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His blush deepened. “Ah—well, I think I’m going to check on Hallie and Vince to make sure they don’t need help with setting up the grill. I’ll be back with some food, okay?”
“Sure.” I watched him hop to his feet and jog over to where Hallie and a male wolf with short blond hair were setting up the pot.
I smiled to myself, tilting my head. From the way Jasper’s body had turned toward me during our conversation, I knew it had been going quite well. Given the way his eyes focused on mine, my mouth, and my neck, I could tell that he was interested in me. It was flattering to know that I had so easily charmed a wolf with such a cute personality and a handsome face, but he didn’t light me on fire the way Night did when he looked at me.
The moment Night entered my brain, I looked away from the wolves and down at the ground. What was wrong with me? It was wrong, so wrong, for me to feel this way toward the Alpha of the Wargs. For one, he was my kidnapper, and for another, he was completely unattainable. What’s more, he didn’t seem to like me all that much. On the few occasions where we’d spoken, it had ended in a fight. Granted, my goal had been to annoy him or get him riled up, but I couldn’t even say why I’d tried so hard to get under his skin.
Even if things were different and Night and I were free to date, the way I’d behaved around him had surely made him fed up with me. Why else would he avoid speaking or interacting with me even though I lived a short walk away from him?
It didn’t help that my dreams had picked up since arriving at the Wargs’ territory. I had woken far too many times with images of Night beneath me as I rode him hard beneath the silvery light of the moon. Those bright green eyes were all too familiar as they watched me moan and bounce on top of him. My face turned bright red, and I tried to down more of my drink to keep the heat of my body down.
A few minutes later, Jasper returned with a couple of beef and chicken skewers for me. I accepted them eagerly. The food was cooked to juicy perfection, and it had been dressed in a tangy, mustardy sauce that awakened my appetite. I ate a few more and chatted and laughed with Jasper, Tavi, and Preston.
“If I could have everyone’s attention,” Vince—the one with brown hair who had set up the music—called, a beer in his hand. “I can tell that this night is already going smoothly, but tradition is tradition, and it’s time to tell a story.”
Tavi scooted in closer to me. I had a bottle of beer in hand by now too, and I took a sip as I leaned forward to hear what Vince would say next.
“As everyone knows, the conflict between the Wargs and the Kings runs deep. What started out as hundreds of years of mutual respect born from competition became strife and conflict. The fighting deepened the rift we see now between our packs.”
I began to stiffen. I hadn’t expected the story to be about this, but Tavi bumped me with my shoulder and leaned close to whisper in my ear.
“Don’t worry. No one blames you for this. It’s just tradition.”
“R-right.” I tried to smile, but I still felt a bit uneasy. I began to chew on the end of my skewer and stared at the ground in front of the fire, watching the orange glow across the dead leaves and flat rock.
“Both sides had suffered tragedies,” Vince went on, “but things reached a fever pitch a few decades ago when the Kings killed a pack mother who lived among the Wargs out of pure spite.”
Pack mothers were ancient, magical women who bore the first wolf shifter pups. They lived for centuries, watching over the growth of the packs. I had known, of course, that the conflicts between the packs went back for decades, but I had never heard that the Kings killed the Wargs’ pack mother. If I had just recently been kidnapped, I might have pushed back against the idea that the Kings would do something so horrible, but now that I’d had some distance from the Kings, now that I’d gotten to know the Wargs and lived among them, I had little reason not to believe them.
I had believed the rivalry between the packs had started with jealousy on the part of the Wargs, but if the Kings had really killed the Wargs’ pack mother, that would easily have caused a blood feud that could last until the end of time.
“But the Kings’ cruelty didn’t stop there,” Vince said. “Only ten years ago, the Wargs suffered another great tragedy.”
I heard Tavi sniffle. I turned to look at my friend and found her eyes closed and her eyebrows knitted together in pain. My eyes widened as I realized that Vince was about to talk about Tavi’s past.
“The Kings sent a group of hunters to attack the villagers. In the chaos, they murdered many innocent families, leaving far too many of us childless or orphaned. The pain that attack caused could have ruined the Wargs for good. But our Alpha, Night Shepherd, has stepped up to lead us out of poverty and suffering. Since then, we have been recovering. We have been growing in strength as a pack each year until the day we can finally make the Kings pay for what they have done to us.” Vince raised his bottle. “Tonight, on the night of the new moon, we honor their memory, and we celebrate the good tidings soon to come.”
Vince swallowed what remained in the bottle, and everyone around the circle did the same, including me and Tavi. After a few moments of reverent silence for their dead, the conversation slowly started up again. Tavi, with tears on her face, stood and walked a few yards away from the fire. I followed her.
My heart ached, knowing what the Kings had done over the years to maintain their dominance, and I mourned for the packs who had suffered because of them. Though I was never part of the Kings’ pack, I felt disgusted with myself for believing that place could ever be my home.
“Tavi, wait,” I said, catching up to her. “I had no idea—”
“I know, it’s okay.” Tavi turned to me, tears glimmering on her cheeks, her arms wrapped tight around herself. “It’s not something I like to talk about.”
“I don’t blame you.” It was startling to see someone who was normally a ball of sunshine be so distraught. I wrapped my arms around Tavi and held her close. “I’m so sorry.”
Tavi shook her head and hugged me back tightly. “You have nothing to apologize to me for. You have suffered a lot because of the same man who took everything from me.” She held me at arm’s length and looked at me with rage burning in her dark eyes. “Troy Redwolf was the one who led the attack on us.”
I gasped, but I shouldn’t have been so surprised. I remembered then that on Troy’s sixteenth birthday, he’d gone on a joy run with his friends and some hunters to ring in his birthday. From what I’d heard, the celebration “got crazy”, but I’d never known the specifics of what had happened. If this happened ten years ago, then the timeline would match up.
“They set many of our cabins on fire and slaughtered dozens of wolves. Among our dead were my mother, father, and my younger twin brothers.” Tavi’s voice was shockingly monotonous as she described the carnage. “The only reason I’m alive today is because I had snuck out to play in the caves near our house. When I came home, our cabin had been razed to the ground, and their bodies were…” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “They were gone.”
“Oh, Tavi,” I hugged my friend as tightly as I could and rubbed her back. “How awful.”
Tavi sobbed once and held me back. “I’ve sat through so many of these bonfires, and Vince always tells this story. I’m not usually this emotional because I know that I’m not the only one who’s suffered at the hands of the Kings, but tonight, I don’t know. It hits harder, I guess.”
I squeezed her. “You don’t have to feel bad for getting emotional about something as intense as this, Tavi. You can cry as much as you want to. I won’t let you go until you’re ready for me to.”
