Chapter 76

The place was silent. Nova broke into a radiant smile, and the other werecats looked around in awe as if that power would come back. But I knew it wasn’t gone; it seeped deep into these lands.

Ezra’s arm was around me, and he let out a long breath into my hair. “That was… amazing,” he whispered. “Terrifying, but amazing,” I swear he almost shuddered, but I knew it was out of worry, not true fear.

I motioned to the packhouse, but Nova shook her head. “The packhouse was not built by us, but there is something beneath that has belonged to our kind. I will wait until the other Alphas have left before I look for it.”

I ignored my curiosity for now, hoping she would share what she spoke of with me later, and simply told her, “As you wish.”

***

“If you need more time, I will give you as long as you need,” I told Nolan, but I didn’t truly know if I could live up to that.

“No,” He shook his head, sighing as he settled back into his father’s chair in the old office. “No, I need to do something. I don’t think I could process it right now if I tried.”

“I know the feeling,” I admitted but clamped down on my mouth; he didn’t need reassurance or sympathy from the person who had single-handedly murdered his entire family.

Nolan looked at me, nodding slowly. I couldn’t read his face. “We should talk to the pack now. They deserve some transparency.”

“I agree.”

I proposed a few things to Nolan, not as well thought out as I would have liked. But I didn’t have the capacity to formulate solid plans for after the challenge. All of my mental power went to the challenge itself.

We talked through ideas of redefining boundaries for the pack and even offering some of Blood Moon to Black River as a show of goodwill, even if the thought made my stomach curl.

In the end, both Nolan and I decided to let the pack be part of the decision process. I couldn’t tell if Nolan even would want to be the Alpha of what remained of Black River. There were many things he had to rapidly adjust to, and I didn’t want to pressure him.

“I had them gathered; they should be ready,” Nolan said, sounding hollow and exasperated.

A short while later, we faced the pack. I had never been in their pack village, but it was as clean and tidy as it could be, but even cleanliness couldn’t hide the fact it was semi-run down.

I was struck by how truly isolated I had been, how they all had been. It was so unnatural they lived so separately from their pack.

Nolan spoke, and the crowd silenced. “I am the last living in my family,” he stated, emotionless. “Simone, the heir of Bloon Moon, has challenged my Father with the backing of the Alphas of this territory, and she won.” He motioned to me and paused as the crowd burst with questions, chatter, and gasps. Most of them sounded unbelieving at worst and shocked at best.

We waited a long while for them to settle down, enough for Nolan to speak over them.

“Yes,” Nolan said. “She has given the original packlands of the werecats back to them.”

Louder and angrier chatter pulsed through the crowds.

“Enough!” I shouted after it didn’t die down. “We are here to present your options, to get your opinions. I understand that is something you might be unfamiliar with.” I eyed them, and they silenced. “Nothing is set in stone.”

I laid out the options for them and told them they had time to think it over and decide what would be best for them individually and as a pack. I made sure to let them know their homes were not part of the werecat's territory, and although the packlands would shift, they would not have to relocate if they did not wish.

“I thought all of Blood Moon was dead!” someone shouted.

“Killed after the challenge,” another added.

I crossed my arms and raised a brow, but Nolan was the one who told the story—my story.

He told them the truth.

***

When we were finished, Ezra was waiting in the car for us. We all sat in silence on the way back. Once we got back to the packhouse, he took my hand in his, and we walked along the empty front hallway.

“At least they know the truth and their options; it’s out of your hands at the moment,” he told me. I nodded. “Now, what do you want to do?”

“Sleep,” I admitted, I felt if I wasn’t constantly doing or planning something I would stop doing everything entirely. “I am exhausted.” I lay my head on his shoulder.

“That can be arranged.”

I shook my head. “I have a few things to do.”

“They can wait,” he murmured into my hair.

“One can’t.”

“Miles hasn’t responded,” Ezra said, reading my mind. “Hasn’t been in touch with the others either. The last time we spoke was when…”

“When he asked you to kill me,” I finished. He nodded, his face grim. “After he left yesterday, where did he go?”

“He’s not here anymore. We confirmed his departure and I am to be notified if he returns.”

“Does he usually respond when you reach out?” I asked.

Ezra stilled. “Within a day or so at the most. Usually instantly.”

I nodded. “I want to go back to Blood Moon,” I stated.

“You want to leave here?” he asked. “Now?”

“I need to return to my home. I won’t be gone for long, a few hours maybe, and this place is more secure than it has been in years.” He nodded thoughtfully.

It felt like the last piece of the puzzle—possibly, I was still itching to keep moving forward.

“I want to have my brothers check it out first,” Ezra said.

