Chapter 36 The Morning After
The Morning After
I always thought the aftermath would be louder. After the screaming, the howling wolves, the whole world ripping itself in half, it seemed unfair that the follow-up would be just filled with the gentle rustle of leaves and the soft sigh of the wind.
As dawn crested, the first rays of sunlight spilled over the horizon, bathing the forest in a warm glow and revealing my path ahead. My own footfalls thumped against the forest floor; they sank into the damp earth, each step a stark reminder of the chaos that had just erupted.
Aiden kept quiet, but the way he held us said everything.
One hand pressed protectively against Mateo’s back, the other wrapped tight around my wrist as he drew us up the winding trail, as if letting go of either of us wasn’t an option he’d even consider.
My legs were full of broken glass, every step scraping my shins and knees, but I let him set the pace.
Behind us, the clearing was already a bad dream, its violence packed away in a box with the lid nailed shut.
The only evidence we’d ever been there was the raw, coppery reek of blood clinging to our hair, our clothes, our skin.
Aiden’s SUV was exactly where he left it, somehow untouched by the stampede of monsters and men. I barely remembered how we’d gotten there.
What kept clawing at me was that Mateo still hadn’t spoken.
Not a whisper.
He stayed close enough that our arms kept bumping, like he didn’t trust the space between us. His fists clenched and unclenched with every step, his breath coming in these warm, shallow gasps that didn’t sound like him at all.
Aiden opened the truck’s back door and looked me over, as if waiting for me to crack. When I didn’t, he gently guided me into the backseat. Mateo followed, climbing in after me. I curled an arm around him, offering what little protection I could.
Aiden’s hands, when they moved to fasten Mateo’s seatbelt, were so careful, so impossibly tender, the tremble in his thumb as he checked the release made something crack open in my chest. He slid out of the way and helped me buckle up next, his fingers brushing my skin as if he half expected it to dissolve on contact.
Exhaustion pooled at the base of my skull. I let my head loll back, eyes half-closed, watching the strange ballet of bodies and shadows outside the window.
I saw the outline of Ulysses first, his silhouette rigid and straight-backed, but what made my breath hitch was the shape in his arms: Emily, limp and utterly still.
Ulysses cradled her as if she weighed nothing, a bundle of limp limbs and tangled hair, his face sharpened into a mask of determination.
He didn’t look at me; he didn’t look at any of us. He just moved straight for the other car, never wavering, never letting the mask slip.
The second car stood out like a sore thumb against the backdrop of the forest, its sleek form an incongruous sight among the towering trees. The glossy black Bentley gleamed under the soft light, headlights piercing through the swirling mist.
Alexey sat behind the wheel, one hand on the shifter, the other drumming a silent Morse code on the steering wheel.
He didn’t so much as blink when Ulysses slid Emily into the back seat with a gentleness that surprised me.
His gaze flickered to the SUV parked right next to him.
That’s when our eyes met for a fraction of a second.
His expression was unreadable, impervious to showing any emotion.
The weight of everything we’d seen hung over us in the stale air of the SUV. A muffled shout filtered in from outside, Aiden’s voice, sharp and deliberate, pulling Ulysses’s attention toward him.
Then, Ulysses and Aiden stood nose-to-nose. I couldn’t make out their words. The tension between them was electric. Ulysses gestured once, sharp and impatient, then climbed into his own car and slammed the door so hard the frame rattled.
The air felt heavy with unspoken tension, a reminder that our ordeal was far from over.
Aiden watched him go, shoulders set like granite, then ducked into the driver’s seat. He closed the door with a careful click, as if the sound itself might wake whatever monsters we’d left behind.
For a second, he just stared at the steering wheel, his jaw working silently.
I realized then that he was shaking, not from adrenaline, but from holding everything together with the sheer force of will.
When he finally looked at me in the back seat, the mask was gone.
He looked like a man whose world had just ended and who’d been given the terrible job of driving it the rest of the way into oblivion.
He turned the key, and the engine came to life. The dashboard lit up in sickly blues and greens, casting weird shadows on Aiden’s face. He gripped the wheel so tight his knuckles blanched. I saw the muscles in his forearms flex, the deep scar on his wrist standing out against the pale skin.
