81. Animal

81. Animal
Raelyn’s pov
“So we just hang here until Torin comes and gets us?” I asked after an hour. This felt like torture.

I still couldn’t really believe it… I could feel Torin’s emotions.

I would have thought it would help my anxiety, knowing he was okay. But it didn’t. It made things worse somehow.

Because I could feel his anger, his worry, and his frustration. But I couldn't do anything to help.

And while Siyo assured me if he was fighting, I’d feel that too, it didn’t help me feel any less nervous.

He shouldn’t have to go through this. Torin earned his position. He cares so much about his people.

It didn’t help that Enya and Mora felt just as frustrated, probably even more. I didn’t care for any of these people yet. I had barely gotten to know any of them.

“He’s been mindlinking me,” Mora explained. “He wants us to stay put for now but asked us to stay alert.”

“Because?” Enya asked the question I was thinking as well.

Mora sighed as she looked at the both of us, “Torin isn’t sharing much, but what I do know is that he’s called a pack meeting. The council claims everyone wants him out, so he’s making sure everyone is heard before deciding his next step.”

Enya scoffed, “this is ridiculous. It’s his pack. They don’t get a say! He was literally born to lead them!”

Mora nodded. She looked defeated, tired. This can’t be easy for her. These were her people once. She was their Luna for a long time, and now they’ve turned on her son.

“Alpha Felix is there, to either fight for the title or to take the title from Torin willingly.”

“Torin would never give up his title,” Enya growled.

“Anything can happen, honey. We just need to be ready to run."

Enya said as she shook her head. “Our family has always been good to the pack.”

“There’s no point in getting angry, Enya. We don’t even know what’s going to happen yet. Who knows, -“

Enya scoffed, interrupting her mother, “would you still choose to lead a pack knowing they were conspiring against you?”

At that moment, Enya looked a lot like Torin. The same passion, the same anger, the same desperate need to protect their family.

“They’re scared, honey.”

“Pfff,” Enya rolled her eyes. “Scared my ass.”

“They are.” Mora tried to calm her daughter down. “Not the council, but the pack is. It’s very easy to scare people.”

“Because people are sheep!” Clearly Enya was still angry. She started pacing through Ruth’s home.

Mora gave up and turned her attention on me, “while we wait, maybe you could tell us about your first shift?”

“It hurt. A lot. Like I wanted to die, a lot.” I admitted.

Enya laughed from the other side of the room, “yeah, the first time sucks.”

Mora smiled at me, “you know, they say those who have their first shift under a full moon are blessed by the moon Goddess.”

Enya seemed to be a lot calmer as she sat next to me, “so, like, did you turn into a werewolf because Torin marked you or…? Because, like… humans don’t typically turn into werewolves. You’re born one, or you’re not. I think, right?”

I chuckled nervously, “my grandma was a witch, and she placed a spell on my body to make sure my wolf side was hidden.”

“Wow…" Enya was silent for a bit, I guess she was contemplating what I just told her. "Oh, that’s why Willow kept stopping by!" Enya exclaimed after five minutes. “I thought maybe she was helping you heal faster.”

“She was too, but mostly answering questions and trying to figure out what was going on.” I explained. “We didn’t know what my grandma hid. I didn’t think she hid my wolf. I thought maybe I was a witch too or something else.”

“So your grandma wasn’t your real grandma or?” Enya squinted at me, trying to figure everything out.

Before I could answer, Mora spoke, “we need to head to Willow’s cabin, and then we need to run. Now!”

“Do we shift?” Enya asked, her eyes wide. Her anger seemed to be replaced with fear.

I thought if something like this would happen, after everything I had gone through, I’d have a panic attack. But having Siyo with me calmed me down.

“Willow can’t shift, so we’ll drive. Otherwise, one of us needs to carry her on our back, and this might slow us down.” I said, “if we stick to the human roads, they can’t attack us as easily, or they’ll risk exposing themselves.”

I didn’t know where I got the confidence from to say this, but it felt right.

Mora looked stunned for a second before telling Enya to get up.

‘I will keep us safe, I promise.’ Siyo said, and I didn’t know what my wolf meant by that, but I believed her.

Mora drove us in Ruth’s old car towards Willow’s cabin. Like Ruth, Willow lived just a few miles away from the border of Torin’s pack. Mora told me this was to make sure the protection spell she had placed around the border would stay intact.

But Enya added that Willow didn’t really enjoy spending time inside the pack border.

“Most of our people like witches just a bit more than they like humans, but that’s not saying a lot.” Enya then scoffed, “if they’re still our people…”

Mora was silent, focused solely on the dark road.

She might be losing her home. Losing the place she once led alongside her husband.

The home she shared with her mate. The home where she watches her children grow up.

Enya slammed her hand against the dashboard. While Mora was sad, Enya was angry.

“Why do you two need to run away?” I asked.

Enya angrily sniffed, “I am capable of making an heir. My future child would have a claim to the title. So I’m a risk. Or,” she laughed darkly, shaking her head, “they could try to mate me with someone related to Alpha Felix. So our bloodlines will mix.”

“That’s sick.” I replied. “But what about my future kids then? Wouldn’t they be a risk too?”

Mora was paying attention to the road, but she was the one to answer my question. “Since they still think you’re human, they’ll probably assume your child wouldn’t be strong enough to fight for the title. Back in the day, people wouldn’t just kill the alpha; they’d kill the entire family to make sure no one would be able to claim their place on the throne, so to speak. But that's frowned upon now.”

“Like the Lunar pack?”

Mora looked at me through the rearview mirror, “Torin told you about them? Yes, exactly like the first family. All of them were killed. It was horrible.”

Enya looked at her mom, “you were like not even born yet, right? It’s fifty years ago.”

“Grandma and Grandpa told me about it, smarty pants. They were horrified when it happened.”

“Not horrified enough to help…” Enya pointed out.

“It all happened really fast and in the middle of the night. They went through the house, going from room to room, killing every person. Kids even!” Mora continued. “My mother told me the Luna was pregnant at the time… It was just… too gruesome.”

Enya sighed, “so we have that poor family to thank for still breathing?”

“In a way. The werewolf community condemned their actions but was unable to do more than ban them from trading agreements. While we all hate what they did, it’s not against our law. But if someone like Alpha Felix were to pull a stunt like that, it would alienate him from all his allies, and he’d probably lose the support of his people.”

I stared at Mora in disbelief, “you don’t have a law against killing entire families?! Murder is just fine?”

Mora sighed as she parked the car, “animals do the same thing, Rae. And we’re part animal.”