HOWLER

Chapter 57: Break into Submission

Daniel's POV
In the midst of my sleep, I felt a tug against my chest. Without fully reaching consciousness, my hands went to my chest. My body sat upright on the bed, the white sheets of the bed fell to my lap. The constriction fervently gripped onto my chest. Gradually the pain was hardly there, I breathed out expelling my grogginess while I scanned my room. The plain room I was given since we arrived at Dusk Hunt; the room had a few webs dangling from the ceiling from the time we were hiding at the old Howler pack. The small room didn't give me any answers to why I was so rudely woken up to a disturbing amount of pain. I was in the middle of processing the last couple of minutes when the door to my room slammed open. With her hair completely knotted a very zombie looking Alice stared into my soul. My heart shivered under her empty gaze.

"Get the fuck up. Something happened, we have to be outside with everyone else" she slammed the door closed and disappeared. I huffed out to ease myself and quickly grabbed my shorts and a clean tee.

I followed behind a very sleep deprived Alice. She had stayed up all night waiting for Austry to return, but from the looks of it, Austry still wasn't here. My chest fluttered again when my head looked to the window, the entire pack seemed to be in this meeting.

'Something is wrong' Jupiter mumbled surprising me momentarily. He was like my shadow. A voice in my head that I use to think was my own thoughts, but they now seem to have taken the form of a fierce stranger inside my head. Someone who existed alongside me, but seem to understand this world while I was still trying to fit in. I was about to consider staying inside when Alice stopped and looked in the same direction I just was.

She didn't say anything, but her expression was enough for me to know she felt the same way. She didn't want to be outside right now. Mumbles and whispers hesitantly past through the crowd as we moved through the waves of brolly men and layers of furs and helmets. Remembering that I could have a source of privacy with Alice, I focused on her.

'I found Cynthia; did you want to stand with her?' I asked hesitantly when her body froze to look at me. She nodded after a quick nod. My body opened the sea of wolves as my eyes focused on our foxy friend who seemed to be in a deep conversation with Curler.

'I almost forgot we could mind link' her voice chirping through my thoughts as if it were my own. The feeling was so new, I relished it internally.

'Same here, it still feels so new' I thought to myself as I spotted Harrison taking his position on top of the roof of the meeting house. He stood at the edge of the house, his eyes looking upon everyone carefully looking at the sea of faces. A saddened look in his face that made my chest quiver.

Jupiter looked up along with me whispering in the dark, his baritone voice numbed my body. When Harrison's eyes found me in the crowd, his saddened eyes quickly held a determined strength within them. Before I could ask Alice another question, a horn echoed from the forest silencing the whisperings. The air tensed to the sound. The Viking men reached to their heads and lowered their helmets, a deep emotion on their faces I struggled to decipher. At my side Alice gripped onto my shirt, her eyes also focused on the change of atmosphere.

"My dear Dusk Hunt," Harrison shouted into the air while the sun rose behind him, "We have obtained back our home from Michael and our traitors. From the very beginning, Steven lead us like an older brother. He was our brother and we are the younger brother who followed his example. We have built this pack without the help of an alpha." Jupiter hummed peacefully while I watched the men around me nod with their eyes closed. The weapons wrapped at their back freshly mauled from the war.

"We are the younger brother who lives on as a legacy. I come to ask you to continue our brother's wish," his voice resisted the urge to waver as he stared into the eyes of every wolf until they reached mine. I gulped and looked away.