Chapter 72

I stood over his dead body, swaying. I knew I had lost a lot of blood, and my skin was beginning to feel cold.

The others seemed to push in closer to see if he was actually gone of this world—at my hands.

I looked at Nova, who smiled for a split second before dropping her face back to warrior neutrality, but still, her golden eyes glowed.

I forced myself to look into the eyes of the other Alphas and Lunas here.

“Raymond cheated to kill an entire pack, leaving only one,” I announced, my voice carried by the wind. “But this is what happens when you leave one single member of Blood Moon alive.” I paused, and many shifted their gaze.

The fire crackled through me. “We do not forget a debt owed,” I looked at Alpha Alexander this time, the one who had repaid my ancestor's debt by being here and backing me today. “No matter what it is.”

“My only advice to you is this.” My gaze was steel, and my tongue a weapon forged from my anger and repaid blood.

“If you are stupid enough to try to end my pack, make sure you leave no one. Alpha Raymond’s Ignorance was his downfall. He made the mistake of thinking he could keep a grief-stricken fourteen-year-old as a docile prize. But my line is forged from the beginning of our time. We have had many years to befriend death until we became its master.”

The coldness crept in, but my anger held it at bay.

“What Raymond forgot is that even without a pack, Blood Moon lives on through me, and that is a terrifying thing.”

They were all silent. Most I made eye contact with looked away.

“So if you try, do it completely. Because this I vow to you...” I breathed deeply through my nose. “Cross us and everyone you love; everything you hold dear will be taken from you piece by piece until you are ash, nothing but a smudged memory. You will be erased.”

I looked down at Alpha Raymon’s lifeless body, waiting so the words could sink in, so the truth of them could sear in the memories. I made eye contact with Tia, and she scurried forward, bowing deeply and placing my ancestral tiara in my hand.

I placed it on my head. The wind tore through my hair, and it billowed around my naked, blood-stained body. I let my eyes fall closed to remember this perfect moment.

“It would do well of you to all remember that a single member of Blood Moon can take down an entire pack.”

I felt history righting itself. My legacy was forged, and I knew deep in my bones that this tale, the one of one who held the blood of Blood Moon, would be passed far and wide, and no one would forget my ancestors because I was the product of them.

The crowd swelled, they moved, and their voices carried, but it sounded like an echoing buzz.

I had done what I had set out for. I finished the task that had kept me alive all these years, the thing that had silenced my burning rage enough to hone it into a weapon.

I looked down at Raymond’s pale face.

But before I could feel anything like pride and relief, grief swept through me, clutching me in unrelenting iron talons.

I felt Ezra’s arms circling me.

The torrent of grief, sadness, uncurable loss, rage, and revenge broke from me. I contained it as long as I could I could not hold any of it back anymore.

It begged to be let out, and for all that it has done for me, I had to obey.

I fell to the ground.

It all poured from me in a twisted, unearthly rage.

And I screamed.