Rising from the Ashes
Chapter 8

Fire.

It has always been a part of Elenora’s life. It has always exploded within her. She just didn’t know it at times. It explodes within her now. Fighting against her instead of with her. Just as well. Elenora had been fighting against it for as long as she has known it existed within her.

It explodes within her now. Spreads through her and flows out of her limbs, fighting to destroy something. It eats away at everything surrounding her. The forest. Alpha Bardrick. Or at least, it tries. Alpha Bardrick had always been a smart man, or at least what Elenora had read says he is smart. He seems to figure out almost immediately that the fire bursting out in random places at untimely moments was because of Elenora and her lack of control over this...this ability.

Alpha Bardrick must have decided the best way to help her after finding out her old time nightmare is still alive to haunt her was...well it was to dump her in the river because that’s exactly what he did. It’s beautiful. The way fire and water will fight against each other. There is something about it that makes Elenora want to stay beneath the water. Color surrounds her in orange and blue. It glows before her. Only when fire stops bursting from her fingertips in a fight to survive, only when Elenora can no longer stay under water without oxygen does she swim to the surface to face a very calm looking Alpha. “You threw me in a river!” Elenora tries to say this with as much venom, with as much anger as she possibly can.

“You might have burned me to death if I had not.” Comes his cool, collected voice. Calm, unmoving and deep with something. Mistrust? Maybe. Or curiosity. Maybe. Possibly. No. It’s anger. The Alpha would never be curious about somebody like her. A rogue. A monster. It’s mistrust. Elenora’s curse will not tell her either way because she can feel nothing but her very own emotions. Her own, terrible, excruciating emotions. This. This is pain in its truest form. The thought of Vermont being alive is enough to have the fear that lived in her for years to come back with a thriving vengeance. Elenora had thought she left fear behind her right alongside Vermont’s thought to be dead body and her pack. The Stonebridge pack. What will they do when they find out Vermont is still alive?

The bitter part of her wants to let it go. Let them find out when Vermont brings forth an army of men to kill them off. Oh but he won’t just kill them. That isn’t Vermont’s style. No he’ll want to watch them suffer first. He’ll torture them. Starting with the children. Ending with the Elder’s of the pack. No. Ending with his Luna. Wrong again. Ending with Elenora herself maybe. “Do you want to talk about it?” Talk about what? Her ability to control fire? No. Not really. “About Vermont?” Vermont? Not her abilities? Elenora backs deeper into the cool water, deciding quickly she would much rather watch flames burst from her fingertips underneath the water than meet his dark eyes.

“Wouldn’t you rather know how I can control fire?” Control is an overstatement. She cannot control the abilities she has. If Elenora was able to control it, Alpha Bardrick would not know anything of her power. Fire had burst from her limbs without her wanting it to and the Alpha had brought her here because of that.

“Perhaps another time.” Alpha Bardrick is quick to say. “But it is best you talk about Vermont if he pains you enough to lose control of yourself. If not to me than to Alpha Scott or someone else you trust.”

“There is none I trust.” Elenora is quick to say, quickly facing him. She watches Alpha Bardrick tilt his head, lips pulled to a frown.

“Not even the rogue girl you travel with?” Mia. Yes she trust Mia and by trusting her one might assume Elenora cares for the blonde girl. This is not a time to care for anybody, or at least admit to caring for somebody. Vermont will kill anybody she cares for, anybody she loves. He had told her he would and Elenora believes it with every fiber of her being.

Yet Elenora cannot lie and tell Alpha Bardrick she does not trust Mia. She cannot tell Alpha Bardrick that she doesn’t care for anybody, not even Mia. He can detect such lies. “I do not like to talk about it.” Elenora utters instead. It is not a lie, not in the slightest. She doesn’t like to speak of it, of Vermont and she has spoken little of her past to Mia.

“It will help.” Alpha Bardrick urges

Elenora merely walks through the river, closer to him “Do you speak of your parents? Do you speak of how they passed on?” Alpha Bardrick seems to freeze before anger sets in. His nails extend and with it Elenora gasp. What in heavens name is that? Instead of the slow walk out of the water, she all but runs to get to the Alpha before grabbing his hand with wide eyes “What is this?” A virus maybe? None Elenora had heard of. Elenora pulls his pale hand closer to her eyes, eyeing what looks like black veins spreading to his fingers nails. The tips of his fingers are black, as if dipped in ink. “Are you alright?” Elenora drops his hands quickly as a silly thought hits “Is it contagious? A virus?”

His anger seems to disappear and with it his nails sink pack into his fingertips. Fingertips that slowly turn the normal color of flesh. What is this? What is wrong with him? “You have your secrets. I have mine.” Alpha Bardrick is quick to say, it leaves her gaping and another thought hits. She was in the cells. The cells and now....This is the first time Elenora takes a look around. Forest. Nothing but forest. She sniffs the air. This is no longer Alpha Scott’s pack but how did she get here? So far away? So quickly. Elenora swings around once again, facing the Alpha in all his tall glory.

“Alpha Bardrick.” Elenora steps closer, a breath away and jabs a finger against his hard chest. “Explain yourself. Quickly.”

Alpha Bardrick merely steps back. Her hand drops to her side as she eyes him or rather it. Whatever Alpha Bardrick is, it cannot be werewolf or at least full werewolf and she’s heard of no creature with blackened fingertips, or at least none that appear to be so....normal. She has heard of none that can move so quickly, so quickly it feels like flying. “Explain what?” He tilts his head.

“Do not pretend to be a fool! Start with telling me where I am. Then, tell me what you are.” Alpha Bardrick merely narrows his eyes.

“I will tell you but first you must tell me of Vermont. Who is he? What is he to you?”

