Orion
Their names were David and Derrick. David, the older one and Derrick, the kid brother.
Both were young and both were insane.
Rogues, to be more precise. Werewolves who left or were kicked out of their pack due to personal reasons or conflicts within the pack.
How they got here and how they agreed to follow Lucius' sick ideas, I don't know. I don't particularly care either.
What I do care about however, was their reason for being in the basement with us.
Scar-man, Lucius' father, introduced them to us as the Sherman brothers.
Psycho brothers were a better name for them, I think.
They were siblings and their purpose was quite simple here. The minute Ariel falls asleep, they were ordered to execute Trenton with the huge swords that they've strapped to their backs.
Derrick, the younger one, seemed to be the tool in the family. Half the time, he tried to look tough while the other half of the time, he looked sick to his stomach.
It was clear to me that Derrick just followed whatever his older brother said to do like an obedient child.
It was also clear to me that they were completely brainwashed by Lucius because no matter how much we begged and threatened them to help us, they wouldn't listen to one word.
Or more like, David wouldn't listen since all Derrick did was follow his brother around like a lost puppy who wanted his next bone to chew.
I hated them. I hated their weapons, their boss, and how they eyed Ariel like she was a piece of meat. They watched her like a hawk and I caught David's eyes linger a bit too long on Ariel's legs.
They disgusted me.
With our wolves and power, we would have killed them already. Five Alphas, a Vampire prince, and a silver wolf...the chuckle brothers would have been history by now.
However, that wasn't the case anymore. All the Alphas, myself included, were worn down from pain and hunger. Taking these brothers on in a physical fight would only result in a humiliating and painful loss for us.
The Vampire Prince in the mean time was love sick and angry at the moment with all of us now.
And our little silver wolf...
I sighed, pissed at myself for being this helpless.
I read once in the Guinness World of Records that the longest someone stayed awake was around eleven days. During that time, the individual experienced severe hallucinations, numerous headaches, and health problems.
That individual was human and in his teens when he put himself through that pointless experiment. I thought at first that a werewolf, even a child one at that, would have better chances to stay awake longer.
However watching Ariel right now, it would seem that my theory was far off the mark.
It's now day six into the game and to anyone's eyes, you can tell she was suffering.
A lot.
Her face looked hollow and pale; so pale that at times I have to remind myself that she's alive and didn't turn into a ghost right in front of my eyes.
Her body looked breakable as if she lost half of her body weight in the span of six days.
I wouldn't be too surprised if that was actually the case. These past few days, our Angel could barely eat anything without throwing it all up.
Just yesterday, she refused to eat any of the food left for us. It was Arlo who pleaded with her to eat some and even though she finally relented, she only had a few nibbles of the food.
Arlo can be persuasive when he wants to be, as he puts logic behind all his words, but some situations are just so hopeless.
And our Angel is reaching her limit. I sent the brothers a piercing glare, hating their cocky stance and ruthless weapons.
As usual, David pretended to yawn while Derrick cowered behind his brother like a stupid puppy.
It wasn't fair. What did Ariel ever do to deserve this?
"Trenton?" Her voice called out weakly, and I jumped to my feet, shocked that she was calling for him of all people.
As I moved toward her slumped form, I regarded Trenton with a pleading look to be nice to her, and was shocked that he was moving towards her too.
"What is it?" He asked, rushing to reach her before I did. His actions were shocking to say the least, as if he actually cared about what Ariel had to say.
It would most likely seem so because after six days of silence, he finally spoke out.
She remained silent and when I was in touching distance with her, I realized why. Her eyes were open, but her gaze wasn't focused at all. She looked straight at the wall behind us and when I touched her, she jumped violently in my arms.
"Ariel?" I whispered, trying to speak in a non-threatening manner. "Look at me."
She listened; only partially though. She didn't look at me, but instead at Trenton.
And I didn't like it one bit. There was a wild, almost angry look in her eye, that reminded me of the times years ago, when she lost control of her silver wolf.
I definitely wouldn't mind having her silver wolf show up and beat the two shit brothers' asses all across the room, but something was wrong at the moment.
"It's all your fault," she croaked to Trenton and I flinched hearing the raw pain in her voice. Trenton looked sick to his stomach and it was not only because of her bitter words.
Gone was the soft, loving expressions that we knew her by. Instead there was a display of anger in her eyes; an anger so deep that made it seem that she hated the mere sight of us.
Slowly the rest of the guys in the basement got up from the floor, but I didn't dare turn my gaze away from her. They were calling out to her, asking if she was okay, but she ignored them.
She was regarding Trenton with an intense look in her eyes and I could've sworn I saw her eyes flashing. Watching her closely, I was perplexed by what I saw in them.
