Chapter 24 KARMA
RAGNAR'S POV
The sudden resistance sends us both skidding as our claws carve deep into the dirt.
I force us forward ignoring him.
“He needs us,” Yurik insists, his voice thick with urgency. “You felt it. You always feel it.”
“The pack comes first right now,” I snap.
“That’s what you said before.”
The words land wrong.
We slow down our breath steaming in front of us as tension coils tight beneath our fur.
“You said that when she begged,” Yurik continues, quieter now. “When she said the bond hurt. When she said you were never there.”
I bare my teeth involuntarily.
Don't –
“You ignored her,” Yurik pressed, relentlessly.
“She faked emergencies because of her panic disorder and her irrational fear that I would reject her!” I snarl back at him.
How dare he forget how she acted?
“You chose borders and councils and bloodshed over her every time. You starved the bond. You let it rot.”
“We were at war!”
Rage explodes through me.
“She went mad with irrational fear,” I roar. “The bond was not good for her, it broke her!”
Yurik turns inward, his eyes burning with tears. “No. You did.”
The forest seems to close in around us.
“You abandoned her emotionally long before she lost herself,” Yurik says, voice rough with truth I don’t want. “You were Alpha first and then mate second. And now you are doing it again.”
Sebastian’s face flashes through my mind his wide-eyed, earnest shaking under my touch.
I surge forward violently, forcing Yurik back into submission. My control snaps into place like a choke holding him down and away from me.
“Enough,” I growled. “You will not turn us back.”
“When you lose him, you'll lose me too.” Yurik retreats reluctantly, silent but seething.
We resume our run toward the border, ignoring Ava's inquiring eyes.
The border announces itself long before we even reach it.
We smell the air changes first from cedar and pine to the sour stench of sickness and blood.
The moon hangs low watching everyone.
Pack warriors fan out behind us as I approach.
Yurik stiffens beneath my control.
“I feel it too.”
They stand just beyond the marker stones they look to be about fifty or fifty maybe spread unevenly across.
Their ribs jut through patchy fur in a sickening manner with eyes too large and hollowed in their skills.
Some sway where they stand while others kneel in weakness.
Rogues.
But not the kind I know.
My warriors bristle their claws extending as they growl hyping themselves for battle.
Hunger has driven many enemies to desperation before, but this… is different. These wolves don’t look at us like prey or rivals.
They look at us weirdly.
I step forward, letting my Alpha presence roll outward in a heavy wave and my pack straightens.
“What do you want?” I demand, my voice carrying across the clearing.
The rogues raise their heads one by one slowly, their movements eerily in sync.
And they speak.
“The punishment is coming Alpha Ragnar.”
Every single one of them together.
The sound is wrong too. They sound hollow like someone else talking through them.
A shiver crawls up my spine despite myself.
“For the killing of your Moon-blessed mate,” they continue.
My heart slams once.
It was all oddly coincidental.
“The Moon Goddess will reign judgment upon you all,” they chant. “Upon your Alpha and upon your pack.”
A murmur ripples through my warriors but I bare my teeth without fear.
“You stand on my land,” I snarl. “You accuse me without proof either speak plainly or leave in pieces!”
Their lips peel back into smiles that show cracked yellowed teeth.
“The bond was severed in blood Alpha. Your blood,” they say again. “The Moon remembers.”
Something tightens in my chest.
No.
“She was unstable,” I say, forcing the words out like iron. “The Goddess does not punish mercy.”
Their laughter breaks out suddenly.
“The Moon does not lie,” one of them says, stepping forward.
His legs tremble so badly that I expect them to give out immediately.
Blood trickles from his nose, dark and slow. “She saw neglect and abandonment.”
Yurik surges violently inside me.
But I clamp down hard.
“Silence,” I roar, my voice sounding like thunder. “You dare speak her name as if you knew her suffering as if you know anything?!”
Their eyes roll back and they all scream and shout in blood.
Blood pours from their eyes, some their ears and mouth.
Another drops, convulsing violently and their spine arches until it snaps like wood breaking.
My warriors recoil in shock.
One by one, the rogues begin to fall.
Blood continues to erupt from their every orifice pouring into the ground as if something was squeezing their bodies.
Some choke in blood, some sob and some even laugh as they die with their mouths splitting wide enough to tear.
Their chanting never stops though.
“The Moon has judged you.”
“The Moon has judged you.”
“The Moon has judged you.”
There is an audible pop and I hear all their hearts burst.
I feel it, fifty tiny explosions of life extinguishing all at once in a way that makes my vision blur in shock.
How was this even possible?
Their bodies hit the ground in wet, boneless heaps causing some wolves to recoil and retch.
The stench of iron becomes even more overbearing.
Silence crashes down immediately in the forest.
Even the cicadas refuse to sing after such a gruesome display.
The pack stands frozen with strong warriors staring at the corpses before us with naked fear in their eyes.
Even the forest seems to hold its breath.
Ava steps closer to me, her face pale. “Alpha… this wasn’t any magic I recognized.”
Neither do I.
The moon shifts and hides inside a cloud.
For one terrifying moment, it feels heavier and brighter like it agrees with what happened.
My wolf whines low in my chest, trembling.
Yurik was no longer fighting me, he was only afraid of whatever this is.
“Judgment does not come swiftly, Alpha Ragnar.”
A voice echoes from the wind as we look around to try to see where it's coming from.
“It comes when you least expect it.”
The voice vanishes.
I stagger back a step but when my warriors look at me, I straighten.
“Burn the bodies,” I order, forcing myself to sound confident. “Make sure nothing crosses back into the land.”
I'm suddenly fearing for Sebastian.