Chapter 77: 84

ChapterThirty-Four.EzraWe have been short

on patrol runs for days now. Meeting Alex at the border, I fall in line with

him as he scouts.We haven't seen or

heard anything in days, making me nervous. What is Jackson planning, and why is

Andrei helping him? Andrei and Jackson have never gotten along, so there has to

be something going on behind the scenes with them to band together suddenly."Anything out of the ordinary?" I ask Alex through the

link. Maddox is anxious, he needs something to take the edge off and tame the

fire inside him.“Nothing,

Jackson’s Pack has been locked down, no one has stepped in or out of the

territory,” Alex informs me, which makes me worry more. Jackson is

biding his time and planning for something. If we step over the border and

declare war, we could be walking into a trap.“What about Andrei’s?”“Same thing, they have

gone silent, usually Andrei’s men along the border banter with ours, but we

haven’t seen them at all.”“Yeah, well, he was

caught helping Jackson, the alliance broke the moment he went against us. Just

tell our men to remain alert,” I order, running ahead of him. Maddox needs out.

Needs to be let loose. So I give him the reins he desperately wants.Maddox feels

supercharged as he tackles a moose, taking it down effortlessly. He isn’t even

hungry, he just wants to kill something, and some sick part of me enjoys

watching him do it while he hunts for his next target. However, something is

off with him, he is becoming angrier and angrier as he slaughters animals in

the forest.“What’s

got into you?” I demand, trying to figure it out.“Nothing,

I can’t feel Kora anymore, like she is masking herself from me,” he growls as he keeps hunting, but finds nothing to satisfy the hunger

inside him. He goes back to the moose, deciding to maul it to pieces. Tearing

its flesh from its bone, his fur becomes drenched in blood. I dreaded having to

go into town like this, though it wouldn’t be the first time, it made my pack

anxious. They knew what sort of beast resided in me, knew what sort of monster

had resided in my father. He may be gone, but that doesn’t mean they don't

remember, especially the pack elders.By the time he is

done, blood drips off our fur, but his words earlier have me thinking. I

couldn’t sense Kora either when Mateo and I were with her, couldn’t sense her

at all. The bond is complete, I can feel everything Kat feels, yet something

was different. Kat is stronger within herself, and I never noticed how

incomplete she was until she bonded with us both, but Maddox was right. Did Kat

notice her presence was gone? A whine escapes Maddox's lips, and he starts

running."You can see her tonight at the pack run," I tell Maddox

as he heads for town. It takes us a while because Maddox keeps hunting on the

way, his hunger for death untameable. Finally stopping at the funeral home,

Maddox hands me back control, and I shift back. Not a speck of skin shows under

all the blood, and I curse at the sight of my body. I walk to the back door,

gripping the door handle, and walk in. Good thing Mrs. Crump deals with dead

bodies for a living, but still, even she shrieks at the sight of me as I stroll

into the morgue at the back of the building. She is busy embalming a body and

turns white as a sheet before recognizing my scent.She flicks her long

silver hair over her shoulder. “Alpha,” she gasps, clutching her chest. She

rips a clean sheet off the rack, tossing it at me before pushing her glasses up

her nose. She covers the dead body of one of our warriors with another sheet, and

I wrap the sheet around my waist.“Thought you were

one of the dead coming back for me,” she chuckles with a hand against her

heart. She always had a dark sense of humor. I suppose you had to or wouldn't

choose this for a job.“How is my Luna?”

she asks, washing her hands. She leaves the tap running, and I quickly wash

mine. She was in her 60s, and I had known her all my life. Not only that, but

she was a good woman.“Fine, Ester, she

will be okay, she is dealing with it rather well,” I reply before following her

into the funeral parlor. Coffins and urns line the walls, and my feet leave

marks on the dark floorboards.“Everyone deals with

death differently, but she has you and Mateo,” she observes, eyeing my neck

with a smile on her lips. My face heats at her gaze. “It was hard to contain my

excitement when I recognized you. I could smell him all over you, fills my heart

with joy knowing you have let him in,” she says, making me do a double take.“Ah yes, Alpha, I

have known for a long time. Most of us older ones have. That boy has loved you

since he was a child himself. It is about time Maddox calmed enough to let him

in, I have waited for this day. I am just glad I was alive to see it,” she chuckles,

walking behind her desk.“So you think the

pack will accept it?” I ask, and she nods, ducking down.“Of course, we are

all family, Ezra. Have always been, that is what packs are." She retrieves

a box from the drawer and places it on the desk. Removing the lid, she reveals

a silver urn containing Shirley’s ashes. She grabs a smaller box from beside

the urn holding it out to me, but I shake my head. My arms are coated in blood,

I didn’t want to risk touching anything. Ester realizes that and opens it to

show me. Inside the smaller box is Kat’s pumpkin necklace, but Mateo organized

some of her mother's ashes into a gemstone pendant. She lifts the sapphire

heart to show me. It sits beside the pumpkin.I give her a nod.

Kat would love it. I let her wrap everything back up in the protective wrap

before placing it back in the box with the urn.“Can you find

something to place it in? I don’t want to touch anything,” I request, though I

already walked bloody footprints through the place, Ester never mentioned it.

This woman was one in a million. She buried and cremated nearly every member of

my family and Mateo’s. Though by the time I was done with my father, there

wasn’t much left.I didn't know how

she did it, she had one of the hardest jobs, not only did she bury her husband

and one of her sons, but she was always working and never closed her doorsShe hands me a

plastic bag before putting her arms out. “Come on, I am already covered in

fluids, blood doesn’t faze me,” she insists, and I lean down, letting her wrap

her arms around me.She pats my back

gently, and I kiss her cheek before standing upright.“Congratulations,

Alpha, on finding your mates. I wish you all the happiness, you too, Maddox,”

she adds, bowing slightly before walking towards the back door. She holds it

open for me, and I hold the bag tighter before handing her the sheet I

borrowed. She takes it before I dart off for the trees.I run straight home

before darting into the back and grabbing the hose. I place the bag on the

table to avoid it getting wet before turning the tap on.Mateo, hearing me

return, comes outside before taking the hose from me. “Turn around,” he orders,

and I flinch as the cold water sprays me. Mateo rinses the rest of the thick

blood off me.“Where is Kat?” I

ask as he turns the tap off.“Asleep still, wait

here, I will grab you a towel,” he offers, ducking inside before returning with

a fluffy gray towel. He tosses it to me before grabbing the box out of the bag.

He checks the contents before tucking Shirley’s ashes under his arm and hanging

onto the necklace.“She will love it,”

I assure him, coming up behind him and kissing his neck. He shivers before

nodding. “Go wake her, I need to shower,” I order, and he nods before heading

inside. I follow him back through the packhouse. We head upstairs and to our

mate. He opens the box with her necklace before brushing her hair aside while

she sleeps. She stirs, waking up, and smiles sleepily up at him. He leans down

and gives her a sweet kiss. My cock twitches at the sight of them when Alex’s

voice flitted through my head.“Ah,

Alpha?” he interrupts.“What is it?” I snap.“Um, I think I just saw

Luna’s father head toward the border. Should I grab him?” he asks.“Which border?”“Looks like he is trying

to get into Andrei’s Pack, he is on no man's land at the moment.”“Grab him, don’t let him

cross, drag him back here if you have to,” I order him before refocusing on the room. Now, what would Derrick want with Andrei? I think to myself.