Serge's POV

I resisted the urge to shove my fist through the wall. It would be satisfying in the moment, but would only result in more work for my already stretched people. Those damn eastern wolves constantly pushed us to our limit.

My mind rushed back to what I had done to Nicholas' daughter and the memory smothered my anger towards the eastern wolves. I had understood my unforgivable error the moment my canines and magic had sunk into the flesh at the scruff of her neck, but even then it had been already too late.

Nicholas was understandably both furious and devastated. I could only be thankful that he had not declared war on my pack then and there. We both knew he could release his daughter from the magic with which I had bound her easily enough.

She would be free again upon my death. One simple shot to the head, or one quick rip of his canines through my soft human jugular and her curse would be lifted.

I was fortunate he could not simply kill me.  Fortunate? I scoffed. I was not fortunate. None of us were fortunate.

The main reason that Nicholas had held himself back was because his pack needed me as much as my pack needed him.

Nicholas and I were two of the three leaders of our trifecta of northern allied packs, along with Austin, the leader of the northernmost territory. We three working together along with our packs were all that held the eastern enemies who ever sought to conquer our territories at bay.

The reason we still stood today is because of the bonds of trust forged over decades, since my grandfather's time as leader.

Bonds I had certainly brought near to the breaking point with my inexcusable and inexplicable action.

Though we were close allies, the constant preparations for war had left little time to actually know each other. While I had met his son and heir from common training exercises and from fighting side by side in battle, I had never met his daughter before today.

If you could call that disastrous moment a meeting.

I fervently wished that I had met her before today. Just one time and I would have recognized her and I would have known she was not a threat.

I replayed the moments before it had happened in my mind.

I had just dispatched an enemy who had been trying his damnedest to kill me and I spun around to see an unfamiliar wolf leaping into the fray.

She had been sprinting directly in the direction of my second in command. In the chaos of battle, I had thought she was attacking Dan from behind while he was engaged in his own fight.

I had merely sought to even the odds. We were as ever outnumbered and even a young and sleek female like her could do damage to an already occupied opponent.

I attacked to kill, but some faint realization in the corner of my mind held me back from taking her life in that last moment.

Instead of attempting to break her neck or rip out her throat as I had intended, I stopped myself from the kill and unthinkingly released the magic that was mine by right of my position as leader.

I cursed her into submission to my pack.

The magic was not intended as a weapon of war; it was a punishment.

It was supposed to be reserved only for the worst crimes and most base betrayals, things so terrible neither I nor my father had ever even had cause to even consider using it on one of our own people.

I had never even considered using it on my worst enemies.

Probably not even if I got my hands on and my canines into the eastern king.

Yet fool that I was, I had used it impulsively and unthinkingly on an innocent ally. Nicholas' daughter, no less.

I had little doubt that he wanted to rip out my throat at this very moment.  I truly could not blame him. His restraint was remarkable. If only my restraint had been so impressive.

I stopped myself from assaulting the wall again. My fists itched to bleed.

Even if she had been an enemy in truth and had been attacking Dan in the most cowardly ambush, she still would have deserved better. I should have simply maimed her; I should have killed her.

I leaned my head against the painted drywall, disgusted by my own, by my worst failure.

My true wolf came up to me and pushed his muzzle into my side empathetically. I scratched the back of Denizen's neck with my hand absently, still lost in my tortured memories.

I could picture her wolf form cowering before me in abject terror, those golden brown eyes darting around everywhere but towards me.

I loathed myself as I wondered if she would have preferred death to the suffering I had inflicted upon her.

* * * * * * * * *

Eventually, I threw myself into work in my home office, but my mind was never far from my poor thrall.

I had to find a way to manage the curse, but coward that I was I could not bring myself to go near her and see the further results of my mistake just yet.

I had left her in Karen's capable hands. Karen was a gentle mother of three. She would see to the girl's welfare until I could bring myself to face her.

In time I would have to deal with her, but for now I wanted to put off the moment of reckoning a bit longer.

Perhaps her terror would subside slightly as she became used to her new surroundings. She shook like the last leaf in fall when I was near her, as if one small gust of wind might knock her down.

More likely I was merely afraid to face my shame. For the first time since their deaths, a part of me was glad my parents were not alive to witness my dishonour; to see what a disappointment their son had turned out to be.

A knock on the door interrupted my ruminations and forced me to realize I had been simply staring blankly at the spreadsheet on my computer screen for some unknown period of time.

"Come in," I said roughly.

The door cracked open and Karen walked inside. Denizen used the opportunity of the open door to slip into my office and find his usual spot in the corner. His golden eyes stared at me. I wondered how much he understood of what I had done.

Probably not much or he would have retreated from me in disgust.

Karen was also looking at me. She looked worried, little though I deserved her concern. She seemed hesitant to begin speaking of the obvious topic, so I simply asked, "How is she?"

Though she had been the one to come to me, she still seemed reluctant to respond. "Not great," she admitted as she took a seat on the other side of my desk.

I had not expected a different answer, but it still sent another shock of self recriminations through me. "Go on."

Karen continued hesitantly. "I tried to see what I could find about past cases of the curse," she told me.

"Did you have any luck?"

"Not really. There was one similar case, but it was so long ago I couldn't find anything more than apocryphal tales. All the more recent cases were intended as punishment and it seems no one was particularly interested in finding a way to remove the curse from rapists or murderers."

Again, I had not expected a more favourable answer, but it was painful to hear.