Elenora almost shouts she doesn’t care right then and there. Mate or not, he does not need to know. But, she is madly curious as to what type of creature she is bonded to for life -even if there is no way in hell she will accept this bond- and Elenora was never fond of not knowing her surroundings, much less the creatures around her. “Fine.” Elenora huffs, turning to face her feet “But I want dry clothes first.” Of course dry clothes don’t really matter all that much to her. It is but a means of prolonging her speaking of Vermont.

Besides, it would be nice to think on all she is to tell him while still speaking of nothing of any real importance. “Than I should mention you are in the Bloodmoon pack.” With that Alpha Bardrick swings around and starts his march into unknown territory.

It takes a moment to gather her thoughts, and when Elenora does. She decides she will kill this Alpha mate of hers. Slowly. Painfully. Without mercy.

Part of her, the childish part that is, wants to tell him that he should go first. Vermont and Elenora’s past is the one thing she never speaks of with the exception of the rare occasion. Nope. That was the weak part of her life. She cried and did nothing more. She sat through the torture and let fear control her. The only time she ever really fought back was when it came to letting the prisoners free. That always pissed Vermont right on off and he always knew it was her.

Alpha Bardrick does not make it look like he is waiting for Elenora to speak up about Vermont. She had followed him on a decent size walk to his office and he hadn’t mentioned Vermont once. She had expected Alpha Bardrick to push, to do something other than sit behind his desk and pick up a book. Lord of the Flies is the name. “What is it about?” Elenora asks instead of talking about Vermont. Dark eyes peek from above the cover.

“You haven’t read it? Usually they assign it in school.” It is not a judging tone of voice, more of the same he always seems to have regarding me. Curiosity.

“Homeschooled. Vermont never cared as much for literature as he had for battle strategy.” He merely nods his understanding before explaining the book to her in the simplest way he can. In the book a group of children end up alone on a deserted island. To survive they come up with a system, their own rules. As the book goes on, they become more and more savage. A silence fills the air up until Elenora breaks it once again “Why your pack?” Elenora asks, trying for the life of her to sound as angry as she had when she first found out he brought her here “This is one of two packs I had done everything to avoid entering as a rogue. It’s the very last pack I want to be in and yet you bring me here.”

“I needed to get you to water.” He sets his book down

“Alpha Scott is not going through a drought Alpha Bardrick. He has his own rivers you could have dumped me in.” Elenora eyes him, leaning back in the chair. It is a comfortable chair. A leather one, the type you sink into. The type Mia adores. “The truth Alpha Bardrick.” The type Elenora finds herself enjoying.

He tilts his head, leaning back in his own chair “I had hoped you might like it enough to consider a job opportunity here for you. I am aware of your doubts-”

“Reasonable doubts.” Elenora is quick to interrupt. Alpha Bardrick -to her surprise- nods his agreement.

“-I had still hoped you might see it is not so bad here in the Bloodmoon pack. Rumors aside.”

Rumors. Rumors of their cruelty. Rumors of their brutality. Elenora had never believed such things were true about the pack simply because she had never thought much of rumors. However, the Bloodmoon pack’s hatred for rogues is no rumor and they have just as much grounds to hate rogues as Elenora has to hate Alpha’s. Where as an Alpha had tortured her for several years, rogues had taken the one thing this pack can never get back. They had taken their Alpha, and they had taken their Luna.

“I have seen the forest of the Bloodmoon pack. Though it is beautiful, I would be working with the people. Rumors aside, I am not oblivious to the hatred this pack holds for rogues such as myself. I will not stay where I am unwelcomed and I will not beg for forgiveness nor acceptance when it was not me who committed the crime.” It was not Elenora’s intention to sound so heartless and unsympathetic. Elenora understands the loss he had endured far better than most as she herself had went through the same.

She hadn’t loss parents do to rogues but she had lost the only family she had known at the time except her daughter. She had lost the first woman who showed her kindness and the first man who taught her to defend herself rather than joining the many who beat her. Grandmother May was not blood but she was her grandmother. Anthony was not blood but he was her brother. “Maybe I can handle what your pack might throw at me. Maybe I can endure their insults, their version of vengeance against rogues.” Even if she is not the rogue who did the crime “But where I go, Mia goes and I will never subject her to that.”

“Tis only a job.” Alpha Bardrick shrugs after a moment “You would not be living here” Alpha Bardrick seems to notice my hesitation “A couple weeks. If you do not like it. Leave. I will personally help you do so.” After a moments thought, I agree to think on it. Thinking will probably lead to an agreement. If Vermont is alive, and like it or not the chances are not in her favor, Charlotte needs to be here with her. Elenora will not have her so far away, too far to truly protect from Vermont. Elenora wants Charlotte where she can see her. “Are you ready to tell me about Vermont?”

Elenora looks to his nails and wonders if it is worth telling him about it to know what he is.

Yes. Yes it is. Elenora wants to know what the hell she is mated to and just how big of a threat he is “Vermont was my father.” She admits “Or at least he claimed to be my father. As you know, Elder Thomas believes I was kidnapped by Vermont.” Once again, Elenora finds it best to look to her hands. She would take looking at her dirty nails any day rather than meeting his eyes for this conversation “He was the man who tortured me from the young age of six. The man who gave me the scars you’ve seen. The man who has taken everything from me.” Almost everything but he doesn’t need to know about Charlotte.

“Even Charlotte?” Elenora looks up so fast the world spins.

“The rogue mentioned a girl named Charlotte.”

Elenora sighs a reluctant sigh “He did not know about her then. He took my brother and my grandmother.” Tortured them in front of her. Of course, that is another thing Alpha Bardrick need not know of. It is not everything, not even close but still “Tell me what you are.” It is his turn and the moment she knows will be the moment she stands and leaves this godforsaken pack.

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