The Beta’s Regret

Three days.

Three days was all it took for the spies to get back to us.

There was a tense silence in the camp as I stood before them, listening to the only survivor as he told us exactly what had happened.

Out of the four men that went out as spies, only one of them made it back.

Dread pulled at my veins with every word he uttered. This wasn't what I had envisioned would happen, and suddenly I began to doubt my decision.

The day they left camp to spy on the palace, I was filled with hope that they would come back with information that would hopefully help us defeat Pison and take back our territory.

It wasn't supposed to be a very difficult mission; at least that was what I thought before.

"Tell me, Killian, how did it go?" Even though I had already been briefed on what happened, it was still agonizing to hear the end of their quest.

"We didn't make it." I heard the man kneeling in front of me say. His voice broke as he bowed in despair. "When we got to the palace, we decided to go our separate ways so we could cover more ground."

He shut his eyes tightly and tightened his fist on the ground.

"They didn't make it out of there. I barely escaped myself."

My teeth clenched. I never anticipated this disaster.

"What happened there?" I asked.

"We got little information on King Pison and his men, but while trying to sneak out of the palace, we met some rogues. They were drunk and having some sort of celebration... It was unexpected. They immediately knew that we were spies and took us down." He looked away as he continued.

them, but we were outnumbered, and no matter how hard I fought, the rogues were stronger. It was as if they had some kind of extra power.

"I couldn't save them."

did you escape?"

"Dain." He said softly.

to place the name with a face. Dain was the biggest of the four men.

few seconds before he

fight off the wolf that was on me, but he was overpowered and defeated; however, I was able to escape. At first I tried to help, but when I saw that I couldn't help the others, I ran back to the camp. I knew I had to

was all my fault. If only I hadn't told those men to go out and spy, they would be fine

It was certain that King Pison would never

the courage I could gather, I

people looked at me, waiting to hear what I

Pack everything valuable and let's go now!" Immediately, the crowd burst into a loud murmur.

we need to move away from here? We just moved to this

"Why should we keep running? We are

crowd increased, and soon I could hardly

I called out

down. I continued. "We are far from being safe. Our men have been captured. And we know what King Pison and his rogues are capable of. They will need answers, and they will find it. No one is safe here. The sooner we leave, the higher

crowd gasped in

leave in a few minutes." I

crowd cheered in response as they went

down like a flood. I felt the guilt gnaw at me as I held in the screams I felt tempted to release. Knowing I had no time, I grabbed what I could. My son was with my mother, and Lily was with

furious

eyes and made my way outside, my eyes still red-rimmed. I saw

witch!" She

frowned. "Who