Page 109 of A Wolf's Heart

When I got down to the parking garage, a gamma was standing there, his head bowed, his eyes cast down as he held out a set of keys. I took them, clicking them and finding the black SUV they belonged to.

I didn’t know the back roads well, but I knew in general where I was heading. Wiping tears from my eyes with shaking hands, I drove. I drove and I remembered all the times I’d wondered when my parents would come back for me. I’d wondered if they would remember the house they dropped me off at. I’d wondered if they thought of me. I’d wondered what it would be like to run with them, as a wolf. To not have to hold back when play fighting, like I did with my adoptive parents. To not be hindered as I was growing up among humans.

And then I remembered the times I’d cursed them. The times I’d screamed a howl at the moon in hopes it reached them, and they would hear how angry I was that they’d never come back. That, even though I was one of them, they preferred me to be exiled from them. Why? What had I done wrong to be cast aside like I hadn’t mattered? Nothing.

I had done nothing wrong. Because, at the end of the day, my pleas for their return, my angry, anguished howls at the moon, had fallen on deaf ears. This whole time, my parents had lain in no grave at all. Rotting on their own territory.

In the end… they had been the forgotten ones. Not me.

An hour and a half into the drive, my mind started to click in, and I tried to figure out which way I was going.

A black SUV pulled up in front of me, putting its hazards on before signaling to turn off to the side of the highway. I knew it was them. Two more SUVs were behind me. All together, we pulled over and I got out.

Weylin got out of the first SUV. “I can drive you,” he yelled over the sound of the traffic blasting past us.

“No. I want space right now.”

His shoulders deflated, and he really did look sorry. I knew this wasn’t about him; this had happened before him. But this was about Cridhe, and I couldn’t help but have a sinking feeling that Scarab wasn’t the only one this had happened to.

“Follow us,” he called out, backing up to the driver’s door again. “You don’t know where you’re going. We’ll bring you there and stay with you.”

I thought about it, my eyes still filled with tears as I looked around us. Other than the highway, there was nothing but fields around us for miles. “Okay,” I yelled back.

“Lila, there’s more to tell you,” he said. “I promise I will tell you everything, all of it.”

“Even if Kage orders you not to?”

He pressed his lips into a thin line, looking into the window of the SUV.

I shook my head, turning around and getting back into my vehicle. I watched as Weylin cursed, about to punch the window, before stopping himself and getting back in the driver's side.

It was another hour before we pulled off the highway. I followed them, and two more SUVs followed me. It was another forty-five minutes through winding roads before we came to the town’s sign, worn and overgrown with vines, halfway embedded into a tree, as if the tree had grown around it.

Weylin pulled partway to the side of the road, letting me take the lead as I drove into what was supposed to be… my hometown.

At first, there was nothing except the obvious decay and erosion of the road we took. A tree here and there lined the side of the road, as if they had been pushed aside recently to allow for access.

Once we got over the hill, and down into the town, my breath hitched.

I had expected to see broken-down buildings. I had expected to see a town forgotten by time. What I hadn’t expected was to see a town that looked like it had come from a post-apocalyptic movie.

The sky was grey, no sunlight getting through, the threat of a light drizzle hanging in the low clouds. The roads were broken, potholes and craters galore. Tree limbs littered falling-apart sidewalks while live trees grew through the cement. Some even grew through the homes and storefronts.

I slowed the vehicle to a crawl as I took in the destruction and mayhem. Buildings had been burned down, leaving only rubble behind. Belongings were thrown everywhere. Wardrobes, dressers, tables, and chairs littered the long-forgotten community. I felt sick thinking that, after they were killed, their homes were raided. But then I slowed to a stop as realization dawned. One house had a dresser in the middle of the doorway.

These had been items my pack used to barricade themselves against the attack.

And then I saw them.

Cridhe.

Dozens of gammas dressed in black uniforms lined the streets, kneeling on one knee while bowing their heads. Spaced out, bunched together, every street I turned down, I saw them. Some had boxes with them, as if they were moving things, but now none of them moved from their kneeling position.

Cridhe will be at your disposal.Kage’s words echoed in my head.

I took a deep breath and kept going. Looking directly at every single house, or what was left of a house, and praying I would know. Praying there would be some sort of sign or that something inside me would just click, and I would be…home.

The more roads I took, the more frantic I became. Speeding up and slowing down. I became lost in the destruction and pain. Physical pain took over, and it was as if I could feel them. I could feel their fear, hear their screams.Iwas ready to scream.

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