84

84
ChapterThirty-Four.EzraWe have been short
on patrol runs for days now. Meeting Alex at the border, I fall in line with
him as he scouts.We haven't seen or
heard anything in days, making me nervous. What is Jackson planning, and why is
Andrei helping him? Andrei and Jackson have never gotten along, so there has to
be something going on behind the scenes with them to band together suddenly."Anything out of the ordinary?" I ask Alex through the
link. Maddox is anxious, he needs something to take the edge off and tame the
fire inside him.“Nothing,
Jackson’s Pack has been locked down, no one has stepped in or out of the
territory,” Alex informs me, which makes me worry more. Jackson is
biding his time and planning for something. If we step over the border and
declare war, we could be walking into a trap.“What about Andrei’s?”“Same thing, they have
gone silent, usually Andrei’s men along the border banter with ours, but we
haven’t seen them at all.”“Yeah, well, he was
caught helping Jackson, the alliance broke the moment he went against us. Just
tell our men to remain alert,” I order, running ahead of him. Maddox needs out.
Needs to be let loose. So I give him the reins he desperately wants.Maddox feels
supercharged as he tackles a moose, taking it down effortlessly. He isn’t even
hungry, he just wants to kill something, and some sick part of me enjoys
watching him do it while he hunts for his next target. However, something is
off with him, he is becoming angrier and angrier as he slaughters animals in
the forest.“What’s
got into you?” I demand, trying to figure it out.“Nothing,
I can’t feel Kora anymore, like she is masking herself from me,” he growls as he keeps hunting, but finds nothing to satisfy the hunger
inside him. He goes back to the moose, deciding to maul it to pieces. Tearing
its flesh from its bone, his fur becomes drenched in blood. I dreaded having to
go into town like this, though it wouldn’t be the first time, it made my pack
anxious. They knew what sort of beast resided in me, knew what sort of monster
had resided in my father. He may be gone, but that doesn’t mean they don't
remember, especially the pack elders.By the time he is
done, blood drips off our fur, but his words earlier have me thinking. I
couldn’t sense Kora either when Mateo and I were with her, couldn’t sense her
at all. The bond is complete, I can feel everything Kat feels, yet something
was different. Kat is stronger within herself, and I never noticed how
incomplete she was until she bonded with us both, but Maddox was right. Did Kat
notice her presence was gone? A whine escapes Maddox's lips, and he starts
running."You can see her tonight at the pack run," I tell Maddox
as he heads for town. It takes us a while because Maddox keeps hunting on the
way, his hunger for death untameable. Finally stopping at the funeral home,
Maddox hands me back control, and I shift back. Not a speck of skin shows under
all the blood, and I curse at the sight of my body. I walk to the back door,
gripping the door handle, and walk in. Good thing Mrs. Crump deals with dead
bodies for a living, but still, even she shrieks at the sight of me as I stroll
into the morgue at the back of the building. She is busy embalming a body and
turns white as a sheet before recognizing my scent.She flicks her long
silver hair over her shoulder. “Alpha,” she gasps, clutching her chest. She
rips a clean sheet off the rack, tossing it at me before pushing her glasses up
her nose. She covers the dead body of one of our warriors with another sheet, and
I wrap the sheet around my waist.“Thought you were
one of the dead coming back for me,” she chuckles with a hand against her
heart. She always had a dark sense of humor. I suppose you had to or wouldn't
choose this for a job.“How is my Luna?”
she asks, washing her hands. She leaves the tap running, and I quickly wash
mine. She was in her 60s, and I had known her all my life. Not only that, but
she was a good woman.“Fine, Ester, she
will be okay, she is dealing with it rather well,” I reply before following her
into the funeral parlor. Coffins and urns line the walls, and my feet leave
marks on the dark floorboards.“Everyone deals with
death differently, but she has you and Mateo,” she observes, eyeing my neck
with a smile on her lips. My face heats at her gaze. “It was hard to contain my
excitement when I recognized you. I could smell him all over you, fills my heart
with joy knowing you have let him in,” she says, making me do a double take.“Ah yes, Alpha, I
have known for a long time. Most of us older ones have. That boy has loved you
since he was a child himself. It is about time Maddox calmed enough to let him
in, I have waited for this day. I am just glad I was alive to see it,” she chuckles,
walking behind her desk.“So you think the
pack will accept it?” I ask, and she nods, ducking down.“Of course, we are
all family, Ezra. Have always been, that is what packs are." She retrieves
a box from the drawer and places it on the desk. Removing the lid, she reveals
a silver urn containing Shirley’s ashes. She grabs a smaller box from beside
the urn holding it out to me, but I shake my head. My arms are coated in blood,
I didn’t want to risk touching anything. Ester realizes that and opens it to
show me. Inside the smaller box is Kat’s pumpkin necklace, but Mateo organized
some of her mother's ashes into a gemstone pendant. She lifts the sapphire
heart to show me. It sits beside the pumpkin.I give her a nod.
Kat would love it. I let her wrap everything back up in the protective wrap
before placing it back in the box with the urn.“Can you find
something to place it in? I don’t want to touch anything,” I request, though I
already walked bloody footprints through the place, Ester never mentioned it.
This woman was one in a million. She buried and cremated nearly every member of
my family and Mateo’s. Though by the time I was done with my father, there
wasn’t much left.I didn't know how
she did it, she had one of the hardest jobs, not only did she bury her husband
and one of her sons, but she was always working and never closed her doorsShe hands me a
plastic bag before putting her arms out. “Come on, I am already covered in
fluids, blood doesn’t faze me,” she insists, and I lean down, letting her wrap
her arms around me.She pats my back
gently, and I kiss her cheek before standing upright.“Congratulations,
Alpha, on finding your mates. I wish you all the happiness, you too, Maddox,”
she adds, bowing slightly before walking towards the back door. She holds it
open for me, and I hold the bag tighter before handing her the sheet I
borrowed. She takes it before I dart off for the trees.I run straight home
before darting into the back and grabbing the hose. I place the bag on the
table to avoid it getting wet before turning the tap on.Mateo, hearing me
return, comes outside before taking the hose from me. “Turn around,” he orders,
and I flinch as the cold water sprays me. Mateo rinses the rest of the thick
blood off me.“Where is Kat?” I
ask as he turns the tap off.“Asleep still, wait
here, I will grab you a towel,” he offers, ducking inside before returning with
a fluffy gray towel. He tosses it to me before grabbing the box out of the bag.
He checks the contents before tucking Shirley’s ashes under his arm and hanging
onto the necklace.“She will love it,”
I assure him, coming up behind him and kissing his neck. He shivers before
nodding. “Go wake her, I need to shower,” I order, and he nods before heading
inside. I follow him back through the packhouse. We head upstairs and to our
mate. He opens the box with her necklace before brushing her hair aside while
she sleeps. She stirs, waking up, and smiles sleepily up at him. He leans down
and gives her a sweet kiss. My cock twitches at the sight of them when Alex’s
voice flitted through my head.“Ah,
Alpha?” he interrupts.“What is it?” I snap.“Um, I think I just saw
Luna’s father head toward the border. Should I grab him?” he asks.“Which border?”“Looks like he is trying
to get into Andrei’s Pack, he is on no man's land at the moment.”“Grab him, don’t let him
cross, drag him back here if you have to,” I order him before refocusing on the room. Now, what would Derrick want with Andrei? I think to myself.