It felt like the wolf was pacing in my mind, I wanted the girl's blood. I remembered I had just saved her. A large part of me wondered why Emily had chosen to tell me this. If she had not said anything it would not have been discovered. Joel had already told me he couldn't figure out who put the bottle in his rooms.
"Why would you do that?" I asked her.
"It doesn't matter, Madam. My life is forfeit. I do not deserve to live."
"That is my decision to make," I stated with finality, "not yours. Why would you put something you thought was harmful in your Alpha's rooms?" I wasn't sure where my self assurance that I deserved to make that decision came from, it just was.
"Tabor told me to do it," she repeated keeping her eyes closed and her bloody throat bared.
"That is not an answer I will accept. Why would you do something like that? I want to know everything right now."
"Tabor said he loved me, he said he would protect me. No one else was interested in me. At first, it was nice. He treated me good and then he changed..." she trailed off fresh tears running down her face.
"Everyone said he was bad news, so I never told anyone about us. He said if we kept our relationship a secret it would be better. I did everything he asked. He told me we would be mates, he just couldn't commit like that yet. He shared me with his friends, although I didn't want to. He beat me. I have been so ashamed."
"What kind of thing am I that my mate would do that to me? I have no value, Madam Alpha. Be kind and end my life now, before I have to face my family. They didn't know anything about this, let it end with me."
I was shocked and paced back in forth in front of Emily. I knew about battered human women, I'd seen it before. Now I was confronted with a battered werewolf. She had committed an egregious crime, one that probably would result in her death and the death of her family.
'Only if you allow it,' the thought came into my mind from my alter ego. That part of me was angry and frustrated. My mixed human opinion on the subject of Emily's guilt seemed to be confusing my wolf.
The part of me that was wild and wolven wanted to kill the female in front of me. The threat had to be destroyed as a warning to others. There were no second chances. The girl's life was the fine for challenging the Alpha.
I wasn't all wolf, though. My human side had seen abused women do things to appease their abuser. Emily had made a mistake and tried to atone for it. Forgiveness was still an option.
The wolf did not understand forgiveness. I felt her melt into my mind trying to wrap her brain around the idea. It was human logic, based on the complicated inner workings of a human society. The wolf sifted through my understanding of the werewolf pack. Forgiveness would not be an obtuse concept to them, it may be acceptable.
Emily was weak, allowances could be made for her frailty. The wild side of me relented. This girl was no threat and killing her would not be satisfying.
I rubbed my hands on my face. Now I just had to convince Joel. Emily made a stupid choice, but she tried to pay for it. That should carry some weight.
"Get up, we're going back to the den."
I motioned for her to get up and walk.
"Madam Alpha, my punishment ..."
"I forgive you. I will talk with Alpha Latro on your behalf."
Talk about making promises you can't deliver on. Tears filled Emily's brown eyes and she started to cry again.
"How much more did you do to help them?" I asked.
"As little as I could," she sobbed. "Tabor called me almost every day. They wanted to know what the Alpha was doing to protect you. I never told them about the training. That's what made them so angry. They didn't know you had gotten stronger."
I ran through the whole thing in my head again from the beginning. She had walked through the entire suite with a bottle of poison and nothing had stopped her. Nate had told me the witches put protective wards on the Alpha's suites. I wondered if those were as worthless as the rest of their spells seemed to be.
"Are all the witch's spells useless?" I fumed out loud. "How were you even able to put the poison in our rooms? Are all the witches in on it?"
"I don't think so, ma'm," she sniffled. "Tabor told me afterwards that the reason they had me place it was because I didn't have any ill feelings toward the Alpha. He said that the wards picked up on intentions of wolves wishing to do harm to the rooms' occupants."
She continued to speak, but sat heavily on a boulder beside us. "That's when he told me I had to keep helping them. Tabor said if I turned them in he would tell the Alpha I was the one that tried to poison you. He, he said..." she started to cry again, "that the Alpha would kill my whole family. They would all die because of me."
I stood and watched her quietly. The gouges I had left on her neck were healing some, but she looked miserable. She seemed broken to me. The only other wolf I had seen with such a demeanor was Lucas. I would have to talk to him.
Up ahead I heard the crunching of leaves as paws tore through the forest. It sounded like Joel had sent an army. As predicted my wolf didn't want to be caught with defenses down, especially with a weak injured female beside me. Despite the energy it took, I was suddenly the large white wolf growling out a warning to the approaching throng. The wolf and I were finally agreed, no one else was hurting Emily.
