The Mute Runt

Horror Revealed

When Phoenix got the call that a pack had been levelled by a vicious Haloing brought storm he was startled. In general packs were very good about calling the Haloing pack when they realized the wolf was in fact a Haloing, for this very reason. Without proper training the power that could be unleashed is extraordinarily destructive. It was rare that they did not get a call or summons when a wolf sprouted wings or showed signs of having extraordinary power. In recent years there had been less than what they generally expected, over a hundred years ago there was at least ten calls a week about budding Haloing’s. In the past hundred years there had been maybe one call a week. It was odd.

Haloing’s had large wings, were generally powerfully built, and had very powerful magic. Phoenix himself stood at 6ft 5, with golden eyes and red hair. His golden wings were ten feet across each, giving him a wing span of twenty feet.

As the landed on the packs grounds he looked around in awe, the shifter that did this was extraordinarily powerful. Several bodies were scattered around, all burned to a crisp. There were some buildings that were no longer standing, and trees were laying on the ground. His father, Danté, walked up beside him and folded his wings before saying "We need to find who did this Phoenix, they need training.” Phoenix shared his fathers golden eyes and they were the same height. Unlike Phoenix Danté had silver hair and wings the same size as his sons.

"Yes father." Phoenix answered, even though he had officially taken over the Haloing pack as Alpha he still wanted his guidance. He was grateful for the guidance today.

A female approached the two of them carefully, they could see fading bruises around her face and on her wrists. She stopped a good distance away and eyed them warily. Her green eyes studied them, fading bruises above her cheekbones showed where she had been struck recently. Her hair was black and hung in a tangled mess down her back. She was dangerously thin.

"You are here to help us? We were not sure who else to contact. All of the command chain for this pack is dead. We have no leader. My name is Lily.”

"My name is Danté, this is my son Phoenix. Yes we are here to help. What was your role in this pack?" Danté asked Lily. He had stepped forwards when he asked his question. She took several steps backwards in alarm before answering. Phoenix grabbed his fathers arm and shook his head when he made a motion to step towards Lily again.

"I did not have a role, not really. I was just a pack member." Lily answered, she relaxed once neither of them showed any intention of moving towards her again.

"Is there any females that were part of the command structure that are still alive?” Danté demanded

"No, we never had a Luna and the rest of command either killed their mates by leaving them in the forest for scavengers after beating them or sold them. I do not know which.” Lily answered.

"Sold?" Phoenix asked her, truly hoping that he had heard wrong. She looked at him startled, almost like she was surprised he did not know that wolves were being sold as slaves.

“Beaten?” Danté asked.

"Yes, sold. If they do not like their mate, or if they do not believe that their mate was strong enough for them. They sold them into the s*x trade. If they did not want to sell them, or if the female fought back, then the female would be beaten to within an inch of her life then left for scavengers.You did not know about this?" Lily looked between Phoenix and Danté as she said this.

Danté and Phoenix looked at each other, both of them were horrified by this new information. They would have felt it if they killed their mates, it is part of the power of the Haloing’s. But they had no way of knowing or feeling that this was happening, the deaths would have felt like natural deaths to their senses.

"Do you have people who are injured?" Phoenix asked Lily.

"Yes, we do not have a doctors office anymore though. It was levelled in the storm.” Lily paused then added, “The doctor was also killed in the storm.”

"That is okay, we will call for help to treat your injured. Did you see the Haloing who caused the storm?" Phoenix asked while Danté walked away to send out a call for help. 

"No, I do know that it was the day that those in the s*x trade were to be sold to a new pack. All I know is that we only had one this time around, I never saw her though.”

“Only one?”Phoenix asked, “What do you mean there was only one?”

“Sometimes we had three or four of them, the women here never really saw them. We just heard the men talking about them.” Lily replied.

"Healinggem is on her way." Danté told them both. 

"Do you know where the girl, or girls, were kept?" Phoenix asked Lilly.

"Yes, I watched to see where they kept the girls. I was hoping to be able to provide comfort to them. I never did get down to see them though. I tried a couple times, but I got beaten every-time. Follow me." Lilly walked over to a concrete building that was one of the few still standing after the storm. As Phoenix followed her inside he was struck by the scent of lilies, geraniums, and fresh rain. 

"Mate!" Phoenix’s wolf, Flame, told him. "Where is she?”

"I do not know Flame, she may no longer be here." He told him softly. 

Lily took them into the building, guiding them through what appeared to be an office. There were a series of rooms on the other side of the office. "I do not know which of these rooms she was kept in, or if she was kept in the dungeon below us. And I do not know the way into the dungeons.”

"Thank you." Phoenix told Lilly. She nodded to them and left. Phoenix looked at his father, Danté looked grim.

