Chapter 188
Cheryl’s POV
This has been a very long night. The kids were great while we were secured in the house. The boys stayed upstairs and played video games, and the girls all helped me with the babies. The babies were just a few months old now, but they loved to be held, so they quite literally were just passed around by the girls for hours. I only got them back for feedings. The girls did the rest of it, playing with them, and even changing their diapers. They were a really big help and no trouble at all. I had my doubts at first with 18 children in one home. They didn’t even notice the men running past the house on their way to the packhouse, but I did. I was scared for Anton and Kevin, as well as my friends and fellow coven members. There were so many rogues, and some vampires mixed in with them. I was very afraid about the outcome.
Anton linked me when they got the all-clear from Brandon. The forest had been searched, and all the remaining rogues had been located and taken care of at that time. I couldn’t wait to get to Anton and make sure that he was actually OK. The children stayed with me as we hurried to the packhouse, and I was glad to see that they had a lot of the rogues cleared up from the ground. There was still death present, but it is part of our life. Not a good aspect of it, but one that we, unfortunately, have to learn to deal with. I had the older children on the end where the bodies needed to be picked up and the younger children were just looking for their parents to make sure that they were not injured. I was glad to see that the bodies on the ground were not our pack members, but the rogues. I was anticipating seeing more Black Moon pack members, but they may have already been picked up.
I heard Forest before I saw him, and left Raven’s youngest children, and my babies with her in their stroller. What Forest was saying was complete lies, and he needed to know that no one was going to stop the punishment that he is about to receive. He has no one else to blame, this all came from a decision that he himself had decided upon. He needed to know that when you make bad choices, you reap all the rewards that come from it. Both the good and the bad. He had been able to talk himself out of so much trouble previously, he probably thought that he could do it again. He was wrong, about a lot of things. I will not stop what needs to be done. Forest is very much like Graham, he would definitely come back, and try to destroy the pack. It is best to cut the head off the snake and kill it now. I knew that Jax would be more merciful than Forest deserved, but there were children around, so I guided all the younger ones away with me when I left the circle. They didn’t need to see what is going to happen to Forest.
I see Graham lying there on the ground as I passed him. I can see that he had been shot. He is such a worthless piece of crap. I am sure he hurt so many in this fight. Raven brought me up to speed quickly telling me what happened to Cole, and then mentioning that Blake had actually jumped in front of Anton to save him. I was stunned at what he had done for us. I knew exactly why he had, and I wanted to thank him for it. I got closer to where Blake was and I see the look on his face as he holds Kira. I know exactly what is going on, and I couldn’t be more happy for them. Blake will take very good care of her. I can see the wonder on his face as he gently stroked her cheek, and I remember that he had never found his mate. He took me as his chosen because of that fact, as he wanted heirs for the pack. I see why he never found her now, he was looking for a she-wolf when his mate was a vampire.
Graham, as usual, ruined the moment for Blake. I was proud of Blake for wanting to tear Graham apart for his disrespect. I walked up to Anton to hug him and make sure that he was not harmed. The relief I felt at him being basically uninjured was a great relief, as he only had some cuts and bruises. Raven, Reagan, and Cole all announced to the group that they were good with someone else ending Graham. I wanted to do it, but in this, I am going to defer to Blake. As much as I wanted to be the one to end him for hurting me and Kevin so badly. I knew that we are where we need to be, because of it. We are very happy now, and Robert is happy here as well. I have Anton, and my babies, and although the ugliness and abuse were almost unbearable at the time, I would go through it again to get to Anton.
I knew that Graham had hurt Blake the most, both physically, and emotionally. He had lost a mate, and a son, because he listened to Graham. He was made to look like a fool in front of his pack because they all ended up seeing what happened. His being locked up in his own pack, had to have been humiliating. Blake was the one who actually lost the most, and was duped the most. He was beaten, and his pack stolen from him because the men he depended on, as well as his heir, betrayed him. He deserves this opportunity, and I am going to let him finish what he started. Brandon had mentioned how Blake was a big help in the battle. How Blake had killed a few people, including two strong fighters from Black Moon before he was shot by Graham. Just for that alone, Blake needs to be the one to end Graham, I am fine with that.
Raven, Reagan, Stella, and Lanie started getting the younger children together. I knew what they were doing as Blake is going to be fighting Graham to the death, and the younger children needed to not be here when it happened. I let Reagan’s oldest daughter Tatiana take my twins with them to the pack house to watch them for me on the Alpha level. Raven’s daughters, Emersyn, and Sasha, went with Tatiana to help. They were taking the younger children in to get them their baths, and ready for bed. Truett had already gone to the new packhouse after the all-clear, and let everyone out of the secured area. He did that at the same time I was allowed to leave my house. Everyone was glad to find their family members and head home after this. We didn’t escape without some losses, as Brandon said that 8 of our pack members were confirmed dead. Three more warriors were still missing at the moment. But that was a minimal loss for us in such a large battle.
