Chapter 81

Ezra stood first. He walked to me and gently released my fingers from around the dagger, I was clutching it so hard my knuckles were white. His mismatched eyes assessed me with precision before he wrapped his arm around me, and I let myself sink into him.

“Are you okay?” he whispered into my hair.

I nodded against his chest. “Who are they?” I asked.

“Omegas from Black River, some of the pack members there. Word got around, and we could not contain them. I do not know what they expected to find here, but they came out of curiosity, and now they are pledged to you.”

“They fear me.”

“No,” he immediately responded. “They see you as their protector. They see you as someone that can and will fight for each and every one of them regardless of background or rank, and that is far more than what they thought they deserved.”

I nodded, trying to wrap my mind around that. I wasn’t expecting any audience, not when I was entirely given over to that wicked part of myself where blood sang to me.

“How much did they see?” I asked dryly.

“We kept them outside the packhouse, but I mean...” He glanced at Miles, his dark blood stark against his pale body.

I nodded mutely. I felt cold and hollow—nothing else. This power that surrounded me was a heavy burden. I needed to release it, but I did not know how.

Nova made her way through the others, slender and graceful. “I can help,” she whispered when she got near enough. “We’ll have to leave for an hour or so,” she told me. “Possibly longer. Is there someone you can trust to watch over both packs?”

I nodded. My gut churned but with a surprised sort of happiness. I had someone I could trust, I had a partner in this—in everything.

I was not alone.

“Ezra,” I breathed.

“Yes, anything,” he replied, gazing at me with sheer intensity.

“I want no one but your brothers inside the packhouse yet. I know they deemed it safe enough, but I want to assess the liveability of it and see what needs to be done.” I glanced at Ezra. “If they’re okay with that, I didn’t mean to try to command them.”

“We are at your service,” Ezra cut me off. “All of us.”

I swallowed, eyes pricking through that hazy burden of power. “First.” I scowled at the husk of the man sprawled on my steps. “I need him off my pack.”

Ezra nodded and waited until Nova had her arm latched in mine before he let me go from his embrace. “It will be done.”

“Don’t bury the bodies yet—” I almost choked against those words. “I want to be there for that.”

I was the last pack member now. The sole member of Blood Moon. I needed to be there to bury them all.

Ezra nodded. I knew that he would take care of everything, and it released a massive burden.

Nova and I walked in silence for a while. I did not know where we were going, but I trusted her. Trust was a funny thing, a damning thing sometimes, but also comforting and something that I did not think I would feel again.

“Do you know the history of our lands?” she asked.

I shook my head. “The history, yes. Why they are blessed, no. It is our tradition to pass down that through heirs when they turn eighteen.”

“Ah. Well, legend has it that our packlands were the first place that our goddesses touched this earth.” I paused, wide-eyed. “Yes.” She nodded. “It is said they came together, one wolven, one feline. We are not as different as people now see us. We are similar as shifters. We are not enemies as the animals we change into are made out to be."

“Cat against dog,” I muttered.

She smiled. “Yes.”

I thought about that all; it made sense. I had always heard we were against each other or, more so, they were against us. They were more so rumors, werecats were rarely seen and I was taught early on that there weren't just two sides to one story, but many.

"The victor writes history," I muttered, repeating the words I had spoken to her the first time we met.

"It is." She smiled, but it was as grim as my face must have been. "But that is the tale of why our packs are connected, because of our goddesses, and that is why this power runs through the very earth itself.”

I furrowed my brows. “Is that true?” I asked her. It was hard to tell fact from fiction sometimes.

“It is the story that has been passed down for many generations. I have heard the same words repeated time and time again through my ancestors. It has been passed from the lips of those who had their lands stolen to mine.”

I gazed at her, and her face was hard, but it only made her look more like a warrior. “Is that why you never truly settled elsewhere?” I asked.

I vaguely remember her saying she felt strange staying somewhere else for too long. The werecats were nomads; they never stayed anywhere long enough to make it a home, at least, that was what we knew of them.

“I have never been back to my ancestral lands until yesterday,” she spoke with reverence. “But I have never felt so connected, so alive.” She looked at me and squeezed my hand; some of this strange power seemed to ease and funnel to her. She swallowed, but she took on the burden.

“Tell me, Simone. Would you or your ancestors ever find another home if it were taken from you?”

I knew the answer. There was no other home for me.

That is why I fought—for revenge, yes, for justice. But I knew that I had to come back to Blood Moon. Every single part of me called for it, even if I did not understand it.

“This is my home,” I replied. "There is no other place for my people."

Nova nodded. “Making another home for us felt wrong. We did try to settle but something always happened, it was as if our goddess was telling us to reclaim our lands.”

“Why were these lands so special to them?” I asked.

“It was said they used to roam the earth.”

“I heard that about our Moon Goddess, that she would roam among her chosen pack, Silver Moon.”

“I have heard that, too,” she smiled wistfully. But gods and goddesses no longer roam the earth as freely. These places connect them to us; they hold a piece of their power. But what we receive from them is not free; it is an exchange, a partnership of sorts.”

“To live on blessed lands?” I asked, and she nodded.

“I still don’t entirely understand that,” she whispered, and I snorted, surprising myself.

It still shocked me when I reacted to something without planning it. It felt good, and it was a warm reminder that I was not hiding anymore—I was free.

“Me either,” I admitted laughing.

“It is my understanding that the lands were blessed so we would not go hungry or thirst. We would be prosperous.” She shrugged. “It was a while ago, so those things mattered more.”

“No grocery stores,” I muttered.

We didn’t farm much at Blood Moon, but every house seemed to have a garden that thrived. The forest around us was dark and misty, and it got thicker the further away from the packhouse. I heard others describe it as terrifying, but it calmed me.

At Black River, nothing seemed to grow besides weeds. The Fireheart I planted took hold faster than the flowers in the garden. In their forest, there was little life, and their yards, even though attended to, were always muddy with patches of grass.

Not the little of Blood Moon I had let myself see was overgrown or bare. It felt like it was standing in time, in an eternal winter. The grass we now walked through was dry. The place that was so full of life through every season was seeped of everything. It was hollow.

“The power is meant to stay protected by the people that were chosen; it was meant to stay in the land.” She glanced between our intertwined arms, which were slick with sticky perspiration. “We have done some of our own snooping here,” she added.

“What?” I went to pull back, but she wrapped my arm back around hers, shaking her head gently.

“To see what we were getting into, we do not want your land. It would not benefit us,” she stated with a smile. “Come, I think we have found the entrance.”

“The entrance,” I repeated.

“We have one, too. It is what I am most desperate to search for once that pack house is clear.” She frowned. “For now, it is most important to give back this power so the lands can come alive. It might not be too late for you, but I worry it is for us.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“These lands, our lands, are the only way now our goddesses can ever come back to this earth,” she said. “Yours have been kept up until recently.” She glanced down at our arms again. “Ours have been left for far too long.” Before I could try to find words of comfort, she stopped abruptly.

We were standing by a flat stone that stood tall. It was covered in moss everywhere except one side, where its smoothness was carved into with a simple, elegant claw mark. It seemed to shimmer even in the faint light. I knew no mortal werewolf had made this. How had I never seen it before?

“You have to be looking for the entrance,” she explained my unspoken question. "You will always be able to find it now."

The entrance, the place where the ranked members went the night we could not shift. My breath caught. I both wanted to go in and stay away.

“What is this place?” I asked, buying time so my emotions could maybe sort through themselves.

“This is where we hold up our part of the bargain. We guard the only entry points for our goddesses to return to this earth. We keep that tie alive.”