Trifecta: Wind [Complete]

Chapter 18: Unity in the End

The guards escorted me as soon as Pauline told them I was ready.

They led me through the building, but not outside. I was disappointed. I had hoped that I would be taken out of the building so I could find more clues as to my location in case I got a chance to get a message home to my people.

Instead, I was taken up the elevator by two burly, scowling werewolves. They almost looked tough enough to be from the north, I considered.

I did not fight or cause any trouble as we waited. Again, I was aware I had no chance, although the long empty hallways looked terribly inviting.

I would have loved to make a break for it. My imagination constructed a beautiful scene in which I would slam my guards' heads together and then beat them into insensibility while they were stunned by my surprise attack. Then I could hit the next floor button on the elevator and it would stop before my destination.

I would run down the stairs, kicking butt on the way and charge out of the building, maybe hotwire a car or something with my non-existence car theft skills.

Shame I was not in some fictional adaptation loosely based on my life.

I was dragged out of my ridiculous imaginings and into another stark set of rooms, this time an office with similarly barren design to my apartment. A secretary dressed in black and grey pinstripe skirt and jacket sat behind a desk.

"Just sit over in the chairs," she ordered me.

I did as I was told, as if this was an appointment rather than a hostage situation.

Finally the secretary said, "He'll see you now."

The guards motioned me out of the chair. I still barely knew what I was doing there. I hoped the king, or whoever it was I was about to see would volunteer information. I did not want to have to demand it and harm the compliant image I was attempting to cast.

The guards dragged me up and marched me into a private office. They bowed when we crossed the threshold. I suppose that answered my question about the identity of the stranger.

I obsereved the man sitting across from me. He was wearing a suit and reclined in his chair indolently. He looked to be in his mid-forties, although with a son older than me he was probably closer to his fifties at least.

I tried to keep the frown from my face.

"Elise, how good to meet you at last. I am King Larson, Ruler of Werewolves."

I resisted the urge to protest the assumed title. He was no king to this werewolf.

"Have a seat."

One of the guards herded me over as if I could not manage such a simple task on my own. Although it rankled, I reminded myself that it was good that they thought I was that incapable.

"You may wait outside the door," the pretender king said.

Both guards bowed and left. I tried to keep my face smooth while I waited for him to explain what he wanted with me.

"My son told me that you are unique among thralls."

"I wouldn't know."

"No? Why not?"

"My people don't unjustly turn people into thr-thralls, so we have little experience."

"Perhaps if your leaders had more experience you would not have been turned so unjustly into a thrall. Seems irresponsible to have a power with no concept of how to use it."

I felt my teeth grit and the curse stab me for the criticism of my master. I was annoyed, I was on its side on the matter and yet it still hated words spoken against him.