บท 6: Chapter 6: A New Era in Siam
Anurak
I vowed never to return to Thonburi, however, my new pack needed me. I would have rather died trying to save them than watch the people I cared about be slaughtered by this vile pack. I already lost my parents to Thonburi’s treacheries and deceits; older now, I wouldn’t let that happen again.
Armed with my father’s jade crescent dagger, I set out from Ayutthaya, the location of Pattani’s new auxiliary packhouse. After an expansion north from the most southern tip of Siam, Pattani’s Luna, Ploysai, decided it was in our pack’s best interest to set up a second station of command in the country’s nucleus of trade, tourism, and commerce. Luna Ploysai put me in charge of our northern packhouse as a tribute to my parents, who heroically defended Ayutthaya from Japanese imperialists at the turn of the 20th century.
Thonburi’s menacing wrought-iron gates, double the height of me, with gold-chiseled wolf statues resting upon each fencepost, unwelcomely greeted me. They served to intimidate as a symbol of supremacy rather than defend from intruders because the matte-black metal bars left more than enough space for a full-sized adult to walk through.
The humidity was suffocating; it was Siam’s most brutal time of year: rainy season. My trek to Thonburi began at dawn, and now approaching late afternoon, my body was dehydrated and my legs wobbled like tapioca pudding. Speaking of food, my blood sugar was severely low, relying only on peanuts to power me through the journey. I was approaching the heart of evil with my bloodless face and weary eyes. With the face of a ghost, pale and about to collapse, I marched as defiantly as I could considering the circumstances, although, I’m sure I looked more pathetic than anything.
I approached the packhouse’s grand entrance that had two gold porcelain ‘prangs’ made of sandstone, which towered over the white brick-laden stairs of which Prayut was standing. Oddly, as I neared, the despicable man seemed terrified of me, which given my less-than-imposing build, I found unusual, until I remembered I looked like a wandering spirit.
“So, we meet again,” I said as a matter of formality, however I had no friendly intentions upon my return.
“GGGET TTTTHE FFFF*CKK AWAY FFFROM MMEE,” Prayut demanded as he awkwardly crawled backwards on all fours.
I didn’t expect to receive a warm homecoming, however a simple, “Sawandee” greeting would have been nice.
“We thought you had died,” a feminine voice as peaceful as the sound of delicate raindrops chimed in.
I turned my head away from Prayut who looked like he was amid an existential crisis to see a scintillating beauty in a dress the color of charcoaled obsidian. Her black damask gown was striking enough, matched with her silky black hair, the top layer held together by a platinum butterfly hair clip, with the rest draped to her waistline. The dress fit her like a paintbrush, only widening ever so slightly at her hips, but returning to an elegant point at her face and toes. Her macadamia-colored skin radiated warmth, like a hug from her could heal all my misery. Intimidated by her beauty, I avoided direct eye-contact, however her voice serenaded me out of my fantasy.
The cadence in her words, and the trembling in each syllable, sounded of someone who really missed me. There was only one person left in Thonburi’s pack who held me that dearly: Arisara.
I lifted my head and stared into her enchanting golden irises, confirming my presumption. It was my former friend, and more importantly, the only one who could help me now.
“Rather presumptuous I would have died that easily,” addressing my answer directly to Kun Chavoret, the man tasked to capture and kill me that day, now salivating at me in his wolf form. I knew his tactics from my training sessions at the academy, so I could tell from the unsteadiness in his stance that he wasn’t going to attack.
Everyone here expected me to be dead, and their reactions supported their belief: trembling lips, quivering legs and shoes nervously tapping on the pavement, as if I was a reincarnated version of my fourteen-year-old self-returning to curse the depths of their souls. Although it felt empowering to exude such influence, I wasn’t dumb enough to think I was in control. One order from Prayut, now shielding himself behind Arisara, and I would be the pack’s feast tonight.
“CHAVORET! YOU SAID YOU KILLED HIM YOURSELF!? EXPLAIN THIS...NOW!” Prayut asked his Gamma dumbfoundedly, poking his head out ever-so-slightly from behind Arisara’s back.
“Still a Gamma, I see,” I muttered sarcastically, taking advantage of Chavoret’s cornered predicament.
“SHIFT, NOW!” the angry voice re-appeared, this time without a face to show.
Kun Chavoret shifted at Prayut’s command, changing from a threatening, killer wolf, to a flaccid, elderly man. And as if matters couldn’t get any worse, he was left naked from the shift.
“I, I, I w-w-was told f-f-from m-mmy ss-subordinate, Omega Thirapol, tt-t-hat he killed tt-tthe boy pp-ersonally,” the captain of Thonburi’s death pack wavered with his speech. “I, I, I ww-will mm-m-ake s-s-sure t-to p-punish him immediately v-via dd-eath bb-b-by t-torture.”
