“All our dead have been collected. The crew’s on the way back now. Castor and his army have been burned, so were the cattle your guy found in one of the nearby fields, seems Castor was keeping his wolves’ bloodlust under control by feeding them the cows. The couple found in the house’s bedroom were burned separately. They deserved better, but with the obvious claw marks, I didn’t think we could risk it. And the heavy snowfall that fell overnight has helped cover up any evidence we might have missed.”
“I’ll go check on the wounded and meet the crew when they arrive home. Get some rest, Bass. Kat’s going to need you when she wakes.”
If Bass had had the energy, he might have been surprised at the civility between him and Jackson, and the ease in which the two alpha wolves shared the same space. Glancing at his mate’s seemingly peaceful face, Bass marveled at her power. A power she’d nearly lost her life over. Though to Katalina, it wasn’t a power at all, merely a part of who she was. There was no competition between his and Jackson’s wolves anymore. They’d each gained respect and trust for one another, which had erased the tension that had lingered before the final battle, making their interactions together far easier.
It was because of this that Bass said his next words. Revealing a fear which had been building inside of him since Katalina had collapsed into unconsciousness.
“She doesn’t want to wake up, Jackson. She’s blaming herself for the deaths of our people.”
Jackson’s hand paused on the door handle as he looked back over his shoulder and met Bass’s gaze. “You need to convince her otherwise, Bass. I can’t lose her.”
Neither can I…. “Katalina has always had her own mind. She drives me crazy, but I love her all the same. She has to want to come back to us. No one can make her, not even me.”
Jackson’s jaw went rigid as he listened to Bass’s words, his eyes filling with a pain Bass knew all too well. Stepping away from the door, Katalina’s father came back to her bedside and stared down at his daughter. “She’s going to wake up, Bass,” Jackson said. “Because without her, we’ll not survive.”
Brushing a hand gently through her hair, Jackson lingered only a second longer, then turned and left the room, closing Bass inside with his mate. Waiting until he could no longer hear Jackson’s steps on the stairs, Bass leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Katalina’s unresponsive lips before whispering his next words.
“Your father’s wrong, Katalina. We will survive without you because I’ll make sure of it. You once asked me to promise you I’d hold the packs together, and I couldn’t give you that promise then, but I will now.” He dragged in a breath, fought against the tightness stealing his breath. “I love you, baby. Enough to let you go. No death was your fault. The attacks, this war we had with Castor, none of it was your fault, but I know you well enough to understand you’ll not see it that way.” A tear slipped down his cheek as his next words built in his throat. “I give you permission to go. I’ll forgive you for leaving me, and every move I’ll make afterward will be in your name, because even if you’re not with me in person, I’ll always be yours and you will always be, my Winter Wolf.”
Dropping his head forward, Bass gripped Katalina’s hand, feeling the shallow rise and fall of her chest as she continued on asleep. And with each breath, Bass waited for it to be her last. For the moment, his heart would break for good.
Chapter 61
Katalina
Bass’s words filtered into her subconscious mind and echoed inside her head. His pain, his love, and his acceptance. He’d been in her life for only a year, but in that year, he’d showed her things about herself she’d never realized she’d needed. He’d given her a place to belong, a love that only a few got to experience, and he’d shown her the strength she’d had hidden inside her all along. But sometimes strength wasn’t enough to survive the strife of life. Her burdens became heavy, even though she had others to shoulder the load, and eventually, it broke her.
It had been an inevitability from the moment her parents’ car had been driven off the road, and they’d died in the fiery destruction. It had been a shadow haunting her, a wave building on the horizon ready to smash her to the earth. Grief, guilt, anguish, pain, these were all emotions attacking Katalina, but underneath it all was a love no amount of suffering could dampen, and as Bass loved her enough to let her go, Katalina loved him enough to live despite the horror that awaited.
