Chapter 273
The pain is what wakes me up.
I find myself tied to a chair, held in ce by the same kind of silver-wolfsbane infused chains that Tobin
used that night at the factory when he tried to kill me for my Alpha powers.
I bring my head up, clenching my jaw against the constant searing and burning that’s keeping me from
shifting back into my wolf.
I’m in some kind of rundown house, in what was once maybe a den or living room.
N?vel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive ? material.
The ceiling is water stained, the carpet is mottled and moldy so it’s impossible to tell what the original
color was, the drywall is cracked, and the dirty, tattered curtains shift from the breezeing in from
the broken window.
It smells like rats and decay.
What the hell am I doing here?
Why aren’t I in the cells in the basement of the Council Hall any longer?
The door opens and in walks Karolina.
At this point I’m not all that surprised.
There’s always been something about Karolina I didn’t like or trust, this low-level vibe of malice that
wasn’t obvious on the surface of her personality where she seems like an upstanding Councilmember
who only wants what’s best for the packs and the continued survival of wolves.
“Ah, you’re awake,” Karolina says as she struts in. “Those Alpha
powers you have really are something. Wrap any other wolf in chains like that, and they would have
been dead hours ago.”
“What am I doing here, Karolina?” I ask through a clenched
jaw.
“It’s quite simple, Aaron,” she replies with a shrug, as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. But when
she looks at me, I see the true frustration and fury in her gaze. “I’m sick of your getting in the way and
messing up my ns.”
“I’d apologize, but I’m not sorry,” I tell her in a deceptively mild voice. “Besides, I don’t even know what
ns you’re talking
about.”
This seems to annoy her further.
“I had it all figured out with Tobin. We were going to take
wolves forward into a bright future. The Council is too attached to the Old Ways. And when wolves from
the Old Country turn up and start meddling, it just gets worse. The Old Ways don’t serve us any longer.
The Old Ways mean we have to hide from humans. We’re hunted, even as we fight between ourselves
to the point that our species is in dangerous decline. Are we just supposed to hang onto the Old Ways
until they wipe us out?”
She looks at me, as if expecting an answer, but I sit stubbornly still and silent.
“Of course we’re not!” she exims, answering her own question. “But it’s fine. My ns are back on
track. I can see it through. I just need you to be out of the way. And I realized there’s a simple answer
to that. One that will ensure I can be strong enough to stand against whatever resistance I encounter
when the world begins reshaping for the better. People can’t always see it that way, you know. They’re
scared, so they hang onto what is familiar, even when it’s so obviously pointless. But they’ll see. They’ll
see what we wolves can do when we innovate. When we create tools humans asked for, but use them
for our own advantage instead.”
Her words take a moment to sink in through all the pain, but when they do, it’s confirmation of
something I didn’t want to
be true.
“You’ve got the Al tech,” I say. “Tobin took it, and you took it.
from him.”
Karolina smirks but doesn’t reply and I can’t read anything in her expression.
“Oh, Aaron, can’t you see that demanding answers doesn’t do you any good at all?”
She crosses her arms, and I can tell she’s enjoying every second of this.
“Tell me. Now!” I snarl at her.
“What’s the point in knowing anything when you’re going to be too dead to do anything about it?” She
lifts her foot and shoves it into my shoulder, sending the chair tipping back and mming me painfully
into the ground.
“I figured it out, you see.” She brings over arge stic tub and a hose she’s dragged in, presumably
from somewhere outside. “I’ve got the means to make real,sting change, and to back that up, all I
need are your Alpha powers.”