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But when it comes down to family or friendship… I regretted choosing the former.
‘If we’d stayed, she would have forgiven us eventually.’
I couldn’t exactly disagree. It was his argument from the start.
My wolf shook out his black fur before picking up the pace, socked feet eating up the ground as we ran to rejoin the pack.
Checking on Pearl was the first thing we always did when we returned, and I wasn’t about to stop. My time touring and learning from the other packs, taught me that being away from her was a special kind of torture. It did the opposite of soothing my soul and instead put it through a woodchipper.
‘Trust the Moon Spirit; she knows best,’my wolf reminded me, and I wanted to rip my ears off.
He was right though. I had to trust, to hope, that things would work out.
‘Nephew, we are returning,’my uncle, the alpha, said through the pack link.
I sent him my acknowledgement but kept our thoughts separate from the rest. It was our first night back, and my new station hadn’t been announced yet, so I could enjoy the anonymity for now.
‘She’s hurting,’my wolf decided to point out, and a pang of guilt hit me in the chest.
I vowed to him, and to myself, that we would fix this. Whatever it took, whatever she needed, we’d do it.
‘What about the pack?’
It was a good question; one I’d have to do some soul searching to answer.
The pack house came into view when we crested a small knoll. It was nestled at the base of a grassy hill, surrounded by thick forests. This was a dream as far as land goes, but so were the other’s land, so while it was ideal, it wasn’t necessarily special.
A cloud shifted, bathing the valley in moonlight. A shiver ran down our spine as the light touched us, like the hand of the Moon Spirit herself was stroking our fur.
‘We’ll make this right,’I promised the twinkling light of the stars.
‘Rylan? Get your ass down here,’my cousin, Ledger, ordered through the pack bond.
My wolf’s jowls rose at the order. Ledger was the alpha’s son, so he technicallycouldgive orders, but it rubbed my wolf the wrong way.
My thoughts went to the journal I was given from the Aibek Pack when I left. It belonged to the alpha mated to the original Alpha Seeker, which he’d written while in exile. I’ve read it three times and felt like the words were written specifically for me to read.
The well of power that he had deep inside explains the swirling heat I felt but couldn’t access. The journal showed his journey of finding and harnessing it so he could be the alpha the packs needed for change.
Too bad it didn’t work.
Something was blocking me from accessing this well of power, and I had a pretty good idea what it was.
Pearl.
The journal’s wolf had found his mate before he was exiled, and while I knew that Pearl was mine, I just couldn’t get past the guilt.
‘Rylan,’Ledger barked in my head, sending a bit of power to jolt me. It didn’t, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
‘Coming,’I replied quickly, giving my wolf the reins and letting him track where our cousin was.
We ran back into the woods, smelling the same scents we did as children. This was home, but oddly enough, it didn’t feel like it anymore.
My wolf slowed, which turned my attention back to what we were doing. As we drew closer, I recognized that this place was close to Pearl’s childhood home.
My heart lurched in my chest as anger bubbled up at the thought of Ledger being anywhere near her. As far as evil goes, my cousin had a generous helping built up by my uncle.
The hidden pond by Pearl’s home was one that was as familiar to me as if it were my own. Days spent with Pearl by the water, soaking during the hot afternoons, then curling up in the shade, praying for a breeze—those were the happy days before shit went to hell.
