"Zoey's missing," said a visibly upset Cora. "No one's seen her since yesterday. When I went around, doing diagnostics and healing all the injured, I asked about her—No one admits to letting her out last night."
During the full moon, they locked Ginny Weasley in her room for the night. It was meant to protect her from any Death Eaters aware of her presence at Bleidd as well as prevent her escape. With Ginny gone, a polyjuiced Zoey was to stay locked in until one of the betas returned to let her out in time for moonrise.
"Wasn't Serafina assigned that task?" asked Oskar.
"Yes, but when I asked her about Zoey last night, she said the wards were down and the room empty when she got there. Serafina was held up by some other duties. She assumed that since she was delayed someone else had let Zoey out. She expected to see her with the pack at moonrise."
"But, Zoey wasn't there last night?"
Cora shook her head.
"Are you sure? It would have been easy to miss her with the way things went down."
"I never told her about Draco's plans, with her nervous disposition she would have given us away. Zoey would have come looking for me same as every full moon. I make sure she doesn't get any unwanted attention from any of the males." At Oskar's look of confusion she added, "You know what it's like once they've had a sip of the Fero. They'll hump everything in sight, consent be damned."
Being as old as he was Oskar kept to himself during the full moon. If he felt energetic enough, he sometimes joined in the pack run. Otherwise, his interactions were limited to watching the brawling matches as it provided an opportunity to observe the strengths and weaknesses of different members of their pack. He never participated in any of the sexual activities all packs engaged in during the full moon. As someone who had lost his mate, he did not see the point. Instead, Oskar spent the night basking in the moonlight, mentally reliving fond memories of his time with his mate. As a result, he never witnessed firsthand most of the deviant behaviour caused by the Fero potion.
Oskar knew the potion made them promiscuous, but was unaware of the extent to which it compromised their instincts. Werewolves could discern if a female was ripe for breeding by her scent alone. Zoey's human form had completed puberty, but their kind would consider her immature until she had a heat cycle. It was hard to imagine how any of the males could even desire, let alone force themselves on an immature female.
"I'm not leaving without her," said Cora, running off towards the castle instead of joining the group of migrating werewolves.
Cora, who always had a soft spot for broken things, had taken Zoey under her wings almost as soon as the teen was turned and brought to the pack by Fenrir. In a short span of time, Zoey became the closest thing Cora ever had to a child. Oskar could understand her unwillingness to leave without Zoey. He waited for Cora, knowing she would not possess a portkey. He did not need to wait too long.
"Couldn't find her anywhere," said an out-of-breath Cora.
"Then we leave without her. It's possible you can't find her because she doesn't wish to be found. Fenrir is her sire after all."
Cora shook her head.
"No, Zoey fears Fenrir but feels no loyalty to him. Something must've happened to her."
"We do not have the time to investigate! I saw the last of the groups leave an hour ago. We are the only ones still here."
While the clock had not run out on the temporary truce, Oskar feared Fenrir would figure a way around his oath just as soon as he was sufficiently recovered to do so. They were courting trouble by lingering on.
"You should leave then," said Cora, starting to walk back to the castle.
Oskar stopped her. "Between the two of us there's only one international portkey to get us out of Britain. We either leave together, or stay."
"Then we either leave with Zoey or you leave without me," Cora insisted.
"By Luna, you are so stubborn sometimes—you must be more mule than wolf," exclaimed Oskar. "Go find your missing omega, you silly child. I shall wait for you beyond the forest."
Cora smiled at Oskar in gratitude, which he immediately waved away.
"Stop grinning at me like a fool and get to it, unless you wish to stay here and become a part of Fenrir's pack again."
Cora gave him another smile before turning away. She had taken only a few steps when Oskar called out to her.
"Keep away from Fenrir. No telling what insane scheme for retribution he's cooked up by now."
Cora did not turn, shouting boastfully, "Fenrir trusts me. Out of everyone, I know best how to manipulate that status-seeking brute."
Oskar watched Cora jog out of sight before he slowly made his way past the castle grounds and through the forest. Not quite as swift in his human form and too old to handle the rigours of transformation outside the full moon, he was more likely to hinder than help Cora in her search for Zoey. He patiently waited for her beyond the anti-apparition wards of the castle, alert for any sign of a threat.
With nothing else to do while he waited, Oskar pondered upon the fight from the previous night. There was no clear winner. Fenrir had undermined his status within the pack by making an uncharacteristic use of the alpha command to fight Draco, a puzzle in itself. Draco was no stronger than the average alpha, and Fenrir had easily killed many fiercer alphas during the Pack Wars. It was utterly senseless of Fenrir to choose to appear weak before his pack by refusing to honour Draco's challenge in the manner he normally would have.
