Chapter 38

The dark skinned male at the end folded his arms and shot a look down to the other end of the table. No one seemed to acknowledge his look.

"So you are a rogue?" The man asked, Ariel keeping her eyes on him.

"If that is what a wolf without a pack is called, then yes." She replied to him. Confusion settled across his face and he leaned forward in his chair, placing his arms in the table top.

"How long have you been a rogue?" He asked, his eyes narrowing in a way that Ariel did not understand.

"That depends. Do you mean when did I lose my first pack? Or when did I end up aline?" She countered, keeping herself guarded.

"What do you mean first pack?" The woman beside him cut in before he could speak. He looked over at her, then back to Ariel expectantly. Ariel knew lying here would not help her. She had to speak the truth, if for no other reason than to convince them of the danger they were all in.

"The pack I was born into. My first pack." Ariel answered. All were silent a moment and the leader spoke again.

"How many packs have you had?" The question sounded loaded, as if he were asking something else that what he said.

"Just two." Her voice was softer than she intended, but she could not hide her pain this time. Thinking about all she had lost. She quickly controlled herself again, focusing on the feeling of her wolf.

"The pack I was born into, and my found pack." She explained.

"What do you mean found pack?" It was the man with the mysterious pull. The one she longed to see. Hearing his voice again helped to calm her, and she was able to take a breath to keep going.

"They were wolves like me. Wolves who had been taken from their packs." She began, but was cut off.

"Taken?" It was the daughter of the leader. The mischief in her eyes replaced with a cautious fire. Ariel had a feeling she was a wild one, and she could see a lot of the twins in her.

"Yes. As infants or young children. Our packs were raided and we were taken, given to hunters to raise." She replied. All at the table shifted uncomfortably at the word hunter, and the men that still flanked her tensed.

"Why would hunters take wolf children?" It was the woman beside the leader. Ariel guessed she was his wife, and since he was the leader, she was as well.

"To raise them as human. Their ultimate goal is to dilute wolf bloodlines. Breed them out of existence." She explained.

"That is all lies!" The dark skinned man slammed his hand on the table, almost everyone present looking to him as he glared at Ariel.

"Hunters can't find wolf towns, and even if they did, there would be no way for them to over power the army that a wolf town is." He stated, clearly confident in his assessment.

"They use the wolf kids they already captured and raised. Some are so ingrained with the ideas that they are monsters that need to be controlled that they do the leg work for the hunters. They find the wolf towns, sometimes even joining them. Only wolves can find wolves." She began.

"They will then set up the traps on the edges of the territory. A wolf here and there dying of silver poisoning. It gets the whole town worried. They will then invade at night, setting fire to every building they can. They injest wolvesbane so it's in their blood, and use liquid silver bullets." She spewed off everything she could remember from the files and from what she experienced in the other pack territory. The dark skinned man seemed unconvinced.

"How do we know you are not one of these spy wolves?" He jeered. Ariel snapped a glare his way.

"Why would I stop one of your people from stepping into a trap? Or save the children from the other town?" She questioned.

"To gain our trust. Get us to trust you so the hunters you work for can attack us." He countered, but Ariel just rolled her eyes. He sounded ignorant.

"Telling us the plan to gain our trust and just have us attacked anyway does not sound like a very good plan." The son of the leader sighed, his own arms folded as he watched Ariel closely.

"You said you had another pack? A found pack. What happened to them?" He asked, genuine curiosity in his eyes.

Ariel swallowed hard. "Dead. When the hunters found out we all had awoken our wolves and planned to escape, they began to capture and kill any who did not side with them. We freed who we could and tried to run, but..." Her voice tailed off.

"Why did you attack one of our members?" It was the woman with the red hair. The intensity in her eyes had not changed, but there was a strange edge to her voice.

"I didn't mean to make anyone think I was attacking. I saw and smelled a hunters trap, and the wolf was headed right for it. I lost a member of my pack to one of the traps. I panicked." She replied. The dark skinned man laughed sarcastically.

"You just panicked? Is that your only defense?" He was confident and Ariel felt anger boiling in her chest. She gripped the back of the seat in front of her.

"Yes. I panicked. I watched my friend step into the trap and easily get himself out. We got away, but his arm swelled and his veins turned red. He developed a fever and could not stay warm. When the pain hit, I thought I would lose my hearing at how loud his screams were. Nothing stopped the pain, but even sleep. I had to watch as my friend and the last member of my pack was dying, poisoned from the inside by powdered silver put on those dammed traps. I had to watch as his organs shut down, one by one and held his hand as his heart stopped. I was there, beside him through it all and there was nothing I could do to save him!. Yes I panicked. I saw that wolf headed for the trap and could not stand the idea of another wolf having to suffer that pain, or have their family and friends have to watch then go through it and be powerless to save them." Tears had fallen unwillingly down her face and she wiped them away quickly.

The man she wanted to be closer to was tense in his seat, looking as if he were concentrating in something, or doing his best to stop himself from something, she could not tell which.