"Manfred hadn't given up on the Wilderness Wolf, as everyone was calling him. A few more weeks in the dark, Manfred figured, and Asa would be his again: a savage creature of destruction who would do Manfred's bidding without question." – Charlie Bone and the Beast, Book 5
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How dare he.
How dare he!
After all that time spent keeping Bone away from his father, after all that hard work spent with countless sleepless nights and bruises, he just had to go and ruin it. He had to take everything they had spent so long creating and smash it all to pieces. Just like that.
Had he really thought he could get away? Did he really think that there wouldn't be repercussions? That after all that had happened, he would just let it go? That he wasn't a traitor?
That was what he was.
A filthy, lying, mangy, worthless traitor.
Asa was his, dammit, and no one was allowed to take his possessions. No one.
Yet here had come Bone, just as easily as if he had taken a toy from a child, had taken his servant, his pet, and turned him against the master.
Well, something had to be done about that.
Kidnapping Asa had been quite easy. Getting him locked up? Even better. Sure, his howls alerted the citizens below the academy of a monster, but oh how those mournful cries made him all the happier when falling asleep.
When the dog bites his master, he is punished.
When a dog betrays his master to a grubby little brat that stuck his nose into business that wasn't his, then he is stuck in a hole with no sunlight, food or water and forced to become the dog he acted like.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind, they said.
Manfred felt that it was a pretty equal trade.
Because, you know, his pet really should've known better. He was Manfred's dog, his pet, not anyone else's.
And if Asa couldn't be his-
Well, then Manfred wouldn't let him be anyone's.
-x-
"Asa slumped against the wall. "It's me," he muttered. "Manfred will never let me go, he'd rather see me dead." – Charlie Bone and the Beast, Book 5
