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He knew.
He could tell me what I was.
“Tell me...”
But he shook his head, and...with a submissive groan, lowered his mighty bulk to the ground.
I stiffened.
My glow flickered over his silver and black fur as he pressed his nose to Darro’s slack face and whimpered.
His grief poured through me.
His anguish and sorrow were like teeth tearing into my spirit.
Tears ran down my cheeks as he shared his heartache with me. Revealing his desire to make everyone pay but also showing me, beneath his blackened need for revenge, he wallowed in deep remorse.
He cursed the acrid taste of mortal blood on his tongue.
He cowered away from the thought of eating the male he’d killed.
He licked Darro’s nose all while his spirit begged mine for forgiveness.
Dropping to my knees again, I wrapped my arms around the giant wolf.
He huffed and leaned into me.
I sobbed into his fur for everything that’d happened.
And I forgave him.
I poured understanding down our spirit-bond and promised him that Darro would wake—even though I had no idea how I would deliver on that vow.
Someone cleared their throat, breaking our hallowed moment and bringing my eyes up.
I swallowed hard, wiping away my tears as I caught Tral’s strained stare.
His own emotions slipped through me. I winced for burning hate and revenge. For his fury at Kivva’s death and demand for retribution. Instead, he tangled with regret, just like Salak. He burned beneath sick responsibility for the pain and bloodshed of his clan.
Clasping his crimson-stained hands from attending to his son’s wounded thigh, he stepped warily toward Salak and me. Keeping his chin bowed and voice low, he said, “The Nhil will not avenge Kivva’s death. It was his decision to strike. Done by his will alone.”
“Father—” Aktor snarled. “What are you saying? Kivva died protecting us.” He pointed a shaking finger at Darro, his hands equally as bloody from holding his bitten leg. “He’s the reason this happened. He took the girl and—”
“Enough!” Tral whirled on him, his voice booming with clout. “I have been too lenient on you, son. You and Kivva nursed violence in your heart when there ought only be loyalty to our clan.” He shook his head. “What you did to Runa—what you and Kivva did to Runa and the foreigner—has not been forgotten. Kivva has paid a high price. I suggest you keep your mouth shut so you don’t pay the same toll.”
Aktor bristled, his mouth open as if to argue back, but with a glower, he looked at Kivva’s corpse and snapped his teeth together.
Tral studied him for a moment, his eyes dragging over his son sitting on the grass with his leg bleeding from Salak’s defence. For a moment, I sensed his flush of anger toward Salak for biting his heir. Followed by the quick need to even the score and hurt the alpha in return. But then he pulled his shoulders back and glanced over his clan with a watchful eye. “Are there any more hunters dead?”
Men and women shook their heads, some nursing nasty-looking bites but all still breathing. Lida gave a mournful hiccup, her sobs full of despair for causing such disaster.
A murmur of assurances whispered through the group, relaxing Tral’s tension as he turned to face me again.
“It seems only one lost his life. A high price but I will not contest it.” Nodding his head at Salak, he said coldly, “Your punishment toward Kivva and my son is justified. You have delivered vengeance.” Bowing his head at me, his gaze travelled over my fading glow, fear and awe throbbing through the link. “I don’t know who you are, Runa, and I don’t know what happened here tonight. But I know it was you who stopped a nightmare from coming to pass and you who somehow controlled the wolves.”
I shook my head. “I don’t control them, Tral. I merely listen.”
His eyes stayed wide on mine. “I saw your affinity with the lynx from the first moment you met her. I see it now with a pack of beasts. Solin warned me you were different, but I didn’t fully believe it.” He flinched. “I believe it now.”
I didn’t know what to say.
Fisting his spear, he added, “If you listen to the wolves, then you must speak to them in kind. Please...apologise to them for me. And accept my apology to you. I should’ve stopped Kivva from hitting the man beside you and I should’ve stopped Aktor from hurting you in a place where you believed you were safe. I should’ve stopped them from nursing such harmful distrust, but I’m aware now, and it will never happen again. You have my absolute word.”
My skin flickered with golden light, fading with every moment of peace. Sharp, heightened emotions had dampened, leaving me shaky and empty. My skin didn’t prickle with others’ feelings, and my heart didn’t kick with sensitive strings.