Logically, she knew it wasn’t she who’d started the war. The power she possessed was never something she’d been aware of having until the end, and if Castor had walked away as Bass had wanted in the beginning, she’d have gone on unaware. Circumstance and bad fortune had led Dark Shadow and River Run down a deadly path since before she’d even been born, and her arrival had altered that path, severing the rot from Dark Shadow’s heart.
Whether the men and women on that path wanted to be there, it didn’t matter. In Katalina’s eyes, it was she who’d turned them down the road, and she who’d led some to their deaths. But she owed them more than just giving up. They’d believed in a future of peace, and so had she. That future was possible now. No one stood in their way, and Katalina would see it, even if opening her eyes was the hardest thing she’d done to date.
Bass held onto her hand with a grip that hurt, his shoulders shaking as he cried silently. Lifting her free hand, she moved the heavy limb and placed it over his head, her fingers curling into the dark locks of his hair. After freezing for the barest of moments, he then slowly lifted his head, and her hand fell through his hair and rested on his stubbled jaw.
Near black wolf eyes held hers in place, glistening with the remnants of his pain. Smiling sadly, Katalina brushed a finger along his jaw and traced along his bottom lip. “You need to shave,” she murmured.
His lips lifted to match hers. “Probably shower too.”
“I heard you,” she whispered as her eyes watered.
“And you’re still here,” he noted, releasing her hand to cup her cheek.
“You’re the bravest man I know, and you’d have held our family together even as you’d shattered. But not even I have the right to ask that of you, Bass. This is our future, and we’ll face it together.”
“I missed you,” Bass breathed, standing up and leaning over her.
Her smile widened, gaze filling with love and light as her hand moved down and pressed over his heart. “Silly man. I never left.”
He kissed her for a long time afterward, his lips saying things no words could ever express. Their love breathed life back into their souls, healing wounds, building walls against the grief yet to come, and as night fell, twenty-four hours after their journey had come to a head, Katalina and Bass held onto each other, bound by their love and the packs they called home.
***
The funerals began at daybreak the next day. They were held by the lake that shimmered as the sun rose over the icy water and turned the snow-covered landscape into a glittering wilderness. But the beauty of her surroundings couldn’t mask the darkness in Katalina’s heart.
Too many names were called that day, including her beloved dog, who she kept expecting to come bounding around the corner at any moment. He’d been her constant shadow for nearly ten years, and the hole he’d left behind was a mile wide. Empty places existed beside many of them, marking their fallen loved ones. Fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, and lovers who’d never have the chance to be more. Hollow, raw holes that could not be filled. Their packs were in mourning and would be for some time to come.
Taking an unsteady step forward from between Bass and Jackson, Katalina took her position before both packs, taking in their faces. Their sorrow cut her far deeper than Raven had ever accomplished.
Her heart was heavy with pain and guilt as she spoke, “Dax, Noah, Sam, Tilly, Arne, Holly, William, and Avery.” Every name from her lips would forever stay with her, and as tears burned in her eyes, she wondered if they’d have lived if only she’d have understood the prophecy in time. If s
he’d have known the power that ran through her veins, could she have saved her dog? Ended Castor before it had ever begun?
Please forgive me…. Her eyes slid shut against the wave of failure threatening to consume her. And though deep in her heart Katalina knew none of the dead would blame her, she wasn’t sure she had it in herself to be so forgiving.
“They all gave their lives so we could be here today. The war is over, the battle won, but the effects of it will linger for months if not years to come.” Her voice wavered, became stuck in her throat as whimpers and sobs echoed through her people. “We are two packs, but one family, and together we grieve their loss, the absence of them an ache in all our hearts. But it will not darken us. Instead, we will use our pain to drive us forward, and together, we will step into a future where our children will grow up without fear and with the choice to love freely.”
