Chapter 57: Loyalty Begot Loyalty
[AWUOR]
"Where can I find alpha Awuor? I know she's not dead. The sooner you get me those answers the sooner you find your way back to your people," Rukiya said, her tone going from defeat to that of the alpha.
"Why, so you can hurt her too? We didn't know whether she was alive or dead, but the only way we are telling you where she may be, is if you search in your life never to hurt her. If you promise to look out for her and never let her get into harm's way.
"Otherwise, you might as well kill us now, but do know that more will always fight for her. We know her for the alpha she is, was, and will always be in our hearts. The alpha who did everything to save us.
"There is just no way she killed her mother, she loved luna Eniola too much. So which is it going to be, alpha Rukiya?
"Your answers for the price of our true alpha's safety and the promise of being on her side, or you can end the interrogation and go back to Greyson and be your people's alpha?" One of the prisoners said with conviction and determination that Rukiya looked like she wanted to know more.
If Awuor had been that good an alpha, why was it so easy for her father and her people to cast her out? Why was it so easy for her brother to lust for more power? Why was it so easy for the world to banish her and look at the young alpha differently?
Awuor Sicario was clearly loved by her people because this was the second day she was here with the prisoners and their loyalty to Awuor was intact. It was almost like they weren't scared to lay down their lives for her. In Rukiya's experience, it was loyalty that begot loyalty.
And knowing the Sicario wolves, they didn't become the greatest pack of all time by just worshiping their leaders. They had their own minds and most of them knew the difference between right and wrong.
Right now, the people here in this shelter seemed overly convinced that Awuor Hawi was never a bad person. No prisoner would lay down their life for a ruler who didn't care for them and so the questions began for alpha Rukiya.
Who was she supposed to trust this time?
"I wont hurt her, I won't do anything to her. I just want to see her again. Is that enough for you?" Rukiya asked and Awuor almost choked in her pretend sleep. She knew better than to fall asleep in a shelter that she wasn't sure was safe for her.
She knew Malika was in her state too, even though they both wanted the same thing. Their mission this time was to find out why Rukiya was so adamant on finding Awuor so much that she was risking having Sicario wolves in the same spot as her.
It wasn't something that happened on a daily basis, which made it even more confusing at the end.
"Don't you think if it were that easy we would have just done that ourselves instead of intentionally triggering the access that binds Greyson and Sicario, huh? We wouldn't have killed your elite prisoners for her, now would we?
"If it were that easy, alpha Rukiya, we would have taken over the throne ourselves and made things right for our alpha but it isn't that easy. It just doesn't end with that.
"Hudhayfah here is a healer, he must know a little about blood oaths, or didn't you, Hudhayfah?" the prisoner said as Hudhaydfah looked at the man like he was insane.
Blood oaths were permanent.
They bound someone to life and if broken, the other person would die, and they wouldn't even need to be reminded that Blood oaths were dangerous.
If Rukiya made a blood oath it would mean that technically the Greyson army was always going to be there to protect Hawi, even if Hawi was against Greyson. That was a dangerous pact and could even be dangerous for Rukiya herself, especially if Awuor ever considered Rukiya an enemy.
It was a long shot, a gamble that they didn't want to even think of. It was crazy and for the love of everything good, Hudhayfah and Adolf silently held that Rukiya Greyson wouldn't do what the prisoners wanted.
"It's a trap, Rukiya. This is a trap and will bind you to so many things. If the Sicario alpha is really alive, we already know she's too crazy for life. She might get you in trouble and you wouldn't even have a choice, Rukiya.
"Don't accept that," Adolf said as he tried to reason with the woman, but one look into Rukiya's eyes and Adolf knew that there was something that the woman wanted. It was almost like Rukiya Greyson was willing to give her life for Alpha Awuor's.
It wasn't ideal, but Rukiya Greyson and ideals didn't really go together. It was like they were hallucinating in so many ways and right now they were losing, but were they?
"Adolf is right, Rukiya. You can't. It's too dangerous. The blood oath binds you and the whole of Greyson and that will not really be for you, if Awuor ever shows up and decides to fight you. You know that woman is a psycho who is fueled by blood.
"You will be their insurance and that is not smart. What if there comes a time when alpha Jer comes to ask for your help to find the banished alpha? What will you do then?
"Will you leave everything behind for the psycho who probably is actually really dead?" Hudhayfah asked worriedly.
He was right to be worried though, because at the moment, no one knew where Hawi was. There were speculations and most believed she was dead.
Maybe it was right that they let the dead remain dead. Maybe then, they would finally go back to their people and lead their lives as usual.
Rukiya looked at her healer and her beta, before she looked at the two prisoners who weren't going to try and relent.
She knew that they were smart, and that just like how Adolf would follow her to the ends of the world, these two prisoners would go to the ends of the world for Hawi.
They would do whatever it took to make sure that their alpha was protected, and that alone kept Rukiya on the edge of her seat. She had been thinking a lot and maybe she had finally made her decision.
"Alpha Awuor is dead, and you have no proof of life, otherwise you would have not come to us," Rukiya said to the two prisoners who just scoffed at her. Seriously she wasn't that dumb, or was she?
"In that case, you wouldn't mind if we take our lives here now, would you?" the other prisoner who had been silent said and Rukiya raised a brow at the two of them. They were really unhinged, but were they?
Was this just another way of coercing the alpha to bind herself to the most dangerous oath on the face of the earth?
Would it really make sense for them to even think like that?
"By all means, go ahead," Adolf said at the same time that Rukiya spoke, and boy did they look at her in shock.
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A/N
What could Rukiya have said to make them that shocked lol?