A large grey wolf wove out of the trees first, his head dipped low. He approached us submissively and I was a little irritated. Everyone thought I was so out of control. Like I would really attack Nate.
I stared at Nate and the frustration inside me grew. I had no idea how to talk to him like this. Suddenly, I shifted clumsily back to a human form. The wolf wasn't far, I could feel her lingering just under the skin. Nate shifted to a human kneeling before me and I watched the trees as the pack's warriors slowly emerged and took a knee.
I approached Nate, still watching my crying charge warily. "Please get up, you know I have no idea what the protocol is."
"Of course, Madam, we're glad to see you are unharmed. We had heard Emily was..unwell," Nate said critically eyeing the young girl who just cried harder.
"She was hurt badly and should be taken to the healer as soon as we reach the den. There are two dead werewolves back the way we came from. That needs to be taken care of, but I'm not sure what to do about it."
"Yes, Madam Alpha I understand," he smiled at me. "We know what to do. We should get you back home now. It will be faster if we all shift and run as a pack."
I turned to look at Emily. She stood cowering where I had left her. Instinct told me she should run at the back of all of us, away from me. It didn't sit well with me at all.
"I don't want to be separated from her, Nate," I told him honestly
"She will run between you and I if you are still worried about her, Madam. It is not normal, but I understand you feel protective of her," Nate told me.
I nodded my agreement to that plan, but I had another problem. "Nate, I can't control the shifting thing, it just happens when I'm scared, irritated, or angry. I'm so tired right now. How do I do it?"
"Imagine the wolf running through the woods or fighting in the woods, whatever you've done as her. Let it take you over and you will shift," he said gently. "Perhaps you could contact Alpha Latro he could walk you though it."
I huffed, "He's not really pleased with me right now. I'm trying to leave him alone."
Nate laughed out loud at that, "Madam, when has he ever been entirely pleased with you? He will help you if you need it and I'm sure he'd like to hear from you."
I took a step back and breathed deep. I remembered how it had felt fighting the second wolf; my paws digging into the earth and then into his mangy hide. Looking down I had large white paws on the ground. I looked at Nate and my tongue fell out of my mouth in what I intended to be a smile.
Nate called Emily forward and instructed her to follow me. "We will follow you back to the den," Nate encouraged as Emily shifted into a small silver wolf.
My paws took on a life of their own and I started back for home. Emily was a lot slower than me and I had to adjust my speed significantly to avoid outpacing her too far. Even with that I felt freer than I had since I started this crazy run this morning.
I could smell the scent trail the warriors had left and I followed it. Not that I needed the direction. I knew exactly where home was and with exhaustion right on my heels I was headed to the den.
I decided to take Nate's advice and contact Joel.
'They found me,' I called to Joel in my head, 'I'm going back to the den.'
'I already knew that, love, Nate told me as soon as they saw you.'
'Nate has a cell phone?' I asked him pondering where he had kept it. The man had been naked and I didn't see anything he could have used to call Joel.
Joel laughed in my head a little and I was glad to hear him do it. Maybe he wasn't too mad at me.
'Remember I already told you, you can communicate with the pack similar to the way you communicate with me. It will take practice, but in the wolf form you can talk to other wolves in their wolf form. Don't worry about figuring it out now.'
'I love you Joel. I'm sorry.'
'Don't you ever get tired of having to say that, love?' he asked sounding angry.
'Don't you ever get tired of bossing me around?' I shot back at him before I could stop myself.
'We will talk when I get back,' he answered curtly ending the conversation.
I opted to stop concentrating on him and enjoy my leisurely run. I sensed the pack running behind me, but I felt like the forest was mine. The stars and moon shone above me and the woods were alive around me. It felt wonderful. Too soon I could see the looming structure of the den come into view.
Concentrating hard, I fell gracelessly back into a human form when I saw all my friends standing outside the den. I wanted to tell them I was all right and apologize for ditching them.
"Elizabeth," Katrina cried approaching me. She looked a wreck. Shawna was right behind her and didn't look much better. As I threw my arms around them, I realized they were both sobbing in my arms.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" I asked confused.
"We are just so glad you are okay. Alpha Latro will still punish us, but you are fine, yes?" Shawna asked. Now I felt like a jerk. I'd been running around playing most of the day while they panicked.