— Kaden —

“What’s the report,” I asked Darren from a small room next to Elaeya hospital room.

“First, how is she?” he asked me.

“I was told it’s mostly exhaustion and nothing more, she’s being monitored, but she should be fine.”

He let out a long sighed of relief. “Eva will need to hear this. It has gotten her in dark places, this whole affair.”

“How is she?”

“She’ll be okay, but she’ll need a bit of time.”

I nodded.

“Okay, report,” he said. “Forty injured, nine serious, no death.”

I let out my own sigh of relief.

“The one that came with Elaeya were prisoners. The woman is a naga.”

I felt my eyebrows go up at that. Those are not frequent around here and nagis are pretty badass from what I heard.

“Named Pavarti. The man is a drake.”

My eyes widened even more. Those are nearly instinct and probably as rare as spirit wolves.

“Named Tamarak. The human is a witchdoctor named André. The girl is a gumiho, but we got no name yet as she doesn’t speak. They are all getting better though. But I would say they should all get a massive amount of therapy. What I’ve learned so far, it was not Cancun in there.”

I nodded. “Anything they need, you offer it. They can also stay as long as they want, but also make sure they know they can leave whenever they want, or they may think they’ve just been sent to another prison, only with nicer beds and doctors.”

“Right,” he said, punching a few things on his tablet. “We found a few more locations, we send the warriors?”

“Send them,” I said.

He nodded. “Rumours on the dark net is that a lot of outposts are being dismantled.”

I nodded.

“Jean-Philipped contacted us with names in the Brotherhood, which came from the same contact that helped us find Elaeya,” he told me.

“You know all the people involved?”

“We got a pretty good idea, but we have a few more to verify.”

“Good.”

“A delegation from Boisclair is on its way.”

“I expected as much,” I said. “How about the rest?”

“Everything is falling back into place, normal life should return in a week or two.”

“I’m not so sure,” I said.

“Why?”

“We can leave it rest, without getting back at those who started this.”

“The war of betrayal,” he said.

I nodded.

“The swamps,” I told him. “Acquire them.”

“Mmmh. I’m not sure their people will like it.”

“I don’t care. Pay them, relocate them, make deals with them, ally with them, whatever option they’re ready to go for, we will. This is not a weakness I will keep.”

“It’s pretty hard to attack through there.”

“Yet they did it regardless. It won’t happen again.”

He typed on his tablet. “I’ll see what we can do about that.”

“Do better than that.”

He nodded. “Okay, Boss.”

* * * * *

“You sure about this?” I asked Jean-Philippe.

“I am,” he said.

“There is no turning back from this.”

“I know, I talked with Jasmine, we decided this together.”

I nodded and handed him the paper.

He signed it and slid it back to me. I signed it too. Brandon and Darren signed as witness.

“How are things going?”

“Three more attacks are underway at this very moment. If everything goes well, we would have gone through all the major black market outpost within the month,” said Brandon. “If we stay vigilant, we should track the minor outposts within three to six months. After that we just have to stay sharp and nip everything in the bud and it sets up. There will be no black market again. At least nothing like there has been in the past. This time is over.”

“I’m not sad to see it gone,” Darren admitted.

“How is Elaeya?” asked Jean-Philippe

“Sleeping, she woke a bit, we talked, but it didn’t last long. She’s been transferred home.”

“Good. I like her. I’m glad she’s okay.”

“So am I,” I said.

“I can’t imagine what you went through.” He shook his head as Darren and Brandon grabbed everything and left. “If the Brotherhood did this to you, then anyone could be the next target.”

“It wasn’t the Brotherhood per se,” I admitted. “But agent within the Brotherhood.”

“I’m guessing they will receive a visit soon?”

“They will.”

“Count me in.” He extended his hand to me.

I shook it.

* * * * *

“Are you sure?” I asked Elaeya.

“Yes, I’m coming,” she said.

“It could be dangerous.”

“It will be, but a message as to come across and I will be there for it,” she said firmly.

I didn’t dare contradict her, but I was not fond of the idea of having her out of Blakemore just yet.

“We’ll wait then,” I said.

“Why?”

“Until all my men are back. I don’t march you out of here without the entire army.”

“That will get the message across alright.”

I smiled wolfishly.

We were in bed, her head was against my arm.

“Can I get your thought on a couple of things?” I asked her.

“Sure.”

I told her about what her mother did before the battle and how it affected me.

She nodded knowingly once I was done.

“You have heard of berserkers right?”

“The mad Viking warriors who fought without fears and from which the work berserk comes from?”