"Healinggem is here, she has started treating the injured. She says that some are bad, all are female, and all are covered in bruises. There are no living males outside." Danté told Phoenix.

"Perhaps they will be in here somewhere, although I do not know if that is a thing I should hope for or not. My mate was here, perhaps still is. I guess we should start looking in these rooms and see if we can find the dungeons. I am surprised Healinggem got here from Dragania so quickly.” Phoenix replied.

"She did not fly here from Dragania, she was with us." A new voice spoke behind them. They turned and saw a tall woman standing in the doorway. She stood just over six feet, and had a toothing aura to her. A long blade hung at her side, and Phoenix could see her wings were a red-gold before she folded them in tightly. She had long red hair and golden eyes, she was thin but muscular.

"Hello Angel." Danté welcomed her, "We were about to get started on the search. Are you going to aid us?” Phoenix raised his eyebrows in question, he had never met this woman. He quickly realized that she was scrutinizing him as closely as he was her.

“Angel, this is my son Phoenix.” Danté introduced them quickly, realizing that they had never met. Phoenix shook Angel’s hand as Danté continued, “Phoenix, Angel is from Phoenix Fortress.”

“What do you mean that Healinggem was with you?” Phoenix asked.

“She was working with us at Phoenix Fortress, training us on some more complex healing techniques.” Angel replied then added, “This pack is fairly close to Phoenix Fortress, which is why we got here so quick. To answer your question I will be joining you in the search, from what Healinggem has said there may be women in this building who may be injured. They may respond better to a female rather than two men." Angel informed them, "What is the plan for this pack?”

"We have not decided yet,  I was really hoping that there is a male that has a female mate somewhere around here. Maybe in this building." Danté answered.

"Well, let us get searching then. Although I do not have a great deal of hope that there are males in this building with a mate who is either also in the building, or who is out there being treated for injuries." Angel told them grimly, "One thing to remember Danté.... if they are in here they may not be in good shape. Physically or mentally.”

"We had thought of that." Was his grim reply.

They split up, each of them taking a room. When Phoenix opened the door to the room he that was starting at he was startled as he was instantly struck by the smell of fear, s*x, and blood. There was nobody in the room at that moment but he could still smell his mate, she had been here at some point in the past couple of days. Silver cuffs and chains were visible on the bed, blood was smeared on the metal. He did not look any closer, he had seen enough so he turned and walked back out of the room. 

As he left the room he looked around at both Angel and Danté who shook their heads. They had also found nothing in their rooms. Both appeared like they wanted to be sick, neither wanted to speak. There was one more door, it had a heavy lock on it with several dead bolts. Danté and Phoenix looked at each other, gathered their power, and blasted the door open. A heavy metal door was placed six feet behind the first. This one was made of heavy silver, immune to both Phoenix’s and Danté power. They looked at Angel, she was examining the lock on the door. Taking a deep breath she blasted the lock open. In the moments after the the lock was blasted Phoenix opened the door so that Danté and Angel walked inside the room. Phoenix followed and froze, they had found the dungeons.

Only three of the 20 cells were empty, the others had at least five wolves in each cell, all beaten, and all male. It was so cramped in the cells that even if those inside were in any condition to move they would not be able to. None of them moved, not even to see who had entered the dungeon, they were not sure how many were alive and how many were dead. They would not know until they started moving them. There were definitely some dead, as the stench of death and decay permeated the dungeon.

"I have told Healinggem that I will work down here. My healing skills are not as great but I should be able to at least get them stable enough to move outside so they can be treated fully, she is summoning another Healer." Angel said grimly.

"Good, that is good. I do not know what to do with this pack. It is.....broken." Danté told them both, Phoenix he could see that his fathers eyes were full of sorrow.

Phoenix could tell that his mate had been in this dungeon, he could smell her scent. He walked to the three empty cells and examined them closely. Of the three, all had silver chains and cuffs. One of them still had blood on the floor. That was the one that had held his mate. She was no longer was there though. She was no longer on pack lands, that much was clear. It occurred to Phoenix that she may be the Haloing who had caused all the destruction outside. But for now they had to figure out what to do with the remaining pack members. 

The three of them opened the cells by simply blasting the locks, Angel was unaffected by the silver bars and could open the doors once the locks were gone. The three of them slowly moved the males out, being careful to avoid injuring them further. They moved them out of the cells so that Angel could work on them. She got to work quickly and Phoenix and his father carried the males outside into the sunshine once they were able to move them. Of the 90 males wolves in the dungeons, 75 survived.

