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After this little respite, I could focus on training and defeating Paimon without distractions or worries.
9
SHANE
Raika’s entire being changed when Minsi, Tyren, and Rue showed up. That had been a surprise, but maybe a good one. Wasn’t I saying Raika had to spend more time with her family?
There you go.
She left with them without looking at me. All of them acted as if I hadn’t been here. That wasn’t a bad thing. With my temper, I would snap at them if they even glanced my way.
I looked back at the book in front of me. The words were a blur and I couldn’t make sense of any of it.
I pushed the books away and leaned back in the chair, my neck resting on top of the backrest. Why was this happening? Hadn’t we suffered enough? We had lost almost everyone, lost our town, our pack lands, and now we had to lose Raika too?
A pain cut through my chest, so deep, so raw, it took my breath away.
If she died, I wouldn’t survive it. Not this time. I knew Minsi and Tyren needed me. The pack too. I just … didn’t care anymore.
In need of occupying my mind and moving my body, I decided to go on with my day as normal. Like Raika said, she wouldn’t keel over right now, and my feelings and thoughts on the subject were still too messy for me to analyze them.
As I walked to the village, I couldn’t ignore the beautiful July day. The sun shone high, the temperature wasn’t too hot, the trees and shrubs along the path were still green and abundant. The flowers’ sweet scent filled the air. Birds flew overhead. A perfect day, as if mocking my mood.
I went first to my house in the village where I ate some breakfast, took a shower, and changed my clothes. Then, as I walked to the town hall, I texted Dom and Killian to meet and discuss pack business.
Next, I called Kaz.
Again, the phone went directly to voicemail. I texted him, but by now I was wondering if he had ditched his phone before going wherever the dragons were hiding.
I entered my office, sat on the chair behind my desk, and called Evelyn.
“Hey,” she answered. “Sorry I’ve been so hard to find. Ash and I are in rural Mexico and the cell reception here sucks.”
“Rural Mexico? What the hell are you doing there?”
“Following traces of dragon magic, what else?”
Right, I knew that.
“So,” she went on. “How’s Raika?”
I let out a long breath and told her the grim news. “I know you said you would research dragon magic in humans, but now I was wondering if you could research how to save her.”
Evelyn didn’t answer right away. “I’m sorry, Shane. Saving Raika is more important than what we are doing right now. I’ll go back to Mexico City. I heard there’s a light witch coven there. I can contact them and ask if they know anything. If they don’t, I can ask to use their library. I’m sure they would be okay with that.”
“Thanks, Evelyn.”
“Of course, Shane. Anything for you.” She paused. “We’ll find something. We’ll save her.”
My throat closed and I blinked fast. “I believe you.”
We disconnected and I took a long breath, trying to calm myself. I was here to deal with the pack’s problems, not to cry over Raika and her fate.
I pulled out the latest ledger where we kept the pack’s records and skimmed it. Dom and I hadn’t written on it in a long time. There was still a lot to cover from the year the pack had been enslaved by Conri. With Raika’s help, I had noted key dates. According to her, all the days were the same. There wasn’t much to report. But I wanted to be as throughout as we could.
In the older records, some important information was missing, like the crystals, the dragon … things that had only been told from alpha to alpha. My father had died before I had learned it all, and I didn’t want to make the same mistake with Tyren, or my childr—
The sudden realization that I would never have children, and one of them wouldn’t be alpha, took my breath away and brought another pang of pure pain across my chest.
