Sonia

The pack was quiet but not as silent as it was when Antonio was here.


I thought I would never see him again. That he was nothing but a memory from my past to me.

I didn't expect the daughter I ran away to protect to team up with him and destroy everything. Everything that I worked for.

Carlson was dead.


My heart hurt. I placed my hand on my chest and took a deep breath.

Grief, anger, disappointment, betrayal and sadness dominated my heart but I couldn't show them. At least not too much.


As the wife of the beta, the pack members were looking up to me. I couldn't do anything for them and they knew it. I guess they were looking at me for emotional support.

I couldn't break down like I wanted to.

After Antonio's takeover, the traitors in our midst were exposed.

I bet they didn't expect it to be this way. They were reporting to Antonio. They could not disobey him.

The first thing Antonio did as he took over was take their firstborn from them. Holding them ransom.

If they didn't have children, he took parents or siblings.

'Beta?"

The pack members also started calling me that in secret.

'Come in."

I allowed a smile to grace my face.

'I have news." Ash said once he entered. He was the only one I could trust. A little.

'What is it?"

'Antonio has conquered another pack."

I sighed. He's never going to stop is he? Almost twenty two years and he's just worse.

'And?"

'Nothing much. He has recruited their soldiers into his own. Apparently, he locked up the father of their Alpha in a wolf bane laced room."

I swallowed.

Right now, Antonio seemed to be ignoring my existence. I couldn't run, I was just seating, waiting and dreading when he'll have a really bad day and come for me.

Would he kill me at once? I'd prefer that.

'He ordered the son to visit him almost daily and spend an hour with him in the room."

It was to be expected. But, from the look on Ash face, Antonio's actions were a surprise.

Why? Was Antonio pretending before? I won't put it past him, after all the traitors are regretting their decisions regardless of what Antonio did to them.

'How is the food situation looking like?"

Ash frowned, 'it's bad. From the look of things, by the end of the week we'll have nothing left."

This was bad. Before Xander left, he divided us into groups for farming, hunting, fishing, berry picking and storage.

Not that we didn't do it before, he just wanted to reshuffle people. Carlson wasn't able to manage everyone, people started slacking off before the war.

Now with people dead and the one's alive scared shitless of Antonio, food gathering was almost close to non-existing.

Antonio saw our pack as a trophy. No rules were set. Only fear of him.

The people he left behind were too busy being soldiers and searching for my daughter and Lelia.

'We need to make groups from the people remaining."

'Everyone is too scared to work Beta."

'If a famine happens, worse things like cannibalism would happen. Getting eaten by a family member is a painful way to die Ash."

His frown deepened, 'Alright, how will we go about it? Any form of gathering is reported by those bastards."

After the war and the traitors were revealed, the pack had ostracized them. Living away from them like they had the plague.

They still found a way to know what was going on in our side of the pack. Every week someone was dragged off for punishment.

'Go round, find out how many capable bodies we have. We'll concentrate on hunting, berry picking and foraging the forest for now. Make a list of their names. I'll visit them individually when you're done."

He nodded, 'be careful."

'I'm to say that to you. Don't call attention to yourself or break the curfew. I can't loose you."

Ash left me to my thoughts.

No one knows I was Antonio's ex-wife. I was living on borrowed time and it was not a pleasant feeling.

What would possess Amelia to do what she did?. I know l indulged her a little but not to this extent ,certainly not.


****



Ash and I had somehow managed to gather forty people.

We'll manage what we had. It was a day till the end of the week. I could see the hunger in their eyes.

My stomach was also eating itself.

We had to rationalize what we had to reach tomorrow.

'Send this notes to this people." I said to Ash.

We couldn't gather and leave the pack like we are supposed to. So, I divided the forty people; twenty for hunting, the other twenty for foraging and berry picking.

Farming will start when people had the energy.

I had told the soldier in charge about our food gathering. At least, no one would be shot on sight.

The group leaders houses were surrounded by their members, so they can notice when they left and follow after a while.

'The goddess guide us" Ash said.

'And you too."

I prepared myself to leave. We were moving in a five minutes interval to avoid gathering.

'Never imagined that a day will come when people will be afraid to find food in this pack…" I murmured, '... but goddess, go before us and light up our path. Keep us safe."

Ash was staying behind. A decision that he agreed to after a long argument. There was no point in loosing the two of us at the same time.

I looked out of my window to see tear stained faces of family members watching the road as people left one after the other.

The scene broke my heart. Mother's held the mouth of crying babies with tears falling from their own eyes to reduce the sound they made.

Any loud noise would lead to punishment. No one was exempted from them, not even babies.

Closing my eyes, I tried to clear my head. It was my turn to leave.

With a deep breath and no one left to worry about me.

I stepped out, embracing the cold morning air.