Sapphire Nightborne

"Sapphire don't!"

I paid no heed to Xander's words as I pushed the guard up against the wall, my hand on his throat with my claws fully extended. I was exhausted and angry, he was supposed to be with Brendon and thus, should have returned to the settlement together... yet he was the only one of the three who returned.

"Where is he, Axel! Tell me before I rip your throat out!"

He struggled to produce words before my hands were pried from his throat as Xander pulled me into his arms, pinning my arms to my sides. Axel fell in a heap, coughing as he struggled to get oxygen back into his system, colour slowly returning to his face. Two of Xander's guard helped him back on his feet as I yowled and kicked in Xander's arms, trying my best to get free. Xander grunted as he struggled to keep me in check, face pinched up due to the strain.

"Axel, I am not sure how long I am going to be able to hold Sapphire here, so I want you to answer my questions in complete honesty."

"Yes, Alpha"

"And should you lie, I will let Sapphire deal with you however she wants."

"Y... yes, Alpha."

If the situation wasn't so dire, it would have been extremely funny to me to see such a large man so afraid of a girl much shorter than him, but right now all I saw was red and I was glad he was scared of me.

"Why did you return by yourself when you were supposed to be Brendon's guard?"

"We did travel together till we were almost at the settlement when your Third asked me to go ahead as he wanted to go back to make sure the Alpha Female as safe."

That stupid boy, I had a guard of three strong warriors and could take care of myself as well.

"Did he say anything before he left?"

"He just said that something felt wrong about the forest and that the Alpha Female might be walking into a trap, so he took Ariel and went off. I have tried to mind-link with them both, but I have not been able to establish a connection."

"Neither have I. You are telling the truth, go to the Healer's office to get checked."

He nodded and proceeded to walk away before I shouted his name causing him to turn around.

"I apologise for my actions, I acted rashly without clarifying the situation with you."

He smiled before bowing and turned to leave.

Xander smiled down at me before releasing me, he turned to his guard, his expression turning serious.

"I want seven patrols of three out in the forest now, keep the link open and sound back the moment you see something out of the ordinary, find Brendon or Ariel or are attacked. If there something dangerous is in our forest then I want it to be brought to me, understand?"

"Yes, Alpha!"

"What about the Werecats, Alpha? Should we include them as part of the patrol groups?"

Xander sighed before bringing his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, my heart ached seeing him so stress. He was already extremely busy with his own pack, but now he had to act as a stand-in Alpha for Amelia's pack since she...

"Leave the Werecats be, after what happened today with their Alpha they would need time to reel back from the shock."

They all bowed before shifting, taking off to regroup with the rest of their comrades. I turned to look at Xander's face which was still pinched up with worry and stress, I reached a hand up to remove his hand from the bridge of his nose before intertwining it with mine.

"I don't know how much of this I can take anymore, Sapphire. So many people are relying on me and they all have faith in me to keep them safe. What if I... I fail?"

"You will not fail, Xander. You are smart and strong and most importantly, you have something Damien doesn't."

"What is that?"

"You have a pack."

He looked at me as if I lost my marbles.

"Are you okay, love? The last time I checked to be Alpha you have to have a...?"

"Yes, I know, a pack. The difference lies in that the people here in Shadow Mountain follow you because they are love you and respect you, thus will be loyal to you no matter what... Damien on the other hand, has a pack whose members follow him out of fear of the consequences if they don't, they will leave him the moment they see a route of escape. Loyalty from respect will always triumph of loyalty built on fear... believe me, I would know."

He smiled softy before raising his other hand to cup my face, my eyes closing as I leaned into his touch. There was rarely anytime for us to have a talk like this these past few days as I was busy with the patrols and he with his Alpha duties, there were times were the only time we saw each other was at night and we could barely stay up to take for more than ten minutes before our exhaustion won the battle.

"I think you should see your cousin, Sapphire."

I sighed as I opened my eyes again, this was something I was trying to avoid. I couldn't get the image of Amelia, the blood of my pack members dripping from her mouth as she attacked me, I loved her so much but what she had done...

"I know you are scared, but I can promise you that someone did something to her, even her own pack members hissed at her when we brought her here. They could tell something was not right as well."

I gave him a tight smile before nodding. If something was wrong with her, I had to fix it. She had travelled all this way just to protect me, I couldn't let her suffer for it.

We walked back into the large stronghold before entering the large dungeon that laid below it. The dungeon was clean and empty, I had asked Xander before about it and he replied that these cells were usually filled with people who were accused of crimes, thus he refused to treat them as criminals before they were trialled.

There was a large group of people outside one cell, they turned their heads and hissed as they saw Xander and I, one of them stepped forward, her body crouched.

"Kalma, I am here to see my cousin. You know like I do that something is wrong with her, so move aside if want her to be cured of whatever happened to her."

The she-lion straightened before walking back to where her pack stood. I took a deep breath and walked in front of the cell, what I saw almost reduce me into a blubbering mess of tears.

Amelia was hung up with gold chains that were secured on the four corners of the stone wall, her neck was collared to a metal plate behind her. There was still dried blood at the corners of her mouth and I could see the red welts and blisters caused by the chains. This reminded me too much of our past as I turned to face Kalma.

"I heard you brought her back. Did anything seem different about her besides the obvious?"

"Yes, her eyes were the colour of blood and she kept vomiting some kind of petals as we brought her back."

Petals? Why would she have petals in her system, unless...please let me be wrong, maybe it was some other kind of flower.

"Do you have the petals?"

She nodded before walking to a corner where a bucket sat, my nose scrunched up as the smell assaulted my senses. My heart sank as I saw the petals half-submerged...I was right.

Qn: What do you think were the petals found?