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I was floating away, away, away, and I was higher than I’d ever been before, and I swore I could see all of Green Creek, all of the territory that the packpackpack called home, and it was alight with a deep violet, all moving toward a group of witches and wolves hunched over a bleeding body and—
I was slammed back down as the pain returned with a vengeance, ferocious and clawing. I howled a song of agony as the raven stretched its wings, a hand that felt like it was made of molten steel closing over the gushing wound and—
I OPENED my eyes.
I was in the clearing.
A man sat across from me. His back was to me. His head was tilted back toward the sky. The moon was full. The stars looked like wolves.
Around us, in the trees, prowled great beasts.
The man said, “I was foolish. Proud. Angry. I tried not to be. I thought being an Alpha meant—I don’t know. That I could be above all that. That I wouldn’t be so… human. But as it turned out, I had so much to learn. Even at the end.”
I couldn’t speak.
“I hear you,” the man said. “All of you. When you sing your wolfsongs. Even the humans. They—I always thought they made us better. Made us whole. Reminded us who were supposed to be. Call it tethers or something more, it doesn’t matter. They… it’s something others don’t understand. They don’t see it like we do.” The man bowed his head. “I should have fought harder for you. And for that, I am sorry. You were my family. And I should have remembered that above all else. I failed you.”
My breath hitched in my chest, and my voice was just a whisper when I spoke. “Thomas?”
He turned his head slightly, a small smile on his face. “Gordo. Oh, I do love to hear your voice.”
“I’m… I don’t—”
“That’s okay.” He turned to look back up at the moon.
“Is this real?”
“I think so.”
“I’m hurt.”
“Yes. Protecting your Alpha. I’m so proud of you.”
My eyes burned as I hung my head. I didn’t know until that very moment how much I longed to hear those words from him. “Mark,” I choked out. “He… he’s changed. An Omega.”
“I know. But he is not lost. None of them are. You are so much more than what they think, Gordo. All of you. My wife. My sons. My pack.”
I crawled toward him, almost falling face-first into the ground when I went to put my right hand down only to realize it wasn’t there anymore. It was a smooth stump, looking fully healed. There were barely even scars.
I didn’t let it deter me.
Not now.
Not from him.
Not ever.
I reached him, and for the first time since I could remember, I could feel him. My Alpha. I pressed my forehead against the back of his neck, and he said, “Oh. Oh, Gordo. I’m so sorry. I am. But it’s you, okay? One day it’ll be you and me forever. We are going to be our own pack again. And you will always be my witch.”
And as the wolves sang their songs around us, I kissed the skin of my Alpha’s neck and pulled away to—
I TOOK in a great gasping breath, sitting up quickly.
My head hurt.
My arm was throbbing.
I was cold.
