Lucy’s POV
“You’re the one who killed her,” Shaun continued, slowly rising to his feet despite the chains wrapped around his ankles. Shadows hid a portion of his face, giving him a severe look. “You’re the one who took her from us.”
The man didn’t even seem fazed by what Shaun said. He simply took off his mask completely and bared his face to us all.
Asides the scars, there was nothing else particularly remarkable about the man’s face. Small beady eyes, a hooked nose similar to an eagle’s beak, and skin so pale it could have been mistaken for chalk. Despite the bland adjectives that came to my mind when I was describing him, it wasn’t even done intentionally. He was just someone that looked really average. The kind of person that you wouldn’t have ever thought would have been capable of committing atrocities like cold-blooded murder.
“Yes, I was the one, and she was very persistent. She refused to die so easily,” he said while smiling. “It was a shame she had to be killed. She was quite beautiful. If only she had chosen another wolf to get married to,” he growled at the end. “But no, she went ahead to marry a ruthless Alpha, and did nothing to stop his senseless habit of making enemies.” The smile dropped from his face.
Shaun’s head down as he let out a shuddering sigh. “You . . .” he said in a low voice. Danger lurked behind it all, hinting at something coming.
The other two brothers stared at the man who revealed that he was the one who had taken their mother away from the world, and the looks they wore on their faces were hard enough to cut glass. Even Scott, who usually had an impassive look on his face, looked absolutely furious.
All of a sudden, I started to feel a little fear on this assailant’s behalf. I wasn’t sure he was sensitive enough to perceive the darkened atmosphere. “What is your name? Who are you?”
“You may refer to me as Nameless, for the name I once had, has been long forgotten-just the same as the person that bore it.” He slid his long fingers over his bald head in an odd fashion. “To you, my name matters even less because you will all be released from your existence very soon, and I will be finally able to fulfil this task given to me.”
“Why did you do it?” Shaun asked, lifting his head. His icy blue eyes were glowing. “Why?”
Nameless cocked his head to the side, watching Shaun with a strange interest. His mannerisms reminded me of a child that had failed to grow up properly, and thus, he acted in strange ways.
“Well, I didn’t do it because I wanted to, unlike what you people think. I did it because I had to,” said Nameless, scratching the wrinkled, scarred flesh under his chin. “It was a matter of preference. A game of choice, and I merely played as I was expected to,” he said, voice losing a little of its quirky quality. “But that doesn’t mean that playing the game wasn’t a satisfactory journey.” He laughed, and the sound rang deep, even in my own years.
This meant that he was the one I had seen shooting that arrow at Shaun, but how had he gotten here, I didn’t understand. Moongrowl hadn’t had any cases of intruders getting in during the time that Daven had been alive, but he died and then odd things started happening around Moongrowl related to his family.
“You know, being a halfling isn’t easy for us,” said Nameless. “Each and every day, we are forced to struggle because people don’t accept that there are some of us that just aren’t Apex or even Basic wolves. Some of us are the offspring of two races, human and wolf, and thus, we have attributes related to each race. I never got to meet my own mother though, because her human body wouldn’t endure the strain that came with birthing a half-werewolf child.”
No wonder he looked and smelled so odd. Werewolves had a distinct scent that made it easy for other wolves to detect them, making it hard for us to hide from our own kind. But this man had been hiding so well that it was always difficult to detect him until it was too late.
“So what, you expect us to pity you?” Shaun said with a scoff. “Nothing justified what you did. You murdered an innocent and good woman.”
Nameless merely shrugged. “Maybe that’s the case, but at least I did it to protect my own kind. Your father was a threat, and the three of you are even more so. It’s nothing personal, but it’s just what had to be done.” He released a short dagger from a sheath wrapped around his side. The metal blade glinted sinisterly, even in the dim light. “I’ll make your deaths quick, don’t worry.”
“No, you won’t be touching any of us.” The ice in Shaun’s voice chilled me to the core, and I caught a glimpse of what was probably the angriest I had ever seen him. It made the other times he scowled when we were having an argument look like child’s play.
Nameless considered him for a few seconds, before commencing his advance towards Scott, who sat furthest away from us.
Seth tried ro block his path, but Nameless dipped his hand into a pouch I hadn’t noticed before, brought out his hand, and blew a purplish shining powder on his face. As Seth inhaled the dust, he fell into a severe coughing fit, and held his neck as though he was gasping fir air.
“They don’t call me the Wolf killer for nothing, boy,” said the assassin. “You’d better remain still and wait for your turn.”
A great roar shook the entire cave, ringing out over and over again with an intensity that had me putting my hands over my ears to stop it. I was pressed with a great urge to fall to my knees in reverence of the sound, before it dawned on me what exactly it was.
The Apex Wolf roar. The roar that made other wolves submit to the most powerful one in their midst.
Nameless froze before turning back to look at Shaun. “Your roaring will not save you.”
“No it won’t, but I don’t have to save anyone. I just have to rip you apart,” Shaun said seconds before he lunged forward. The chain connected to him dragged across the ground, creating harsh jangles that echoed.
I thought the chains would have eventually reached their limit and gone taut, stopping Shaun in his tracks, but they didn’t, and instead, broke apart with a satisfying ping.
Nameless never stood a chance as Shaun descended on him, and ripped his fully formed claws into the assassin’s neck, tearing apart his skin and muscle in mere seconds. The disgusting squelching sound of human flesh filled the cave, and I wished I didn’t have to witness such a gruesome scene.
The two struggled for a little while, but it was obvious who was going to win from the very beginning. Nameless often tried to brandish his dagger, but Shaun gave him no chance to move, as he pinned the assassin’s body down with his weight.
For a final finish, once Nameless had finally stopped twitching on the ground, Shaun pulled on his head with a loud roar until it completely separated from his body as easily as a banana getting detached from a stalk. The only rude difference was the massive spray of blood that followed.
We all basked in the grim silence that followed, torn between relief and awe. One thing stood out to me, and kept rolling around in my head was that Shaun was able to do that only partially transformed.
Was that why Nameless considered the triplets dangerous? If that was the case, then he truly had a good reason to have wanted them dead.
But who had he really been working for?