Page 67 of Wolf's Forbidden Curse

Nic smiled excitedly. “I’m so glad you asked.”

Simone looked well enough, all things considered.

She was obviously tired from the journey, and she held herself very stiffly as we all sat together in the living room—saying nothing. Perhaps if Cornelius wasn’t such an awkward individual to begin with, he would’ve been able to facilitate the start of this conversation. But he was more comfortable sitting in silence. He always was.

The only thing that eased my worries in the slightest was the fact that Simone was still quite small in stature. If she was going to launch an attack on the four of us, she stood no chance.

Unless there were others lurking nearby.

Eventually, Matt did the honors of breaking the tension by clearing his throat and sitting up straight on the couch next to me. “So, Simone… Um, it’s good to see you.”

“It’s really good to see all of you,” she said. To her credit, she sounded genuine.

“Er—um,” Matt stumbled on. “Before we really talk about anything going on at the compound or what happened out here with our friend who was kidnapped, there’s something I wanted to just get out in the open.”

“Go ahead.”

“I hope you don’t find this question offensive in any way, but you didn’t bring any, like, backup with you today… right?”

Simone frowned, and when she did, she looked eerily like her brother. “Backup?”

“Is there anyone waiting in the woods outside to attack us?” Nic rephrased the question. I was glad she was the one to do this because I knew Cornelius already saw me as the most antagonistic of the group. “Do we need to be worried about pack members trying to drag us back to the compound, or can we speak openly and freely with you?”

She looked to Cornelius. “I told you it was just me coming.”

“I know. They just have trust issues. You can’t exactly blame them.”

She paused for a second, then nodded. “No, I guess I can’t. It makes sense that you would be cautious. The last time any of you saw me, I was a kid. I did think it was a little too easy when Cornelius said that I could come for a visit.” She laughed softly. “There was a moment in which I wondered whether or not I was about to walk into an ambush of some kind. But I didn’t think my brother would do something like that.”

“Never,” Cornelius confirmed.

“And I appreciate that the rest of you are giving me enough grace to sit here and explain a little bit about what’s been going on at the compound. To answer your question, no, I didn’t bring anyone with me. You're welcome to search my car or whatever if that makes you feel better.”

“That won’t be necessary,” said her brother.

I wasn’t sure I agreed, but I kept my mouth shut.

“Okay then,” said Matt. “Tell us what’s been going on down south.”

“I don’t even know where to start… I’ve been scared for a while now, worried about the safety of the pack, but when Cornelius told me about this black market situation…” She trailed off.

“What has you so worried?” I asked.

“Everything.” She smirked. “The pack’s numbers are way down. A lot of people have left over the years, and the leaders are getting more zealous each day. Which in turn leads to more people leaving, and so on and so forth. It’s a vicious cycle. There are talks amongst leadership of actually launching an attack on the nearby town, trying to take over more land and assert our dominance over humans. Every time I—or anyone else for that matter—point out that we need to be working to protect the pack instead of looking for a fight, they snap at them. They even threw someone off the compound for suggesting that we leave the humans alone and focus on recruiting new members instead.”

“Have they really grown so dense?” I shook my head. “They have to realize how vulnerable they are with so few members.”

“I don’t know… Everyone who is left, besides myself and a couple of outliers, are the ones who really believed the wolf supremacy message from the beginning. They’re all nuts, and the more insulated they become, the more invincible they start to feel. They’re in this echo chamber of their own creation, and it’s making them feel untouchable. Never mind the fact that wolf hunters are crawling around all over the South, and now apparently there’s some rare-creature collector out there looking for cryptids to put on display.” She exhaled heavily. “If something doesn’t change soon, we’re fucked.”

“So why haven’t you left?”

Simone didn’t answer right away. After a few seconds, however, she met my gaze and responded. “I understand why the four of you left. I really do. I’ve never blamed you for leaving the compound, and I knew you would’ve taken me and the other little ones along if you could’ve. But in the end, we were left behind, and someone had to take responsibility for making sure the younger generations in the pack didn’t receive the same psychotic indoctrination that we were given. I did what I could, with some help from a few other sympathetic adults who were still around at the time, but you know how vulnerable children are… There was only so much I could do.”

“You’re saying some of the younger kids are starting to become zealots, too?” Cornelius said, eyes wide with alarm.

“I’m afraid so. Say what you want about the leaders, but they are convincing. And I knew if I left the compound, the few kids who had followed in my footsteps would be lost to the fray. They would have the peacefulness beaten out of them and would have no choice but to conform. I couldn’t let that happen. Even coming here is a huge risk. If the leaders found out… I don’t even want to think about what would happen. I would be cast out for sure. Maybe even worse.”

“Can I ask then… Why did you come? And why now?” I tried my best to make the question sound less accusatory, and thankfully, it seemed like Simone took it that way.

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