sobs kept forcing their way up my throat.

"Because neither you nor your bastard are taking my son’s place." She gripped my chin with her claws, her eyes blazing like her she-wolf’s.

"I finished him off, and I’ll finish you now that we’ve developed the serum from your blood. Knox doesn’t need you, and I’ll make sure there’s nothing left of you... just like I tossed your brat in an unmarked pit."

Without thinking, I lunged forward with my mouth open, ready to rip off a piece of that fucking bitch.

My wrists throbbed as they twisted against the rope, but the pain had already numbed me.

I was weak and she was quicker.

She jumped back in time and saved her nose, but I still spat in her face, saliva and blood, cursing her, Knox, her son, the whole pack...

"Hoist her up already and let’s go. This lunatic’s screaming will draw the Brood!"

"I hope you die, you and that bastard Alpha. May the Goddess curse you, you murderous bastards. May a plague wipe out your rotten pack..."

My broken roars echoed through the forest until my throat tore and blood ran from the corners of my mouth.

Tied to those stakes, driven into the ground and hoisted high, I hung over a cliff.

My legs and hands bound, spread open, offered up.

I didn’t care if I died.

In fact, an hour later, when I felt the buzzing of those things coming, I didn’t even cry for my fate.

I couldn’t see through the tears and the swelling from the blows. I just waited for death.

The air filled with the stink of sulfur and iron, the sharp astringent bite of poison.

The beat of their wings drilled into my head and ears. I shut my eyes and waited...

Tiny legs brushed me and a swarm of red pinpoints hovered in front of me. I let my head hang, hoping they’d at least make it quick.

They circled me, an angry swarm.

There were many kinds of these bugs. I never saw them clearly, but these looked like huge black beetles.

My skin burned when something slimy touched me, but my power reacted at once and absorbed it.

It seared like a red-hot brand, then ran my veins and thinned into nothing.

If anything, it turned to relief... the wounds on that arm didn’t hurt as much.

"Kill me already... please... end this..."

I even found myself begging them, while the sobs rocked my body in the air.

They buzzed like they couldn’t decide. I didn’t know.

They were taking too long, and every time that slimy stuff touched me, what I figured was poison, I healed a little more.

What is this?

I lifted my gaze and recoiled at the grotesque creatures flying around me.

It was bone-deep terror... all those red eyes seemed to study me at once, raising every hair on my skin.

What were they waiting for?

The whistle of something slicing through the air, and then flames hitting the swarm, changed everything.

I flinched at the shouts and roars, and more fire arrows hissed past me.

I faded into the background while the fight raged between the insects and a squad of wolf warriors bursting out of the trees.

I couldn’t see them well; my consciousness was slipping again.

Who were they? Was it Knox? Would he tell me my son was alive?

All of it was my mind clinging to any lie so I wouldn’t accept the truth.

The shrieks of those things made me shake, and they began to pull back under the onslaught.

They were just a few yards away, but it gave them the chance to rescue me.

At least that’s what I guessed they were doing.

The stake shuddered as an axe bit through it.

I fell screaming from the height, but two men caught me before I hit the ground.

"Get those bindings off, quick. They’re about to come back!"

That steady voice kept ordering. Rough hands worked at my limbs.

I strained to make out faces through fire and darkness and my limits... I didn’t think they were from the pack.

"Go, go!" they shouted, and I was carried in strong arms.

"Where... are you taking me..." the chaos swallowed my whisper.

No one answered, and my broken body couldn’t take one more jolt.

I blacked out again, and when I woke, I was far from those damned lands that kept my son’s body buried.

*****

Sometimes I surfaced. I think they moved me in a wagon, then a boat... I don’t know.

The fever ate me alive, the nightmares devoured me.

I screamed inside horrible scenes where my son always ended up dying in my arms.

He called me from a cold, lonely grave in the middle of the woods.

Sometimes something wet poured down my throat and I saw shadows leaning over me.

I think they gave me water and tried to comfort me.

Who were these people and what did they want from me?

After what felt like forever, I finally managed to react and hear the voices whispering beside my bed.

"...I think she’s out of her mind. We can’t sleep at night with her screams and crying... the General’s roaring was enough..."

"Shh, quiet. Don’t say that. If Mr. Corvin brought her, it’s because she can help the General..."

"I think they’re just desperate. Better to accept the lord's going to die of poison..."

"That’s something you won’t be here to see, because you’re leaving this mansion right now!"

A woman’s cold voice cut the talk.

At last I forced my eyes open and focused on a regal, intimidating lady stepping through the door.

Where exactly was I?