The Twelfth Moon || ✔️

29. The Capture

I froze as soon as I realized I was staring at Dexter. Even if Dexter wasn't as cruel and horrific as Beckett, he was still responsible for many, many of my horrors and scars. Most of them weren't visible, but they were always there.

Dexter was blessed with Agni's powers. Didn't they realize how dangerous the wolf they were holding was? Didn't Lotta know what kind of danger she put herself in? Holding Fire Moon's Beta hostage. He looked like he'd been severely tortured as well. Did none of them know the danger they put themselves in? The danger they put all of us in?

My heart was beating in a bewildered craze. I could no longer hear the people around me. I barely felt it as the people shoved me aside, until I was just a face in a crowd. All of them wanted to witness the show in front of them. A badly hurt, Fire Moon wolf. Did anyone here know who Lotta was accompanying? Did anyone realize they were staring at the mangled face of one of the most powerful wolves of Fire Moon?

Surely, Beckett wouldn't let this go. He wouldn't let us just take Dexter without retaliating. He wouldn't... He would come for us. He would come for me. Lotta might have scored us a point with this move. But didn't they know? Beckett would always win the game. And we just started a very, very dangerous one.

Or maybe this was all a part of Beckett's game. How was it possible for them to take Dexter? Out of all the wolves in Fire Moon, they took Dexter and got away unscathed. What if Beckett wanted this to happen. What if he let this happen? Would this mean... By the Moons, was Dexter here to come after me?

My lungs weren't big enough for the air I needed. I couldn't fill them, I couldn't breathe. My entire body was about to explode. My sight was getting blurry, but that didn't matter since I stopped seeing my surroundings ever since I'd recognized Dexter. All I could see now were his eyes, the whites of them covered in red. But they were haunted by the brown eyes, with hints of red I knew all too well.

Beckett was coming. There was no other possibility. He was coming.

My heart was feeling light and floating. Black spots were covering the blurriness I could see. And I still couldn't breathe. I couldn't.

I was shaking so immensely hard, I barely felt the hands that clasped on my shoulders. I looked around skittishly, trying to find the source of the hands on my shoulders. I slowly got back in the present, and some words came floating in my ears. "Are you okay, girl? Are you okay?"

My eyes finally locked on whoever it was that was holding me. A woman with dark blonde hair stared straight into my eyes, as her mouth kept opening and closing. It was her who was talking to me. "You're panicking," I heard her say.

I was. And I had good reason. Why was no one else panicking? Why were the people still cheering?

The woman pulled me away, out of the crowd. It wasn't until I got out of the masses, that I realized how everyone had been standing too close to me. The woman took my hand and guided me away, until she opened a door to one of the houses and guided me in.

The woman sat me down on a brown, leather couch before she disappeared in another room. I couldn't register where I was, or who the woman was. All that clouded my mind was Beckett. I was reliving every wretched thing Beckett and Dexter had ever done to me. They'd surely start again, now that Dexter was here.

Only this time, they'd only do worse things. They wouldn't spare me. They'd break me. They'd probably even kill me. Eventually. And no one could help me. No, not when it was us who brought Dexter here. Like a wolf in a chicken's coop.

I suddenly felt something warm in my hands. I looked up and saw the woman had given me a large, white cup with a hot drink. I couldn't place the smell that came off of it. Well, maybe I could, but not in this moment.