Phoenix and Danté followed Angel outside with the last of the males who did not need any further treatment. Looking around they saw Healinggem enclose the dead in a white flame, they waited until the flame died down. She turned to look at them and they were shocked to see rage in her eyes. It was remarkably difficult to anger a Healer, never mind enrage one.

"These wolves were tortured, beaten, and starved." She paused and took a deep breath, desperately trying to collect herself, "This was done over a number of years, I cannot think....what type of person would do this?" Healinggem was trembling with rage, "The women are worse, they were r***d as well as tortured, beaten, and starved. Some of the survivors have mates that they had never met until today.”

"Wait." Phoenix ordered, "How is it that they were in the same pack but never met?" Angel looked thoughtful at question, then walked over to speak with the women.

"Angel is finding that out, but I think you have some suspicions do you not?" Was her response. Danté looked at Phoenix curiously, Phoenix did look like he had some suspicions.

"What if the males that were in the cells were against what was happening in this pack? If the alpha confined the males away from the females until such time as they knew for sure that the male was on his side. Then those who had mates would never meet, not unless the alpha felt that the male would obey his orders." Phoenix suggested. 

"That matches with what the females have told me." Angel told them as she approached, "I think that your theory is sound. I hate that it is as sound as it is, the women are so afraid of men that they cannot even bring themselves to approach their mates even though they can see and scent them.” She looked as furious as Healinggem.

"How was this missed during our pack inspections?" Danté asked, he turned and looked at Phoenix who shook his head. He had no answers.

“How long ago was the pack destroyed?” Healinggem asked suddenly.

“Lily?” Phoenix called. She came over, she seemed calmer with Angel and Healinggem close by. “How long ago did the storm happen?”

“A little over a week. Maybe 9 days. Why?” Lily asked them. Phoenix looked at Healinggem who sighed.

“That explains why the ones in the dungeons died, they could not survive without food for that long. I am assuming that nobody went down there?” Healinggem asked softly. Lily nodded in confirmation.

“We need to find out if anybody was sold before we got here. I know Lily was only aware of one, but that does not mean that there wasn’t more. We also need to find out what was done to these women, and others.” Angel told them.

“I do not even know where to start looking.Were any of the women able to talk about what happened here?” Danté asked. Healinggem shook her head, she looked grim.

“I am going to go keep working on the injuries, another healer will be arriving shortly. I believe it is Blaze that is coming. Nobody is critical now, but there are still some who should not be moved. Blaze should be here in about an hour.” Healinggem told them.

"Perhaps we will find answers in the Alpha’s office, it is intact. Maybe there we can find out more about the one who they had here and who escaped, as well as any others we may be able to rescue that could be close by." Angel suggested. They followed her back to the office and began searching through all the files.

A few hours later Angel let out a horrified gasp. Phoenix and Danté turned to look at her and saw that she had tears in her eyes, her hand was shaking as it held a small book that she was reading out of.

"Angel?" Danté asked cautiously.  She handed him the book, he began to read as Phoenix looked over his shoulder. It was details of who was sold and when, there was also details about those who were dead. The manner of death for each was appalling, these girls who were sold into the s*x trade had been beaten, r***d, and starved. When they no longer woke up from their beating they were taken somewhere for nature to dispose of them. Some had been hung over water filled with piranhas, the alpha and others involved had watched as these fish ate the girls. Sometimes the girls would wake up as they were being eaten. At other times it seemed that the men involved would take the unconscious girl out to the woods and tie her up for the scavengers to find. Neither one would be detected on Haloing senses. There was no details about what was done to the girls before their death.

On another page was a list of names, Angel recognized some of the names of the males they had saved. They were names of those who had refused to cooperate in what the alpha was doing, some had to watch as their destined mate was beaten, r***d, and eaten by piranhas while they watched. Those who had to watch their mate die died themselves not long after.

"Who could do this?" Danté asked, horrified. "And, again the question must be asked, how was this missed on pack inspections?”

Phoenix just shook his head, completely horrified. “We can look into how this was missed when we get back to Blue Moon.”

“We may have another problem.” Angel commented. Danté and Phoenix looked at her. “Piranhas are not fish that will naturally attack unprovoked, not unless they are starving. Those fish are not starving. I think that they may have been spelled to eat anything, any kind of meat. Which is why, even if the victim is struggling to get free, they continue to eat them.”

“But who would spell these fish to do that?” Phoenix demanded. Danté looked grim, Angel just looked at Danté. She did not want to voice her suspicions out loud, because if she was right they were in deep trouble and things could go from bad to worse very quickly.

“Let me look into this, I have my suspicions but I do not want to raise alarm if none is necessary.” Angel replied softly.

They packed everything up and prepared to depart the land of the destroyed pack, which had been called Black Rose.