Watch The Dark
three

Tana woke up the next morning to the smell of something absolutely heavenly. Thankfully, it wasn't Declan this time. Instead it was a plate of what looked to be bacon and pancakes, steaming as a young woman poured water into a glass next to the plate.

"Who are you?" Tana growled, springing to her feet almost instantly, whipping out the metal comb to point at the woman, who merely offered a soft smile and a nod of her head.

"My apologies, miss. Alpha Declan instructed that you should be fed promptly. I didn't mean to wake you," she said politely, which prompted Tana to lower the comb and slip it back into her pocket. Why would they feed a prisoner something so mouth-watering? That didn't seem like a very effective punishment to her.

"Do you know a way out of here? Can you help me?" Tana asked. The woman only gave her a sympathetic smile and shook her head.

"I cannot disobey my alpha. He is a good leader and has shown me much kindness. I think you'll replace that life here is only as free as you make it," the woman said before moving to walk out of the room, giving the guards out there a polite nod before they shut the doors and left Tana alone in the room once again.

Tana frowned and went over to the food, sniffing it over to make sure they hadn't slipped yet another tranquilizer into it before taking a few tentative bites. As the flavours clashed in her mouth she practically devoured the rest of the meal just as the alpha himself stepped into the room, eyeing her suspiciously as the doors shut behind him.

"I see you were actually hungry. I'm not trying to keep you prisoner here, but you aren't exactly making this easy for me. You haven't even told me your name," Declan huffed indignantly, moving to stand in front of her when she stood up to back away. He quickly moved the utensils away, probably sensing that Tana was more than willing to fight for her personal space.

"I'm sparing you the heartache. Names are already too personal. I'm doing you a favour," Tana responded, growling when he took another step towards her.

"I'm a big boy. I can decide whether the heartache is worth it."

Tana continued to size him up, but he didn't back down. She was quite sure he was going to stand there and stare at her until she gave him her name. Her wolf was already wagging her tail, urging Tana to talk to him, to get closer to him. It was getting harder and harder to deter her.

"Tana. My name is Tana. Will you let me out of here now?" She asked, but the only response she got was a cocky smirk that played on his lips as he tested her name at least five times; probably just to piss her off.

"No. But it's good to know that you actually have a name. I was beginning to think I would have to call you Gertrude or Betty," he said. The humour, however, surpassed Tana and she only frowned at him, fighting the urge to growl once more.

"Prickly, aren't you? I-"

"Daddy! Help!" A small voice cried from outside the door. Tana let out a low warning growl as a small body rushed into the room, throwing herself against Declan's leg and peering up at Tana with wide eyes.

Tana knew those eyes. Those were Blood Wolf eyes. Those were her cousin's eyes. But that couldn't be because her youngest cousin was dead, as was her oldest. But this pup looked exactly like her. It wasn't possible...was it?

"Tans! Tans! You came back! I knew you'd come back!" The pup cried, releasing Declan's leg and throwing herself against Tana with surprising strength.

"You know her?"

"She calls you daddy?"

The two of them stared at each other, and then looked down at the pup, who was beaming with excitement.

Sincere was only two-and-a-half but she was incredibly smart. This was probably due to the intensive tutoring that Blood Wolf pups endure when they reach about 18 months. It was a torturous way to educate pups but it unfortunately worked. She hoped that this pack had better ideals.

"What in Aurora's name are you doing here, Sin?" Tana asked breathlessly, eyeing the blonde pup curiously. Sincere was the spitting image of her mother, Lumina. The two shared the same bouncing blonde curls and dark brown eyes, as well as their tan skin.

"Mama and Marie were hurt really bad and Mama told me to run really fast and really far. She said I wasn't allowed to stop running until I found somewhere safe. But then I got really, really tired and I went to sleep. When I woke up, daddy found me!" The pup enthused, grinning up at Declan, who returned the sentiment with an awkward smile of his own.

"Sincere, I need to talk to Tana, but you can play with her right after, ok? Go wait outside or with Blake," Declan said slowly. Sincere frowned up at him, but then nodded and looked at Tana excitedly.

"I'll show you my new room! It's really cool," Sincere said before skipping out of the room once again. As she left she could hear her giggling with the guards outside.

