Chapter 65
Aiden
My thumb rubs slow circles over my index finger, focusing on the joint that’s so deceptively solid.
Smothering the phantom ache won’t help me sleep, but it’ll make me feel better.
For a while. But it’ll scare him, and I promised never to do it again.
So I numb the urge and trace my fingers over his warm skin instead.
Neither of us would be sleeping tonight. We knew that when we turned off the lights and climbed into bed to pretend.
The rest of the pack seems to be doing the same, because it’s eerily quiet out there.
The usually busy roads are dead silent, and no wolf chooses to run tonight.
It’s the kind of calm that only comes before the world tears itself open.
They’re all taking what little peace they can, the last night before some of them don’t come back.
The strongest warriors would be with us, while a select few would stay to protect the pack. The wards will hold, but in a world where witches had more than one source of power and rogues weren’t feral, certainty becomes a luxury.
I envy the ones staying. Not because I want to, but because I wish he would.
“No,” he whispers into the silence.
“Julian.” I sigh. I didn’t mean to let that slip through, but my mind’s an open book where Julian’s concerned.
“No,” he repeats, burrowing into the crook of my neck. “I’m not staying behind like some fragile luna that needs to be protected.”
“That’s not it,” I say, tightening my hold on his shoulder. “I know you can fight. I just don’t want to risk anything happening to you.”
“And you think I want you out there?” he replies with a shuddered breath. “You think I want to leave your side with what’s waiting for us? I don’t. I want you to be free of any and all danger, but I also know that we’re alphas before anything else.”
“I know,” I mumble with a sigh that he mirrors. His locked limbs slowly loosen. “I know.” I wish it were different, but—“I know.”
In an ideal world, I’d lock Julian in this room so no one could get to him. Not the rogues, not Reon. And not his brother. But there’s a chance—a real solid chance—Oliver might not be there by choice. If they’ve twisted him somehow, if he’s being used, we could still fix it. Probably.
I hope that’s what this is. Because if it isn’t, and he’s anything other than the brother Julian idolised, Julian would never be the same.
“It’ll be okay,” he says, even though it won’t be, even if everything goes according to plan. “You’ll be okay … when you see him, I mean.”
That, I do know.
Seeing Reon surprised me enough to drag something vulnerable to the surface, but behind the fear and anger was the peace of knowing that I wasn’t that little kid anymore. Even when I thought he was dead, I’d made sure I was strong enough to never be prey again, and it’d paid off.
Reon’s not a threat to me, because when I get my hands on him, I’d become his nightmare.
“I’ll be fine to kill him,” I say. Anything else, well, I’ll deal with that after.
Weighted silence blankets us again as the night crawls on, dragging us closer to the hour we’d need to leave. Julian’s arms tighten around me, and mine do the same.
“Aiden,” he starts, voice catching. His heart’s racing. I can feel it, souring our bond with fear. “If it comes down to it and he’s actually …” he can’t say it. “Then—”
“Then we’ll face it together,” I say with a kiss to his forehead. “You’ve had me for every step of this twisted shit we call life, and you’ll have me for the rest of it.”
Exhaling slowly, he relaxes against me as our bond fills with my devotion. It’s all I have to offer him tonight.
“We’ll have to leave soon,” he whispers, shifting, getting comfortable. “Let’s at least try to get some sleep.”
“Alright,” I reply with another kiss to the top his head before we sink into stillness, breathing each other in.
We don’t sleep a wink.
“You reach for me if anything, and I mean anything, feels off,” I say, eyes locked on my mate, even though wolves gather all around us.
I’m leading the charge. Julian’s positioned on the outer edge of our formation—his speed making him and his team ideal for quieter kills. They’ll take out any scouts or stragglers trying to slip through or get ahead of us.
“I will,” he promises, blue eyes scanning my face. “And you do the same.”
I nod, and he tries to step back, but I catch his arm and yank him close until we’re chest to chest. I cup his face in my hands.
“Just …” I take a breath, trying to quiet the anxiety clawing up my throat. “Promise me you’ll be careful, Julian.”
Even with all our intel and preparation, there’s still room for things to go sideways. Normally, I’m fine with the unknown. But not when it comes him. And there were so many unknowns today.
I breathe again, but it’s ragged. The fear in the air tastes metallic—bitter. I should be focused, but I don’t care. Alpha or not, my mate is heading into danger, and I won’t be close enough to watch his back.
