Chapter 77 The Aftermath of the Moon
Grayson POV
The morning light was a pale, sickly yellow that did nothing to warm the damp air of the abandoned subway station, and the smell of old grease and stagnant water was so thick that it almost covered the scent of burnt fur and copper that followed us from the docks. We had been moving through the service tunnels for hours to avoid the Syndicate drones that were swarming the surface, and now the remnants of the Nightfang pack were huddled on the concrete platforms like refugees instead of the kings of the city they used to be. I sat on a rusted metal bench while Martha knelt in front of me with a basin of greyish water and a few torn rags, and every time she dabbed at the jagged burns on my chest, I felt a sharp, electric sting that reminded me of the silver light that had radiated from Aria’s new form.
"You need to sit still and let me get the grit out of these wounds, because if the silver poisoning sets into your bloodstream while your heart is already stressed from the curse, you won't last until nightfall," Martha murmured, and she didn't look me in the eye because she knew that my temper was frayed and my wolf was pacing just beneath my skin.
"I’ll sit still when I know that everyone who made it out of the warehouse has been accounted for, and when Jax finally gets the backup generators running so we can see who else is trapped in the upper tunnels," I replied, but my voice was a raspy shadow of what it should be, and the weight of the crown of thorns felt like it was physically crushing my ribs.
"Everyone who is coming is already here, Grayson, and the ones who aren't... well, they’re either in a Syndicate bag or they’re hiding in the woods waiting to see which way the wind blows," she said, and she squeezed a red-stained rag into the basin while she looked over her shoulder at the group of pack elders who were whispering in the shadows near the tracks.
The elders were led by a man named Silas—not the Iron Fang traitor, but an old Nightfang veteran who had served my father and who had always been vocal about keeping the bloodline "pure" and free from human interference. They were looking at me with a mixture of pity and a growing, sharp-edged resentment, and I knew that it was only a matter of time before they stopped whispering and started shouting about the disaster I had brought to their doorstep. Miller was standing a few feet away, leaning against a support pillar with his arms crossed and his eyes fixed on the tunnel entrance, and he looked like he hadn't slept in three days because his face was gaunt and his knuckles were bruised and raw.
"We should have let them keep her at the warehouse, Grayson, and I know you don't want to hear that because you’ve got this bond that’s clouding your head, but look around at what’s left of us and tell me she was worth it," Miller said, and he didn't even turn his head to look at me, but his voice carried through the quiet station and made the elders stop their whispering to listen.
"She’s a human woman who got caught in the crossfire of a war she didn't start, Miller, and I'm not going to sit here and listen to you talk about her like she’s a piece of luggage we should have just left on the curb," I snapped, and I tried to stand up but Martha pushed me back down with a firm hand on my shoulder.
"She isn't a human woman anymore, and you saw the same thing I did when that silver light hit the room and turned our wolves into whimpering puppies," Miller countered, finally turning to face me with a look of pure frustration that made his jaw tighten. "That thing on the platform wasn't Aria, and it wasn't a Nightfang, and according to the elders, it’s a heresy that’s supposed to signal the end of everything we’ve built, so why are we still acting like she’s someone we need to rescue?"
"Because she is the only reason the Syndicate hasn't finished us off yet, and because if that Silver-Black form is as powerful as the legends say, then she’s the only one who can actually stand up to the Silverfangs when they decide to stop hiding in the shadows," I told him, though the honesty in my own voice felt a bit thin even to my own ears.
"You're not thinking about the pack and you're not thinking about the strategy, you're just thinking about the way she looks at you when she’s covered in flour, and that's going to get the rest of us killed," Miller said, and he stepped closer until he was standing right over me, his shadow falling across the basin of bloody water. "If she comes back, the elders are going to demand a trial, and I don't think I can stand in their way if they decide that the 'Judgment Wolf' needs to be put down for the safety of the city."
"You touch her, or you let them touch her, and you’ll find out exactly how much Alpha strength I have left even with this curse eating my heart," I growled, and for a second, the station went silent as the two of us locked eyes in a standoff that felt like the beginning of a civil war.
Miller eventually looked away and spat on the tracks before walking toward the far end of the platform, leaving me with the heavy silence and the judgmental stares of the older men who were already planning my replacement. Martha sighed and dipped a fresh rag into the water, and she worked in silence for a few minutes while the sound of a distant train echoing through the vents made the floor vibrate.
"You're scared of her too, aren't you?" Martha asked quietly, her voice so low that even the elders with their enhanced hearing probably couldn't catch the words.
"I'm scared of what they did to her, Martha, and I'm scared that when I find her, I'm not going to see Aria in those black eyes anymore," I admitted, and the confession felt like a lead weight dropping into my stomach because I had spent so long pretending to be the unshakable leader. "She looked at me like I was a stranger, and the energy coming off her fur was so cold it felt like death, and if that’s the woman she’s become, then I don't know if there’s a place for her in this world or in my life."
"She’s still in there somewhere, but the elders are right about one thing, which is that the pack is changing and the old ways of running things aren't going to work when the city is being hunted by drones and rare wolves," Martha said, and she packed her supplies into a small kit and stood up to look at the tunnel. "You need to figure out if you're the Alpha of the Nightfangs or if you're the mate of the Silver-Black, because the way things are going, you can't be both for much longer."
I watched her walk away to tend to a younger wolf who was shivering in the corner, and I leaned my head back against the cold stone wall while the darkness of the subway seemed to press in on me from all sides. I could hear the whispers of the elders starting up again, and the word "heresy" kept drifting through the air like a poisonous fog that I couldn't blow away.
I knew that the rebellion wasn't just coming—it was already here—and as I looked at my grey-veined hands, I wondered if I was even going to be alive to see the day Aria finally came back to us.