Chapter 104 Chapter 104

Chapter 104 Chapter 104
Placing his hand on her back delicately, Brendan tittered, “Did you ever doubt us?” 

As she pulled back, she narrowed her eyes at him, struggling to keep a straight face. 

“You feel okay?” asked Rey. 

“Better than okay,” she grinned. “I feel almost my normal self.”

Brendan narrowed his eyes. “Almost?” 

“Well, it’s been a hellish few days. Even with my power back, I would love to go to bed right now.” 

Reynard smiled, then cleared his throat. “It’s not over yet; we’ve got much to do still. But first…” He took the necklace from her hand and clasped it around her neck. “I never want to see this necklace off you ever again.” 

Clutching onto her necklace, Suki beamed with pure joy. 

“Damn, Mr Perfect, you sure know how to light up the situation.”

Her smile vanished slowly as she heard Brendan’s words and thought back to what the seer had told Hadeon. She looked at Brendan. “Darkness doesn’t mean evil…” Then she turned her head to Reynard. “…but it doesn’t hurt to have a little light to heal you.”

Her two mates looked at each other, baffled, then looked back at her. 

Suki’s eyes shifted slowly from side to side as she processed her thoughts. “Darkness in the light,” she said, gesturing to Reynard. “And light in the dark,” she continued, gesturing to Brendan. “A perfect balance to restore corruption to nature. She was warning him about us, about both of you.”

“What?” 

“Who?”

“The seer,” she exclaimed and pushed herself to her feet. 

They both followed her, rushing to stand, worried she was moving too fast for someone who was bleeding out minutes ago. Yet they no longer needed to treat her like she was fragile any more.

“Everything that’s happened between us, between you too, you’ve been thinking it’s abnormal and an imbalance of nature, but it’s the opposite. You two are complete opposites – the kinds of people who would’ve never willingly sought out a friendship or would’ve chosen crossed paths, yet somehow you did. Because you represent the two sides of nature – the dark and the light. Neither entirely bad and neither entirely good.”

Silence erupted once she finished. Her two mates looked at her, bewildered. 

Brendan turned to Reynard. “She’s right; she needs to go to bed.”

“Brendan!” 

Rey snorted a laugh and stepped closer to her. “I think you’re right about all this, but there’s something you’re missing.” He held her chin and admired her radiant beauty. “Two people from two totally different worlds who were never meant to be in each other’s lives, and probably would’ve killed each other if they had the chance…” 

“Rey,” Suki protested. 

He tittered and continued. “Two people like that would need something to bring them together, a bridge, a middle ground, a mutual love.”

She blushed.

“Saving the werewolves and all other supernatural beings wouldn’t have been a possibility if it weren’t for you, Ki.” 

Throwing his arm over Reynard’s shoulder, Brendan exhaled in relief and smiled. “He’s right. But I am curious: what else did Hadeon tell you?” 

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you everything,” she said, looking back at Hadeon and scowling at his collapsed and incapacitated body. Brushing aside her disgust for him, she looked at her mates. “Let’s go home.” 

✧ ✧ ✧

When a war ceases, the worst of it is never over. It has only just begun. 

Returning to Moonstone, Suki feared that Hadeon was telling her the truth about the attack he waged on her home pack. 

And, unfortunately, it was all true. 

Thankfully, her pack wasn’t a wasteland like her spiralling mind had imagined, but it was broken – damaged immensely from the attacks they had received. The pack was at a grave disadvantage; Hadeon’s knowledge of werewolves’ weaknesses, as well as council intel and having warrior training on top of it, made him the perfect commander for the attack. 

Suki’s eyes examined every single detail of destruction as she walked through the centre of the village. Every destroyed building, right down to the details of each damaged brick. 

Sliding a hand across her lower back, Reynard wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer. ‘I can feel your heartache. We can stop if you want.’

‘No,’ she responded abruptly down the bond. ‘I have to see this. I have to know.’ She sighed. “He’s truly a monster for all he has done,” she whispered. 

“Buildings can be fixed,” Brendan reassured, cracking his knuckles and stretching. “Jheeze, Mr Perfect, you really tested my strength in that fight,” he added, trying to lighten the mood. 

Reynard glared at him. ‘Seriously?’

‘What? I’m helping.’

‘You’re not.’

‘Are too.’

‘I can hear you both again, remember?’ Suki’s voice appeared in their minds. ‘If you both want to talk privately, you’ll need to focus on just each other.’

Both their cheeks heated to a rosy hue. 

Suki knelt and picked up a broken kids’ toy. “How many casualties were there?” 

“Suki–”

“How many?”

Exchanging a look with each other, Brendan nodded to Reynard.

Reynard sighed. “Last I heard from my uncle, he said we lost about 9 of our people, but far more are injured – over 30, I think. Could be more since we left the pack to rescue you.” 

Shaking her head, her eyes welled up with tears. “We have to do something to help them.” 

“We will, but for now we need to debrief the Alpha and find your–”

“Dad?” Suki interrupted, freezing in place as she saw her father run out of the town hall, searching around frantically. The scent of his daughter grasped his attention and triggered his protective instincts all over again. 

Machiavelli wore his fighting leathers, torn and battered from battle. Suki couldn’t remember the last time she saw her father in his fighting leathers; she was so used to him in formal attire going from meeting to meeting. 

It reminded Suki of her favourite photo of her parents, both in their fighting leathers and looking so youthful. They were the perfect team – the fighter and the medical aid. 

His eyes met his daughter’s, and he hastened over to her. “Suki,” he called out to her. 

The tears finally fell down her face as she sprinted towards her father. “Daddy,” she cried, jumping into his arms.

In that moment, hearing her broken voice, hearing her call him something she hadn’t for years, Machiavelli didn’t see the grown-up and brave woman he raised Suki to be; he saw the scared little girl who lost her mother all too young, the girl who was once afraid of the dark and the girl who dreamt of adventure and purpose once she conquered all her fears. 

He saw his little girl, and how he almost lost her forever. 

Collapsing to his knees, he held her tightly in his arms. “Thank the Goddess you’re safe.”