Chapter 72 #2
I will never admit that I knew how much Walker was suffering, but when he met Lucian, it’s like his heart healed. When we came home, he had Lucian in tow, a smile I’d never seen, and a plan for the future that made him happy. I don’t think they’ve spent more than an hour apart since they met.
I would love Lucian for that alone, but he’s charming, good-natured, helpful, happy, and a perfect match for my brother. We met, and he was one of us. Like fate. Or destiny. Or a set of star-crossed lovers finally getting the happy ending they deserve.
My mother bustles in, chortling, and bends over the baby, cooing. “You are just perfect, aren’t you?”
“You’re supposed to coo at me, Mother,” I say dryly, winking at Lucian.
“Eh, you’re all old and dried up!” She teases. She ties up her auburn hair and takes off her jacket, hanging it over a chair.
“I’m twenty-five!” I say in offense.
My mother unrepentantly ignores me and steals my niece from my arms.
My father comes in and smiles. He’s a huge man with a mane of black hair.
He’s a bit brusque, but he’s the alpha of our small community.
No one else will challenge him for it, though he keeps trying to pass it off to us.
Sometimes, when I look at him, I see him framed by the sun, with a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. I try not to think of those times.
“So, what have you decided to call her?” I ask, flicking my eyes to my brother.
Walker has always been quiet; he’s got what my mother likes to call an old soul. But I can tell he’s happy. Really, truly happy.
“Mia,” Lucian says.
My head snaps towards him, feeling the blood drain from my face. A feeling of intense fear and then happiness washes over me.
“Her name is Mia. The name speaks to me, like she will be important and loved. I want her to always have a home.”
A flash of an image, a woman stepping in front of me, taking a blow that’s meant to be mine.
I choke up and swallow hard. “It’s…it’s a wonderful name.”
Walker casts me a look that tells me to stop it, warns me to stop it. Ever since he found Lucian, he’s been able to push these dark thoughts away, but I still wake up feeling like something is missing.
I shouldn’t because I am happy, but I wake tangled in my alpha’s arms and legs, crying inconsolably.
“I’m going for a run,” I say to my parents. “I’ll be back in a few days.”
“Don’t go far,” my dad says, looking up into my eyes. “We’ve got a party next week.”
“Pssh,” I say and flip my braid over my shoulder as I walk out with a backward glance. “We’ll be back in time for it.”
As soon as I step outside, I’m ambushed. I shout, scream, and run as four young wolf pups with gangly legs chase after me. They let out wobbly howls and chase me until I fall down in the dirt and let them pounce on me.
They jump all over me, and I wrestle and play with them until their mother recalls them.
“Kaida,” she says with a grin. “Don’t indulge them.”
I dust myself off and take her hand as she lifts me up.
“I can’t help it; I love to play.”
She shakes her head, sending blond ringlets flying, and leans in. “Your alphas are waiting.”
I can’t stop the excitement I get every time I think of them. It’s always like that.
“If they can catch me, they can keep me,” I say to her with a wink.
I pull the wolf side to the front and give her a big wolfie grin before I let out a challenging howl that is answered by wolves everywhere.
When I hear my brother and father howl, I almost go home, but something is pulling me. I need to go out today.
I wait, my ears flicking, until I hear a howl that makes me shiver, one that makes me squirm and want to lay down on my belly and scent mark him until the alpha knows he’s mine.
I let out another long call directly to him and to my other mate who will be listening.
Then I turn and run.
My paws fly over the ground, taking me to places I have travelled and then to places I haven’t.
The landscape changes, and I can just see the ancient ruins of a city that used to exist here. It’s buried in a forest so thick and deep that it’s almost gone.
I slow to a walk, looking around at the thick forest and dense vegetation. Animals I have never seen before flee ahead of me.
My alpha slams into me, crushing me to the ground. I shift and roll onto my back, looking up into Jarek’s amused green eyes.
“Caught you.”
I bite my lower lip. “You always do.”
He leans down and slowly takes possession of my lips. Memories of kissing him while stars fall flash through my head, but I push it aside. I don’t want to look at dreams; I want what’s right in front of me.
His hands rove over my body, leaving me molten.
“Enough, Jarek,” Mordecai says.
As quickly as Jarek appeared, he’s gone, and I’m in Mordecai’s arms. He lifts me off my feet and growls in my ear, which never fails to turn me on.
“What are you doing out here? We’re not supposed to be this far out.”
I shrug. “I felt like I needed to be here.”
Mordecai lets me slide down his body. “The dreams again?”
“Yeah, I keep dreaming about this city and the war. You know the one they tell us about in class? The alphas and omegas dying, but I see it. Monsters and a massive destroyed city. Everyone I know dies over and over.” I turn away, but Mordecai grabs me and pulls me into his arms.
“Don’t turn away, Kaida. I believe you; I just want to help you. You’ve been over it a thousand times. It’s all there. We won.”
“You do help me, Cai. Just being here, being you.” I pause. “There’s something missing. Something we forgot.”
Mordecai’s brows lower, and he puts his hands on my shoulders. “I don’t know what it is, Kaida, but I’m worried you’ll get hurt if you keep looking.”
I glance at Jarek. He’s got his bottom lip between his teeth, when he spots me, he shrugs. “I think we should try to find the answers. I can’t stand seeing you cry, Kaida, you break my heart.”
“Please?” I whisper. “I need to find what I’ve forgotten.”
His mouth slams up against mine, and I cling to his shoulders as he lifts me up. Pulling my thigh up around his hip.
“Fine,” he mutters. “But not here. This is a bad place. I can still feel what we went through here.”
“Don’t worry, it will be an adventure. Everyone is all happy with the baby, and we can explore without getting an earful from Dad.”
