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If there’s an afterlife, does he feel guilty?
“Last year, my son Joel declared his hatred of our kind. For his own self. He broke my heart, his mama’s heart, and destroyed this pack collectively. He was a vital part of our pack, and I ain’t just sayin’ that cause he’s my son. I would feel it just as deeply if any of y’all abandoned us. Our bloodlines and our power bind us in ways we will never be bound to someone in the outside world. Joel put all of us at risk. The only way we survive is together. No outsiders. No minglin’ with other shifters who don’t respect us. We are the strongest pack in these parts because of our loyalty.”
He pauses for so long that I think the speech is over. Even Rose Mae starts to lift her hands to clap.
But he continues. “I know there won’t be a next time, but if there is, whether it's Joel or any of you, there will be severe consequences. You will not be welcomed back. If any of you,” he pauses again, looking directly at Joel before continuing, “betray the pack again, you will be dead to me.”
Those were the last words he ever spoke.
The harsh silence that followed his statement was punctured by a cry. An unnatural, gurgled, animalistic one.
Joel once left us because he was afraid of the beast within, but it was never his inner beast he had to fear. It was others.
I don’t know what I expected to see when I turned around. Maybe some crazy human? Maybe old man Thomas was having a stroke. I never expected a group of unfamiliar shifters to snatch up my pack mates.
Claws ripped my brother’s and sister’s flesh from their bodies, their rabid tongues licking up the overflow of blood. There were so many of them. Everywhere. Death a promise in their hungry eyes.
I’d pulled Rosie Mae behind me as one of the giant wolves leapt up at us. Her chilling scream will haunt me until the day I die. Her limp body fell to the ground as I turned to see if she was okay. Another wolf was standing over her. It curled it’s lip at me before darting away, looking for another easy kill
Blood. There was so much blood. Her eyes were glazed as if looking into a place none of us will ever see, each spasm of her body indicating she was gone.
“No!”
My bones had melted into me as I started to shift, but something hot squeezed my wrist. “Joel!”
“Brother, you need to run.” He’d pulled my body down behind a bush. “Run, and never ever look back, okay? I should’ve never returned… We’re outnumbered, and you’re too young to fight, Luke.”
“Then run with me!” I’d whimpered, unable to understand what was happening. We were celebrating. And now this… “Don’t make me leave you.”
“You need to survive. Continue our lineage. Get as many as you can to follow you.”
I remember how weak his hug was. How every feature was twisted with desperation. He was already injured.
He didn’t believe he’d survive, even if he left with me.
His last action was to push me. Shove me away from the fighting and bloodshed. Away from my pack.
Running as blindly as I’d followed my brother’s order, I’d screamed for the others to follow me.
* * *
Igrip the tumbler, sneering when I find it’s empty.
As empty as my heart has been since that night.
No one followed me. Why would they? Shifters don’t leave their pack behind. Yet I’d run and run for what must’ve been hours until I collapsed by the creek in another town. I squeeze my eyes tightly shut. As I went to drink the cold water, I swore I could see Rosie Mae’s reflection looking back at me.
I went back to search for survivors. Survivors who didn’t exist. Most of the bodies were unidentifiable, but I saw Rosie Mae’s bracelet on a severed arm just as I spotted my dad’s dog tags.
I’d curled up next to what remained of my parent’s bodies. The hours that followed were a blur, and to this day, I can’t remember most of it. I only remember the tears of both my wolf and human consuming me until the rising sun warmed my shivering body.
Then I stood up in the center of the carnage. I knew what I had to do. What any decent son of an Alpha would do. I made a promise to my ancestors, any god which may be listening, and the blood-soaked ground on which I stood.
“You will pay for this.”
I was never able to return home after that. I knew they’d be watching. Leaving behind everything I knew, I tracked down an old family friend. They weren’t a shifter or part of the pack, but they were trusted.
Graciously, she took me in as her own. “I don’t know a lot about these things, but I do know your ma and pa would’ve wanted you safe. Come in, let’s get you cleaned up.”
