Leviathan
“Get your ass over there,” Rainier growled as he shoved a man who had his wrists bound behind him.
Hand in hand, June and I moved toward him.
Our uninjured men moved about the ruins of the battlefield, rounding up the last remnants of the Red Maw pack members and moving them into isolated groups so they couldn’t try to overwhelm our forces now that the fighting was over.
That didn’t seem like a possibility, though.
From what I saw in these men’s eyes, there was no fight left in them.
They looked aghast at the sight of Desdemona’s body, which had been dragged out of the forest and now rested beside the rest of their dead.
“How are we doing?” I asked Rainier as we approached.
Grunting, he wiped the back of his wrist across his forehead, smearing blood from a cut. “Fine. But, we’ll need to figure out what to do with all these assholes.”
“I think a rope and a tree sounds like a good end to me,” Hakeem said as he dragged a half-conscious Red Maw man to the group of POWs. “What do you think, Levi?”
The other alphas had gathered around us now that the final Red Maw had been rounded up, each man looking toward me, their eyes asking what they should do.
They were leaders of their own packs, but I had helped bring them together to do this.
Now, they wanted my input on how best to deal with these dangerous men.
Flicking my gaze over the assembled prisoners, I wondered what would be best. Execution was the easiest and quickest way to ensure we never had any issues with them again, but even now, after all the fighting and death, that seemed too cruel.
“What should we do?” I asked June.
She blinked in surprise. “Why are you asking me?”
“You’re my mate. You lead these two packs with me.” I squeezed her hand. “We do this together. Your opinion matters as much as mine.”
She stared back at me, almost dumbfounded, but then a radiant smile broke over her face.
“Okay,” she said with a nod. “Okay, I think we let them choose their fate. Either they rejoin their original packs under strict probation, or they…” she trailed off, and shrugged helplessly. “Well…you know.”
“Death,” Patrick said from behind me.
I turned toward the other alpha. “Would they really choose that? Surely not.”
Patrick lifted an eyebrow and nodded to the group of men nearest us. “Look at them. Look at the way some are staring at that psycho’s body.”
Many of the Red Maw were openly weeping as they looked at Desdemona’s body.
There was a very real chance that many of these men had absolutely nothing in the world to live for now that their leader was gone.
She’d brought them together, stroked their egos, brainwashed them.
She and the Red Maw were the closest thing they had to a family.
I pitied them. A leader like Desdemona used her followers’ fears and desires against them, twisting their minds until they believed she cared for them rather than the power she was trying to gain.
“Okay. Spread the word. Anyone who wants to return to their packs will do so under a very strict probationary period, rules to be put in place by their alpha. Any who choose… something else, will be given that option.”
“What about the guys who don’t come from any of our packs?” Blaise asked. He gestured to one of the groups of POWs. “I recognize one of the guys over there. He got kicked out of the Lawrence River pack two years ago. It’s far away, and that alpha obviously isn’t here.”
“I’ll make whatever calls I need to,” I said. “If you’ll do the same? Pull whatever strings you need to. I’m not a savage. If these men want a second chance, they’ll have it, but you make sure they know it’s their very last chance.”
“On it,” Hakeem said.
“Levi?” June said, tugging at my arm.
“Yeah?”
“We need to talk,” she said. “There’s something—”
“Levi! Levi, we need help over here. Got a man hurt real bad. He’s not healing right. Help.”
“Shit.” I gave June an apologetic look.
“It’s fine.” She smiled. “You go. I’ll help the other injured.”
Kissing her quickly on the cheek, I took off at a sprint. Over the next two hours, we did the best we could with triage and medical help. There were quite a few of our number who didn’t make it, though, to my relief, it seemed more of the Red Maw came to their end than our people did.
Near dusk, Patrick, Devon, Blaise, Hakeem, and Rainier led us deeper into the forest and up a steep incline. We came out at the edge of a cliff that overlooked the Idle River, which ran through Idlewild. Nearly a dozen men and Eugenia were standing there.
“These are the ones who say they’d rather not reintegrate,” Devon said, his voice heavy with regret. “We, uh, figured a quick jump was best. We really tried to talk them out of it but…” he trailed off.
I patted him on the shoulder. “You guys did what you could.”
Stepping out to address those standing on the edge, I raised my voice, speaking to all of them, but keeping my eyes on Eugenia.
“You all have a real chance to rejoin your packs. All you have to do is honor this with a new outlook. This doesn’t have to be the end for you. Please—”
“Fuck you, Demon Wolf!” a man at the far end yelled. “Desdemona was my life. Without her, there’s nothing.”
He kicked backward, sailing over the cliff and crashing into the river two hundred feet below.
June gasped—hell, I gasped too. The sudden death left me shaken and confused.
It was like Desdemona had created a death cult.
It was both terrifying and incredibly sad.
More men leapt, setting off a chain reaction of others jumping to their doom, until only Eugenia was left.
Unwilling to see another person die if they didn’t have to, I extended my hand toward her.
“Please don’t,” I said.
“Don’t jump,” June murmured, also extending her hand. We weren’t angry or bitter enough to see another suicide.
Eugenia wiped at her eyes with her bound hands. “I waited my whole life to find my fated mate.” She sniffled. “I finally found him, and I lost him. There’s nothing left for me here.”
“That’s not true, Eugenia,” I said, hands out, pleading. “This doesn’t have to be your final choice.”
“Yes, it does,” she said, and there was anger in her voice now. “You two have each other. I have no one. Maybe…maybe Anders and I will meet again. We can reincarnate.” Her face softened, her eyes going distant. “Yes, that sounds nice. I need to go find him.”
I screamed for her to stop, but I was too late. She’d already jumped. She didn’t shout or cry out in fear. It was simple. One minute she was there, the next she was gone.
“Jesus, fuck,” I hissed, pounding my fist against my thigh. “It didn’t have to be this way.”
June put a reassuring hand on my arm. “We did everything we could.”
For a few seconds, I debated walking to the edge to look down on the bodies floating below, but I didn’t. Turning away, I lead our group away, beginning the trip back to Idlewild.