Chapter 26

He was late again, later than any of the other patrol members. She had stayed up until he found his way back.

Tonight, it was nearly midnight when he returned, coming in through the door almost silently. There were leaves and twigs in his fur, but he didn’t look as though he’d been in a fight.

“Arthur?”

He seemed startled that she was still awake and shocked. She would almost say caught, but he shifted and gave her a tired smile.

“What are you still doing awake? You should rest.”

“I was worried…” Daphne said as he sat at the table across from her. “You’ve been coming back later and later. Is everything okay?”

He averted his gaze the way he had been for the past few days.

“It’s nothing…”

“You’re… acting suspiciously.”

He winced, “Well…”

“Are you looking for them?” Daphne asked. “The patrolmen said you were out chasing rogues or something.”

“I’m just afraid they’ll attack the pack again,” he said. “So I’m killing as many as possible… You don’t have to worry.”

She shuddered at the admission. Rogues were terrifying, but they had once been werewolves just like Mamie and Arthur. She wasn’t sure if she would ever get over the idea of Arthur going out with the purpose to kill people.

“How are you feeling?” Daphne asked, searching his gaze. “I thought fighting more made it harder to control yourself?”

Arthur shook his head, “Sometimes, but I'm a lot better now, and it's all because of you, Daphne.”

Daphne shook her head, “I didn't do anything... You're the one who's out there fighting every day. You need to make sure you're in control, okay?”

Arthur smiled, soft and warm at her. His heart felt about to burst with joy and tenderness. He didn’t think there was anything that could ever feel as good as being cared for by Daphne. It made all the aches in his body ease and his tension vanished.

Daphne must like him a lot hence why she cared so much about him, but he couldn't understand why Daphne still wouldn't let him sleep with her. He hadn’t even managed a kiss yet. The mark and bond tied them together, but they hadn’t gone any further than that.

Lucas outright cackled as he thought about it, as he usually did. Arthur hated his amusement, but he was happy that even Lucas understood that Daphne wouldn’t be touched without her permission. There was nothing worth spoiling the life they had now. It felt almost fragile as if even the smallest mishap might shatter it, so they would wait until Daphne was ready.

Still, neither Arthur nor Lucas knew if Daphne fully understood the meaning of the mark and what it meant to be mates. She accepted the mark to help Arthur control himself, but her fear of him was still there and Arthur wasn’t sure how to get around that.

Daphne worried her lip, looking at Arthur. It couldn’t be good for Arthur’s stability to go out killing every night. Maybe he was just trying to make her feel better and was losing himself. What if he became like Owen?

She shuddered, remembering her dream.

Fear kept her in place as Arthur picked the corpses clean, leaving nothing but bloody bone.

He pulled back and turned his head as the golden fur turned grey and in Arthur’s place was Owen.

He bared his bloody teeth, grim and feral.

“You’re next, human.”

“Do you remember the giant gray wolf, Owen, that attacked us in the forest? He was different from the normal rogue, very special... Have you met him again?”

Arthur’s stomach jumped and he shifted in his seat a bit. Why was she bringing up Owen? Was she suspicious about what he’d been doing? Had she found out somehow? He had been wandering alone in the forest lately, looking for Owen, but the forest was too big to wander far and he didn't want to stray too far from the pack, so he'd been coming up empty-handed.

Her eyes were filled with concern and a bit of fear, so he thought Daphne was afraid they would be attacked again.

“Don't worry, Daphne, I won't let him hurt you again!”

Daphne smiled at him, “I believe you, but the rogue attack is worrying, I heard Mamie say that rogue are creatures that rarely act in groups and have a hard time communicating... But it's scary to think that they could poison the water. Why would they do that? What do they get out of it?”

Arthur looked away. They were controlled by Owen who wanted to kill him. It was his fault simply for being here.

“I don’t know, Daphne.”

Arthur walked onto the training pitch and the murmuring that had been circulating the pitch silenced as soon as he was within earshot. People looked at him curiously before turning away quickly. He huffed.