“What about your packmates, Aiden?” The question splintered the silence, raw and abrupt, but I had to ask.
I needed something to hold onto besides the memory of all those bodies, the way the forest floor had been carpeted with fur and blood and torn limbs.
How many had been his? How many had died fighting for him, or because of him, or maybe just because they’d been unlucky enough to be in the blast radius of someone else’s war?
Aiden’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, the muscles in his jaw standing out like cables under the skin.
He didn’t answer at first, and the pause dragged out long enough that I started to wonder if maybe he hadn’t heard me, or if he was busy mentally counting off all the names of people who’d never answer again.
“Most of the rogues were just that, rogues. They didn’t come for peace.
My pack… they came here for me, because I needed backup, but they…
” He cut himself off, swallowing hard, his voice rough at the edges.
“They knew the risks. We don’t abandon our own, not for anything.
Not even for the Council’s bullshit politics. ”
I looked down at Mateo, who was pressed so tightly against my side I could feel his heartbeat hammering through his ribs.
He still hadn’t said a word, and I wondered how long it would take for him to start screaming, or if he’d just keep all the terror locked up inside, another little box-within-a-box in our family’s growing collection of traumas.
I stroked his hair, sticky with sweat and something darker, and tried to will some of my strength into him, even though I wasn’t sure I had any left.
Aiden’s eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, meeting mine for a fleeting moment. The look he gave me was all apology and no hope.
“If they got out, they’ll regroup and go back to the pack house, they’ll find us. If not… they did what they had to.”
Outside the window, the forest loomed, still shrouded in darkness. For a second, I thought I saw movement, a flash of fur, the glint of a yellow eye, but then it was gone, swallowed by the shadows and the swirling mist.
My skin prickled with the awareness that we were being watched, maybe even hunted, but I didn’t say anything. I just held Mateo, feeling the sticky heat of his panic and the bone-deep exhaustion in my own limbs.
“We’re going to be okay,” Aiden said, more to himself than to us. “We just need to get clear.” He checked the mirrors, his eyes darting for any sign of movement in the trees.
Alexey’s car pulled out first, its tires spinning mud into a rooster tail behind it. We followed, headlights slicing through branches, the forest swallowing us whole.
My senses were stuck in overdrive. I tasted blood and fear in the back of my throat. Every bump in the road sent a jolt up my spine, but I didn’t care. I only had enough bandwidth for the sound of Mateo’s breath, the shivering of his long limbs folded awkwardly into mine.
My body was in shock. I knew that, logically.
But it didn’t stop my mind from sprinting in frantic little circles, trying to outpace the memory of what had just happened. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Kyle’s hands on my son, on me, on the world I’d tried so hard to build from nothing.
I made myself breathe. I pressed my palm flat to Mateo’s thigh, feeling for warmth, for life, for anything that would root me here.
I got the faintest twitch, a flex of muscle beneath skin.
I focused on that. I let the rest of the world peel away, layer by layer, until all that mattered was the body next to me, and the impossible light I’d watched flare behind his eyes.
I could see Ulysses’s car gliding ahead. Through the glass, I could only make out silhouettes, but even in shadow, it was obvious that Emily was folded into his side, her head resting against his shoulder, and Ulysses leaning just slightly toward her as if bracing her against the world outside.
I wondered if she would ever wake up, or if she’d just drift away in the river of time. I wondered what Ulysses was thinking, whether he’d already planned the next move, or if, in that moment, he was just another lost soul clinging to someone he couldn’t bear to lose.
Aiden slowed for a curve, then accelerated again, his focus absolute. The engine’s steady hum was a constant companion as we navigated the winding roads.
Dawn had broken when we set out, but now, hours later, time blurred into an endless stretch of asphalt and trees.
Each mile marker slipped past, a silent reminder of the journey still ahead.
We only paused for gas, pulling into brightly lit stations that glowed like beacons against the backdrop of a clear blue sky.
At each stop, Aiden emerged from the truck, exhaustion etched into his features, yet he always returned with bags overflowing with snacks and drinks.