Chapter 24 Attack

**Valerie**
Though the chaos had trailed off, the atmosphere was notably changed. The guests all looked strained and white, with no appetite for the cates served on tables. They seemed to force-feed themselves hastily in complete silence, not interested in chitchatting anymore.
The explosive conversations they just made planted a guess in my mind. These three elderly peerage were obviously sharing a same secret that they were too fear to reveal in public. And the only possible incident, as we all knew, that might be relevant to both vampires and werewolves was the anti-human war.
When the war began, I was only 10. It had lasted 3 years until humans finally surrendered, during which my family was constantly on a move. Even though the city we lived didn’t actually under military attacks, mom and dad insisted we should change our residences more frequently.
They never explained in details why vampires and werewolves unexpectedly colluded to fight against humans. Sometimes, they would just tell us that it’s something too complicated for us to understand. And sometimes, they would let out a heavy sigh and said something vague to each other, like “there’s no right or wrong” or “they are not guilty anyway”.
I had no idea whom they were referring to but their attitudes toward the creatures were rather peculiar. Dad had got an unclear opinion on the wolves that despite fearing them, he still tried to make friends with them, while mom, like I’d mentioned, over-trusted them with no doubts.
During my imprisonment, I had heard two different versions of the war’s cause. Some said it’s because humans invaded in wolves’ territories and violated the peace treaty by crossing the red line. Some said it’s merely an excuse made up by the wolves to justify their maneuvers and delude the world.
Both claims had the rationality logically, but neither of them was clear enough to expound the whole. They could possibly be a trigger, but no origin.
It wasn’t difficult to notice that besides the manifest tension between two species, there’s unease within the wolf packs. Xavier seemed to take his own stance distinct from what Caser Murphy had, which raised a silent confrontation between the father and the son.
I gazed at the Caser Murphy who whispered to the neighboring young man with a kind-but-not-genuine smile on his face, eyes narrowing into suspicious slits.
Despite his abdication, Caser Murphy still seemed to play an authoritative role not only among the Red Moon Pack but also in their so-called alliance that he could easily precipitate or mitigate the tension between other two leaders, Felix Woodland and Kronos Lang.
I didn’t realize that my stare had been too blunt before he suddenly turned to look at me. Too my shock, his sullen eyes contacted mine sharply. Before I was possibly able to drop my head and look away, he beckoned me without a surprised look.
My legs were weakened as my heart started racing drastically.
“Excuse me, young lady, could you do me a favor?” He raised his voice and called me again. Though he sounded immensely courteous or even amicable, his countenance was icily hardened and horrible.
I didn’t quite sure what he planned to do since he could have turned to the servants who were standing in much closer proximity to him than I did.
I gulped, trying hard not to wobble.
“What can I help you, mister?” I bowed my head to ask, folded hands shivering against my stomach.
He scanned me for a few seconds before chuckling, “Ease, young girl.” Then he turned to Xavier and asked in an amused tone, “She looked inexperienced, where did Mr. Scot hire her from?”
Digging nails deeply into my palms, I hoped to control the fear and retrieve my calmness. I prayed for his reply. While walking past Xavier towards his father, I had stolen a glance at his face. He looked sullen and morose, hooded eyes shining with a deep burning flare, nerves twitching in his temple.
Xavier remained silent and it’s perhaps worse than any answers. I could feel Caser Murphy’s growing suspicion on me.
“Oh I know her. She’s a mistress of Lucas,” Alpha Felix blurted out all of a sudden after drinking up the wine in his glass and squinting at me.
“Lucas Lang?” Caser Murphy repeated skeptically.
“Right, like father like son, ugh?” Alpha Felix laughed in a tipsy tone while glanced wickedly at Kronos Lang, whose face turned gloomy instantly.
I exhaled quietly as Caser Murphy softened his tone and said, “A cup of hot tea.”
Complying with his order, I hastily went to the kitchen and asked one of the slaves. I was breathless when the slave looked at me with a bemused face and checked, “Are you sure he asked for hot tea?”
I nodded, panting violently without noticing the oddity exuding from her reply.
“Weird…They never drank that.” She murmured before giving me the directions, “There’s some tea bags up in the cupboard. And you can get boiling water there.” She pointed at the kettle on stove.
“Thanks.”
I did as she guided and hustled into the dining room, not dare wasting a second.
Caser Murphy eyed me with a nod as I hold up the saucer to him two-handed.
“It smells nice, thank you.” He praised politely while taking it.
Before I felt relieved to step aback and drop my hands, he inverted the cup abruptly as if he carelessly knocked it over. But when I was astonished to goggle at his face, a vicious smile lingered around his lips.
“Oh I’m so sorry.” He pretended to be regretful.
Boiling water poured on my bare hands. Extreme pain hit me down as I yelped harshly.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Xavier suddenly pushed back his chair and raised up, gazing at me in a worried look. Then he made a quick move as if he was about to striding towards me.
No.
He shouldn’t.
Though I didn’t quite understand why Caser Murphy did this to me, I knew his real target was Xavier, as he had been inspecting his son’s reaction contractedly since the celebration started. It would cause dubiety and suspicions in the werewolves if they saw their Alpha had cared about a human slave so much. That could put myself in danger as well.
“That’s fine, Mister. I’m sorry for the fuss, Alpha Xavier” I apologized managing to steady my voice from shaking and switched to behold at Xavier deeply, trying to stop him.
“Please excuse me.” I bent slightly to make a humble bow.
Then I retreated back with my head down and exit the dining room. I was afraid of letting him see my face twisted in pain.
I rushed to the faucet in kitchen immediately, letting the cool tap water washing over my hands. Small blusters grew quickly on my swollen skin. I blinked my eyes to hold back tears and breathed deeply to ease the pain.
“Are you ok?” Someone asked worriedly at the doorway.
I turned to see it was Benjamin. As I managed to force a smile to him, he ran to me in a hurry, stunned by my injury.
As if noticed my confused expression, he explained shortly, “Alpha Xavier asked me to help you.”
“Come on, we have some ointment in sleeping room.” He beckoned me to follow him.
We climbed upstairs to the third floor, where he led me into a room with six beds. The space between each was so narrow that Benjamin had to squeeze himself into the gap as he squatted down to get something beneath his bed. Then he pull out a wooden trunk before delving into it carefully.
”Got it!“ He exclaimed in delight, grabbing a tube in his hand and turned to me.
All of a sudden, Benjamin’s face turned pale.
He paused in stillness as he widened his eyes staring at the door behind me.
“What—” Bemused by his behavior, I frowned, wanting to ask him what happened.
But he quickly shook his head to stop me as his index finger pressed against lips to make a “hush” signal.
When we remained in silence, I noticed the faint creaks, like someone was sneaking to approach me outside this room.
It came closer and closer. We exchanged our glances in panic, holding our breaths. Other than the horrible creaks, I could only hear the racing heartbeat in my chest.
Everyone else now should either be in the dining room or in kitchen.
Who’d possibly come to us, and walk in such sneaking way?
I slowly turned my body, hoping to look back but before I made any moves, a large boom erupted, door slammed open.
I saw Benjamin’s jaw dropped in dread.
When I finally turned around to look at the visitors, he screamed out desperately in fright.
Two strong men crawled towards us with callous faces, baleful light of blue springing up in their squints.
They were werewolves.
Before I was able to struggle or shriek for help like Benjamin, one of them dashed over and grabbed my throat. As his finger tightened, I could hardly breathe or move. My lumps was vacuumed with oxygen and my mind started blurring in suffocation.