"I also talked to Doctor Fischer when he came by to check Elise's wound, but he didn't really have much to add to beyond what I had already found out."

I was not surprised, but I was disappointed. I wondered if that meant it was possible to feel disappointment without hope, or had I nurtured an unrealistic spark of it in some asinine dark corner of my mind?

I knew better than to hold unrealistic expectations about the situation, everything I had ever heard about the thrall curse was negative. The darkness of the curse never concerned me because I had never imagined I might do something so foolish with this magic with which I had been entrusted.

Karen nodded to herself. "So we're just going to have to figure it out by ourselves."

I could not hope. "I doubt that's possible."

She frowned at me. "We've nothing to lose by trying. I've heard Nick's pack has a formally trained scientist living in the south, we could try there."

"We'll do that," I agreed. I pretended to think it was plausible that a scientist could help with a werewolf problem, but I was sure Nicholas would be willing to let us try anything no matter how unlikely.

I could not afford hope, but Karen needed to have it for her task.

I forced a smile, but it was pitiable at best. "What are you planning?"

That was all the encouragement she needed.

"Well, I think we should try easing her into our pack. Right now she's absolutely terrified of everyone, but I'm hoping that if we get her to spend time around a few of our lower, younger, softer members we can hopefully desensitize her to our people. Right now she shakes and can't even bring herself to meet our eyes."

"I know," I responded more curtly than I had intended. "Sorry. I'm having trouble..."

I could not let myself break down because no matter what happened, my people needed my leadership in the fight. Who knew when our aggressors would return and we needed to be ready.

Karen still looked hesitant.

I knew she was not afraid of me so that only meant she was afraid for me, little though I deserved it.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's fine to give her space for now, but you can't just avoid her."

She was right, but still I scoffed. "The magic makes her terrified of me." Hell, my actions probably made her terrified of me.

"I know, but the magic is tied to your power. I know you didn't intend this, Serge, but..."

I nodded. It was my responsibility to do what I could. "Just try your plan first to ease her in more gently, and then I'll do what I must."

Karen smiled. I could see she was watching me, but I could not quite meet her gentle brown eyes.

"No one blames you, Serge."

"I doubt that," I said. And even if she was correct, even if everyone absolved me, even she and her father and brother, there was no way that I could forget where the blame squarely fell.

Karen opened her mouth as if to say more, but she was interrupted by a commotion outside. Normally I might have been annoyed at the interruption, but I welcomed the distraction.

At least until I confronted him.

* * * * * * * * *

I opened the front door of my home and took in the scene outside. There was a vaguely familiar man perhaps only a few years younger than me standing in my drive when I exited the building. Denizen followed closely beside me.

Dan was clearly trying to speak reason to the intruder since he did not appear to be a threat in the traditional sense. A few other members of my pack stood around my yard curiously, watching the unfolding commotion.

I recognized him as a skillful fighter from Nick's pack, but I didn't know anything else about him.

It did not take precognition to know why he was here.

"Where is she?" he demanded loudly.

"She's settling in, right now," Dan assured him. "She's safe, my wife is taking care of her."

"You call this safe? Your leader cursed and enslaved her and you want to pretend she's safe here? I'm taking Elise home," he growled.

Dan spoke calmly and firmly. "Sending Elise home is of course our eventual goal, but in the meantime we don't want to harm her further."

Apparently my brief period of avoiding dealing my dire error had been ended by this invading distraction.

He proved Karen's gentle lie false. He clearly blamed me. I could hardly disagree; his rage against me was well deserved.

I stepped out of the door and I could tell the moment he noticed me, because his bristling hostility transformed into pure, barely contained fury. I walked down the steps and stood before him.

Denizen trailed after me attentively, his body tense and ears forward.  My loyal wolf was clearly concerned with the tense situation unfolding.

"Can I help you, trespasser?" It did not matter what sin I had committed; these lands still belonged in truth to my pack.

It seemed no one saw it coming except for me and the enraged intruder. He lunged forward and slammed his fist into the left side of my face with a sharp resounding crack. The force of the blow set me backwards.

I could have blocked it, but taking the hit seemed to be more expedient. It even felt good in a way.

Everything was dead silent for a long moment while my people waited for me to respond.

"I deserved that," I said calmly.

My words seemed to give him pause.

"But I will retaliate if you try that again," I added the warning.

He sneered at my words and repeated his question, "Where is she?"

"I know where she is, but I don't know who you are."

"That's none of your business, Serge." He added my name like a curse. Again, it made perfect sense; if someone had committed such an offense against a member of my pack I would be just as livid.

But his opinion on the matter changed nothing of the reality of this disaster I had brought upon myself and my poor thrall.

"I'm responsible for her safety now."

He scowled and eyed my house, correctly guessing that she was inside. I wondered if he would try to rush the building. I was not going to tolerate that.

I hoped he would not, dealings were already strained enough between me and Nicholas without an aggressive interaction between myself and one of his pack members on the same day I had cursed his daughter.

"Who are you?" I asked again.

He scowled at me. "I'm Matthias. Elise's friend."

I considered his words and I wondered if seeing a friend would make things better or worse for my poor thrall. I looked around and spotted Karen around the side of my house, peering at the unfolding scene.

I called over to her. "Karen, will it hurt her to see him?"

She shrugged her uncertainty. "Probably not."

I would have preferred more conviction, but we were flying blind. We were a small bush plane in a white-out blizzard.

"Go and get her, please."

* * * * * * * *