"Before you say anything, Sincere adopted me as her dad and I had absolutely no say in the matter. She was on the edge of death when I found her but she's so upbeat around me that I couldn't say no to her when she found out the other pups all had dads. Plus, the den mothers didn't want her around their pups so I had no choice," Declan rushed out as Tana rubbed her face with her hands. She was stuck. She couldn't, in good conscience, leave when she knew Sincere was here. She had promised Lumina she would keep her safe if anything happened to her. She couldn't turn back on that promise now.

"She's my cousin. I can't believe she got this far," Tana whispered, almost to herself, but Declan heard.

"Cousin? Great Aurora..." he groaned, covering his eyes with one hand as he turned away with a deep exhale, very clearly deep in thought.

"Tana! Are you guys still talking? Daddy, I wanna show Tana my room," Sincere hollered from outside the door, promptly cracking the door open a bit to peer into the room at the two of them.

"You should go play with her. She's very insistent," Declan said, nodding towards Sincere, who was staring at them expectantly.

"Sure, Sin. Let's go check out this new room of yours. Maybe I'll move in if it's super cool," Tana said, earning a joyful laugh from the pup. "You can't move in! It's my room!" She squealed, heading off down the hallways with Tana right behind. Unsurprisingly, Declan followed them.

Sincere's room was grey, which Tana hadn't expected. It was only a few doors down from Declan's room, which was odd seeing as Sincere was not a high-status pup. Though, if she had claimed Declan as her dad, Tana supposed that it made more sense for her to be living near him.

Her room was much smaller than Declan's and it looked like the attached bathroom was shared with whoever owned the room next to her. The corner had a few beanbag chairs and a small table, the closet was not a walk-in, and though she didn't have a television she did have an iPad that Tana assumed she watched television on.

"Declan got lots of stuffed animals. This is my favourite. His name is Stripes!" Sincere said as she held up a particularly fuzzy plushie of a tiger that looked rather floppy, but Sincere seemed to love it all the same. The other stuffies varied in size but they were indeed plentiful.

"That's pretty cool. Wow, look at this. Maybe I'll sleep in your bed and you can sleep on the floor," Tana joked, flopping into the bed that was much too big for a pup, which made Sincere laugh.

"No! Get up! You're too big!" Sincere giggled, crawling up onto the bed to try and push Tana off of the bed. Though, given the clear size difference, Sincere didn't actually do much.

"But this bed is so comfy. It's mine now," Tana teased, ruffling Sincere's hair as the pup continued to laugh.

"Tana, wanna know something really, really, really, cool?" Sincere asked, her face very, very close to Tana's as she spoke and stared down at her.

"Sure."

"Daddy said I can be the alpha when I'm older! I'm gonna be a super good alpha, too. I'm practicing with Stripes. Stripes is gonna be my beta," Sincere said, pushing the plushie into Tana's face until Tana batted it away with a laugh.

"You'd be a mean alpha. Nice alphas would share their bed with their cousin who has no where else to sleep," Tana said, but Sincere only laughed and shook her head.

"No, silly! You can sleep in Daddy's bed. His bed is super big. Sometimes other girls sleep in his bed too. But they're always really loud. Just like Blake and Jade-"

"Sincere, that's enough. Tana doesn't want to hear that," Declan, who was quietly observing from the doorway, sputtered as the pup began to ramble on about his habits.

"Fine. Jade sleeps in the room next to my room, over there," she said, pointing to the wall where the bathroom also was. "She and Blake don't share a room because she says Blake is too fat and doesn't fit in her bed. Sometimes we have sleepovers and Blake is mad because I can sleep in her bed but he can't," Sincere said, earning laughs from both Declan and Tana. However, when Tana saw Declan laugh, she abruptly stopped and turned her head away, her face heating up as he grinned over at her.

"Declan, I need you to-" A new, but familiar voice sounded from next to Declan. But when Tana turned to look at who it was, she could feel her anger go from zero to sixty within seconds.

There, looking as shocked as her, stood the burly man with a scar. The same man who had ruined her chance of freedom.

And Tana wasn't in a forgiving mood.