Chapter 11 - Conan
My blood boils through my veins as I rush out into the forest toward the southern ridge. The thickets of trees and undergrowth flash by in blurs that should be green, but all I can see is red.
Red, hot anger, searing through every nerve as if it were fire I wield as my special power, spurring every giant leap and pounce over the rocks and through the forest on my way to the southern ruins of Bitterroot Valley.
Anger directed at Hannah quickly turned to anger that needed to be directed at the demons the moment Simon called through the mind link to alert me of the sightings.
It’s starting again. Things in the valley had been quiet for a few weeks, almost as if the demons were working strategically. Waiting for me to make my next move.
Waiting for my fated mate to emerge.
I can’t tell what enrages me more—Hannah’s deceit, or the demons and their evolving techniques.
Right now, all I know is that I must fight them, and the dark cloud covering the southern quarter of the valley is unnatural, the air pungent with sulfur and decay as the valley wolves push forward.
Our wards and runes don’t seem to be holding long enough, nor strong enough to keep the demons off the region.
I join Damian and Heinrich, accompanied by their soldiers, at the border of Ashclaw territory—once protected by the Ashclaw wolves themselves, now left in ruins, abandoned, and subject to the energy the demons gravitate toward.
They’ve been siphoning the energy of the remains of the Ashclaw Pack—the pack that had been wiped out decades ago—along with our powers. But the valley wolves are no longer vulnerable to being drained with their alphas mated to witches.
But the only witch fit to fight right now is Annika, Heinrich’s mate. She rides his back, clutching fistfuls of his chestnut brown fur, and a pang of jealousy erupts from somewhere deep inside.
I had always been opposed to the mate bond, but now that I’ve been mated to Hannah, there’s a void in my chest, in my life.
A void only she can fill, and I understand it now.
And now, after learning that she had my child eight years ago and didn’t tell me, I feel wronged, unable to foresee a future for us.
How can I forgive her for what she did?
How can I overlook her deception when I was just trying to overlook how her leaving destroyed me for eight long years?
“Conan! Look out!” Simon barks from beside me, his telepathic call snapping me out of my daze, only to hear the sounds of relentless screeching and bleating cries surrounding the valley.
The demons whisk in distorted patterns through the air, pairing up in groups of threes aimed at each alpha, more dark apparitions floating toward the soldiers from the ruins of the south.
One flashes too close to me, but Annika blasts it with a thunderous gush of fire that pushes it back toward a group.
The closer they drift toward the Ashclaw ruins, the stronger they become.
The broken remains of stone homes and burned earth pulse faintly beneath the moonlight, crimson veins of energy running through the cracks in the ground like blood pumping through open wounds. The ruins breathe with dark magic, feeding the demons until their skeletal bodies swell with molten power.
“They’re drawing energy from the ruins!” Annika shouts from Heinrich’s back. “The Ashclaw remnants are amplifying them!”
A demon lunges toward Damian, claws wrapped in black smoke. Annika counters instantly, fire erupting from her palms in a roaring arc that crashes into the creature head-on.
The effect is immediate. The demon shrieks violently as flames consume its body, the fire burning through it faster than anything else we’ve used against them.
“Fire is the only thing that weakens them!” Annika calls out. “Don’t let them regroup! Hold them off, and I will use my powers on them!”
The valley wolves surge forward with renewed determination, but the demons adapt almost instantly, retreating from Annika’s flames and circling outward strategically.
One veers toward me. Then another. Then a third.
They move together with terrifying precision, forcing me backward toward the ruins themselves. Air magic bursts violently from my body as I slash through the first with razor currents sharp enough to split stone, but the second demon slips through the attack and rakes its claws across my side.
Pain tears through me, and I retaliate instinctively, jaw snapping around its throat before blasting it backward with another unstable surge of wind.
But my focus fractures.
Hannah’s face flashes through my mind…Clarissa asleep in my house…the truth…the lies.
The betrayal.
My hesitation lasts less than a second. It’s enough for the demon to gain the upper hand.
“Conan!” Simon roars through the mind link.
But it’s too late.
The third demon emerges directly from the ruins behind me, its body larger than the others, dripping black molten decay. Before I can turn fully, claws spear straight through my shoulder and into my chest.
Agony explodes through my body, a wretched cry ripping from my throat.
The force sends me crashing into the ruined stone wall hard enough to crack it apart beneath me. My air magic erupts wildly on impact, creating a violent cyclone that tears through the ruins, but the power is unstable, broken by pain and distraction.
The demon screeches triumphantly and lunges again.
Fire slams into it before it reaches me.
Annika’s flames engulf the creature while Heinrich barrels into another demon beside her, brown fur stained black with blood.
Damian joins the attack from the opposite side, Annika’s silver magic spiraling around the battlefield in brilliant ribbons that trap the demons long enough for the wolves to finish them.
But more keep coming from the ruins. Too many.
“Fall back!” Damian commands. “Now!”
“I’ve got Conan!” Simon growls.
I try to stand, but my front leg buckles beneath me immediately. Blood pours from the wound in my chest, black smoke curling along the torn flesh where the demon’s claws pierced me.
Something corrupted burns my skin, and I can hardly even make the shift into human form, body in agony, mind in a haze. But I try, phasing between wolf and human, the line between the two blurred.
“Their claws are infected,” Annika says fearfully as Heinrich backs toward us. “We need to get him out of here before it spreads.”