Her green and blue eyes were dimming slowly and before I could even blink, it was white.
Pure white.
No pupil.
No colour.
No anything.
"Ariel!" I shouted, and the rest of the wolves sprinted over to her after hearing the panic in my voice. Softly as I can, I brought her face up so I can look at her more properly, and I was terrified by what I saw.
"She has no irises," Cameron shouted, hysteria coating his words. "There's no fucking irises!"
"Ariel," Scott exploded, trying to drag her face towards him. "Can you hear me, Angel? What's wrong? Is anything hurting? Talk to me."
I didn't understand what was happening. What was wrong with her?
She screamed all of a sudden, making every single creature in the room flinch violently. The sound emitted from her mouth was high pitched and filled with raw pain.
I shuddered, knowing that her scream will be etched into my mind forever.
"What's wrong with her?" Leon snarled, pushing his way into her space. "What the fuck did you do to her now, Trenton? She was whimpering your name before she became like this."
I didn't even waste my time rolling my eyes at him and his ruthless jabs at Trenton.
Something was terribly wrong with her and as painful as it's to admit, there was only bastard capable of making her remotely better.
"Get your boss," I ordered David and Derrick, feeling a little satisfaction seeing their now pale face.
Good. At least they're not completely immune to the madness that's taking place here.
David, of course, was the first to recover and at once, smirked at my order. "That's not happening anytime soon, Oreo."
I didn't appreciate him using the nickname Ariel gave to me in that nasal voice of is. But, at that moment, my nickname was the least of my worries.
Ignoring the weapons seated on their back, I hauled both of them by their nicely tailored shirts so that their faces were uncomfortably closer to mine.
"Get your fucking boss," I snarled, shaking them roughly for emphasis. "Tell Lucius that it’s an emergency and Ariel needs a doctor now." I released their shirts abruptly when I felt a dull pain near my stomach area.
I rubbed it absently and watched David angrily as he put his fist back down to his side.
"Or what?" David laughed, smirking at the way I continued to rub my stomach. I dropped it immediately.
"Or," I fought back, knowing exactly what to say to put fear in their pea-sized brains. "I'll tell Lucius that ever since you got here, all you and your brother were doing was staring at Ariel like she was a piece of meat."
I smiled to myself when I saw his smile falter. However my own disappeared as well when I heard Ariel's scream again.
"That's not true," Derek replied weakly, shooting his brother a petrified look. "Lucius will never believe you."
"Oh no?" I mocked, trying to scare the little brother even more. "That bastard truly believes that Ariel is his. Why do you think you two idiots are here? Trenton is on death row because he's Ariel's mate."
"What're you saying?" Derek asked, looking at me with wide eyes.
"Lucius' jealousy knows no boundaries," I concluded, before lifting an eyebrow. "So if you don't get Lucius down here now to save our Angel, then next time I do see that dickhead, I might be inclined to incite his anger against you two."
David gulped, and I smiled inwardly, ready to strike with a final jab.
"In fact, I'll even add some lie to the truth," I said, seeing sweat trickle down David's neck. "Like how you even went as far as touching Ariel inappropriately and even stole a kiss from her."
Derek paled instantly and I thought for a second he was going to faint right there on the floor.
Good. It was refreshing to see the enemies look at us with fear for a change.
"So what's it going to be?" I looked back at Ariel and frowned seeing her trying to pull her hair out. It was Trenton and Arlo who were trying to calm her down as the rest of them looked like they were still petrified by the fact that her pupils were gone.
"He's not here," Derek blurted out, and I whipped my head back so fast that I feared I almost had a whiplash.
David glared down at his little brother but I was too occupied by his words to care much about his action.
He's not here...
"Lucius is not here?" I choked out, and I looked back to see Arlo stare at me with wide eyes too.
"You fucking idiot," David snarled at Derek, looking like he wanted to knock his brother out.
"I'm sorry but you heard him," he tried to stammer out, sending me a pitiful and anxious look. "Even if we agreed to help her, Lucius can't help her right now. He's out of the country."
"Shut up, Derek," David shouted, and this time actually went and punched him at the side of the cheek.
"Oww!" The little brother whined like a little girl and I would've laughed if there weren't more pressing matters at hand.
"What about Scar-man?" I questioned, directing my gaze at Derek. "Is Lucius' father here then?"
"Not one more word out of you," David gritted out to his brother before staring me down. "And as for you, go tell Lucius. I don't care. Our job is to kill Trenton as soon as the girl goes to sleep."
I smiled inwardly, knowing that though his words sounded strong, he looked like he was shitting bricks right now. "So is that a no?"
David gulped audibly and we got ourselves an answer.
"So let me get this straight," I concluded, crossing my arms against my chest. "Are you saying that the only thing stopping us wolves and Leon from freedom, are you two dumbasses?"
