“You guys are smart indeed.” Dominic smirks, and handcuffs us.
“We are sorry, dad.” We pretend to be remorseful because there are feral werewolves around him to guide us to eternal pack cells. I sight mum in the dark room, her mouth has been sealed with an handkerchief and she is the victim of the whips.
“Please have mercy on us.” Jack says. The look on his face almost makes me burst into laughter. Can Jack be so cool?
“I’ll forgive you this time. But next time you try to prove smarter, I will deal with both of you. Wolves, you can leave!” He orders but they remain, acting obdurate.
“Leave, now!”
They rather bounce on Jack, aiming to tear his flesh apart. I scream and that’s when mum notices I’m some steps away from her. She would have been longing to see my face again.
“Save Jack!”
“Sure.” He responds as a lone tear falls from his forehead. He injects the wolves with silver but it doesn’t really affect them, they only willingly leave Jack. He’s in a pool of blood and his face looks pale. Someone taps me many times before I can return to my reverie.
“Jake? What’s wrong? We have been pardoned and he’s left.” Jack suddenly says. I glare at him for a few seconds and then at the place I saw him bleed.
“Is this a prank?” I inquire but he looks baffled.
“You were acting strange. Remember I hate idiots.” He says. I shrug off the thought, glad that we’re both safe now.
“Search for mum still or murder dad?” Jack asks.
“Thought you preferred Alex.”
“Wrong.”
“How? You’ve been feigning the truth all this while?”
“W for Wrong. I prefer Alex, nor preferred. Probably you should revisit your thesaurus. It’ll help improve your grammar.”
“Anyways, it’s best to rescue Alex.” I whisper in return.
“Shut up my friend, do you know what you’re saying? Alex’s in the pack cell! The eternal one. He can never be rescued by anyone. Even if the wolf that sent him there rescues him, it’s a violation and she’ll be punished for that.”
“We could have permitted Dominic to send us there, then.”
“How do idiots even think? It’s strange to me. Do you think we would be in the same room with him? The pack cell over there can be called a city on its own with hundreds of thousands of fiery guards and feral werewolves.”
“How come you know much about this?” I inquire, feeling the need to ask.
“I explore. Unlike you. You stay indoors 24/7 and can’t point to a specific thing you’ve achieved other than privacy to have a sound sleep.”
“Don’t go too extreme…” I warn but he interrupts.
“As though you can do something if I do.”
“Bend you head. Quick one!” I suddenly warn him.
“What’s that?” He whispers.
“The lady wolf has invaded this pack with a lot of wolves. I hope Dominic gives what she wants so the pack won’t go for it. We keep our heads closer to the walls, to listen to the lady’s rants.
“Let me make my request. Provide Jack and Jake. If not, these wolves will take down yours within a few seconds.” She requests.
“Call for the bunch of fools. We need them here. Tell them dad wants to give them some candies.”
Having heard Dominic’s voice from a distance, we force ourselves into the dark room where mum is. It is when we get in that we realize that we did.
“Shut the door. Quick. Shut it.” Jack says as he slowly shuts the door, even after asking me to. i chuckle a bit due to the anticipation of the warriors searching for our whereabouts.
We sneak to reach mum. Her eyes are closed but she is not sleeping yet. She is being whipped again as she returns to reverie. Jack grabs the hands of the one responsible for whipping her. He kicks him to the floor, and ensures he takes down the other guy as well.
“You all are not considerate. How could you be whipping a fully grown woman?” Jack inquires as I loosen the chains from mum’s hands.
“We were ordered. Please, we are sorry sir.” They apologize. Jack stoops, asking, “do you know me? Do you know my face?”
They both deny it, and Jack smiles weirdly at the gesticulations, “If any third party learns about me coming to rescue her, both of you will suffer for it. Understood?”
They don’t bother to respond. They feel confident again when the door is about to creak open. Jack stares at the doorpost but I defend him by kicking the man to the floor. He only deceived him through that distraction.
“Mum, let’s leave.” I order but she reclines her back on the chair. I have loosened the chains already though but I feel the need to be very quick about our moves. If Dominic finds out, there’s no going back on his decision to send us to the eternal pack cell.
“Let’s go! We’d soon be caught up.” I warn and she requests for a helping hand. As I help her up, I feel she’s indeed week and can’t walk properly.
“One of you should help us with her. She needs to leave.”
One of them walks up to Jack, whispering, “will you give me money in return? I’m in dire need of money currently.”
“Help us or die.” Jack retorts. With the way he speaks and responds to words, he looks like a born soldier.
We help her outside, alongside the two guards, after Jack’s threats. As we make it out of Dominic’s pack, we find ourselves still in his pack.
“Thought we got out already. Is this a trick or a prank?” I ask, from myself, particularly.
“That way!” He screams and we head out of Dominic’s pack, unnoticed, unscathed.
“Let’s head to Alex’s pack. I brought up my valiant boys there.” She says with a smile on her lips. I always love to witness that smile. It’s a goal achieved to see her smile that way.
“I think Alex’s pack should be on lockdown at the moment. He has been captured already.”
“By who?” Mum asks.
“By someone called Amanda. I explained to her at a time that you’re my mother when she claims to know someone called Nora.” Jack says.
“Don’t worry about that. I will convince her to release Alex.”
“You surely will? That’s so sweet.” We both say and peck her chin.
“But, I hope you won’t go with the silver wolf.”
She sniffles hard before responding, “I might have to go ”
Jack sighs mockingly, “Do you know weaklings can’t survive storms? Let’s take care of you before you run into danger yourself.”
“Thank you, but I need to go with her.”
“We’ll follow you then.”
“Sure. No problem.”