“I am good with Blake finishing this for us all. It is what Graham deserves for what he put Blake through for over a year in the cells. This fight is what he earned, and it is about time that Graham got what he has coming to him” I stated to the group. I see Blake turn around in surprise to look at me, he was so caught up in holding Kira up, that he didn’t notice that I was behind him.
“Just shoot me and be done with it, OK. I don’t have the ability to fight anymore, as I have been shot. Surely you are humane enough to just end me. The council does not condone this type of treatment, you cannot just beat up a man who isn’t able to defend himself” Graham stated to us. I can't believe that he actually thinks that he will be getting the easy way out of this situation. I have to press my lips together to contain my laugh. He really is much more delusional than any of us thought. We are all aware of a lot of what Raven had to deal with. He has done too much in his life to get a free pass for everything that he has done. There is no way that what he did to Justin, Cole, Raven, Blake, and me could be swept away. Even his own daughter and his mate, Cassandra, were not even exempt from his actions, along with countless others. He is a real piece of work, and I hope that the Goddess takes care of him on her end too.
“It would be my pleasure to end him, but as much as I hate to ask for anyone to help him, can he be healed? I don’t want him to have the excuse that he was not able to fight as the reason that he will lose to me. It won’t be, as he is not a good enough fighter to beat me. He does the bare minimum to train and depends on others to try to protect him. I was blindsided by everyone I trusted deciding to work for him. The pain of their betrayal after what I had done for all of them was a complete slap in the face. I was lifted off the floor daily, and beaten until Graham tired himself out, for a year. I do not want him to get away and not get the punishment that he deserves. I want him to be fully able to fight me, despite knowing that he will end up losing. He has earned what he is about to get, as I need to pay him back for what he did to me, my family, and my pack. I will not let him get a free pass or get away with all the things that he put us through” Blake said, while looking dead at Graham.
“Alexei, can you and Dmitriy please heal Graham’s arms so he can fight? I agree with Blake. Graham does not deserve to take the easy way out of this. He needs to be 100 percent healed before their fight, so he doesn’t have any excuse as to why he lost. I refuse to wait another day for him to get what he deserves" I asked for help as I knew that Graham would hate it. They both knew where I was going with it and grinned at me as they stepped forward.
“I refuse for any of these leeches to touch me, and I will not be fighting you, Blake. You made your own choices, and that led us to this point. Accept your culpability in what you did, Blake, because I never twisted your arm. In fact, Cheryl didn’t fall for it when I went to her first. She knew I was lying about you cheating on her, she knew that because she knew what it felt like to be cheated on. You, however, took the bait and ran with it. You were so offended to even think that she would cheat on you, that you were right on board with everything I even suggested to you. I was honestly surprised at how fast you did fall for it. It was like you couldn't wait for the entire pack to know how bad Cheryl was to you. I am sure it was your pride that demanded for her to admit her guilt, and beg for forgiveness. I really thought that she would just beg for you to forgive her. She loved you so much at the time, that I thought she would bend to your will. I figured that she would admit to doing it, just to make you happy. It would have worked either way, her denying it kept you angry and frustrated. Her admitting it would have made her become even more of an outcast and pariah. I was actually surprised by the fact that she refused to bend at all on this. No matter how hard I made it on her or Kevin. She refused to comply with what I wanted her to do” Graham spoke out to the group.
“I agree, I made a huge mistake, Graham. I was so hurt at the thought of her having cheated on me. It crushed me to even think that she would do that to me, but I finally saw the error of my ways. I know that he is mine and Cheryl never cheated on me. I messed up badly, but you are right, I did fall for it, and it broke my heart. I wished I had done what she did, and called you out on your lies, or gone to speak to her about it. Instead, I refused to listen to her when she tried to point out all the inaccuracies you gave me. I was arrogant, and even physically violent to her on a few occasions. You set me up for that too Graham. You played me like a fool, and I let you do it. My pain over the situation completely overrode my logic. I just kept pushing harder trying to force her to say the words that I never actually wanted her to say. I wanted all of our children to be mine. I needed them to be mine. You worked my fear and possessiveness against me, and my whole family suffered the price for it, Graham. That was the very worst of it. The fact that you took a happy family, and tore us all apart, for absolutely no reason” Blake told him.