I wasn’t sure if the stuttering was because he was nervous, or self-conscious about the size of his shaft. You can’t blame this one on the cold!
“You will do no such thing!” Arisara roared in an irritated voice. “As Luna of this pack I will not have more bloodshed. You have quite the menacing words for someone with such a small d*ck. Now leave my sight immediately and put on some clothes.”
Biting my lip to restrain an outburst of laughter, I pretended to sneeze, raising my forearm to block the imaginary mucus as a way to cover the grin on my face. So, I wasn’t the only one to notice that unbecoming scene!
As I calmed down from my bout of immaturity, Arisara’s words dawned on me. SHE WAS THE LUNA OF THONBURI?!?! My childhood friend, the one who would skip training and scarf down a whole plate of fried chicken with sticky rice and still have the gall to attend class after with the residue on her crimson Panung dress. The one who would sneak out from her room to play badminton in the mud pits after a monsoon with me, against her father’s orders. The one who pranked our school’s principal that the building was under siege by Rogues and caused an emergency evacuation just so she and I could ride tandem on her new bicycle.
The one who helped me escape from Thonburi.
I turned my head directly to Arisara, confirming the woman that just announced herself as Luna was also the girl who unlocked my prison cell four years ago. I was perplexed that her father handed over the pack’s reigns this early to his daughter who objected his every move.
Enamored by my friend-turned-Luna’s, enchanting beauty and prominence, I honed in on the only imperfection my eyes could notice on her: a scratch on her left cheek. She did a great job masking it with foundation that matched her skin tone, like she was used to hiding the blemish, as if it was a source of great pain. In all our years together, I never noticed such a mark on her face. Only her father or husband could have been so vicious to give her a wound so permanent.
“I came to speak to your father,” I interrupted.
I had been gone too long, easily distracted by all the beautiful wildlife that decided to appear on my excursion, unable to resist drawing the lovely creatures in my notepad. I was already delayed from my expected arrival time and Luna Ploysai informed me if I wasn’t back before sunset that she would send a pack of reconnaissance wolves after me assuming the worst.
“He’s dead,” Arisara responded dispassionately.
He’s dead?! He wasn’t even that old! Either it was karma or his irritating son-in-law that annoyed him to death. Which meant that Prayut was the Alp-
“I’m the one in charge now,” Prayut stood dramatically, unsheathing himself from behind Arisara’s back, as if he was waiting for a dramatic entrance this whole time.
Of course, it was only a matter of time before Arisara and her husband would be leading the pack. Everyone in Thonburi knew Arisara was the future Luna, being the only child of her father, but it felt weird to actually see new leadership after all these years of treachery. Normally I would have been comforted with knowing the pack’s leadership under Arisara was sane again, however I knew Prayut’s paws would be all over the new regime. Arguably, that would be even worse for the citizens of Siam, than the time under Alpha Mahara.
“It was a shame I couldn’t say my proper goodbyes to your shameful parents. Oh, how I would’ve loved hearing your mother moan in pain like I was f*cking her, and seeing your father’s face pulverized!” Prayut went too far.
I dug my fingernails deep into my sides as if my nails were talons of a wolf. Regrettably, I still couldn’t shift. If I could have, I would have bitten that beast’s tongue, ripping it right out of his vile mouth so he would endure the worst pain imaginable, but still survive, and suffer for the rest of his life never able to speak another ignorant word ever again.
“You sick b*stard,” Arisara chided her contractual ‘partner.’ Her arranged marriage to Prayut was no secret to all of Thonburi. Never once did I see them sharing moments of intimacy, tenderness, or love.
“After all, if my wife here didn’t resist me, maybe I would have finished fast enough to see your parents die,” Prayut continued with his manic dialogue.
“What does he mean?” I directed my question to Arisara who was trembling traumatically.
Her eyes glassed over, motionless, as if every word Prayut spoke was killing her.
“You should know, the dumb can’t speak,” Prayut mocked. “Let’s just say our virtuous Luna here likes it rough. She was having the time of her life, until YOU came and f*cked it all up!”
My arteries were pumping and my veins were bulged to their capacity. I reached into my back pocket to grab my father’s dagger as I was interrupted by more blistering words.
“You see that ugly scar on my b*tch’s face?! That was your fault! And now I have to close my eyes during s*x so I can erase her hideous face from my memory!”
It finally dawned on me that the wolf that guided me to safety in the jungle, the wolf that I slashed across the face, the wolf with the golden eyes, was my only friend who always vowed to protect me. And I wounded her. Not her ruthless father. Not her wicked husband.
It was me, the one who wounded the Luna of Thonburi.
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