Chapter 107 107
Venessa’s POV
The sight of the pack stole the breath from my lungs.
Charred buildings stood like broken bones against the sky, their blackened remains still smoking in places. The air was thick with pain groans, cries, the sharp scent of blood and ash. Injured wolves lay everywhere, some barely conscious, others clutching wounds that should never have happened.
For a moment, I didn’t know where to begin.
The medical staff had clearly been working nonstop, moving from one body to the next, doing everything they could. And yet, the weight in my chest refused to ease. Somehow, irrational or not, I felt responsible for this devastation.
While I had been away, spending time with my father, they had suffered an attack.
The guilt sat heavy and bitter.
My gaze drifted to Denzel as he checked on his officers. He looked lost confused in a way I had never seen before and the question I had been avoiding surfaced again.
Was I good for him?
Maybe I was nothing more than a dangerous distraction. He hadn’t needed to go to the Lycan kingdom. He could have stayed. He should have stayed.
But he went because of me.
And that realization made my stomach twist with shame.
I moved through the injured until I found Rayon. My heart sank the moment I saw him. He lay unmoving, his breathing shallow, his body utterly still.
A coma.
Tonya sat beside him, crying softly, her shoulders shaking. Relief washed through me when I realized she was unharmed. When she noticed me, she rose and wrapped her arms around me, and I held her tightly as she sobbed against my shoulder.
“They came for us, Luna,” she said brokenly. “They came, and they were impossible to kill. It was like they had special powers. We were completely outmatched. Rayon tried to lead. Tyrell and Jalisa helped him, but they were too strong too powerful.”
I didn’t need her to explain what she meant by powers.
Elder Craig had already told me about the gifts their Alpha bestowed upon those who joined his cult.
I gently pulled away and continued checking on the others. That was when I saw Tyrell and Jalisa lying side by side. Something felt wrong immediately.
Jalisa’s bump was gone.
“What happened to her bump?” I asked Tonya quietly.
She sniffled, wiping her nose. “She had surgery, Luna. She lost the baby.”
The words struck like a blade to my soul.
I shouldn’t have felt this way. Jalisa and Tyrell had been cruel, selfish people but the child had been innocent. That life had never deserved to end like this. I knew Jalisa would be shattered when she woke and realized what she had lost.
“I need you to wipe your tears and bring me a few things from the kitchen,” I told Tonya gently. “Can you do that?”
She nodded and wiped her face as I listed the items I would need. I still had herbs old remedies known to speed healing in wolves. I didn’t know if they would be enough, but I had to try.
While I waited, I sat by the window, staring out at the devastation, my mind racing through every possibility. No matter how I turned it over, nothing made sense.
The only explanation I could come up with was supernatural involvement.
But why?
I wished desperately that the Moon Goddess and I were close, that she could simply appear when I needed her. I had so many questions. I needed answers. But the world didn’t work that way, and the confusion pressed down on me until it was hard to breathe.
Was I meant to follow my father to his kingdom?
Maybe. Maybe not.
For the first time in a long while, I was walking blind.
This was different from before different from when I could see the paths ahead, anticipate movements, understand intentions. Now that Denzel had survived the poisoning, that clarity was gone. I didn’t know what came next.
I overheard Denzel speaking to Devon, who was badly wounded. His words made my blood run cold.
“The rogues attacked during the night and left a warning,” Devon said weakly. “They said we should tell you to keep your witch out of their way. The one she serves is no more. It’s time for them to reign.”
I didn’t need to wonder who the witch was.
The explosion of light that had killed some of their members must have terrified them and enraged them.
They had left us no choice.
What caught my attention most was the reference to the Moon Goddess. She was the one they believed I served. She was the one who sent me back, who gave me these unnatural abilities, who pulled me from death itself.
Why mention her?
Didn’t they serve her too?
All shifters came from the Moon Goddess unless another god was involved. Was that the source of their strange powers?
The thought made my head pound.
I was drowning in questions with no one to answer them. The frustration burned hot and sharp.
“How could you send me back and leave me like this?” I whispered under my breath. “Without guidance? Without help? I don’t know what to do, Atabey. I need you.”
I didn’t know if she heard me but I hoped she would.
These people were her enemies. Whoever or whatever they served stood against her. They were recruiting her children, twisting them, and maybe that was why she had brought me back.
Everyone connected to me who had been saved so far maybe they weren’t just survivors. Maybe they were pieces on a board meant to push back, to reclaim what was stolen.
Or maybe I was overthinking everything.
Tonya returned with the items, and I pushed the thoughts aside and got to work, treating the injured one by one.
“Luna… where did you go?” someone asked softly, gripping my hand as I administered the medicine.
The guilt nearly crushed me.
I couldn’t tell them the truth that we had gone to secure my father’s throne and hunt down the source of his illness. That it had nothing to do with our pack, with our responsibilities. I knew they would resent me for it.
I knew Denzel would never have left the Blood Moon pack if it weren’t for me.
But he would have died if he had stayed.
The voice echoed clearly in my mind steady, powerful.
Not Nyla.
It was the same voice from my dream.
Atabey.
“Tend to your wounded, my child,” she said. “I will begin to reveal certain things to you.”