“I promise,” he says, pressing his forehead to mine. “I’m coming back to you in one piece, and you better do the same, Aiden Jade Calderon.”
I huff a laugh, and then I kiss him—slow, anchoring myself in the taste of him. In his warmth, his softness, and his strength that reinforces my own before I pull back. I have to force myself to let him go.
“I love you,” I whisper.
“I love you, too,” he replies, and for a moment, we just stare at each other.
I can’t move another inch, because moving means separating. And that’s the last thing we want to do.
But Goddess rarely gives a fuck what we want. So he keeps moving, heading to his team, and I do the same.
I track the back of his blonde head until it’s out of sight, then turn to face the border and the wolves who’ll be running with me.
I meet every fiery and bloodthirsty gaze. Emitt’s closest, and I thank Goddess for him when I lock onto his firm stare.
I try to burn each face into memory, so I know exactly what I’m fighting for. These are the lives I’m protecting out there. Members of my pack.
This was about them first and foremost, not Reon.
“Solidarity first and foremost,” I shout, letting my voice cut across the gathered wolves, shifted and not. “One pack. One. Pack.”
The pack bond flares to life, sparking like a live wire under my skin, pulsing with unity.
“Our bloodlines are rich with her light, so we shall endure forevermore,” Julian shouts in return before a thumping starts from the back.
A fist hammering a chest. Julian’s.
He hits once. Hard. Then again, letting each strike land with deliberate weight. One beat, another, until the rhythm grows. We follow suit, following the tune until the speed picks up and the pounding in our chests matches the fists colliding with them, hearts syncing to the call.
“One pack,” he yells.
“Forevermore!” I bellow, and howls erupt from the ranks.
I turn to face the world beyond our borders. The unclaimed lands loom, wide and waiting, and the pounding continues.
“One pack,” I whisper—and let the shift take me.
Falling on all fours, I face the path ahead and run into its foreboding jaws.
Goddess help us all.
Blood spatters my face as my canines sink through fur and flesh to tear through muscle and bone. The rogue shrieks, trying to paw free, but I drag my claws down its chest and cut it off. I toss the limp body to the ground.
Similar scenes surround me from all angles. Wolves from every pack fight side by side, but we all have the same objective of cutting down the rogues that keep climbing over the valley’s edge in a never-ending swarm.
The march here had been too easy. We kept formation, picking up allies on the way. Our numbers shook the earth with every step, but any scouts that heard us coming were cut down by Julian before they could make a peep.
But that was the only advantage we’d gotten. The second we reached the valley, they started coming.
The ferals hit first, like a never-ending tidal wave of frothing jaws and savage red eyes. No strategy, just chaos. We cut through them like cannon fodder, but it was their sheer numbers that slowed us while the strongest prepared or tried to run.
Not that it mattered. There’s no escape. We haven’t reached their stronghold yet, but we were surrounding the entire valley, which means this only ends one way.
One side had to get through the other. Whoever tired first would lose. It won’t be us. I’m not stopping until they’re all dead.
I spot the break along the cliff and snap the command through the bond.
With me. Break.
Emitt, Dean, and Mads fall in without hesitation, cutting down anything that moves as we cut through the blood-soaked trees. I rip my way through the bodies until the valley opens below.
The same green foothills Julian and I had scouted a day ago. Same deceptive calm. Only … there are too few bodies. Too few rogues, and no sign of their makeshift homes either.
No, I growl. My claws dig into the dirt as I look out over the emptiness.
Wolves are still trying to run, but the bodies don’t match the numbers we’d seen. Confused, I watch the scene as our wolves spill over the edges, following my charge while the leader of the council warriors, Idris, comes to a stop beside me before she shifts.
“You said there were hundreds of them,” she states tightly. “Where are they?”
Julian, I call through our link. Something’s wrong.
I know. There’s not enough of them, he replies a moment later. We haven’t killed nearly as many as we should have.
“Alpha Calderon,” Idris grinds out while I survey the scene ahead.
My focus tunnels, trying to look past what’s in front of me so that I can see what’s beneath.
It’s a trick—has to be. They couldn’t have run that fast, not with our packs closing from every side. So they must’ve been hiding, but how? How do you scrub the presence of all those rogues? How do you hide this many bodies, this much scent?
Nothing just disappeared off the face of the earth without leaving a trace. Not without—
A sheen in the air. A passing twinge of death.
STOP.