Bass’s loved filled her hollow soul, his support pulsing down their bond. “Their deaths will not be in vain, and the love, the friendships, and the loyalty that binds us all together will create a shield against any foe that may threaten our freedom.” Turning toward the pyres, Katalina brushed away the tears rolling down her cheeks and nodded to those ready to light them. “Goodbye. You might be gone, but you’ll never be forgotten.”
The flames grew, turning the dead to ash as smoke smoldered thick and black into the air. Tears glistened on cheeks and fell to the earth, and cries of sorrow spread through the group. Hearts broke that day, bodies faded never to be seen again, but throughout all of it, two alpha wolves stood shoulder to shoulder, silent, deadly reminders that Dark Shadow and River Run were one.
Chapter 62
Eva
She’d always known John was important to Dark Shadow, but until the mass funeral, she hadn’t truly understood it. He was a shoulder to lean on, arms to hold those up who could no longer stand with their grief. John was a figure of strength and comfort to more than just herself.
So many had died, and she would have joined them if it hadn’t been for the virus that had mutated her DNA. What was yet to be decided was whether the virus was a gift or a curse. She’d left their home for the first time to attend the funeral. Eva didn’t know all the faces to the names of the dead, but she did know some, and she mourned them as much as anyone else.
But it wasn’t her emotions she was struggling to contend with, but the many seemingly swirling in the air around her. John had purposely positioned them on the outer edge of the crowd, but after Katalina’s words, he’d been drawn in by those who needed him. He’d held tightly to her hand as if she might run as far and as fast as she could if he was to let her go, bringing her into the grieving mass of bodies and as he had done so, she’d wanted to do nothing more than run as he feared.
Their emotions hit against her mind as if physical objects, hammering at her defenses until it was taking all she had not to grip her head and scream. Scents filled her lungs, sounds rushed her ears, all overwhelming Eva’s newly sharpened senses.
There was no wonder Zac went crazy after he was turned. Eva had a new appreciation for her brother’s resilience. He’d never once complained of the many changes she was now going through. It was so much more than simply being able to shift into a wolf—something she hadn’t yet done and feared beyond anything else. It was the heightened emotion and the now stark clarity of the world around her. It was the sound, the smells, the need to howl and scream and run. Run, run, run!
“John,” Eva whispered, forcibly tugging her hand from his. “I need a little air.”
She took a step back as he turned, eyes wide as she backed away. “Eva?”
“I’m okay,” she lied.
Reaching toward her, John called her name, “Evaline.” But before he could reach her, John was stopped by a wailing woman, and as he wrapped the woman into his arms, her and John’s gaze connected, an awareness pulsing between them down the bond that was so strange and new.
“I’ll come back,” she mouthed. And as Eva turned and slipped into the trees, she wondered whether her words were a lie.
Her feet ran on their own accord, her body darting through the trees at a speed she’d never gone before, but no matter how far and fast she went, Eva couldn’t escape the pounding in her head and the screaming need burning through her body.
Collapsing to the ground, she gripped the earth, snow melting between her fingers as it met her hot skin. She was burning up from the inside out, being taken over in a way that scared her more than anything else she’d ever experienced. The wolf was there in her head, invading every cell of her body, erasing all she’d ever known, controlling her to the point Eva was no longer herself.
She screamed as her bones began to crack, the sound nothing human. Pain rippled across her skin as golden fur erupted along her arms for seconds at a time, over and over, a continuous torture. Eva fought with all she had, refused to give in to the wolf possessing her soul and mind. The harder she resisted, the stronger the pain. Tears fell from her eyes, sweat broke out over her skin, and as claws ripped through her fingers, her spine snapped and reformed. Again and again, agony beyond anything she’d ever imagined overwhelmed her as her shrieks filled the night.
“Make it stop,” Eva begged. “Please, make it stop.”
“Evaline!” John fell to his knees, took her head in his hands. “Baby, you need to stop fighting it.”
“I can’t,” she sobbed, crying out as another bone snapped and reshaped. “I can’t!”
