The Skin Walker

24 | Into The Rabbit hole

"And then smiles cover your heart,"

Fade Into You  Mazzy Star

R U T H

The heavy door creaked before it clicked shut. Rueben stayed behind with Reese. I was sure it was to exile Anthony.

"But it was out of his control," I stated the obvious to Tiger-Lily with devastation tugging on my heartstrings.

"We know. I wish there were ways around the law, but ours states that those who kill innocent members of their own pack are to be exiled. Besides, Jerome could still manipulate him into killing again. We need to be cautious. Anthony can't be here anymore."

"And it's not like that with Rueben because he's the Alpha? He can't exile himself." I curiously asked and received a solemn nod.

We stepped into the daylight, and Elias dramatically winced.

"I love the sunlight, but I prefer the moon more."

"Oh, poor baby," Tiger-Lily cooed at him, earning a glare.

They joked around as we walked to the footpath. Ander was leading the way ahead, his posture tense and alert the whole time.

"In my opinion, though," Elias stopped his chatter to speak to me. "It takes a very courageous person to do what you did today. We need a strong Luna, someone to stand as an equal beside our Alpha."

My face flushed. I was not nearly as strong as Rueben. Besides, I barely raised a hand to interrogate Anthony.

"I agree," Tiger-Lily shot me a wide grin. "You're our Luna, and I take pride in that. You didn't even need to grab a weapon."

"She is the weapon." Ander's voice trickled into my heart, and a newfound hope ignited.

An awkward chuckled tumbled from my lips.

"Please, I barely did anything. Anthony just needed someone to listen."

"And that's what you did. You'll be a great leader, Luna. Luna Ruth... like the sound of that?" Tiger-Lily raised her dark eyebrows at me, honour gilding her expression like gold. 

☽

Ander didn't stop at the pack house. No, he kept walking five minutes out of the boundaries I was familiar with until I realised we were going into town. 

I turned to Elias and Tiger-Lily for answers, but none of them were engaging in conversation anymore. There was a sombre tension around us, their eyes glazing over differently than to what I'd ever seen before. 

Elias caught my eyes and faced away from me. He cleared his throat before walking further ahead to Ander. 

"What's that about?" I murmured to Tiger-Lily. 

"When Alpha exiles someone from the pack, we all feel the link sever. It's a little painful. Like something pulling at our brains. It hurts even more for the person being exiled. Elias- well, he doesn't like remembering the feeling of it. His dad was exiled many years ago, and it reminds him of the pain all over again."

My heart ached at her words, for Elias. It must've been incredibly heartbreaking to feel his father's connection snap from the pack. 

"We're walking into town?" I asked when we took a turn into a street. 

It seemed to be a ghost town, with numerous stores bordering the roads. Most of them were closed, and the open ones weren't entertaining any customers. The wind picked up, and the trees rustled around us. Silence.