Page 163 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

I had been so busy I had spent very little time with her and my family. It was time to change that. It was time to lead... by taking care of myself. I couldn't lead if I was lacking. Just as Shen couldn't have supported me without first finding healing.

This life was about living our best, finding our wings, and holding onto the morals of the Creator. For I had learned just how skewed my viewpoint could become.

“Kick butt,” Jacob said, stumbling over his own feet and barely avoiding a play dart from some of the rowdier kids in the crowd.

Anna smacked the back of his head, then turned to me as he glared and rubbed the spot. “Kick butt,” she repeated.

“Hey!” Jacob said, scowling. “That was my line!”

I felt something cold placed in my hands. I glanced down to see a mage stone with swirling letters. “Just in case,” Shen whispered in my ear, making a shiver go down my spine.

He knew exactly what he was doing to me.

I didn’t need this distraction at the moment, especially since part of me wanted to escape this and just let Shen hold me. I debated it, but when I went to lean back against him, he released me as if he hadn’t just made my toes curl with his voice and the whisper of warm wind from his breath. But over the bond was an impish satisfaction. I stuck my tongue out at the cur of a werewolf, who merely met my eyes with a raised brow and mischief sparkling in his gaze.

Brat,I sassed.Should we tell them of your feeding of a certain puppy…

His eyes darkened, brows lowering, even as his lips twitched.Should I tell them of how you threw yourself over a cliff to save said puppy?

Mom would kill me.

Precisely.

I huffed out a breath of displeasure, but a smile was trying to cross my lips.

“Stinky dragon’s breath,” I whispered.

He grinned. “Careful, Carissimus, or I might take you to the chapel today,” he said.

“What, insults make your heart patter?” I replied blithely, fluttering my eyelashes at him like I’d seen the girls at ale houses do. I felt like an idiot.

And based on his grin, I looked like it, too. “Only yours, stinky fenbutt,” he teased.

I cracked a grin.

“You’ve stalled long enough, Luna. Be brave and show them the leader you know you are,” he whispered into my ear, pushing me forward.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed his hand before he could disappear. If he was gonna tease, he was gonna join me, the cur.

Ran chuckled in my head.

I approached the crowds, Shen at my back and Fenbutt gamboling along beside him.

I stared out at those gathered. Those who had changed so much, given so much. They now stood side by side with creatures we once hunted for sport and the so-called greater good. There would still be problems ahead, but we would face themtogether.

“People and creatures of my tribe, family of my heart, we come together today to celebrate the lives and Gifts of those who left far too soon. They were here for a time, and we wish to remember them for how they lived and how they died. They lived for their families, for their people, and for their honor.”

I paused, staring out at the pyres. "They died as heroes, protecting the very things we nearly lost: freedom, life, and honor. For many long years we have done a disservice to this world, spitting in the face of Source and all her Gifts. We forgot all we once knew and became the monsters we sought to conquer.”

My fellow Reds hung their heads in shame. I felt theirneedsgrating against my soul. “I have killed. I have broken families. I have lied, cheated, stole, and done every sin for thegreater good. My hands run red with the blood of innocents and the guilty. But should I leave myself there, I would become but a faint shadow of who I could be. There is no rule in this worldpreventing us from becoming who we were always meant to be. We have broken sacred laws and we have been broken, but the only ones holding us back are ourselves. You can change. Today.

“Do not just take someone’s word for things, research it. Find the truth in their words. Or the lies. Do not believe someone merely because they are older or because they are of higher rank. Find for yourselves the truth.

“The funny thing about facing hard truth is that it brings freedom where there is only fog. Bring to light those shameful things that are hidden. Do not avoid the hard things in life, and it will set you free. I stand before you today, a broken individual who murdered her own grandmother. If I can change, anyone can,” I said with a wry smile. That brought a bit of a laugh from those who were more morbidly humorous.

“I stand before you today, a murderer of a very good man,” Shen said, startling me. I blinked at him. I hadn’t known he would speak.

Even I must maintain some secrets of the bond, Alia of the Reds,he said.

---