Arrested

 It was the middle of the night, but due to her new improved hearing Natasha woke up due to the sounds of footsteps and some arguing, she quickly got dressed and went outside her house only to see that in the house next door there was a nervous Ivan who was being handcuffed with chains by two guards and a hunter. When Natasha shouted Ivan's name and tried to run to him, one of the guards blocked her path.

"Stay back! He's being arrested for trying to break into the temple without permission and for assaulting one of the High Priestess's guards."

Natasha put both hands over her mouth as she realized she was the one to blame for all of this... Her eyes filled with tears, but then Ivan smiled at her and said:

"Natasha, rest assured, you were there with me, you saw and heard me apologize to the man, but he refused to let me go... Find the Alpha and tell him what happened and I'll be fine."

Natasha calmed down as she remembered how everything happened, and nodded, running back to the Alpha's residence. When she got there it was already dawn, the Alpha's house was in one of the few places where sunlight could be seen in these cave systems. Despite the trick being done a long time ago using the earth relic and many mirrors it was still a beautiful sight to behold. His Garden even had some rare plants and fruit trees that normal humans rarely had the chance to experience. His house was huge too, made of preserved wood and many other materials rarely found within the Tribe, the Hunters didn't just hunt prey outside, they also brought back many items and materials that the Tribe needed, so it was normal for his house to be so beautiful, different and large, while most lived in caves, or small domes made of rock bricks.

As Natasha was about to knock on the door of her new leader. The door opened and Borys accompanied by two more older lycans came out. He was surprised for a moment to see the young woman at his door, but Natasha's scent reminded him that she was one of the young lycans from yesterday's ceremony.

"What happened? Why did you come here?" Borys asked harshly and shortly.

"Lord Alpha, my friend Ivan, one of the new lycans who went through the ceremony yesterday, was arrested… He…" Natasha was more respectful than usual and narrated everything that had happened, finally asking for his help so that Ivan wouldn't be unfairly punished.

"What happened to those young betas today?" said one of the older men who were next to the Alpha.

"Silence!" A single word from the Alpha made the old man shut up quickly and apologize for his careless comment. The Alpha then warned Natasha that he would take care of Ivan's matter today, and then he partially transformed into a wolf and ran away from the place followed by the two betas who had also transformed. Natasha suspected that something important might be happening since it wasn't common for lycans to partially transform inside their home.

After leaving Natasha behind, Alpha Borys looked at a piece of paper in his hand where there was a decree from the High Priestess saying that he needed to quickly find the cannibal wolf that had devoured the corpse of a civilian.

His eyes were filled with fury, he had put a lot of effort into creating the image of a perfect leader within the Aqua Tribe, but now this only beta from his pack had ruined everything by devouring a human corpse, completely destroying the good image of the Lycans, the worst of all was that the High Priestess would not miss this chance to weaken her position within the Tribe using this criminal. At that moment all he wanted was to personally kill this beta to vent his anger, but he controlled himself, maybe there was still another chance to reverse this situation…

***

 About 2 days later, inside a cave where several rusty metal cells lined up, a dirty Ivan with dark circles under his eyes was sitting inside one of them. Despite being the only prisoner inside these cells, he knew that the reason the cells were empty was because any crime within the Tribe would be severely punished. But he had no choice, if Natasha had been caught inside the temple her punishment would be much worse, even now he did not regret being imprisoned in her place, since he could save his friend and also the woman he loved from a serious problem.

While he tried to get some sleep on the hard, cold floor of the cell, his hearing picked up several people entering the caves. When he saw who it was he was surprised since the Alpha himself was here. In addition, the guards brought another man in handcuffs, this one had even more chains on his body, after the man was placed in the cell next door, the Alpha went to his cell and handed him a wooden tome, when Ivan saw that there were several numbers and phrases he realized that they were the rules of the pack.

"This tome with the rules was something you should have received after your ceremony, but with everything that happened, the young lycans were unable to complete the ceremony since the contamination incident occurred. After memorizing the rules, destroy the tome and never tell anyone outside the pack its contents, this is an order from your new Alpha!" After this last sentence, Ivan felt an immense pressure from the Alpha, it was something beyond an authoritative voice, he had never felt this kind of intimidation before.

In the end, the Alpha left speaking almost as if he were alone: ​​"With luck, your lack of knowledge of the pack rules can be used to your advantage to receive a lighter punishment for the crime you committed."

Ivan was relieved to finally have news of his situation, he ignored the chained lycan in the cell next door and began to read the pack rules…