Under Her Mercy

Desperation

Allena's cold gaze was fixed on the opened gift box kept before her on the large table. Inside it was a bloody heart. And the smell of blood was enough for her to know the heart belonged to someone from her own pack. 

As she was busy observing the heart, all of her council's eyes were on her. They were silently standing opposite to her chair, waiting for their Alpha to speak. 

Minutes passed. But Allena didn’t bother to pull away her gaze from the bloodied organ. It made her nephew and the future Alpha of the pack impatient. At first Mridul was just tapping his boot on the floor, but then the Alpha's silence got onto his nerves. 

"Aunt." He said, breaking the silence with a cough. Still, Allena didn’t respond. It made Mridul and some of the council members frown — which didn’t miss Cyrus's eyes. He was standing behind Allena, with his hands clasped together behind his back. He placed one of his hands on Allena's shoulder. "Alpha," he whispered. 

Allena finally moved her gaze from the gift box to the group of men and women standing before her. 

"What was written in the note, Cyrus?" She asked, keeping her eyes fixed on Mridul. 

"Keep your nazis in control and learn to follow and respect the treaty. This is the last warning. Next time you would end up as one of the casualties or prisoners of war.  

The Queen."     

Cyrus paused for once to have a quick glance at his Alpha's face. Allena's face was still lacking any kind of readable emotions.  

"Some of your pack members had killed two innocent vampires and just a fifteen year old witch in the last twenty-four hours. Two of them were caught by one of the clans of vampires. We are utterly shocked and disturbed by such barbarism and brutality of such young members of your pack. So the Queen has sent her a small token of love in the gift box. One of them is still alive and kept as a prisoner. If the Alpha wants to set things correct she should hurry up. The Queen is ready to give only one last chance. And she has asked for the presence of the Alpha of the North's Pack, in her mansion as soon as possible. Till then, she has withdrawn all kind of support and security she had promised the Alpha.

Idris Qureshi

The Queen's Alpha."

Cyrus finally stopped, upon reaching the end of the note. Folding the note he placed it on the table, before Allena. 

"They are threatening us. Asking us to cower to them. They killed one of us. We should seek revenge, other than reconciling with them. We need to show them we are not weak." Mridul growled up, keeping eyes on eyes with Allena. He was soon joined and supported by a part of the council.  

Revenge, justice, coward — mutters and murmurs consisting those words could be heard  among the small group of people present in the room. Only Cyrus and Allena were completely quiet. Allena waited for some more moments, before she slammed her fist on the wooden table and ordered, "silence."

And it took just another second to have pin drop silence in the room. 

"Cyrus, care to explain?" She asked, tilting her head. 

"The accusations are may not be completely false . A group of boys were vandalizing the nearby packs — one such rumor I have heard. And two of those boys were missing from yesterday. Maybe the Tribrid Queen is referring to them." Cyrus answered, lowering his head. 

"So the bad apples are in my pack actually." Allena rested her chin on her hands and raised her eyes in the Council's direction. "You want to fight? You want war, right? Do you have any idea against whom you want to fight? A woman who's even more powerful  than our Gods. She could kill each and everyone of us by just a snap of her fingers. And for what you want to fight? For what kind of honour? Which includes arrogance and wrong kind of education. What could make two boys to kill a fifteen year old girl? What harm she could've caused?  Answer me. I'm waiting."