Chapter 457: The One Who Went Back

The Day Before Sophia Regained Consciousness

Orion did not speak immediately.

He only looked at Jarek, who swallowed nervously.

The sound was small in the still room, but to him it felt loud.

Orion finally spoke, after what felt like an eternity to Jarek.

"Your name is Jarek, right?" he asked Jarek.

Jarek nodded at once.

"Yes."

He knew who the man in front of him was. He had seen him before and up close. He didn’t know the man’s name, nor could he really say that he knew the man as one knew a friend or sworn brother, but he knew the man in front of him as one knew a stranger. Someone he could point out in a crowd and tell people that he had seen before.

And he could also talk about how impressive the man on the chair next to the bed had been when they had fought those beasts.

To Jarek, Orion was the man who moved through beasts like they were nothing, even though they weren’t.

The man whose wolf tore through bone and flesh like it had been born for war.

And the short woman who had been with him throughout the fight—she was just as impressive as the man in front of him, like they were bound by the same rhythm and they complemented each other well.

And it was that fight he had witnessed that made him come to one conclusion. If he made even one mistake now, if he said a single wrong word or perhaps even breathed wrongly, he wasn’t sure he’d make it to see the next day.

Orion’s voice was calm as he spoke to Jarek, snapping Jarek out of his thoughts.

"Before we continue," Orion said, "there are things you need to understand."

Jarek nodded again, this time quickly. He would rather save his life and do whatever this man asked of him than risk the man’s wrath.

Orion wasn’t aware of Jarek’s thoughts, nor did he care. He was only here for answers after all. He lifted a finger.

"One."

His eyes did not leave Jarek as he spoke.

"If you lie to me—even if it’s a small one—you will be treated as a criminal in the pack, and you don’t want to know how criminals are treated. Trust me."

There was a pause before he continued.

"Two," he said, adding a finger to the one already up.

"If I find out you intend harm toward any member of this pack, I will deal with you myself. And I daresay that is worse than how criminals are treated in the pack."

The way he spoke was so calm that Jarek wondered if he was misunderstanding the underlying threat in those words.

Orion added a third finger. Jarek almost asked him why there was a third finger, that he already got the threat from the first two, but he once more chose to remain alive. Besides, he had to help Maya find Tarin.

"And three," Orion said as his voice dropped a little, sending shivers down Jarek’s spine even before Orion finished speaking.

"This is repetitive, but I’ll say it again so you can get the emphasis. Don’t even think about lying. Every word you utter from your mouth should be nothing but the truth," Orion told him.

Jarek’s mouth felt dry. There was no mistaking it—everything this man had just told him had an underlying threat beneath it, and if he broke it... Jarek didn’t even want to think about what would happen if he did.

He nodded, his head bobbing like a little child.

"Yes sir, I understand."

Orion studied him for another second just to be sure that Jarek understood, then nodded once.

"Let’s get this out of the way. I’ll introduce myself and the other two," Orion told Jarek, then pointed at himself. "My name is Orion."

He did not tell Jarek he was the alpha of the pack. He would see if that was information for Jarek to hold when he knew and understood exactly why Jarek was in the North.

But given the way everything seemed to bow in his presence, Jarek already suspected that Orion might be the alpha of the pack. And he also knew that only alphas had wolves as big as the one he saw when they were fighting those beasts.

Orion pointed with two fingers to the man beside him.

"This is Caspian."

Jarek’s eyes flicked instinctively.

The man’s hair had begun to turn white from what Jarek suspected to be old age. There was a hunch in his back, as though the years had bent him forward and never let him straighten again.

One thing Jarek was certain of was that the man was old but not weak, even with the way he seemed to hunch and appear like an unsuspecting old man.

Orion’s hand shifted.

"And this is Daniel."

Jarek looked again and noticed that one sleeve of Daniel’s tunic was empty. He had only one hand.

That single hand rested calmly on the hilt of his sword.

As if it had never left that place.

As if it belonged there more than anywhere else.

Jarek nodded to both of them.

Orion did not waste time once the introductions were done. He settled on the chair comfortably.

"Who are you?" he asked Jarek.

Jarek blinked and licked his lips nervously.

"My name is—" 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Orion rolled his eyes, cutting Jarek short.

"I already know your name. That’s not what I’m asking you right now," he said flatly. "Who are you? What pack do you belong to or belonged to? Where are you from?"

Jarek inhaled slowly and then began to speak. Everything out of his mouth was the truth.

"I don’t belong to any pack."

Orion just stared at him without saying anything, giving him the go-ahead to continue.

"My people and I are rogues," Jarek continued. "We lived in the Black Market mostly. We took any jobs that were offered to us... at least that’s how most of us started."

He paused before he continued.

"Honestly, my people and I were some of the lucky ones in the Black Market."