Page 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

AUTUMN

A flash of brown fur flies past me so suddenly that I’d almost miss it if it weren’t for the scent. When the wolf’s teeth clamp down, it is not on me, but Renall. The black wolf’s eyes are wide as he releases Renall from his jaw to the floor. Renall whines as he touches the ground but doesn’t get up.

“Renall?” I run for him, falling to my knees. The ground is sticky with his blood that is spewing from the wounds. His eyes aren’t opening. Too much blood. Too fast. I’m no doctor, but even I know this isn’t good.

“Renall?” I stammer, the tears falling freely now. “Why did you do that, you stupid wolf?”

I would die a thousand deaths for you. His words echo in my mind.

No. Not like this. Not Renall too. I just lost Colton, I can’t bare my heart to be broken and raw like that again. Not Renall. Not like this.

That’s when the pain comes. I feel his every wound as if it were my own, the floodgates of the bond open and I take his pain. I let it envelop me, fuel me. A combination of rage and fear the likes of which I have never experienced before. Then I scream.

I scream all my pain until it echoes against the cave walls to come back and haunt me again and again. The ground beneath my knees shakes, rocks skitter across the floor. Suddenly, through the opening in the floor, the golden tree branches spiral upward.

The wolves look at each other and I spy in their eyes something I haven’t seen before—fear.

Fear of me. And my powers.

They are killing my mate. They fucking should be afraid. Power courses through my veins like the rushing water of a raging river. I carefully place Renall on the floor and stand. My arms rising from my sides as more golden vines explode from the ground, the walls, the Earth itself. These vines wrap around every single wolf on the cave floor and raise them off their feet. If Renall dies, so do they. They will all watch their Guardians die in front of their face, until death is all they know. My vines wrap around every wolf and pull taut.

Screams and gasps echo around me from their Guardians and onlookers. I don’t care, they are next. These people call themselves a pack when they would kill one of their own for sport. This pack is already broken, and I will finally destroy it. The wolves and a few Guardians who helped fight are hanging tangled helplessly in the branches from the Tree of Life. I twist them tighter, thorns digging into flesh as blood drops to the floor. Screams of pain echo out to me.

“Stop this,” a shaky voice calls from the dais. I turn to spy Zev standing there. His legs are trembling. I forgot he was there, but this is all his fault, it’s only fitting he die too. I raise my arm, and a tree branch sharpens into a spearhead.

“I said stop,” he orders again. Slightly more authoritative, but still, I can smell the sweet scent of fear rolling off of him.

“Your words mean nothing to me.” The voice that escapes my lips is not mine. It’s deeper, darker. “You just took the only thing that meant something to me, so you will all meet his same fate.” All I have to do is swing my arm and the golden spear is flying through the air.

“Awe-tum!”

I freeze at the voice.

My spear freezes in the air centimeters before Zev’s left eyeball. I leave it suspended there before spinning around.

Renall has turned over, ivy has spread over his wound and tightened like a tourniquet. A bed of moss is underneath him. When did I do that? Meeting my eyes, he struggles to rise to his feet. Holding his hurt shoulder, he makes it to his knees, struggling to get to me. “Awe-tum. Rokay.” He takes a shaky breath before saying, “We are Rokay.”

“Renall?” The tears have returned as I reach for him. My hands cup his face.

“I’m okay. Release them, Awe-tum.”

“Release who?” That’s when I remember half the pack is hanging from branches suspended above us. “I thought you were dead.”

“I know, I know.” He kisses my forehead.

Renall is okay. I am okay. I take a deep breath, calming my mind, releasing my pain, my anguish. I release the ancient power that answered my call. The vines and branches, along with the wolves and Guardians attached to them, fall to the ground around us. The golden spear is the last to fall, clinking to the ground in front of Zev. I bring Renall’s lips into a kiss.

Footsteps rustle about us, murmurs and whispers resound. Some of the uninjured run away to nurse their wounds. But there is a murmur of a growl echoing in the room around us. A word I’ve never heard them speak before, and it’s unfamiliar to me. But Renall smiles, a tear in his eye. A few Guardians on the ledge appear to be … kneeling.

Renall senses a shift in something as he tries to rise to his feet. I rush to help him. His shoulder and spine still giving him pain. He will need Onai’s herbs to heal. We walk to the center of the room and Renall yells to his former friend.

“Unless you want us to kill the rest of your measly clan, I suggest you let us leave in peace.”

Zev looks to Lupe, another sign of weakness.

“You can’t let her leave,” Onai screams from the second level and then growls. “She just defeated countless, fully grown wolves and made a pass for the Alpha.”

“You’re right, she should be taken down,” a wolf states.

“No, we need her. Imagine if she were to be trained, imagine what she could do to a demon? If you let our fiercest warrior and whatever Guardian powers she possesses leave, you doom us all, Father.”

“If we wanted the opinion of a child, we’d ask,” Lupe snaps.

Onai risked everything by speaking up for me, I realize then. Even when her father is the pack Alpha, she has no say. Women don’t matter here—and this has to change.

“No, she’s right,” another Guardian states from above. A few wolves growl in approval.

“Renall’s from Warrior Clan—who else will train our wolves?”

“I want him on our side,” another calls.

“Yeah, we can’t let them leave.”

“Call it like it is, they won. Renall won his freedom fair and square.”

More growls and shouting resound in the cave until I can no longer make out any one comment. They all look to Zev, the pack Alpha. His face remains stoic as he watches the reactions around the cave. Then his eyes meet mine and they narrow. They hold no love for me or Renall any longer; all they hold is contempt. I defied him and called him weak, and then actually proved it in front of the entire pack. It’s only a matter of time before our conflict comes to a head. But that is a battle for a different day. Today we lick our wounds and regroup.

With a fleeting look at Lupe, who shrugs her shoulders, Zev announces, “Renall and Awe-tum have been cleared by the Blood Rite. They may stay, if they choose to do so.”

Renall turns to me. As I look around at the faces of the wolves and their Guardians, I seem to find a glimmer of something I don’t expect—hope. In Renall, and in me. They meet my eyes. Somehow in all my grief and trauma, this place has felt like home. These people, their faces, their hope that things can finally change. This is what my Mother would have wanted. I can make a difference. Making the world better than you found it. I feel my Mother here. I hear her voice here. This place has become my home.

“Renall,” I whisper, shaking my head. My eyes glistening with tears as they meet his. “We can’t leave, not now.”

He pauses, watching me. “Why?”

Why? Why am I sad? Why do I care what happens to these people that have tried to kill me, rape me, threaten me? Why?

Because somewhere between the fights and the trial and the fear and the pain—this place has become my home. It’s always been Renall’s home. If I want to make Colton’s death matter, then I can’t keep running away. I have to stand for something—fight for something—and I can make this pack better. I can be their hope.

I open my mouth to voice this into words, but Renall nods in understanding. As if he could read my thoughts, or my heart.

“We stay.” He growls while holding my hand.

He kisses me then, blood of our enemies still on his lips. Only this time, I don’t mind.

Maybe I am more wolf than I thought.