Page 175 of The Wolves of Forest Grove

My dead were carried home on the backs of the living.

The traitors and murderers were left behind in shallow graves on the barren field. Only one was left to rot—to be picked at by the sharp shiny beaks of crows and other scavengers until he was only bone.

A risk, to leave him out in the open, even if it was a place that didn’t recognize the touch of mortal souls. But I couldn’t stomach the alternative. He didn’t deserve it.

A total of eight shifters from my pack would never see another day, but Devin’s losses were far greater. Nearly twenty graves had needed to be dug for them, and the work took us until dusk to complete.

Then came the long journey home after splinting broken bones with the little supplies we had on hand and seeing everyone properly hydrated.

It still hadn’t hit me: the loss of them.

The hours passed in a flurry of halfhearted orders and miles passed through the tree covered landscape.

All the while the reek of blood clung to the inside of my nose, reminding me of the additional lives I’d had to take even after the battle was fought. Six.

But I tried to remind myself that their deaths would pave the way for peace. The others had, in fact, been commanded to fight until they could no longer. They were repentant. They hadn’t wanted to kill anyone.

They were welcome.

The smell of campfire broke through the hard shell of numbness keeping me shriveled inside, and I lifted my gaze from the carpet of the forest for the first time in hours. The weight of Charity on my back ached as I came back to myself, and I winced.

Jared and Clay carried two others over their canine backs at my sides while the rest walked behind. Most as wolves, though a few shouldered the packs containing our supplies and walked along on human feet, heads bent as we approached camp.

Wait here, Clay spoke in my thoughts.

There shouldn’t have been a fire in the pits at camp. It should’ve been vacant.

No, I replied. We go together.

“This is where we part ways,” Dante said, tipping his head west to give his packmates the order to head in the direction of home. He looked wistfully after a dark wolf who carried a lighter gray one slung over his back.

His only loss in the fight. But even one was too many, I understood.

I nodded, trying to convey the depth of my gratitude without the need to shift.

“We’ll be in touch,” he added before veering off to join his pack, shifting on the fly until their shadows vanished.

It’s Hazel, Clay said from several paces ahead, peering through the trees. I can smell her scent.

Sure enough, her floral aroma found me on the breeze, and despite everything, a comforted half smile stole onto my lips.

Stubborn woman, Jared put in. She was supposed to stay at the warded cabin until we returned.

When have you ever known her to listen, I asked them both, giving a pointed look.

Clay grunted and began walking again, pausing near the edge of camp, where the moon chamber crouched low in the grass. He gently knelt, bowing his head to allow Luke to slide gracefully from his shoulders and onto the ground next to the moss coated stones.

I nodded, looking at the small patch of land next to the chamber. It was perfect.

The rest of us followed suit, and I paused to push my snout against Charity’s forehead after setting her down, feeling the gravity of her loss like a thousand pounds on my shoulders.

Goodbye, my friend.

A ball grew in my chest as I pushed through my wolf to the surface, feeling her aches in my smaller human muscles as I opened my eyes again.

A muscle in my jaw twitched as I took in the cabin, and the quiet camp beyond. Barely forty-eight hours ago I’d been forced to wonder if there was a chance I’d never make it back here. Seeing it now, I thought I’d never seen anything more beautiful in my whole damn life.

This was home.

My home.

“We’ll take care of the graves,” came Archer’s voice from behind me, and I turned to see several of them already marking out an area to inter our friends. “When they’re ready to be...uh...buried, I’ll send someone to get you.”

“I should help,” I muttered, my voice sounding far away even to my own ears.

A strong arm slipped around my back, and I inhaled warm spice, sighing as the exhaustion finally began to set in. “You’ve done enough, baby. Come on, you need to rest.”

I hadn’t the strength to fight Clay as he guided me around the cabin and the smell of cooking meat and sharp vinegar assaulted my senses.