“Eva,” John growled, his tone rumbling across her skin and commanding parts of Eva she didn’t yet know. “This is who you are now. Give in. Let the wolf out.”
“I’m scared,” Eva whimpered as her fight began to fade.
He rubbed at her tears, caressed her skin. “Do you trust me?”
She met his yellow wolf gaze, and despite her fear, despite the agony ripping her body apart and the wolf taking over all that she was, she knew in her heart her answer would always be yes.
“Yes,” she breathed as the pain faded and morphed into something beyond pleasure, beyond anything her human mind could ever grasp.
Eva let go.
Giving herself over to the wolf, Eva shifted, her world becoming far simpler and greater than she could ever have imagined. Fear did not exist inside the mind of a wolf. Eva was free for the first time in her life.
“Run, baby,” John whispered, the smile on his face wide. “Run.”
Taking off, it took Eva a moment to get the hang of her legs. They stumbled beneath her, wobbling as if she was a newborn standing for the first time, and then she was flying. Trees blurred by, the wind cutting through her fur as the crisp winter filled her lungs and carried her to places she’d never be able to go on two feet.
The freedom, the power, the utter joy of it all… it was a gift beyond imagination. And as John raced past her, nipping playfully as he did, she let it all burst from her chest in a howl that carried on the breeze, her melody joined seconds after by John’s, and in the distance, the sound carried on. Wolf after wolf, Dark Shadow and River Run… the song of two packs becoming one.
Chapter 63
Katalina
It was nice to be able to walk freely from River Run to Dark Shadow without a guard, yet the feeling didn’t quite sit right on her chest. Katalina was struggling to shake the gloom that had followed her from seeing her family, to the bedside of her friend. Cage hadn’t woken since he’d been rushed from the battleground, nearing death. He’d slipped into a coma the day after and seemed to be slowly fading from this life before their eyes. But Anna refused to believe her mate wasn’t coming back to her.
Katalina wished she had the woman’s faith and hoped Anna’s wasn’t in vain. Too many had been lost, and Katalina wasn’t sure she could take another, and neither could River Run. The pack had lost William—Jackson’s second. Add Holly and Avery to the list, and it left River Run with a big hole in their hierarchy. Not to mention the fact Mia was out of action for the foreseeable future, regrowing t
he bottom half of her leg. If she’d have been human, she’d have lost the limb, but the shifter gene was slowly but surely regrowing muscle and cartilage. Something Mia had told Katalina “hurt like a bitch.” Katalina didn’t think the bedrest was helping Mia’s mindset either, but the main thing was that Mia would survive, and for that, Katalina would always be grateful.
Her relationship with the remainder of her human family wasn’t as hopeful though. Her gran was trying, despite Katalina not being able to ignore the stench of fear coming from her grandmother every time she visited. It was her uncle she worried the most about though—a man who’d not taken to his new life as well as Eva had. His first shift had left his room in shreds, destroyed furniture, smashed objects, and torn bedding, and her aunt’s psyche hadn’t fared much better. Katalina’s cousin, Dillon, had taken to pack life far better, wowed by the wonder of children being able to turn into wolves and declaring Katalina was actually a real-life superhero.
It would take time, she knew. Not everyone took the news of her existence in their stride, and the fact they’d been kidnapped by a mad man and dragged into a war hadn’t helped. Bass assured her that her uncle would be fine once he let go of his anger, something he’d employed Zackary to help with.
All in all, it was a mess Katalina had chosen to take a step back from. She had enough on her mind without adding her family’s anger and fear into the mix and could only hope in time they’d see her as the person she’d always been, and all become family again.
Crossing the stream, she lifted a hand in greeting as she walked by Regan and Tyler’s home. The pair were on their deck, having a well-earned rest. Others, too, were beginning to unwind, enjoying the newfound freedom being on red alert for months had taken away from them, yet the gloom hovered over all of them. Heartache a fire in many hearts.
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