“More or less,” she said. “There are a few ways to make a berserker, one includes a potion including hallucinogenic and painkillers, but there are other ways. One is to summon the spirit of a predator, often bears or wolves, in a form of controlled possession. The spirits heighten stamina, pushes limits and the pain threshold too. Pain is there to limit us so not to hurt ourselves. Your nerve endings are there to stop you from tearing your muscles. Which is why berserkers don’t have a long life expectancy, but werewolves are different because of the regenerative abilities.

But the spirit reacts the your inner wolf, making the primal aspect like hunger that more prevalent and hard to control.”

“Your mother turned my army into a berserkers army?”

“Pretty much.”

I thought about it.

“How come she painted my face, but didn’t do as much to my men for similar result,” then I got it before she answered. “She exploited the link between Alpha and pack.”

“Yes, which is why it probably didn’t have the same effect to non-pack members present.”

“There’s something else,” I said, and I told her about the dark mist that appeared around me and what the wizard said about it.

“I’m not sure about that one and Alik might know more, but I think it’s, in part, a reaction to my magic, combined with how your own powers have grown, it’s like a congeal aura that you have some level of control over, but I’m not sure the extent of which you have, or all that it can do.”

“Like kill?”

“I think it most probably stole the life instead.”

That had my eyebrows go way up.

“We should study this some more,” she suggested.

“Have you gained some new abilities from me?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I did have a lot for stamina, magically speaking, more than I’m used to, but I’m not sure if it comes from you or not. At least yet. I guess there may be a lot for us to learn still.”

“I guess.”

* * * * *

Mishka came to see me the next day.

“We need to talk,” he told me, closing the door of my office behind him.

“Sure,” I said.

“It’s about Ylva.”

“What is it?” I felt my heart squeeze upon itself.

“She’s not doing well.”

“I know.”

“She really blamed herself for what happened with the Other. She took that pretty hard,” he said. “I think this time, it’s worse.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s a bodyguard and she takes this pretty seriously. She a warrior through and through. She was saved by the one she was hired to pretect, twice. And she failed to protect her both times.”

“The others didn’t do any better.”

“Maybe, but that’s not how she sees it. She sees it has her not being good enough. She seriously cares about Elaeya. I know it. I think she giving up. I think she decided to stop fighting. The doctors are not optimistic. I think you have to go and she her. Tell her it’s okay, tell her everything’s alright and you don’t blame her. Please.”

I have rarely seen this jackass so worried, which worried me even more.

The next day, Elaeya and I went to see Ylva.

We stayed for a while as she was unconscious.

When she finally opened her eyes and saw Elaeya, she fell apart.

I’ve known her long enough to know it’s nothing she would have wanted anyone to see, so I let the women together for a while. When I came back later, she was a little better and I did her the curtesy not to mention what had happened. We talked a bit. More us than her, she was pretty weak.

I don’t know if it helped. I hope so. I like her, it would break my heart to see her go, but her eyes were that of a broken woman.

When we left her room, Elaeya hugged me and we stayed this way for a while before we left.

* * * * *

The following week, we marched on the capital, with the entire army of both Blakemore and Boisclair in tow. The city stopped functioning for a few hours. All streets clogged. We had sent people ahead with the military vehicles to make sure we would not be grid-locked, but it did have for consequence, to lock everyone else.

My men pushed their way through the great hall, so that when we walked in, not one interrupted us. The few who saw this as assault and tried to stop us, we disarmed and neutralised. We killed none, and it was little mercy. There was a part of me, a very dark part of me, that would have loved to see the blood run on the pompous black marble floor of the Great Hall.

We had sent ahead a message so that we would be sure all of the Brothers—or as many as we could hope for—would be there.

When we entered the main hall, they we there in complete silence, looking at us with wide eyes.

My men fanned out around the room, with their weapons clearly visible, for better intimidation.

Elaeya was standing on my right, Jean-Philippe on my left.

“Someone,” I said in a booming voice within the heavy silence. “Attacked my wife.” I let the words resonate and sink in. “A Brother made a hit on her to have her taken into the fucking black market. If you’re not up on your news lately, they’re mostly gone. I will make sure none will sprout out again. It was not a lone wolf act. I want the head of those who did this. You have seventy hours to find them and take care of your own trash. If you don’t, or if you spare any, I will return with my army, and I will erase the Brotherhood from history.”

I extended my hand and Brandon gave me a rolled parchment.

“This is my signature under the Moonhunter’s Accord,” I said unrolling it, and I ripped it apart.

Elaeya extended her hand and flamed sprouted out and set the parchment ablaze.

Jean-Philippe extended his hand and one of his men gave him his own parchment.

“As sisterpack of Blakemore, Boisclair rescind its position under the Accord,” he said ripping it off. Then he extended the pieces to the flames until the paper caught fire. I dropped mine before it burnt my hands and Jean-Philippe dropped his on top.

“Seventy-two hours,” I said and turned around.