The Remnant of the Pack - Book 1 - GoT

Gone too far

Theon had lost. He knew it. He hadn't been able to find Bran, or Rickon or Ylina, so, instead, he killed two orphan boys and the daughter of a farmer and burned their bodies, to expose it in the walls of Winterfell. He had even brought back the dress he had given Ylina for their dinner that was, somehow, laying around in the farm. That was the only proof Theon had that Ylina had gone through that place. That and the way the hounds seemed sure they had gotten a scent. Theon supposed she had asked for a change of clothes. He supposed she didn't want to wear the dress he had made for her with the finest silks in the Iron Islands while he was there. He supposed she didn't want anything to remember him by. But he still held onto her.

As he played with the silver wolf pin in his hands, he could still recall what she had told him when she gave it to him. What is mine, is yours, she had told him. Always have been and always will be. He remembered how they held each other in that moment, like that was the last moment they would ever have together. And knowing she had fled from him not a month ago, he supposed it had been. Ylina would never look at him like she used to. She would never talk to him like she used to, or touch him like that. If she ever did again.

He snapped out of his thoughts when the horn sounded in the distance again. Clutching Ylina's pin in his hands, he could feel his sorrow turn to anger once more.

"I will kill that man." He announced, sitting in his chair by the fire. "I don't care how many arrows they feather me with, how many spears they run through me, I will kill that horn-blowing cunt before I fall."

"They want you to know you're surrounded." Maester Luwin noted, impassively.

"I know I'm surrounded." Theon grumbled in response. "I know that because I stood on the battlements and saw I was surrounded."

"They don't want you to sleep." The Maester said, as Theon rolled his eyes in annoyance. "They want to sap your spirit before..."

"Thank you, wise bald man." Theon interrupted the man harshly. "Thank you for explaining siege tactics to me."

Maester Luwin didn't say anything and that was when a silence took over the room. That was, until the horn sounded again.

"No word from my father?" Theon asked, as Maester Luwin walked across the room.

"No."

"Send more ravens."

"You killed all the ravens."

At that, Theon huffed, twirling the silver wolf pin in his hands and watching it glow against the light of the fire.

"The first time I saw Winterfell..." He started, only to be interrupted by the horn. He waited it out with a roll of his eyes before speaking up again. "First time I saw Winterfell, it looked like something that had been here for thousands of years and would be here for thousands of years after I was dead. I saw it and I thought, of course, Ned Stark crushed our rebellion and killed my brothers. We never stood a chance against the man who lives here."

"Lord Stark went out of his way to make it your home." Maester Luwin said, as Theon scoffed not even bothering to look at him.

"Yes, my captors were so very kind to me. You love reminding me of that." He spat. The pin in his hands suddenly feeling way heavier than before when Ylina's words from their diner replayed in his head. Had Robert Baratheon taken you as an ward instead of my father, she said. "Everyone in this frozen pile of shit has always loved reminding me of that. You know what it's like to be told how lucky you are to be someone's prisoner? To be told how much you owe them? And then to go back home to your real father..." He stopped talking when the horn echoed through the walls again.