Chapter 17- Run, but don’t hide
Day five of the royal visit
Dante had been in the dungeon for nearly three days now and Jo was worried sick for him. This was not like her at all, he was a complete stranger to her. And yet here she was, nervous about what the trial had in store for him. It was hard to admit but she had grown some respect for him when he stood up for the fairies. Leo’s death was extremely satisfying for her to watch, especially after horrible abuses the brute Gamma had inflicted on so many slaves.
Jo tried to refocus her mind again. She had a bigger fish to fry. The two fairies had confessed to her that they were escapees from the fairy land and not really lost in the no-man’s border. Unfortunately for them, they were captured by Dark Slayers warriors before they could escape to the human civilisation. They really had a tough luck.
Now Jo was making an escape plan for four people, and she had to make sure there were no mistakes. Because one mistake could cost their lives. Jayden was not really your sweet understanding Alpha. He was the typical possessive snob, Alpha; she really hated his type. So he would definitely not like it when he finds out about their escape.
Time was not really in her favour because now with the elderlies arriving to the pack soon and the fairy guards coming to pick the two runaway fairies, she was under pressure.
‘If you had told me this earlier, we would not have had the messenger sent to the fairy kingdom’, Jo scolded the two guilty fairies.
‘Well, we did not know if we could trust you right from the bat. What if you held us captive after we revealed we were escapees from our land’, Daya shuddered.
‘If you put it that way..’, Jo started before Lucy jumped in.
‘Can we also include them in our escape plan?’, she pleaded as the two fairies also gave Jo the sad puppy eyes.
‘You girls are going to be the death of me’, Jo shook her head as she finally relented.This content provided by N(o)velDrama].[Org.
After speaking around to some omegas, Jo had gathered some information that she wasn’t sure was credible or not, but she had to take her chances.
So far, she had gathered that the elderlies will be arriving at tomorrow’s sunset. Because they were representing the governing body of the werewolf world, Jo expected the pack would surely give them a grant welcoming.
Dark Slayer pack was a small pack even though it was heavily patrolled by the warriors. The weakest link in this pack’s border was the east region because it led to a stream of river that pretty much flowed down for kilometres. On the other side of the stream, was another pack. Jo could not risk crossing the stream. But if they followed the stream down, they would get to the east region and reach the no-man’s border within a couple of days.
The no-man’s border was an unacclaimed land where any species and beings were allowed to roam freely. With a stroke of luck hopefully, Jo could help her little troupe cross the border and get them to the human civilisation. It was an unwritten but universal rule that the human civilisation was off limits. Because if any one of the species broke the rule, all the other species would retaliate. She knew this because she had tried to reach the human settlements before too when she was on the run. Unfortunately, because she was running low on her energy reservoirs, her true scent was surfacing and easily alerted her enemies. So she had to take a detour and landed up in the Dark Slayer pack.
Jo took her diary out and mapped all her plan out again. It sounded good in her head but writing it down helped her spot loopholes and think of ways to avoid it.
After spending several hours through the night, she finalised her plan at around 3am. ‘This should work’, she said to herself.
Placing her diary on the night table, she looked down to watch the sleeping faces of the fairies and Lucy. They had gotten close over the past few days. Polly refused to come back to the shared room, so it was only them now.
‘No, this has to work’, she reminded herself as she inhaled a deep breath in.
*
Day six of the royal visit
‘Get up sleeping beauties’, Jo roughly woke the girls up as they groaned and protested. ‘The elderlies are coming today and I have finished the escape plan’.
This seemed to do the trick as they start sitting up right slowly.
‘So, here’s the plan’, she announced as she began rubbing her two hands.
*
Dante was sitting peacefully on a metallic slab when he realised Caleb was trying to mind link him. After he finally put the block down, he heard Caleb’s hyperventilating voice.
‘Slow down, your voice is so annoying even in mind link’, Dante distastefully said.
‘You will love it when you know what I have just found. Remember the recent dead she wolf with the tar coal?’, Caleb excitedly asked.
‘Don’t waste my time Caleb, I do remember it’.
‘Why so grumpy? Not like you have any meetings to attend in the dungeon’, his friend laughed as he found his own joke amusing.
‘Well if you keep testing my patience, I will make this demon next to my cell as the next general in command’, Dante warned.
