Page 77 of Scarred Resolve

“What isn’t?” I asked in return.

“This werecat was probably no older than Makalo, maybe no older than Carey,” she said gently, comforting me with her tone as she delivered the haunting and awful news.

Staggering backward, I felt the reality of that statement as my mind flatly tried to deny it.

“His feet are too big for his size. His muscles aren’t full, but he’s not emaciated. He’s lean because young moon cursed often are since building of muscle mass really happens later in life, in the adult years. He was a teenager, an older boy on the cusp of manhood,” Subira continued.

I threw a hand over my mouth and walked away, heading for the trees. No one called out to me. No one stopped me. No one made snarky comments as I vomited into a bush twenty feet away, my hands on my knees as I fought to stay upright.

All the while, I tried to forget I had ever heard what Subira had just said.

“Take a deep breath,” Hasan whispered as a hand touched my back. “In and out, Jacky. Even, deep breaths. This wasn’t your fault. This wasn’t Niko’s or Davor’s either. With the fighting and the situation with the witches, there would have been no way to see it in the moment. Even if you could… There was only one way this could have gone, and that’s not your fault either.”

He knelt beside me. I could hear that but not see him as my vision blurred with tears, and the edges turned black. I tried to breathe like he said, but I was afraid I was just hyperventilating.

“Why?” I was finally able to force out.

“They weren’t powerful enough to control an adult who had come into their full power and knew how to protect themselves. We’re going to find out who this boy is and get him home, though. I promise you that,” Hasan said as he rubbed circles on my back.

I straightened up, looking at the massive man, seeing how much he was torn up by this too. I remembered how he alwayssaid he did everything for his children, whether it was misguided or not.

And now, we grieved a boy we never met. I sometimes hated him, and recently things were a nightmare between us, but in this, we felt the same. Someone had broken this boy, ruined him so completely that not even we could hold any hope for him.

And they’ll fucking pay for it.

“I want to know about every break in this until we find the people who did this,” I said softly.

“You’ll hear them,” Hasan promised.

“I want to strangle the life out of the person who did that to him,” I growled.

“I’ll let you.”

“I want to feel their breathing struggle and their heart turn weak until they stop entirely, just like I had to do to that boy,” I snarled viciously, tears falling down my cheeks.

Someone gasped. I couldn’t identify who.

“You’ll get to do that.”

“You know… You know what this is, right?” I asked, pointing at that boy as I stared at Hasan, knowing he could handle my rage when I had no one else to point it at. “You know, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“This is a fucking declaration of war!” I screamed, barely hearing him say he already knew. I wanted the words out in the world. I wanted it declared. I wanted to make sure everyone knew that I was going to stop at nothing to destroy every fucking monster who thought they could do this to the moon cursed. It wasn’t just that boy who had lost his future. It was four werewolves. It was the Dallas pack. It was Ranger and Sheila’s future, stolen by witches.

He nodded. He knew exactly what it was.

I took a deep breath as footsteps told me that others approached. Davor and Niko had run from the other side of thecabin and stopped nearby, but not too close to the body. I took several more before I walked toward the rest of the group, trying to remain composed.

“I’m sorry,” I said to Subira as I stopped nearby, but like Davor and Niko, I didn’t get too close to the werecat’s body. Hasan stopped behind me, rubbing my back one more time, before he went to Subira’s side.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” she said, staring at the body I could barely look at. “You’re right. There’s a sect of witches out there that have decided to pick a fight with us. They might not think that, but they have done it. Werecats, werewolves, it doesn’t matter which of us. They have been sharing secrets with each other, attempting to turn us into their weapons. We have to stop them.”

“It says something to their disregard of us that they would dare use such a young man like this,” Hasan said, his words cold and promising a brutal death to the ones who did it. “Children, real children, are off limits.”

“They are,” Corissa agreed. “If there’s anything we can do about finding where that young boy had come from, let me know. We’ll do everything we can.”

“The same goes for the origin of your werewolves,” Subira said, turning to nod at the four bodies that Corissa and Callahan had come to get. “We’ll find who did this.”

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