"Don't go underestimating us," David said, trying to compose himself. "Remember where you are and who holds the power in this situation. We know most of you here are Alphas but to our eyes, all you Alphas look like little homeless children who were dumped by their parents on the streets."
"Takes one to know one," I interjected smoothly and I can tell that I struck a nerve with that comment.
David snarled and went to grab my throat but was stopped by Arlo, who suddenly appeared at my side.
"What do you get out of this?" He asked, burning holes at the two brothers. "Money, power, revenge...? Why are you working for Lucius? He doesn't give a care about anyone in this world other than himself."
Derek looked down while his brother looked as if he was going to murder us.
"None of your fucking business," he shouted, reaching back to pluck his weapon which was hanging on his back. Before Arlo and I can move, he shoved the weapon straight at my chest, lingering there for a moment.
It was a clear message to show who held the power here.
"This discussion is over," he snarled out, taking a moment to look at Ariel. "Now get the fuck out of my sight. Talking and threatening us won't get you anywhere. And besides, judging by how crazy that girl is getting, her situation is hopeless whether Lucius shows up or not."
"Yes, that's true," Arlo said, tilting his head to the side. He didn't even look fazed by the sword in David's hand."But if you two don't help us, I'll make sure your situation become hopeless as well. Don't underestimate us. Just like Ariel, we're not completely sane ourselves."
"We have years of pent of rage and anger," I concluded. "Seeing you being tortured by Lucius might just be release we need."
"You son of a bitch." He placed his arm down, moving the sword away from my neck.
"Swearing at us won't get you anywhere," Arlo said, and I was glad that he was on our side. There was a cold calculation in his eyes and I knew immediately that he had a plan in mind.
"Well, at least unlike you, swearing does get us out of this hell hole of a basement," David smartly replied back.
"It'll be your best interest to keep us happy," Arlo replied, letting out a small smile. "You don't want us to go tell your boss that you and your brother were harassing our Angel the whole time he was in Paris."
David widened his eyes and his face registered panic. "We didn't say Lucius was in Paris." I could tell he was going over the conversation in his mind, replaying his every word.
"No," Arlo agreed, and I can see the victory dancing his eyes. "But your expression just did. It'll be interesting to see Lucius' reaction if I tell him I knew where he went. He'll of course ask who told us that, and we will gladly snitch on you two motherfuckers."
I wanted to pat my friend on the back and praise him for his choice of words. Who knew Arlo can swear?
"David?" Derek hoarsely asked, and I can actually see tears in his eyes. "What're we going to do?"
"Shut up," his brother responded. "So what? Tell that to Lucius. He won't give a shit. Who cares where he is? It doesn't change your predicament at all."
"But it changes yours," Arlo shot back. "He'll think you two brothers betrayed him by selling out his personal whereabouts. On top of that, he wouldn't be happy to learn about your unhealthy obsession toward his princess."
David and Derek simultaneously gulped, and I knew that they we won this battle.
"What the fuck do you want from us?" David spat out, looking pale and defeated."We don't have the knowledge or resources to help the bitch."
"Ariel," he stressed,"will fight through it. She's the strongest person I know and whatever she's going through, she'll fight and win.mWe won't let Ariel's suffering go to waste."
"What do you want from us?" David snarled. "If you think we're going to let you go, forget about it. Lucius will have our heads for sure. And besides, there is no way to get out of this place without Lucius' powers."
More information to catalogue for later.
"There is a book in Lucius' office," Arlo calmly said, tilting his head up a bit. "We want it. It's as simple as that."
David clenched his hands into tight fights and it didn't take a genius to figure out that he was scared.
"The book in Lucius' office?" I asked Arlo, feeling a long forgotten emotion rise within me.
Excitement
"Yes," he replied, still staring calmly at David who was now sweating bullets. "The book that Ariel spoke of before. The one with chains meshed around them."
"And you think that's going to help us?" I asked.
"Well Ariel wants it. Hence I want to ensure she has it," Arlo remarked, before letting out a smile. "Ever since Ariel mentioned it, it was running in the back of my mind. She said that the book contained secrets; that a strong force within the book was calling out to her. I believed her then and now we finally have the means to get it."
"If you think we're going to his office to get the book, you're crazy!" David nearly shouted out, his face a dark red.
"Oh I don't just think you're going to go get it," Arlo said, sounding calm and collected despite his shouting. "I know you're going to get it. Your very lives depend on it."
And ten minutes later, Arlo's demands came through. I felt the power shift in the room and I fucking revelled in it.
David and Derek resembled two puppies who lost their bone to their worst enemies.
In this case, the bone was the book. And their enemies, us.
The book was finally in our hands. Now we just needed our Angel.
~
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