Page 111 of A Wolf's Heart

I ran from the room, nearly jumping over the stairs, one foot going through the floor, slicing into my flesh. I cried out but ignored the pain, now my blood lay with theirs.

I ran out of the house, afraid the gammas would’ve left, but they remained in the same position as I had first seen them. “What’s in the boxes?” I demanded.

“Remains,” one said. And then, in unison, they both started pulling the boxes in front of them, removing the lids and sliding them towards me so I could see.

My cries turned to uncontrollable screams as they presented me with the remains of my family. A mother. A father. Twotoddler brothers. And one older sister. I fell to the ground, my forehead hitting the wet dead grass as my body was racked with grief for a family I had never known.

My cries continued to fill the desolate streets. No one tried to touch me. No one attempted to even talk. But I could feel them. When my throat was raw and I had no more left in me, I looked up at the three men standing in the road, watching me, and I could feel the coldness seeping through my veins.

I stared at them through heartbroken eyes as everything I had held for them shattered.

Savages. All of them.

32

KAGE

Isat in the driver’s seat, the vehicle pulled over at the side of the road, door hanging open, and the sound of Weylin vomiting all the contents of his stomach into the ditch.

“Three teams dispatched to her.” Rainor’s voice was detached, cold. Good.

“I want them to be positioned along the border of Ophidian and her territory. Match up human forms with shifted. Human forms are to wear gas masks at all times.” I hated the toxic smoke gift that some of the Ophidian genetics carried. No matter how we fabricated a mask for our wolves, it either gave a poor seal or too well of one, in which senses were blocked, causing the wolves to panic in battle.

“Done and done.” His voice was dead. In a way, it was oddly familiar, though having him out of my mind was unnatural.

Weylin stumbled back to his seat, pale and sickly looking.

“Cut her off,” I ordered. It had to be done. Her emotions were so strong, they filled not only the bond but also our link. We not only felt her mental anguish; we felt one another feeling it.

“Fuck you,” he growled. “I will bear all of her fucking pain.”

“It doesn’t take away from her, but it does take away from you. You will be useless to us,” Rainor murmured.

“I’m a mutt, I’ve always been useless.”

“You are an asset to the pack. Get yourself together, we have a meeting with the council.” I said.

He shook his head and scoffed. “The entire time I’ve lived with Cridhe, you’ve made a point to tell me I don’t belong.”

“You don’t. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t part of it.” I pulled back onto the road, driving toward the city.

We’d dropped Lila off at the precinct. She insisted she would sleep on the cots tonight. That was the only thing she said to us after she buried her family at the town cemetery we had found. The gammas were instructed to collect the rest of the remains with the location they were found written on the box and pictures taken. Rainor was working on getting someone in to identify everyone.

“She’s going to have to get over it.” I said what had to be said and was already anticipating Weylin’s fist to my jaw, except he went low.

“For fuck’s sake.” I swerved, grasping my balls. “I’m warning you, Weylin. I meant what I said. She’s going to have to get over it because it’s about to get worse for her. If the council finds out about her bloodline. And I doubt they are the only ones out for Scarab blood. She needs to toughen up, because just like you, right now, she will not survive every time someone we care about dies.”

“I find it amusing that you and Rain are the only ones out of us to actually have real family, and yet you couldn’t care less about losing them.”

“How was it shredding your mother apart, Rainor?” I asked.

“Tragic.” He sighed, bored. He sounded so cold and detached that even I shivered.

“Ask him that when he’s flipped back on again,” I said. “I guarantee you won’t get the same response. We need to turn it off. We need to exercise that ability so that we can keep moving and get done what has to be done. We can’t be worrying about hurt feelings or what happened in the past.”

Silence.

I settled in my seat, adjusting my bruised nutsack.

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