Chapter Eighty-Two - Chase

I slipped down the hallway with two trays of food and a heavy weight on my shoulder. Willow was asleep on our bed, curled into the fetal position while sleeping. I didn’t want to wake her. She needed to sleep but she needed to eat too.

I set the trays down on my chest of drawers and turned back to look at her. She twitched in her sleep. I wondered if the events of the day had crept into her dreams.

She hadn’t had a nightmare in a while. Not the kind that made her wake up screaming.

Maybe killing Ian had sliced through the monster that haunted her dreams.

Now we have a new one. One with more legal power than Ian had.

I wasn’t sure which one was worse, to be honest.

Willow stirred and I watched her awake suddenly. Her hair was a mess on top of her head, and her breathing was heavy. She looked over at me and blinked several times. “How long have you been standing there?” she asked, her voice rough.

“Just a few minutes. I brought your dinner up to you.”

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes with her fists and sat up straight. “I was more tired than I thought. Where did Lilly go?”

“She must have slipped out when you fell asleep,” I said, bringing over her tray and sitting beside her with my own. “The roast smells great.”

She stared at the food for several minutes before turning to me. “Where did they get that thing?”

I shrugged. I’d been thinking about it nonstop. “I’m not sure. It looked like something from a children’s nightmare. So unreal."

She stabbed a piece of roast with her fork. “It was tough to kill too. I almost wish we could have kept him as proof.”

“It’s a little unbelievable,” I said. “I’m not sure they’ll believe us or not.”

Willow chuckled humorlessly and took a bite. “I’m pretty sure they won’t. He’s of royal blood. He’s the Alpha King. We’re just a random rule-breaking pack,” she said.

I reached over and touched her cheek. “We have to keep our heads up.”

“How are we going to sit in the same room as Patch? If I see him … I’m not sure I’ll be able to calm my wolf.”

“You have to. If we lose our cool around him, it’ll show weakness. We don’t want to give them any indication that we’re a problem.”

“Other than we don’t follow the rules,” she mumbled.

I didn’t have an answer for her. Everything she said was the truth. It wouldn’t be easy to get their approval. And if we didn’t, I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be.

“There is no need to worry about it now,” I said. “Why don’t you finish eating and we’ll go for a run?”

She gave me a look. “We’re going for a run around our pack lands when the Alpha King could be plotting our demise?”

“The pack lands are heavily guarded. And I don’t feel scared with my warrior Luna with me.”

She let her head fall back in laughter. “You’re a jackass,” she said with a smile. “I’ll show you a Warrior Luna when we get out here. “

We finished our food, delivered our dishes to the kitchen, and stepped outside of the pack house. Most of the pack lands were bare besides the warriors and guards patrolling.

The lack of pack members around made our walk peaceful.

It made reality hit me in the chest. I had a Luna and a pack. The thought of either of them being taken from me made my wolf shiver in anticipation of someone trying to touch her.

Willow stopped on the far side of the pack house and stripped out of her clothes. The moonlight hit her skin and I took a moment to soak in everything about her. The dips of her waist, and the muscles she hid beneath her clothes. Her ability to lure me in without a word was magic. All she had to do was look at me and I was undone.

She glanced over her shoulder. “Did you change your mind?”

“No,” I said, taking off my clothes. “I’m following you.”

She smiled and shifted into her wolf form. The moon called to us as we darted across the pack lands into the forest.

We’d never run together without someone chasing us or as mates. Even though the weight of tomorrow hung over our shoulders there was a freedom about the run.

I wasn’t sure where she was taking me. I knew the pack lands well enough but not like Willow. She’d grown up here and knew every crevice of the place.

We ran for what felt like hours before she suddenly stopped. A pond glistened under the moonlight several yards away.

Willow shifted and waited for me to follow. “Mom used to bring me here to swim when I was young. Though, the place seemed bigger back then.” She walked toward the bank and dipped her toe into the water. “It’s dried up. Mostly looks like a mud puddle now.”

She was right. I stepped beside her and let my toes sink into the mud. She looked up at me with those vibrant blue eyes. “Will you lay with me? Is that weird? Sometimes I like to lay in the forest and listen to nature. I truly believe that God gave us forests to clear our minds. It’s one place I can find solace at any moment.”

I intertwined my fingers with hers and led her over to a dry patch of grass near the pond. She rested her head on my chest when I lay down and stared at the moonlight through the canopy of trees.

“I did this as a child,” I said. “I would stare up at the trees and the sun.”

She drew circles on my chest. “It brings me back to a time when things were simple. When my life was whole.”

Stroking my fingertips against her back, I felt her heart beating against me. “Things will get back there. It may take some time, but eventually, we’ll walk out of our pack house and not have a fear of someone hurting us. I can promise you that.”

“I believe you. There was a time I never thought it was possible, but now I feel like we’re on the homestretch.”

Tangling my fingers into the ends of her hair, I inhaled her scent.

“I want my siblings to stay with me,” she said into the silence. “Are you okay with that? I can’t imagine tossing them out to fend for themselves.”

“Of course I am. We can’t put children out on their own.”

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I didn’t want my father to have a constant reminder that I wasn’t his daughter, but after our talk, I assume he’ll be okay.”

“Your dad will be fine,” I said. “He’s gonna love you no matter what happens. None of it was your fault.”

“I can’t imagine what my mother saw in Ian,” she whispered. “But maybe before he went feral, he wasn’t so much of a monster.”

“Love makes some people crazy,” I answered. “Especially if it’s ripped from them.”

“Are you gonna go crazy when I find me another alpha?” she teased.

“You can bank on it.”

We lay there for what felt like hours before I heard the guards moving through for their shift change. I nudged Willow and her eyes fluttered open. “Let’s get back to the pack house. It’s late.”

I led her through the forest, past a few guards, and into the field. The moon was giant over the pack house, and it warmed my wolf’s anticipation of the morning to come.

“It feels so quiet out here,” she said, pushing her hair from her eyes. “Almost too quiet. Like it’s the calm before the storm.”

“I hope there are no more storms. Isn’t being chased by a beast in the woods, enough? And fighting a murdering rogue? I hope the courts are civil tomorrow.”

She laughed. “One would think we’ve been through enough already. But I’m not sure Patch is going to let this go. Even if we can’t prove that he’s a monster, will he let me go for running from him? I can’t go back,” she whispered. “He’ll hurt me.”

We stopped near the stairs of the pack house, and I laced my fingers around the back of her neck. “Patch isn’t going to touch you, Willow. I’ll fight the Alpha King to the death if he puts one finger on you again. I refuse to let you go back and become his science experiment. You’re not leaving this pack house, no matter what.”