‘So’, Caleb ignored his warnings and continued. ‘The Crystal Lake pack warriors have captured two demons recently and out of the possessions the demons had, they found a small pouch which had the deep blue tar coal. The pack’s Alpha Taron just reported to me, and I bet you, it was the demon kingdom’s doing for all the unexplained murders’.
‘It could be but that’s not solid evidence. We need concrete proof before we can confront the Demons because their king isn’t really going to take any accusations lightly’. Dante voiced back as his thoughts went to the current king. Victor Astaroth was the current king of the demon world and he was a young hot headed bas. tard.
‘You are right. It does not make sense as to why the demon king would need to kill so many young she wolves and place cross marks on them. I reckon there’s more to it’, Caleb quizzically replied.
‘Oh, there is definitely more to it. Caleb, now that the two potential culprits have been captured in Crystal Lake pack. I want you to scan this pack as well and see if there are any hidden demons amongst us, not including the ones captured in the hunt. Plague demons are strong but that’s all there is to them. If it really was the Demon king responsible for all these unexplained murders, he will probably send his smart subordinates like the Aamon class of demons. They are cunning as hell, so tell the Alpha of the Crystal Lake to be careful with them’, he barked his orders.
‘Will do’, and with that the mind link was cut off.
Dante was left with his thoughts again as he tried to make sense of why the Demon king would need to kill the young, she-wolves for no reason. Was he perhaps looking for someone or was he trying to send a message to the werewolf kingdom? He was going to find out soon because this needed to stop.
*
Dante was still in the dark dungeon, he could hear the dripping of the water and because it was so quiet down here, the sound was magnified.
He could hear some commotions outside and took a guess that the elderlies had probably arrived. The rotting smell of the dungeon did not bother him at all, but he was eager to go out because he wanted to see Jo again.
Even a small glimpse of her would make him happy. Not seeing her for three days straight had his wolf going crazy. Theo had been begging him to break down the cell bars and go find Jo. And he was even tempted at one point to do that, but he could not risk the mission. If the other culprits were still hiding amongst them and happened to find out his real identity, they would flee straighaway and he couldn’t have that.
A rustle of keys distracted his train of thoughts. And as he glanced up, he saw a flustered Jo standing before him.
‘Shhh’, she gestured to him. ‘Come here’.
Dante did as told and when he was close enough, Jo whispered to him, ‘The elderlies have arrived and you might be in trouble. But I admired what you did and killing that abuser. So, accept this as a token of thank you, for saving the two fairies’, Jo handed him a key with shaky hands. She was clearly frightened to be here, but Dante watched her amusedly and took the keys, thanking her in the process.
‘Unlock the cell door’, Jo guided Dante.
Once Dante had unlocked the doors, Jo stepped inside as her sweet scent infiltrated his nostrils and he wanted more.
She quickly unlocked his shackles and freed his hands as she handed me a different key.
‘You can undo the shackle on your legs yourself’, Jo blurted out.
Dante unwillingly took the key. ‘Like this?’, he asked as he deliberately made a mistake and dropped the keys.
Jo sighed as she picked them up and tried to patiently guide the silly general.
‘Like this’, she said as she put her hands on his and inserted the entrance of the keys into the lock.
Her touch was driving him crazy, and it was getting difficult keeping Theo in check. Jo quickly undid his legs and he cursed himself when her hands lifted off from his skin. He was already craving for more of her touch. Theo started saying something in his mind but he could not make up what it was.
‘General, I have brought this cloak for you. The guards outside have been summoned to welcome the elderlies from the holy cathedral shrine’. Without wasting time, Jo swung the cloak around Dante herself and tied the knots around his shoulder. Her hands touched his face when she was tightening the knots the second time.
A mild electric spark generated between them as the afterwave spark spread through his blood. Soon, Theo’s voice was becoming louder and more clearer.
‘Ready?’, Jo asked as she took Dante’s big warm hands into hers and scented him with a fake scent. Jo did not tell the general what she was doing of course.
Once she was done, she looked up at the general with a big smile, happy that they were finally good to go. It was not her intention to include Dante in her escape plan. But she knew she had to help Dante escape the dungeon at the very least.
‘Are you ready?’, Jo repeated herself.
But the General looked frozen to the spot as his golden eyes was flickering and the silver rings were getting bigger, consuming the golden part. He looked like he was having an internal battle.
‘Your eyes.. they..’, her voice trailed off as Dante pulled her into his arms and she was instantly hit by his scent that had her mesmerised before as well.
‘MATE’, he whispered as Jo’s stood shocked in his embrace.