It seemed that someone had been spreading rumors around the village, or maybe they’d noticed that Blade had been treating him a bit differently. What they said, he didn’t know, but the feeling was a bit too close to his time with Brown Valley to be comfortable. He still hadn’t told Daphne.

“Arthur,” Blade called. Arthur turned. “Could you step away with me for a moment?”

He had a feeling he knew what Blade was going to ask, but he nodded and followed Blade anyway. When they were far enough from the training pitch, Blade turned to him.

“Alpha Rex told me about the meeting… is it true?”

Arthur huffed and looked away, “What part?”

“That you refused?”

Arthur nodded stiffly.

“Why?”

“Don’t tell Daphne,” Arthur said. “Don’t tell anyone.”

Blade nodded, “I won’t… I promise…”

Blade had been trying to wrap his head around it and treading carefully since Arthur had returned but hearing Arthur confirm it felt a bit anticlimactic.

A royal who didn’t want to be a royal? The prince who refused his throne? It was something out of a strange story, but it made too much sense to ignore.

Arthur was too powerful. In the middle of battle, Blade had felt the urge to yield to him. Hell, while giving orders, he’d felt a pang of discomfort and had stopped giving Arthur orders. His change of attitude toward Arthur had begun to stir up controversy among the pack’s patrol.

After they heard that Rex took Arthur to the meeting with the other alphas, many people thought Rex favored Arthur and wanted to give Arthur the position of patrol leader. Many of them were friends of Blade and were against it. To them, it didn’t matter how powerful Arthur was, they were afraid of him and that wouldn’t create a good working environment.

Since he’d returned, the fear of Arthur had only grown. It would be impossible for them to accept Arthur as their new leader, so they started to avoid him at all costs. It was causing a bit of a headache for Blade.

Arthur just felt annoyed. He had no way to find Owen, and the fact that Owen was his kin bothered him. He didn't know what to do. The patrol’s attempts to alienate him were irritating him. He shifted into his wolf form as he returned to the training pitch. He had started to trust these people, start to think that he had a place among them.

Blade flinched seeing him, but he said nothing.

It would have been a slap in the face for Blade to protest. Other, monster, violent, murderer: the patrol members never said any of things, but they didn’t need to. Their actions confirmed their feelings for him.

The wind blew, carrying the scent of the forest and the rest of the village across the training pitch. They went through their usual training practice before leaving. Arthur wasn’t on a patrol group for the afternoon, so he left the training pitch and found a quiet part of the forest to be alone.

“Arthur!” Blade called. Arthur turned to him as he approached. “Alex is out today. Would you fill in?”

Arthur eyed the rest of the group that was meant to go on patrol and looked back at Blade. A pang of loneliness went through him, but he nodded and agreed.

It seemed that they were always shorthanded lately. Arthur ended up on a lot of patrol units to fill the vacancies because of his strength, and he didn’t mind. He was used to it now and focused on the battle ahead. They had been running into rogues nearly every patrol now and it had been enough to keep him calm.

Today was no different.

The rogues came from the left and Arthur leaped over half the unit to attack them, killing and ripping to vent his frustrations until he felt at ease and he slipped into the familiar emptiness he was used to.

“Arthur!” He thought he heard Blade calling him, but he didn’t heed it.

He bit into another rogue’s neck, charging deeper and deeper into the forest where the rogues were coming from until he couldn’t hear anything but breaking bone and tearing flesh.

When the last one fell dead, he tilted his head back, taking a calming breath of blood and terror. He was alone, surrounded by rogue corpses. Nothing moved, not even a rabbit. The night was silent around him.

He frowned at the moonlight spilling across the floor and turned back towards Sharp Armor.

It was later than usual. He’d lost track of time. How had he lost control like that? Daphne must have gone to bed already or she was up with worry.

He got back to the training ground, expecting it to be empty, but there were people still there with torches. Some of them were shifted, some of them weren’t.

The entire pack seemed to still be awake and boisterous.

He went up to the nearest man and nudged him.

“Hey!” Arthur yelled. “What happened?”