I stilled. “I do not want them to touch anything that they do not need to,” I reticently agreed.

He nodded. “They won’t,” he promised.

“It will be a lot to face. I am aware of that.” Aware, but still entirely unprepared…I knew nothing could ready me. “I need to see what happened to my pack. They are mine to bury, mine to grieve, and I need to be able to see it for myself, tell their story in my own words.”

“Simone—”

I locked eyes with him. “Ezra.”

He swallowed and nodded, reading my tone. “Let’s go then,” he said.

Sam caught up with us when we were almost at the door.

“Sam.” I smiled at him, wrapped in a wave of emotions.

“Simone, fuck, Simone.” He ran his hands through his hair. “You scared me.” He pulled me into his arms briefly before letting me go to check me over. “You’re walking?” he asked. I nodded. “What I saw, what you did.” He shook his head. “I have never seen anything like that. I will never doubt you again.”

“That means so much, Sam.” I smiled at him. “Truly it does.”

“Are you heading out?”

“Going back to Blood Moon to see it,” I said quietly, worried he would try to talk me out of it.

“Simone,” he said, waiting for me to meet his eyes. “You do not want to do that. Let me go first to—”

I shook my head, repeating the same thing I told Ezra. Sam swallowed but agreed. “I’ll be behind you shortly for support,” he said.

The air was sucked out of me; it was still such a foreign thing. Friends. Support.

“Thank you, Sam.” He nodded, but there was a bit of sadness in his face. “Oh, and this is my er, my chosen mate, Ezra.” I introduced him.

Ezra came forward and shook Sam’s hand. Sam’s eyes were wide, but he greeted him with a broad smile and clap on the back.

Once we left, Ezra took my hand again and whispered to me, “That was the first time you’d called me your mate,” his velvet thunder voice rumbled through me. “I liked it even better when you called me your chosen mate.”

***

His brothers headed out before us, and Slate, Slater, something like that, who was in my room when I woke up in a haze, was driving. None of his brothers were very talkative, but I didn’t think I had the capacity for small talk anyway.

Aksala tried to soothe me softly on the way in rhythm to Ezra’s thumb, rubbing the back of my hand.

I was both dreading and looking forward to this. I hadn’t been home in over four years. I knew the longer I put it off, the more I would fear it.

But nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

I witnessed the carnage of the day in person. Their screams haunted my nightmares, clawing their way from places within me I could not always hold them. Their blood still felt thick on my skin.

My pack was a shadow.

The thick forest was bare now, even in the summer. The trees looked thin and gangled, their trunks an unnaturally blackened shade. The packhouse stood tall, even more formidable and stark against the haunting trees. Thick, bare vines crawled up the sides, choking it.

The road up to it was overgrown, so much so that we had to stop. The only movement was Ezra’s brothers bobbing in and out of the distance.

I didn’t know too much about how nature would take over, but I knew that this was not right. This was not natural.

When we got the all-clear, I was glued to my seat. One of his brothers came up, his face grim, even for them. He and Ezra looked at me, and I nodded slightly in confirmation.

I owed my pack that much. I needed to see what had happened. The thought of others doing my job of laying them to rest was unimaginable.

I clasped Ezra’s hand tight as we walked toward the packhouse; I felt as if I would stumble if he were not there to hold me.

We had barely left the road before I started to see them.

Bodies left laying where they had died, now nothing but weather-bleached bones. My eyes pricked with hot tears, and my stomach rolled; each breath was hard, and this was just the beginning.

It wasn’t the bones. I had seen much worse since that was administered by my own hands. But it was that each of those people represented someone I knew, someone who died for nothing.

“We can stop.”

“No.” I shook my head and pressed forward.

I dropped his hand to open the front door. I stepped over scattered bones and shattered glass, making my way to the banquet hall—the last place I was truly happy.

It wasn’t the skeletons littering the surfaces that struck me. It was the fact that this place was too similar to the day I was taken from it. I expected it to have changed as much as the lands had. The furniture was dusty, the rugs more frayed, and the tables and benches mostly knocked over and scattered.

It was a picture of the day we were attacked. But I couldn’t piece it together; it still felt the same here. It still held memories more vivid than I knew I was capable of.

I half expected my mother to come strolling in searching for me, my father to tell me a story by the great fire, or one of my friends to come and grab me by the hand to tell me some insignificant piece of gossip.

But no one was coming.

What was left of everyone I knew and loved was still here on these packlands, but they weren’t actually here anymore.

A cold breeze wafted through, but it did not come from a window. The hair on the back of my neck rose, and Aksala was on alert.

There was a strange scent, an air of darkness. Of twisted power. An echo of what was mine.

Miles was here.