My brows drew together as my mates and I rounded the cabin to find Hazel, sweat beading over her forehead as she worked two barbeques near the crush of picnic benches where stacks of paper plates were weighted down with heavy stones and bowls sat piled high with cabbage slaw and macaroni salad.

Trays of steaming steaks and chicken piled higher as she pulled them from the grill, dual wielding tongs like a ninja.

She barely turned around as we approached, casting a narrow-eyed stare over her right shoulder. “Took you long enough,” she tutted, and I stared openly at her.

The woman who didn’t doubt for even a second that I would return with both my mates in tow and mostly unharmed. So sure of it that she’d cooked a damned feast to welcome us back.

“I assume we have guests? How many? I need to know how many steaks need cooking. And we’ll have to put in another order, this is pretty much the last of—”

I looped my arms around her back, squeezing tight as my throat tightened and my eyes burned, overflowing with stinging tears that dampened the back of her long dress.

She tensed at first, but then relaxed, patting my trembling arms.

“Now, now, it’s all going to be—” Her hand stilled on my wrist.

Tongs discarded, Hazel twisted in my embrace, holding me at arm’s length and drawing my hands into hers.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, trading in my hands to press two palms to my stomach.

“Um...Hazel?”

I shared a look with my mates as a wide grin broke over Hazel’s face, her blind eyes searching as though she could see something we couldn’t.

“Hazel,” I exclaimed when her lips quivered and a tear fell from her chin. “What’s wrong?”

She sniffed and stepped back, her shoulders shaking with something halfway between laughter and sobbing. “You’re with child, my daughter.”

“No,” I uttered uneasily. “I can’t be, I take pills for…” Oh fuck. When was the last time I’d taken them?

With everything going on, swallowing a tiny pill every morning wasn’t exactly high up on my priority list.

“Are you sure?” Clay asked, his jaw clenching and unclenching just as rapidly as his fists.

“As sure as I’m standing here,” she replied as whispers bloomed behind us, and I sensed the rest of the pack join.

“You’re going to be a mom?” Layla asked hopefully, a crooked grin showing the dimples you could almost forget she had. She wrapped me up in a big hug, her jasmine scent erasing whatever remained of the stench of blood from my nose.

“We’re going to be aunties?” came Viv’s exclamation. Her eyes turned red-rimmed as she clenched her hands together and fought back against the urge to cry.

My heart pounded in my chest, a whole new kind of fear taking root in my belly.

Hesitantly, I placed a hand to my belly, trying to feel what Hazel felt.

“Where there is death, there is also life,” Hazel whispered, almost inaudibly.

Jared’s hand slid over mine, and I looked up to see him smiling, his amber eyes alight with an astonished kind of joy that made the dark emotions flee from my mind.

I looked to Clay, my throat desert dry.

“Clay?” I hedged, concerned at the red tint to his face. At the distant look in his eyes.

He cleared his throat and lifted his chin, swallowing a breath. “So,” he said, his voice thick with emotion as he glanced at his best friend. “What are we going to name our son?”

My chest ached as a hard laugh left my lips that quickly turned into an aching sob of relief.

Jared laughed, too, pressing a hard kiss to my temple.

“Hey,” I sniffed. “Who said it’s a boy? What if she’s a girl?”

“Pfft, that’s easy,” said Jared, wrapping an arm loosely around my waist.

“We’d name her after the strongest woman we know.”

I glanced at Hazel as though she could feel my eyes on her; she shook her head.

“They mean you, stupid,” she said, swiping at the papery skin beneath her eyes.

Another laugh-sob twisted in my chest and I snatched Clay, drawing him close until the bond connected all three of us. He brushed my dirty hair back and pressed a soft kiss to my mouth that made my belly flutter and my toes curl.

A speck of light formed in all the darkness and I smiled against his lips. Terrified, but knowing that no matter what happened, I’d always have them. Together, we could do this.

It was time for a new kind of adventure.