Wolf Pack

In the middle of the afternoon Christopher called us, they would go to the Forsaken, it was our opportunity to go along with them, however unwillingly Jack was, he agreed. The journey wasn’t long, they bordered our lands to the west, but we took the road, little by little the landscape took on a sloppy shape, nothing like our well-tended forests, I already had a bad feeling when I saw garbage at the entrance from the Forsaken Pack. There were two guards in the gatehouse, they were very young and emaciated.

“Two Council members and The Alphas of the Northeast, we have a visit scheduled.” Lucca said through the front window and the two guards just nodded and let us through.

As I entered the Forsaken Pack, I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. There was garbage everywhere, the houses at the entrance were hovels, almost a slum, there were children playing in a sand field with torn clothes and bare feet. In the center of the village there were businesses falling apart, it was as if everything there had stopped in time for 20 years. We followed the path in silence, but I felt Jack’s heart sink, further ahead was their House of the Pack, and there were another 4 or 5 houses, huge and beautiful, it was as if this area of the Pack was another world, the Otto’s house was glazed and modern, but in the background there was the airport, it was a huge cargo airport. We all looked at each other blankly, parked the car and got out, but everything seemed deserted and empty, nothing was working, until a chubby bald man with a red mustache approached us.

“Are you from the Council?” The gentleman asked holding hands for everyone but he froze when he saw me.

“Yes, we are both Council members, and they are the Alphas of the Northeast Pack.” Lucca replied.

The man greeted Jack but he didn’t extend his hand, he just stood there staring at me and swallowed hard.

“Luna Claumman Eastwood.” I held out my hand but he was looking at me still astonished, so he sighed and took my hand, never taking his eyes off mine.

“Otto’s granddaughter, nice to meet you, I’m Jonathan.” He now looked down. “It’s just that your eyes are the same as your grandfather’s.”

It was visible that it was difficult for him to look at me, as if he was not worthy of it, so many things went through my head that I became even more confused, the way these people were being treated, the inequality within the same Pack. It reminded me when Hughes told me how a Pack worked, it was a big family, everyone took care of each other and the intention of the Forsaken was precisely to be free to take care of each other, there I think it meant a lot of money in Otto’s hands, and none in the hands of his people.

“We know you don’t have Betas, right? We need to talk to someone from the board or administrative.” Christopher asked the man.

“There is no one sir...” He said with his head down, clasping his hands in front of his body.

“How is there no one?” Lucca asked excitedly.

“When your investigation came out, Otto’s directors were involved, they were all part of the scheme, right? So after the investigation, half of them already fled. When Otto died then, the rest fled too. Here, everything is empty.” The man said pointing to the houses and buildings behind him. “After he died, those who could afford it fled, leaving only the workers and those with nowhere else to go.”

“I’m sorry, would you be?” Christopher asked now.

“I’m Jonathan, I take care... I took care of opening the airport. Otto asked me to stop all product departures because you would arrive. I thought about running away too, but my son said that I would have nothing to hide, I never went in favor of their scheme, it was only one employee, as well as several here...” The man said shrugging.

I gulped, in addition to the Pack appearing to have been abandoned for so many years, it was now completely abandoned. Lucca wanted to see it with her own eyes and go into the company’s comfortable room. Also looking at the empty houses was like a horror movie scenario. We left scared. I didn’t want to believe it.

“Come to my house, it’s humble but I make great coffee.” Jonathan invited us and after much insisting we settled down.

He told how it worked when Otto was alive, and the inequality we witnessed was real. The few wolves who agreed with his scheme were administratively part of it, earned handsomely for it, and lived next door to him. Those merchants who held out kept on as they could, and the rest became employed on Otto’s poppy farm or heroin refinery, earning a pittance.

“But you couldn’t get out of here?” I asked with tears in my eyes, I couldn’t believe that Otto could be so unfair to his people. I still wanted to believe that he was a monster just for me, that he could still have been a good leader.

“Ah my dear, leave? Back when your grandmother was alive, perhaps. She tried to keep things in order, if a wolf wasasking in secret, she released. But in her time it was good to live. But after she died and you were born, everything here turned to hell. No one could get out, some tried to escape but they were never heard from again, we don’t know if they made it or if they were really killed.” Jonathan said drinking his coffee, and I heard things and my stomach was turning, I felt nausea, disgust of what Otto did there. “You know? When your father was born, we had so much hope, that he would become an amazing Alpha here, he had your grandmother’s ideas, he was a good man. When he became your mother’s mate then.” Jonathan laughed and placed a hand on his stomach. “We even thought they could bring the Packs together, imagine? We know how well you live there, we thought we might have the same luck. But the prophecies came out and Otto was crazier than he already was....”

His face grew darker, the shadow in his gaze just giving us a taste of what Otto had done to them, and I listened but couldn’t believe it. When he said about joining the Packs my heart responded to it, and now more than ever I wanted to do it, I knew it was right. But I needed to talk Jack into it, and it made my brains and stomach turn over just thinking about it.

Suddenly I heard a familiar voice, but I couldn’t remember where.

“Dad, I needed....” He suddenly entered the house, it was Kevin, Marcus’s friend, I met him when we were dating.

“Luna?” He stared at me blankly, but I stood up and opened my arms to greet him.

“Have you met my son?” Jonathan asked me confused.

“He was Marcus’s friend.” I said sighing and looking down.

“Speaking of which, we need to know how to send the bodies here...” Lucca said and only after saying it did he realize that it didn’t make sense.

“But, Marcus has no family and we’re leaderless, with no one here...” Kevin said looking down, his sadness was visible and palpable.

“Hey, calm down, we’re going to have a wake for him, don’t worry...” I said trying to comfort him.

“He was going to ask for exile for you....” Kevin said sighing. “We know that if we tried to run away we would be killed, but Marcus had a chance because of Mina. He was waiting for the ceremonies....”

At that time I looked at Jack he had his lips parted in astonishment, we didn’t know what to say. Marcus wanted to become our member, but he was simply killed before.

Did you expect the Forsaken Pack to be like this? Can Luna convince Jack? What would you do in her place?