Trinity (A Werewolf Novel) ✔

Chapter Five

I was led by two lycans and a rather somber Caleb, or Beta Caleb as he had been called. We halted in front of what appeared to be a completely rundown and abandoned, enormous building on the outskirts of the Lycan village. I didn't fight against my fate. In fact, I spent the entire walk towards it in a daze of confusion. However, when seeing the building before me and realizing I was being banished to starve to death within it, I finally found my footing for sanity.

"I'm not going in there," I declared firmly quite suddenly.

The building windows were boarded up and those boards had bars twisted horribly over them. The door was crossed with metal slabs to prevent entry and even without those, chains with locks were wrapped around the door handles. Remnants of what could have been statues were shattered and ripped from parts of the edge of the roof and it looked as though a symbol had been vandalized several feet up from the front doors. This place looked nothing like a temple and if it had ever been once, it definitely was one no longer.

"You lost the challenge. You're lucky Alpha Roman didn't just rip you apart," Caleb told me simply, though a sense of unease was shrouding his words. I turned to look at him. He was looking at the would-be temple with an expression of regret or otherwise discomfort. A glance at the other two lycans revealed different emotions; looks of distaste and hatred.

"Why is it abandoned? Did you make a new temple somewhere else?" I abruptly inquired, curious about their reaction towards the place. Caleb turned to look at me, careful not to reveal any further expression.

"We don't follow the Moon Goddesses anymore. All temples have been ordered abandoned. It's safe to assume you won't receive any visitors here," He responded shortly before indicating for the others to open the door. It took a couple of minutes to remove all the barricades. When they finished, they opened one of the doors to the temple and moved away.

"I'm definitely not going in there," I repeated firmly.

Caleb abruptly ducked under me, lifting me from the ground and over his shoulder as though I were a bag of feathers. I screeched and punched his back, struggling viciously against him.

"Let me go, you... you jerk!" I got my wish when he suddenly dropped me to the floor. I was able to catch one more glance of his face, one of hesitation, before the door to the temple was shut in mine. I cried out in panic, pushing myself to my feet and trying to open it senselessly. "No! Wait! Don't leave me in here! Let me out!"

The door was firmly shut. From the outside, I could hear the clangs of them replacing the barricades, fully intending to carry out the King Alpha's orders. I felt cold all over suddenly. Surely this was a joke. After everything, this couldn't be the way I went.

I leaned against the door and slid down to the floor in momentary defeat. I cradled my head in my hands, taking a moment to take in my situation and think of a way around it. I would just have to look for an escape. And then I could run back to my village. If I could figure out which direction that was in...

Either way, I wasn't going to find an exit by sitting where I was. I opened my eyes, leaned my head back, and then hesitated. My eyes were greeted by the beginning interior of the temple. Where I had thought it would be as trashed and otherwise as harmed as the outside, I was completely wrong.

I stood slowly, taking in the initial mural on the wall immediate to the entrance. It depicted three silhouettes of women standing atop an ocean of trees, each of them looking to the sky with their hands lifted. And in their grip was three moons; a waxing, full, and waning moon.