Chapter 252: Fiery Emergency
A week passed without much fanfare, if one didn’t count the distasteful glares and snide comments that were thrown my way. While the rest of the pack didn’t dare to do anything to me when Blaise and Damon were present, it didn’t mean that they couldn’t make their displeasure known in other, pettier ways.
From juvenile tactics such as misplacing my items and snatching my share of our rationed meals to brutal training sessions where they did their utmost best to beat me into submission, all their tactics merely made me roll my eyes.
I had endured way worse from Aubrey. Hell, even Damon had hurt me more during our first meeting! The fact that I didn’t cower and cry, begging for forgiveness, made them even angrier.
However, before they could do something as outrageous as surrounding me in an alley and beating me to death, Blaise and Damon set their foot down.
Damon actually had the people responsible for flinging rocks at me punished for their behavior, even threatening to kick people out of the pack if they failed to comply.
So, the rest of the pack reluctantly ceased their petty actions, but nothing could stem the distrust and dislike that was slowly but surely brewing under the surface. They dared not speak their dislike into the pack link since Damon would be able to hear them, but that didn’t stop them from finding new ways to communicate how much they hated me.
In their eyes, I had made Damon forsake his pack.
What’s more, Blaise’s display with lightning didn’t manage to quell the hate― in fact, it might have accidentally fanned the flames as the story was told over and over. In no time at all, the entire pack, from the elders to the littlest pup, knew about what Blaise had done.
And with each retelling, my reputation seemed to worsen, especially when word got around that Blaise’s palms were burnt after that fact.
The pack seemed to believe that I was a witch that had both brothers under a thrall, so much so that Damon was willing to kick out old pack members, so much so that Blaise was willing to conjure lightning to smite his fellow pack members for voicing their opinion about me.
Never mind that their opinion came with a bevy of sharp rocks, what everyone focused on was the fact that Blaise was willing to electrocute the wolves he had all but grown up with for my sake; Damon was willing to forsake the wolves he fought side by side with, to keep me.
Hopefully, they could get their heads out of their asses soon. It was exhausting to deal with them.
I sighed as I ticked off a carton of potatoes and another sack of carrots off the list. Currently, Damon, Blaise, and I were on the grounds, examining the first batch of food that had been delivered from Hornstead.
So far, they have kept to their end of the bargain, and Milo had even added an extra bushel of apples for free. I was touched; Milo must have had his hands full with Thunderstrike, but he still found the time to inform Hornstead to add an extra shipment.
Just as I thought the day would end peacefully with a good meal, Damon suddenly froze and took a cautious sniff, his eyes narrowing into the distance. Beside him, Blaise also paused, cocking his head curiously.
"What’s the matter?" I asked curiously.
"Do you smell smoke?" Blaise asked with a frown as his nostrils flared. "I’m not imagining things, am I? Is something on fire?"
Now that he mentioned it, the air had gotten a lot more smokier. I turned back to look at the packhouse― thankfully, the smoke did not come from there.
"Judging by the wind currents, the smoke is coming from the north," Blaise added.
I did not have their heightened senses, but now that I knew which direction to focus on, I could faintly spot the gray smoke wafting through the clear air from the direction of the northern border, polluting it with its ashes.
"No. No, you’re not imagining things," Damon growled out. "I suspect the grounds have caught fire. Where are the patrol guards?" His jaw clenched and he paused, possibly trying to contact the guards via the pack link.
Then Damon cursed again.
"Blaise, we have to go. The patrols aren’t responding," Damon ordered.
"What?"
"Sorry, Harper, duty calls," Blaise said with a rueful smile. That was all the warning I got before both brothers shifted into their fearsome wolves.
"Wait― take me―" Despite my protests, both brothers simply took off for the border in a flash, leaving me in the middle with heaps of fruits and vegetables along with my worry.
I couldn’t chase after them, so I did the next best thing― I went inside to look for Elijah for a possible explanation after I got the rest of the wolves to help bring the food inside.
Hopefully, they wouldn’t be so foolish to ruin the food stock just to spite me.
"Elijah, what’s the matter?"
"We’ve lost contact with the patrol guards," Elijah said with a frown. "That’s all I know from Damon. Judging by the amount of smoke in the air, they suspect that the land near the northern border has caught fire."
"There’s no water source nearby to put it out, is there?" I asked worriedly. I didn’t recall seeing any lakes on the way when Damon and I were rushing to save Blaise, but perhaps that was simply because we took the most direct route.
Elijah shook his head. "There isn’t any. That area is filled with trees and grasslands and borders the mountains. I’m surprised that a wildfire could start naturally. We haven’t had one in over ten years!"
Then Elijah paused, a dawning horror on his face. "Fuck."
"What’s going on? Did you get an update?" I asked frantically, my mind immediately going to the worst-case scenarios. How large was the blaze? Were Damon and Blaise alright?
Elijah shook his head in one jerky motion. "It’s not them. This is from our patrols in the south. There’s another fire burning!"
My blood chilled. Once could be nothing more than an awful occurrence. For fires to burn at two different locations on the same day was nothing short of sabotage.
Unbidden, the warning of the oracles resounded in my mind. Did the hunters do this?