I was proud of him for admitting his mistakes in front of the group. There were a lot of people standing here with us and Blake was a proud man. But he laid his pride down and admitted that I did better than he did in this. The fact that he admitted that he should have listened to me from the very beginning, was amazing enough. I knew that he was sorry for what he had done, but until this very moment, I didn’t fully believe him. People say a lot of things, usually things that you want to hear. Blake had said all of the things he knew I wanted to hear, it was his typical MO. He did it when he went too far with me during our arguments. He would always come back and promise me he just went too far because he “was angry and couldn’t control himself. It will never happen again, I swear.” Only it would happen again, and the process kept repeating itself. I can see the change in him today though, old Blake would have run over to stop the fight Forest was in. He would have made excuses for Forest as to why he had done what he did. This time, now that Blake knew just how far Forest had gone, he knew that redemption was not going to be offered. I am thankful that Blake sees things so much clearer now than he did, and it is a big change in him.
“I was honestly surprised that you were even dumb enough to believe me, Blake. I mean, you took me in when you knew that I was on the run from the council. You had looked me up, you got the notifications each month from the council telling you that they were looking for me. They don't do that for innocent people. As far as I am concerned, you deserved to lose her. You apparently never valued her in the first place, because if you did, you would never have listened to me. You never once stopped to think about the fact that she was literally too scared to leave the pack unless you were with her. If you really think about it, you caused this whole thing to happen, because of your inflated Alpha pride. I shouldn’t be getting punished for something that you were only too willing, and apparently happy to do to your own chosen mate” Graham said, and the growl that Blake let out shook the trees near us.
“You vicious bastard, you are the sole reason that this started. I was completely happy with Cheryl, and our children. The pack was running well and things were good. We were able to get the walls up to secure our pack, the roads paved, and businesses started. Black Moon was more successful than it had ever been before. You giving me that extra money, ended up causing some of my children to start becoming spoiled brats. The money made me more lenient on you, and that was how you slipped the knife in. You had me lower my guard by acting like you were fine with the punishment that your own daughter had earned. She never had to do what she did, she did it because she wanted to be in a position of power, and felt entitled enough to try to take it away from Cheryl. You and your family had things so well in the pack. You need to remember that if Reagan had never tried to hurt my and Cheryl’s relationship, it would have never happened. She almost caused Cheryl to lose our baby and it caused the first fracture in our relationship. How could you even say that all of this was my fault? Messing with the Alpha couple earns a stiff punishment. Don’t act like you were righteous in what you have done, you weren’t. Not with any of it, Graham. You act as if you have never done anything wrong to anyone but just look around Graham. Everyone here knows exactly who you are, and what you have done. You are an evil man, who is willing to do absolutely anything to get what you want, no matter the cost. Up to and including drugging your own mate to sleep with you again. I feel so sorry for Cassandra for having to have to deal with you for so long, she must have really loved you to put up with everything she did. I cannot imagine how she managed to do that for all these years, you were not a good mate to her Graham,” Blake stated, and Graham was pissed.
“Do not talk about my mate, she was so much better than all of you, and that bitch took her away from me. I just did what needed to be done. I made mistakes, but who among us hasn’t? You all act like you are perfect, but you aren’t. I just managed to be man enough to get the difficult things done. I am sorry if you all think you are all better than me. You aren’t, I was just bold enough not to hide who I am. Cole was a crybaby about losing his mate, and his baby, big deal. He had other children, get over it. Raven had it tough for a little while, so what? She is tough for having lived through it, her life is fine now, and she has two mates to take care of her. Cheryl just found another mate, so in a way, I helped her. You are looking at this all wrong. You need to change your perspective, and you will see that I have helped a lot of people too” Graham said in a frustrated tone, huffing at us at the end. There was a stunned silence at the end of his tirade. No one could believe how Graham downplayed everything he did to others like there was nothing wrong with it.
“You will fight then, best man wins,” Blake said as he stepped back away from Graham. Alexei and Dmitriy stepped forward and each went to take an arm to heal. Graham tried to fight them off, but with both of his arms injured, it didn’t work out very well for him. Brandon and Justin stepped forward to hold Graham’s legs, to hold him still as he was still fighting to keep them from healing him. It didn’t work out for him and a few minutes later he had full use of both his arms again. Graham cussed Alexei and Dmitriy with offensive words the whole time that they were healing him, but that was not unexpected. Graham was pissed because while Brandon was holding one of his legs down, Brandon found the second knife that Graham had stashed. I was glad that they found it, and Graham was searched for any other weapons before he was cleared to fight. We all knew why he had them, Graham is not as good a fighter as he thinks that he is. Now that there is no hidden weapon to pull out and kill Blake with, Graham knew that he was as good as dead right now.