Chapter 125
THIRD PERSON POV
“Emergency meeting.” Xavier barked, and they all walked to their meeting room.
By the time Xavier, Lyra, John, and Amaya got there, Reed, Mira, and her mate Daniel were already seated.
All seven of them settled in, and Amaya began to explain. This was a dicey situation they were in.
“This is serious. It’s going to be a full-blown war if the Lycans are in the North. Not with the army of werewolves already waiting camped at Shadow Claw.” Daniel spoke.
“It’s worse,” Xavier replied grimly.
“Our food would not last a month. Even if we start to ration from tonight. It’s going to affect our performance and the training of the warriors. This is a lit.” He sighed in frustration.
“What do we do, Alpha?” Mira’s quiet voice was clear and sharp and cut through the tension of worry.
A sharp knock snapped everyone’s attention to the door.
“Come in,” Xavier called out.
One of the pack warriors rushed in. His expression was grave as he spoke.
Lyra frowned. “Speak,”
“The food crops,” He gasped, “—they are dying.”
“What?” Lyra stood up as well as the other six, and they rushed to the garden house they had secured to grow food, and noticed grimly that the plants were suddenly withered.
“How?” Mira gasped as they all looked around.
“Didn’t you check this out? Lyra turned to Mira. She was the one in charge of the food plants in the garden.
“We did check it three days ago. I’m confused.” She mumbled as she looked at her husband, then at Lyra.
While they were still at a loss for words, Xavier’s eyes narrowed, and he growled as he noticed the water channels they created to supply water to the plants were dry.
“There was no water.” His voice was hard, and realization struck. The only source of water in the desert that they used to ensure the smooth running of the pack was what supplied water to the garden house.
So they all ran to the water source and noticed it had almost dried up.
“Goddess!” Amaya gasped.
Lyra’s face turned grim, and she turned to look at Xavier. “Send an emergency message. Everyone should store as much water in their houses as they can immediately. Mira, get as many hands as you can to salvage any food you can from the garden. If our food was going to last us weeks, now we are left with days.”
Then she looked at everyone.
“We’ll converge with a status report once we are done. Let’s see what we have.”
They all rushed to the pack house and told everyone what they had to do. The pack members got to work immediately.
Everyone was involved I saving what they could, and by the time they were done, hours had passed, and they were all exhausted.
They all dragged their bodies to the meeting room to converge and slumped in the chairs tiredly, but they still had a lot ahead of them.
“What now?” John finally spoke.
“We need help,” Xavier answered. And they all turned to Lyra.
“The North is the only way,” Amaya added.
“But it’s swimming with Lycans.” Mira countered.
“We can pull through,” Xavier added.
“Not with the pups and elderly. If we are ambushed, what happens to the weak among us?” Mira asked quietly, and everyone kept quiet.
“Lyra, say something. I know you don’t want us to go to the North. But it’s the only way for the survival of our people.” Xavier looked at her imploringly.
Then she nodded. Her eyes looked past them to a far distance, while they all turned to look at each other, then back at Lyra.
What was happening?
“It’s fine then.” She finally spoke. Her voice carried an unusual quiet. The kind of quiet Xavier and the others knew her for during the early period she had been with them.
“Lyra…”
“Lyra…”
Xavier and Amaya spoke at the same time, their worried gaze fixed on Lyra. Then she smiled.
“I’m afraid I would not be coming with you if that’s the case.”
“What? Why?” They all spoke at once.
“It’s complicated,” She answered and looked at her hands.
“We are not leaving without you, Lyra,” Xavier growled.
“You will all die here if you stay.” Her voice carried worry and fear at the thought of them dying because they refused to leave, else she did.
“Then we’ll die together. We can’t do this without you.” John added.
Then silence ensued for a while.
“The Shadow Claw pack and I, we have history. The Alpha King and I—” Her voice cracked, and Xavier’s face turned solemn with understanding.
“You were mates.” His voice was low as he spoke, but his eyes never left hers.
Lyra nodded. “Yes, we were. But it was complicated between us. I was once his slave,” She continued, and did not notice the shocked look on their faces. Her eyes were far away.
“You see, I used to have everything. I had my father, my mother; it was a good life. But I was wolfless. For so long, I didn’t have a wolf. And on my sixteenth birthday, things fell apart.” Then she proceeded to tell them everything she’d faced.
By the time she was done, Amaya and Mira were a hot mess of tears. Balling their eyes out as they looked at her. They couldn’t believe she had gone through all that. She was so young.
Finally, Lyra looked at their faces with a sad smile. ‘You see now why I can’t go back. I promised I was going to kill them all, but now, all I want is to have nothing to do with them.”
“No, Lyra,” Maya suddenly wiped her tears and growled ferociously. “That is why you’ll go back there. But this time as an Alpha. Let them see who you’ve become and the army that follows you.”
Lyra laughed. “But I have to beg the Alpha King to let us in. I cannot do that. I’m sorry.”
Then she stood up and left them alone.