Chapter 99: To Love And To Protect, Always
"You can go back home and explain to the alpha, if you wish."
"Yeah right, so she can sever my head, no thanks."
"Quit stalling. She\'s almost back at the pack, and we both know what she will do if we don\'t have answers by then."
"Where\'s Adolf?"
"Sicario."
"Damn."
Greyson had been attacked and answers were needed.
Someone had dared to come to Alpha Rukiya\'s lair and triggered the insecurity in her home and she would burn them all. She would find them, and make sure they never once thought of harming Greyson again.
It was a truth that the warriors who were discreetly scouring the Greyson woods had come to learn. Greyson had been attacked and someone had to pay the price for it.
Sure, Awuor had made sure that they never made it to the mainland, but to Rukiya, blood was shed on her lands. Someone that dared to taint the beauty that was the Greyson woods and someone had to pay that price.
She would find them even if it was the last thing she did.
"Alpha Awuor didn\'t leave a trace on the men who were here. Isn\'t it strange that she was the only one on this side of the woods and she was the only one who fought with them and murdered them all?
"Doesn\'t it seem a little too convenient for her stories and the alibis she would be giving alpha Rukiya?" one of the Greyson warriors said and the others seemed to think about it.
Given the circumstances, Hawi had never done something that could make them suspicious, but then the woman had a reputation. One that was well known, a little too well.
Her reputation as the alpha of alphas was insane and there was nothing that they would be able to do about it other than question whether Hawi\'s intentions with Rukiya were true.
But then there were so many questions right now.
Like why Rukiya would send her warriors and her beta on a wild hunt. Why her mind and heart were conflicted so much that even as she held hands and walked away with Hawi to the Greyson pack house, she could still feel the uncertainty creeping back.
Oh, but Rukiya was in a fix, but she was going to find her way out of it.
"She never leaves traces, ever. Anyone that attacks her is bound to die. I know we have our suspicions, but are we forgetting that our alpha swore her life to Alpha Awuor? That she swore to protect her at all times?
"Maybe this is just Alpha Rukiya trying to make sure Alpha Awuor doesn\'t have a hard time in Gresyon, right?" another argued but then even he couldn\'t believe his own words.
Of the things that could have happened, this was by far the worst of them all, because the ideas were there. The suspicions.
Everything that could make life a bit more difficult was all there and it pointed toward one person and one person only.
Alpha Awuor Hawi Sicario. The woman was not what anyone would be able to embrace freely and right now, it was a risk that Greyson was taking, a risk that could cost them more than they would ever be able to be true to.
"But Alpha Awuor never once swore her life to our alpha\'s. She only says it in words and never makes a binding oath. It\'s like we\'re here for her to do with as she pleases, and the worst part of it all, is that alpha Rukiya is letting her.
"What if this woman is a nuisance? What if she\'s the one to bring doom to Greyson again? We have been through so much and we shouldn\'t let a banished alpha cripple our home like that.
"She has nothing left to lose, and she sure as hell has nothing she has nothing to hold on to anymore. She is everything that should be wrong, and yet we are here helping her.
"What are the chances that the people she had killed were just imaginary and shouldn\'t even exist? We know that she has powers like the white wolf. What if she used dark magic to—" the warriors said but the leaves rustled, shutting him up instantly.
The warrior wasn\'t sure what he was expecting but the Greyson beta coming back was something not on their list. It just didn\'t make any sense right now and if there was a chance that the speculations were true, then Greyson was in danger, but was it?
Well, Awuor Hawi hadn\'t given them a reason to trust her whatsoever.
They knew her because she was banished, and she was the alpha of the alphas.
They knew her because she was the most dangerous woman in the entire realm and they knew her, because the walls that once whispered about Awuor Hawi had eventually broken down and shattered to pieces from the show of who she was.
The ultimate disaster and chief manipulator.
"Instead of worrying about whether Hawi is on our side or not, worry about how the hell a little woman like her, had managed to murder the lycans of Avalon in cold blood.
"The lycans of Avalon are supposed to be the most powerful creatures to ever exist and yet Hawi mutilated fourteen of them. If she wanted to burn Greyson to the ground, she wouldn\'t have to use Rukiya.
"She would have done it herself. But she is here with us, on our side. She is with us. The least we can do is to make sure that she stays on our side," Adolf said and they looked at him like he had gone bonkers.
Beta Adolf had always been one of the key anti-fans of Awuor Hawi, but as the days progressed, he himself realized that there was more to the woman who was crazy. There was more to the girl who didn\'t give two shits about life, any life whatsoever.
Awuor Hawi was the girl who could do as she wished and no one would ever question her. If Adolf was on her side, then either the beta had been broken or maybe, just maybe there was a trust to it all. But how would they ever be able to determine that?
"What did you find in Sicario?" the warriors asked the beta who looked like he wasn\'t even sure where he was. Chances were that Adolf had found his bearing because he knew the warriors, but if that was so, then what had happened to him out there?
What had made the beta who never came back home without completing his mission, come back home?
What had forced Adolf to make his way back when he could have as well fought and tried to make sense of the mission he had been sent to?
Oh, there were so many possibilities but not more than the woman who was watching them with a smirk plastered on her face. She was hidden in the woods, and not hidden at the same time.
Then again, it never really mattered because she was going to make sure that the doubts about Hawi were never a threat to Hawi\'s life. After all, she was Hawi\'s greatest ally.
Jabali Lihle.
Mbali.