OWL for Gretchen

[Zander Smith]

To Gretchen,

I am Zander, the leader of another werewolf pack in the area. I understand that you are holding one of my pack members, Ashura, captive in your camp. I know that you want to ransom her to her brother, Sully, however, you should know that kidnapping a member of a rival pack could cause a war between our packs. Hopefully it will not come to that.

Members of my pack ran into a member of your pack, a young girl named Dawn. She collapsed at their feet in the forest and they took her back to our place to nurse her back to health. She also apparently had a shaking fit of some kind.

I assure you that she is doing well now, and she is not harmed. But we are keeping her until you are ready to release Ashura--safe and unharmed. I suggest we have a trade for the two girls.

Are we in agreement?

Sincerely,

Zander

[Gretchen Thomas]

Gretchen was still standing near the girl, eating some cold oatmeal that had been prepared by Dawn, when the owl flew into the camp and landed on a tree branch next to her. Gretchen set her oatmeal down on a tree stump and picked up the owl with a laugh. "Maybe your dear brother has responded already," she said eagerly. But as she unfurled the letter that was wrapped around the bird's leg, she frowned. It was not from the hunter. It was from Zander. She swore loudly.

After she had finished reading the letter, she crumpled it up and tossed it in the fire. "So," she said angrily, turning to Ashura. "It seems your pack leader misses you, after all. They have Dawn and want to arrange a trade."

[Kris Lupin]

"I doubt he kidnapped her like you did me." Ashura said glaring at Gretchen. Even though she was on Gretchen's grounds she felt safe with her necklace against her chest.

[Gretchen Thomas]

Gretchen frowned. "He says they're taking good care of her," she said. "They'd better. Dawn is completely innocent in all of this. But oh, I forgot, your pack leader is oh so honorable. He'd never hurt anyone, right?" She shook her head. "I know you don't understand this, but this is the way it is supposed to be. When your mate is killed, you're supposed to take revenge against the killer. And your brother is a werewolf hunter. He could have killed you, just as easily as he killed Buck. And he did what he did out of revenge for his fiancee. How is that any different?"

[Kris Lupin]

Ashura fell silent thinking, she didn't know if it was any different. "I don't care, he's still my brother and he's not hunting anymore." Why had she trusted Korbel? She let her feelings mess with her judgement.

[Gretchen Thomas]

"Well, you may not care, but I do," said Gretchen. "I don't really care how you feel. You're nothing to me. You're just lucky I don't let Quinn torture you." She sat down on the tree stump and looked at the owl that had delivered the message and was apparently waiting for a reply. With a loud curse, she picked up a rock and threw it at the owl, which immediately flew up and around in a circle, landing indignantly on her head. She brushed at it in irritation as she tried to think about how to respond.

[Kris Lupin]

Ashura looked at the ground wishing she could change the past, stop herself from talking to Korbel. She should have just ignored him, wasn't like he liked her anyway, she still blamed him for her being here.

[Gretchen Thomas]

Gretchen began to think aloud as she tried to work out what to do. "Well, Dawn probably won't approve of any of this," she said. "She hates violence. Whatever happened to her before Buck pulled her out of that so-called hospital scarred her pretty badly. I'm sure if she knew about any of this, she would just try to talk me out of it. And even if I did let you go, I fully intend to let your brother come anyway, so I can kill him. So I think it's best if I tell him I will agree to the trade only after I kill Sully. Yeah, that sounds right," she said. She conjured a quill and parchment and began to draft a response letter.