However, Draco had shown his own shortcomings by choosing to negotiate an exit deal, instead of slaying Fenrir. Oskar knew from previous talks with his, now, former pack members that they only stayed with Fenrir because they believed him to be the better choice. Outside the pack, life in Britain was beginning to turn into a living hell for groups targeted by the Dark Lord. Draco did not have favour with the despotic wizard, Fenrir did, which put him in a better position to act as protector of the pack. These weres did not care that Draco's strategy had saved their lives. All they would see was an alpha, too weak to protect his mate or kill Fenrir, even after he confessed to kidnapping, raping and turning his mate.
It was long past sunset when Cora returned looking distraught.
"Zoey?" he asked.
Cora shook her head and stumbled forward. Luckily, he caught her just in time. Thinking it best to leave first and ask questions later, without warning, he apparated them.
They arrived in a different part of Wales, in a Muggle forest he knew would be abandoned at this hour. He cast the Muffliato taught to them by Draco, in case anyone happened to come within earshot, before he attempted to pry Cora away from him.
"What happened?"
Cora shook her head, refusing to speak and continuing to cling to him.
"What happened, Cora? Tell me," he insisted.
Cora opened her mouth but instead of words, an agonising screech escaped her mouth. She collapsed to the ground despite his hold on her and sobbed, in a manner he had seen her do only once before—after the battle, which resulted in the deaths of their alpha and many others in their old pack, including her mate. Oskar sat down beside her, cradling her against him, until she stopped crying.
"Is she dead?" he asked, assuming the worst from her reaction.
He felt the motion of her bobbing her head against his chest.
"Fenrir." He just knew Greyback would not wait for the twenty-four hours to finish before he acted.
Cora shook her head. "Le-Le-strange," she uttered through sobs.
Oskar looked on confused. The name was unfamiliar to him.
"Death Ea-Eater," she explained.
Fenrir could not have used a Death Eater to kill Zoey without breaking his oath. The Death Eater would have had their own reasons for doing so.
"Why would any Death Eater care about Zoey?"
"Gin-Ginny. They thought—Ginny."
"They killed her thinking she was Ginny?"
Cora shook her head.
"They killed her because they discovered she wasn't Ginny?"
She nodded.
"I searched, and searched for her. She was nowhere. No one had seen her ... Fenrir was livid, furious with Draco, with the pack ... He wanted to punish his pack, for the ones that left. But he can't. Not till the twenty-four hours are up ... In the midst of it all, there was a message. Fenrir was summoned, by the Lestranges ... But he's in a bad state. He's been in a bad state, since his fight, with Hermione—he's just been hiding it from us ... He couldn't go, so they came ... those... those monsters.
"Such a sweet child—" Cora began to tear up again. "The things they did to her... horrible, terrible things, when they thought it was Ginny, a Pureblood, someone they found desirable—when they believed it was a pregnant witch ... They bragged about it, about the terrible things they did, describing their actions as if they had created a masterpiece.
"But then the polyjuice wore off... and they saw her... The way they spoke about her. To them, she was ugly, unworthy ... They were angry, and they showed her how much... and the goddess must have forsaken her, for the moon rose, and her broken body transformed, and then the two monsters were really angry. They had been deceived. They had given Fenrir information, and he was supposed to give them Ginny—He waited till the full moon to fulfil his end of the deal knowing the pack would be too busy to notice her absence. They were furious with Fenrir, he had tried to cheat them. Instead of their prize, he gave them an ugly mongrel."
Cora paused to rub her eyes, furiously swiping at the tears.
"Any chance of her survival died the moment they discovered her identity. That poor child—endured so much in her short life, suffered in horrific ways till her very last breath... They came to Bleidd only to toss her butchered remains as a warning to Fenrir—"
Given everything Cora had witnessed in her lifetime, Zoey would have undoubtedly met a barbaric demise to draw such a strong reaction from Cora.
"Who are these people?" she asked, her voice no longer shaky from crying. "How can they treat others in so despicable a manner? What gives them the right to decide whose life has value and whose doesn't?"
Oskar did not need to respond. Like him, Cora was aware that the Death Eaters could and had gotten away with worse crimes in the world they lived in.
"Draco's right. I guess, even Hermione's been right. This cannot continue," she stated with finality.
Due to his closeness to Cora, Oskar deeply experienced her grief. He sat beside her, both of them completely listless, while she silently stared into the darkness before her. Eventually, with some effort, he stood up and then helped Cora to her feet. He activated the portkey to Greece, from where they procured a portkey for Uganda.
They made their way to the Mountains of the Moon in silence. As they neared the pack's campsite, Cora quietly said, "Fenrir plans to blame Draco. He is going to contact Lucius Malfoy and say Draco played a dirty trick on everyone and escaped with half the pack, taking Ginny as a hostage with them. He knows the Death Eaters won't care about Draco or the pack, but they will give a damn if they think he has Ginny."
Oskar nodded and they completed their journey in silence.
A weary Oskar did not say anything that night, but first thing in the morning, he sought out Draco and told him what had taken place as well as cautioned him about Fenrir's ploy to enlist help. Unless they did something to forestall it, war could be coming their way sooner than imagined.