Page 108 of A Wolf's Heart

Annihilated by the hand of Cridhe.

My soul left my body, I was sure of it, because all life drained out of me, and I was left inside a numb shell. I didn’t burst through the door, I didn’t rush in and start demanding to know what the hell they were talking about. I mean, they might not even be talking about me. Right?

Right?

I dropped my hand to the handle and slowly pushed it open, every sensation suddenly on high alert for me. From the feeling of the cold, smooth metal of the door handle, to the very slight creek it made when I released it from my grasp.

Rainor and Weylin jumped at my entrance, backing up so they both stood in line with Kage between them. And we just stared at one another, for the longest time. They didn’t move, didn’t speak, and neither did I.

“Was that… I don’t understand,” I whispered.

“What did you hear?” Kage asked.

The sound of his voice had me snapping out of my stupor. “It shouldn’t matter what I heard!” I growled. “What is happening? Annihilated, what pack? What do you mean?” My brain knew what they meant, but my heart told me it couldn’t be. It was a lie, it had to be a lie. “Don’t keep it from me.”

The moment they began talking through their link, I knew it.

“Stop it!” My breathing became ragged. “Don’t keepanythingabout me, from me.” I glanced at Rainor. “I’m not naive.” My gaze turned to Weylin. “I deserve to know.” Then my eyes landed on Kage. “I’m strong enough to know.”

Rainor was the one to step forward. “We found out which bloodline you belong to.”

I swayed on my feet, but Weylin was there, taking me by the arm and helping me into a chair. Rainor continued to talk, keeping his distance from me. “You belonged to the Scarab pack.”

Belonged?

“They didn’t abandon you, they didn’t give you up.” And then he continued. He told me how the council put an order out against my pack, how Cridhe had been the one to answer the order. They weren’t sure how it was that I had gotten out of there, but according Kage’s father’s journals, there wasn’t asingle survivor. All pack members had been accounted for—and killed.

“Where is it? The territory.” I stood up, walking to the map. “Where is it?”

“Lila.” Weylin reached out to me, but I snatched my hand away.

“Don’t touch me!” I was breathing heavily. “Not right now. Let me focus, because if I don’t focus, I will fall apart. Where is it?” I pointed to the map.

“Here,” Kage said, his finger touching a small valley near an inlet of water.

My eyes scanned over it. “Cridhe territory,” I whispered. “It’s right across the inlet from Port Renderson, from my home.” Only a few hours’ drive around the inlet from here.

I pulled my phone from my pocket and took a picture of the map before leaving the office.

“You can’t go there!” Rainor called out, running after me.

“Why?” I asked, spinning around. “What town is there now? What pack lives in the homes of my family?” My hands slammed over my mouth. My family. I had a family.

“No one. Nothing. It’s desolate, a ghost town. Never inhabited since the incident.”

Incident. Downplaying the massacre of an entire pack, a whole bloodline, to a mere incident. A fleeting occurrence. A small matter that had to be dealt with. But that’s what Rainor was good with, wasn’t it? Making words seem as meaningless…or meaningful as he wanted to twist them to be.

I dropped my hands from my mouth. “I’m going,” I whispered, backing away from him.

“They are burying the dead,” he said. “I have teams there now, collecting the bodies, bones. Just… wait until they’ve finished. You don’t need to see it.”

“Tell them to stop.” I looked over Rainor’s shoulder at Kage, who stood at the end of the hallway. “Tell them not to touch a single fragment of my pack. As of now, I reclaim my territory, and if I need to challenge you, if I need to fight you to get it back, I will.”

I took a step towards the alpha, and just as he had upon our first meeting, Weylin stepped between us. His wolf sensed the true threat within me.

“It’s yours.” Kage’s voice croaked. “They will stand down for now, but Cridhe is at your disposal to take care of the matter as you wish.” Kage bowed his head to me.

I couldn’t take it. Couldn’t take them. Couldn’t comprehend or fathom what was even going on. I just had to go.

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