Chapter 24: Twenty Four

Chase’s POV

I staggered back, staring at the now cold body of the seer. I walked away, my heart in my mouth. I couldn't let the others in the pack find out what he said. If my pack members knew I was the reason they were all suffering, it might cause an uprising against me.

One I wasn't sure I was prepared to face.

"You there, alert the elders, rs tell them the ancestors have killed the pack seer because they sensed unloyalty in him, tell them I sense that he may be the cause of unrest in the pack, his body is right there, move it out", I instructed and walked away. I wasn't going to stick around to answer endless questions from the elders.

I slipped quietly into my room that night. Ashley was still awake; her eyes found mine as I entered.

"What happened?" She asked, her eyes searching mine for answers.

"The seer is dead," I replied calmly.

"Why?" Ashley asked, for some reason, she didn't look surprised. It bothered me. Could it be possible that she sneaked out and followed me?

Whatever it was, I didn't have the time for it. Ashley could do whatever she wanted. I had bigger problems now.

\------

I've struggled with sleeping the last couple of nights. It didn’t arrive quietly anymore; it didn't settle over me as easily as it used to before after long nights of council disputes or border patrol reports, all I had to do was lie down and drift to sleep. Still, it came in fragments, in scary waves, moving from one nightmare to the next.

And when sleep did come, she was there again; she was always there, no matter what the nightmare was about. One person remained constant in them, someone I should have forgotten after all this time. it was karina.

Why won't Karina's ghost let me move on and live my life peacefully? Weren't the elders right? Wasn't she dead? There's no way Karina could have survived out there all these years by herself.

Karina was always in my dreams, her eyes wide, her face smudged with tears, her body drenched in blood; she stood looking at me as she had always known I would fail to hold on to her.

The first few nights I saw her in my sleep, I felt everything begin to shift. I became more scared, and I told myself it meant nothing. It was just my mind plaguing me with guilt for what I had done and filling in the gaps.

The body replaces what it cannot explain. I told myself every morning when I woke up, I thought it would stop after some time, but it didn’t stop; it never stopped.

And what made it worse was that she never spoke the same way twice. Sometimes she accused me, sometimes she didn’t speak at all, she just attacked with her knife dripping with blood, my blood.

Recently, my dreams have involved my child. I dream of Karina showing up in the middle of the night to kill the child and get the revenge her heart so desperately seeks.

So I found myself staying up late, trying my best to fight off sleep so I wouldn't have to see her face again. But my body was beginning to pay the price for that.

The morning council was already waiting when I arrived.

They stood as I entered, and I barely acknowledged their presence as I took my seat at the head of the table.

The room was quiet, thick with tension and the weight of what had been happening in the pack over the past months. Aside from the silences of the moon and the growing number of sickness and discord in the pack.

We've always threatened by an invasion of our pack by an unidentified group of feral wolves.

Maps were spread across the table, everyday the boundaries kept shrinking as we updated them every day.

The feral wolf reports had increased; it wasn't just sightings now, everything had escalated to clashes and conflicts at our boundaries.

Full-blown fights were happening along the outer territories; it wasn't just our pack this time, though; it was other packs, and every pack that came into contact with them described the same thing: coordinated aggression, no hesitation, no retreat unless forced.

“They’re moving closer,” one of the elders said, tapping a section of the map. “There have been at least three confirmed breaches in the eastern perimeter within five days.”

“And the southern ridge?” I asked.

“Compromised, not fully breached, but they tested it twice. They’re scouting for weaknesses, and I'm not sure how much longer we can hold on.”

I took a deep breath, running my hands through my hair.

Things were accelerating at an alarming rate.

“Casualty reports?” I asked.

“Minimal so far, but the numbers could rise in the coming months. The feral groups are adapting faster than expected.”

These feral wolves were instinct-driven, chaotic, reactive, but they were clearly evolving now at an intimidating rate.

The doors opened mid-discussion, as one of our informants walked in quickly.

“My Alpha. Theres an update on the activities of the feral wolves with another pack.”

“Speak,” I said immediately.

“There was a confirmed engagement between a rogue-aligned pack and a feral wolf unit three nights ago; the feral wolves were defeated.”

I sat up immediately. This was groundbreaking news.

“Defeated?” one of the elders repeated.

“Yes, sir, according to my report, they were completely repelled. The feral unit retreated deeper into the outer zone.”

That gave us hope; if that pack stood a chance, then maybe we did too.

“Which pack?” I asked.

The scout checked his notes. “We haven't identified them yet; they're a pack of wolves by rebel wolves. We'll still gather more information on them,” he replied.

The room began to murmur, as low whispers filled it. Everyone was clearly excited and encouraged by this news.

Suppose a pack of rebel wolves were capable of pushing back feral wolves. That meant two things.

Either the ferals were not as strong as reported. Or there were forces out there adapting faster than both of us; Neither option encouraged me much, but one certainly brought more relief.

“Interesting, if that pack could manage resistance, then so can we,”

I didn’t respond immediately.

Because the problem wasn’t morale, it was consistency.

Feral wolves were not supposed to be losing at all, and up until that pack, they hadn't lost, so just because one pack was able to defeat them doesn't mean we will.

“Double border patrols, and tighten all outer monitoring systems. If they’re learning, we need to be ahead of them.” I instructed.

“Yes, Alpha,” they all responded. They clearly needed a reality check. One pack victory didn't mean victory for us, as well. It was dangerous to move forward with that mindset.

The meeting continued for another hour.

We discussed reports from other packs, strategy adjustments, and the proper allocation of resources within the pack.

After a few more hours of deliberation, I finally closed the meeting. We discussed a lot, but not enough to make me feel confident in our ability to win this new threat

When I finally left the council hall, Ashley was waiting outside.

She didn’t stand immediately when she saw me, just watched as I approached, her arms folded lightly across her chest. I recognized the look on her face; she was coming here to seek out an argument, and I wasn't going to give it to her.

I approached her and kissed her, closing the distance between us.

“You’ve been avoiding the nursery,” she said without greeting.

“I’ve been working, I'm sorry,” I said, masking the annoyance in my voice. Ashley didn't say anything at first; she just stared at me. I could tell my warmth towards her had thrown her off. Ashley has always been a dog for my attention.

I exhaled slowly. “What do you want, Ashley?" I asked, wrapping my hands around her waist, and that was all it took to silence Ashley, and she finally dropped the argument.

That night, I didn’t return to the nursery.

Not because I didn’t hear the cries.

Not because I didn’t notice Ashley’s silence when I chose distance again.

But because I couldn’t afford another fracture in focus.

Not now.

Not when everything else was already unstable.

I remained in the study instead, reviewing border maps again until the ink blurred slightly under the lamp light. I couldn't control the moon's actions towards my pack and me, but I could control this issue with the feral wolves.

The night of the seer's death played in my mind again, and chills ran through my spine as I remembered it.

I still wasn't sure what he meant by I had angered the moon goddess, and it scared me. If this was only the beginning of the consequences, then what else was at risk

My mind drifted to Karina. Could she be the cause of this? Was the moon angry at me for betraying her? She was dead anyway, so there was nothing I could do to fix that.

Besides, why would the moon goddess be concerned about a weakling like Karina? She never added any value to my life or to the pack. It had to be about someone else. Karina's life was too worthless to be causing me this trouble for my entire pack.

I looked around my empty study, my eyes heavy with sleep, but I couldn't risk falling asleep p She would be there, ready to attack me again.

I need to find a way to free myself from these nightmares. Karina was becoming a ghost in my life.