Chapter 520: The West Gate

Content Warning: This Chapter contains references to sexual violence, rape, and exploitation of minors. Reader discretion is advised.

One Month Before

The men were laughing.

Their voices carried easily through the thinning forest as they made their way west.

Branches cracked beneath boots. A cart rattled loudly behind them, its wooden wheels bumping against the earth. The iron rims screeched every now and then when they struck stone.

The cart was heavy.

Heavy with the things they had taken from the Black Market.

Heavy with things they had bought from Owl.

And heavy with things they had stolen.

The men surrounding it were in excellent spirits.

Some of them were still smeared with blood, but none of them seemed to care.

"Did you see the look on that merchant’s face?" one of the warriors said between bursts of laughter.

Another slapped his shoulder. "Which one? They all looked like they’d pissed themselves."

More laughter. It was loud and crude and carefree.

They walked as though they had just returned from a festival rather than a massacre.

At the edge of the group, a man walked quietly among them.

His hood was low.

His clothes were ragged and stained with dried blood.

His posture slightly hunched.

His head lowered just enough to look like a recruit who knew better than to speak when superiors were present.

William. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

That was the name they knew him by.

But beneath the dirt and borrowed clothes...

Beneath the mask of a nervous soldier...

Tobias listened... carefully too.

Information was the only reason he was here.

Ahead of him, Craig laughed loudly.

The man walked with the relaxed confidence of someone who believed himself untouchable. His hand rested lazily on the pommel of his sword as he looked back at the cart.

"Well," Craig said, grinning broadly. "Victoria will absolutely love this."

Anderson snorted beside him.

"Oh, she will," he said. "She asked us to deal with the Black Market."

Craig spread his arms wide.

"And we did even better."

The men around them chuckled.

Craig’s grin widened.

"Not only did we destroy the Black Market..."

He paused as the other men leaned in. His voice dropped with satisfaction.

"We killed Owl too."

The warriors burst out laughing.

"Oh, I’m so glad we did. Owl really knew too much," Craig said with a laugh.

Tobias frowned at that.

"What do you mean... Owl knew too much?"

The question slipped out before he could stop himself.

Craig turned.

For a moment Tobias wondered if he had made a mistake.

Then Craig laughed.

"Oh?"

He stepped closer.

Without warning, he reached out and rubbed Tobias’s hair roughly like one would a younger brother.

"You ask the most surprising questions sometimes, William."

The warriors chuckled.

Craig gestured toward the cart.

"You see all that?"

The lower soldiers pulling it straightened slightly.

Inside the cart were bundles wrapped in cloth.

Crates reinforced with iron bands.

The scent coming from them was unmistakable.

Beast remains which Tobias himself had sold to them.

Craig tapped the side of the cart.

"We bought things from Owl that you can’t find anywhere else."

His grin sharpened.

"Remains from beasts found only in Nirvana."

Several of the soldiers whistled appreciatively.

"Everyone knows there’s nothing Owl doesn’t know," Craig continued casually.

His tone changed slightly to something close to respect, which almost resulted in an eye roll from Tobias.

"Even I wondered if Owl knew things about me," he said.

For a moment there was a quiet shift in the air.

Then Anderson burst out laughing.

He slapped Craig across the back.

"Oh shut up," he said as he laughed. "Owl is as dead as that foolish girl that tried to steal from you months ago."

"Do not remind me of that bitch," Craig said in disgust.

Anderson laughed at that. "But you enjoyed fucking her, didn’t you?"

"She was good. I gave her everything she wanted. I never expected she was going to steal from me after everything," Craig said with disgust.

Paul, the last man who had been standing with Craig and Anderson when Tobias had spied on them, finally spoke up.

"Perhaps if you had shared her she wouldn’t have tried to steal from you," he said to Craig.

"And I don’t like sharing, especially when it comes to virgins like her," Craig said delightedly.

Anderson cleared his throat. "Before we spiral with this talk about virgins... I was saying something."

Everyone turned to him as he gestured vaguely behind them toward the distant direction of the destroyed Black Market.

"We killed Owl ourselves... I’d say that’s even more delectable than fucking virgins against their will..."

Tobias’s teeth clenched tightly.

They were talking about rape.

They were speaking so casually about rape like it was something normal.

In the Nightshade Pack, anyone who committed a crime like that was immediately exiled, and not without punishment, although thankfully there had been no case of that at all.

Tobias could only imagine how hurt those girls would have been when taken against their will.

He clenched and unclenched his fists.

He wanted to punch them.

Throw their faces against a wall or even make them feel the exact same thing those girls had felt when taken against their will.

*Calm down, Tobias. I know you are angry but now isn’t the time to react. Clear your mind.* Ryker told him calmly.

Tobias inhaled and then exhaled, calming himself down.

Several men nodded in agreement with Anderson’s words.

"And there’s no way for us to know if Owl actually knew anything about you," Anderson continued, grinning.

Craig stared at him for a second.

Then he barked out a laugh.

"You’re right," he said as he gave Anderson a look. "There’s a reason you are part of us."

"He’s even more brutal than we are," Paul said with a chuckle.

"Tell me, do you want some virgin too? When we get to the pack I can arrange one for you to come from some other pack," Craig told him.

"Nah, I’m not sure I’ll have the time to start checking if she’s a virgin. How will I even be certain that she is one?" Anderson asked. "What if she’s pretending to be one?"

"Um... did you see the last girl me and Craig fought over?" Paul asked Anderson.