“Your dad is terrifying, just saying, so if he comes at us, I’m throwing you under the cart,” Jarek says and licks his bottom lip.
I flick him a saucy grin. “Coward.”
“No, smart.”
Mordecai snickers and takes my hand. “Well, we’re here. Let’s go exploring.”
It’s eerie. There’s really not much to see, but the place feels quiet and heavy.
“What do you think happened here?” I murmur. “After, I mean. It’s completely gone. I almost don’t recognise it.”
“I have no idea,” Jarek says, running his hand over a plastic sign. The paint and colour are gone, and the surface is pocked.
We get to a place that has massive steel beams erected into the sky. For a moment, I see gates that block out the sky and towering skyscrapers. I shudder and turn away.
“Let’s go this way.”
I shift, and we trot through the trees, but I pause, looking at a huge hill. It’s covered with wildflowers.
I take a step that way and let out a bark. I run up the hill. Fear grips me, and I’m suddenly scared to look back. A monster is coming. I look over my shoulder and see nothing but the forest and grass. There’s no monster.
The Ravage Wolf.
I huff and whine as the memory consumes me.
Jarek noses me, and the three of us stand on the top of the hill looking down. On their side of this hill, the forest is different. Inside is thick, darker, greener, while on the other side, the forest is full of tall, ancient trees. In the distance, I can see mountains.
Haven. I want to see it, just once.
I take off running.
We run for two days, stopping to hunt and sleep, curled up in fur. On the third day, I wake knowing we have to go back, but I can’t.
I charge ahead, and we make it into the foothills.
Mordecai is the one who finds the path through the mountain. He’s the one who leads us to the valley.
I shift to my human form and walk into it. The grasses are thigh high, and it feels empty, yet something won’t let me leave.
“So, this is Haven. The Resistance camp. I thought it would be tended to. It looks like everyone forgot about it.”
Mordecai is silent, but he had a lot of friends here. A lot of people he loved who died.
He walks to a wall, and I follow. Shocked to see the wall has been carved and someone has left a shrine here, long forgotten.
“Here lies the people who would not give up or give in. Those taken too soon but whom gave their lives so you could live free. Theo, Charlotte, Ava, Banks, Kendric, Marshall, Taryn, Mia, Alec…” Jarek keeps reading the names until he gets to the bottom.
“And to those who sacrificed it all to give humanity a chance—Legion, Walker, Keres, Jarek, and my brother Mordecai.”
My alpha drops to his knees in the grass, his head bowed, overcome with emotion.
I wander around slowly until I find the path that takes me up to overlook the valley from the back. It’s beautiful.
But, there’s this rock. I turn away, determined to ignore it.
It’s just a rock. I pace around it, staring at it. I stew over it. With everything in me, I try to leave.
It bothers me.
I come back to it.
Something about this rock is wrong, but the memory won’t come.
“Help me move this.”
“Kaida?” Jarek says with exasperation.
“Please?”
They shift the rock easily. Jarek goes in first, then Mordecai.
“What is that?” Jarek hisses. “It feels weird in here.”
“What?” I ask, but I’m distracted as I follow them into the cave.
“I can feel something…like, I don’t know. It's weird,” Jarek moves away from me.
When he does, I see him, but it’s clear my pack can’t.
He’s staring right at me with dark red eyes. A huge black wolf that looks so familiar it starts my heart racing. Chains hold him to the ground.
I suck in air, wheezing. My hands start to shake.
As I watch, he shifts to a man, and it’s a face I know, but I don’t know how I know it.
“Are you real?” His words are rusty, like he hasn’t spoken in years. “Oh, gods, Kaida, are you real this time?”
I step closer to him, taking in his black shirt and long black hair. He’s beautiful, so very, very beautiful.
Without thinking and ignoring the murmurs of my alphas, I reach out and grab hold of a link, and then I yank.
They slither off him at once. He screams, and I feel a deep, dark magic grip me, but I lunge for him, slamming my mouth over his.
Jarek and Mordecai grab his wrists.
The magic goes around and around, flowing from him to me, to Mordecai, to Jarek. Binding us tighter than any bond ever could.
I start to cry, my eyes closed, weeping against his mouth.
“Cadel,” I whisper his name. “My Cadel.”
The magic stops.
“I know you!” Jarek says. He grabs Cadel and drags him down, kissing him hard. When he’s done, Mordecai grips his neck and puts their foreheads together.
“We have missed you,” he whispers.
Four words that break my heart.
And then remake me again.
Cadel turns to me.
“Come with me,” he whispers, holding out his hand.
He leads me out of the cave and into the sunlight. I stare at him, my mouth frozen because there is so much I want to say. But I remember it all now. It feels distant, but not the feelings I had with him. Not this feeling of rightness between us.
Cadel turns to me and smiles. “The gods underestimated you again, Kaida Keres. They didn’t think you would find me.”
My sob catches in my throat. He’s here. He’s mine.
“The gods can’t have you,” I say. “I’m not losing you again.”
He turns, smiling but unsure. “Do you have any idea how long I have waited for you, Luna Omega? Do you even remember me?”
“I remember you, Winter Wolf.” I step into his space, staring up at a face I know as well as my own. My heart beats hard as I reach up and brush his hair back. “God of Winter, my Anarchy Wolf. You searched for me across two worlds. We promised we’d find each other again.”
“I’m not anymore,” he says, and I see a flicker of what appears to be nerves in his eyes. “Now, I am just like you.” His eyes flicker to Jarek and Mordecai. He’s human, I realise with sudden understanding. Just like us.
The Anarchy Wolf has fallen.
I reach up, cupping his cheek.
“Mine. You don’t need to be anything else but mine.”
He smiles, and those shadows vanish. “For always and forever.”