Simon shifts back into human form just long enough to haul my arm over his shoulder while Damian guards our retreat.
The demons don’t pursue immediately.
They linger near the Ashclaw ruins instead, watching us retreat with molten eyes glowing through the darkness. Waiting. Learning as they always do.
My vision blurs as Simon drags me through the forest toward Iron Breath territory, every breath growing heavier than the last. And somewhere beneath the pain, beneath the rage and betrayal twisting through my chest, one truth settles with terrifying certainty:
I need Hannah.
But even now, I remain adamant about staying away from my mate, clinging to the anger toward her.
“Take me to Dorothy…” I croak through the fuzziness of my mind.
Damian and Simon carry me through the night toward Iron Breath territory, my breathing becoming shallower as we near the west side of the valley, with the entourage of wolves following close behind, some injured, others helping them back.
The pain in my chest and the loss of blood eventually consume me, the haze of my vision blurring until everything goes black.
***
“Gah!” I cry out in pain, my eyes flying open.
Dorothy’s face is inches away, her gray eyes glowing as she mutters under her breath with her hands hovering over my exposed chest.
“Shh, Conan…you’re going to be fine. I just need to finish healing you,” she assures me, pressing a hand to my shoulder to coax me to remain lying down.
The pain is torturous as she chants healing mantras over my chest, using her gift of healing to allow the skin to reattach where it had been ripped open.
To distract myself, I look around the room, keeping my eyes away from her work until she’s done, and only a dull ache remains.
I finally look back at the damage, noticing how gruesome the injury was, and even after she’s healed me, it’s like my powers have regressed, and it’s taking longer for my natural healing abilities to kick in.
It shouldn’t be taking this long, especially since I’ve been regaining my powers.
“The demon that attacked you left some of its corruption behind,” Dorothy explains. “I was able to remove it, but I cannot quicken the process of the rest of your healing. You will require more rest.”
I nod slowly, staring at the ceiling as I recall everything that’s happened tonight.
“Why was she here, Dorothy? Why was Hannah here to see you?”
Dorothy sighs as she pulls up a chair. “She grew up with me, Conan. Of course, she came to see me.”
I turn my face toward Dorothy, noticing the way she watches me carefully.
“You know, don’t you?”
She nods gently. “I do. And I will not breathe a word of this to anyone else. I promise.”
“I don’t doubt your loyalty, Dorothy.” I turn back to the ceiling and run a hand through my hair. “But I need to know why she lied to me. I’m guessing you know why.”
“I do know why, but I cannot understand it. I told her the very same thing.”
Frowning, I turn back to Dorothy. “What do you mean?”
She shakes her head slowly. “You told me she left you a note saying that she couldn’t be the luna of this pack. That she couldn’t be your mate. That’s why she had to leave.”
“Yeah, because she did that, Dorothy. She left me and—”
“That’s not what she says. It’s not even what I see, Conan. She was banished from the pack.”
“She’s lying.”
Dorothy shrugs. “I saw it when I hugged her, Conan. She was banished from the pack by your grandfather. The stolen gem was reported to the alpha at the time, and he banished her from the pack.”
I shake my head determinedly. “She’s lying, Dorothy. That’s not what happened. If anyone was banished from the pack, I would have known about it.”
“I don’t know, Conan. She also mentioned something about a note. Perhaps you should ask her about it.”
“A note, huh?” I scoff, becoming irritated again as I roll my eyes. “She means the note she left behind for me. That doesn’t prove anything.”
“Well, it seems like the two of you need to talk. Not fight the way you did earlier. But actually talk and figure things out.”
“I do not wish to speak to a liar,” I huff, getting up on my elbows. My face contorts as I struggle through the pain, but I’m too upset to care or rest.
“You need to, Conan,” Dorothy insists. “I hate to break it to you, but the only way you can truly heal is through your mate. She’s the only one who can heal you. Your true mate—”
“My true mate is a liar,” I snap as I get to my feet, rolling out my shoulder and wincing from the sharp pain that suddenly shoots through my arm. “I don’t need her for anything.”
“There was a time when things were different, Conan,” Dorothy sighs. “There was a time when she was the most important person in your life.”
I shake my head firmly. “That changed when she left the valley, Dorothy. And if she didn’t lie to me about Clarissa, perhaps things would have gone back to the way they were. But she made her choices, and she will have to live with them.”
“She is your fated, true mate, Conan. Do not forget that. Do not punish yourself or this pack because of this.”
I click my tongue. “The only one being punished is her. I will make sure of that.”
Rolling my shoulder again, I grab my torn and tattered T-shirt from the foot of the bed, ruined in the fight and ripped off my body to tend to my injury. It isn’t even remotely healed, but I push through the pain in my attempt to get out of Dorothy’s place.
It’s not like she provided much information, except for another lie Hannah told her. Something about a note, about being banished from the pack.
None of that could have happened without me knowing. Grandfather would not have banished her from the pack without it going through me.
What happened that night was a month short of my becoming alpha. All Hannah needed to do was wait. But she was too afraid of what the pack would think.
So she fled, and broke my heart by doing so. And when I found her in Augusta, she looked me in the eye and lied to me about Clarissa. Even after we were mated, she hid my own daughter from me.
If I ever thought I loved her, then that love has since left. There’s nothing but resentment, hatred left behind.
And right now, I don’t feel like talking to her at all.
Fuck what she has to say to me! Fuck her excuses!
It’s not like any of it could ever undo the damage she’s caused.