The smell suffocated me and I couldn't move. Pinecone and fir. The woods. My bones wouldn't move. I begged my limbs to move. To do something- to do anything at all to stop what was about to happen. I stared at the Valeriano woman with rageful eyes. Part of me wanted to kill her. She had set fire to my home and attacked my family and my pack. Even if she had stopped the killing the moment she scented me, countless were already dead.
I pictured Miss Hampton, the jeweler's wife, who brought fresh cranberry lemon treats to every bonfire. Their home was on the southwest ledge of our territory- directly where the attackers came from. My eyes were burning from the smoke and tears creeping out despite my will to push them down. For the briefest, almost imperceptible moment I saw a horror enter the woman's eyes as ours met.
Behind her on her left a man ran up beside her. When his eyes found me, he started to move in my direction with a venomous intent when the woman snatched him by the collar of his shirt and yanked him backwards forcefully. He yelped confused, when her calm voice cut through the screaming and chaos.
"Not her. Take her alive."
The man looked confused and dazed when he went to ask why, he saw the look on the woman's face and paled several shades lighter. He moved for me and I raced behind the pack nursery, moving as fast as my legs would carry me. When I felt him hot on my heels, I transformed into my wolf even as she begged me to go back, to see our mate and stay at her side.
"Not now Everest, we will die if we go back."
My wolf seemed greatly displeased and sorrowful.
"They are our mate, they would not possibly kill us."
"There are worse fates than death, please."
I begged through the mind link and Everest followed my direction even as her instinct urged her to turn back and we raced impossibly fast away from the two strangers. I purposely avoided heading for the river, still hoping the children would escape our fate, running instead into the depth of the screaming and burning. Part of me would rather have died than letting her take me. Just as I made the distance to head for the quarry, I felt a larger wolf bite into the scruff of my neck and I howled from the pain.
I was forced to the ground as the scent of pinecone overwhelmed me. It smelled like home. It smelled perfect and welcoming and I hated my instincts for the way I wanted to lean into it. Someone shouted nearby to us as the larger wolf pinned me down.
"Val, I have the chains if you need them."
"No iron. I swear to God, no iron Liam."
At the word iron, my whole body went limp. For once, Everest and I were in complete agreement. Sickening as it was, I could not allow myself to lose my parents and risk my link with Everest in one night. My mind would never overcome it.
"How are you going to make her turn back?"
The man sounded frustrated but hollow too. Like he understood the deranged and twisted nature of it, our meeting this way. I resigned myself to defeat and transformed back to my human form. When she felt me return to normal, the woman turned back herself. She tried to peer at me with apology and I stared back with complete rage and hatred. She turned away and ordered the others to take me to the center of our pack. My stomach twisted. I couldn't decide which of my feelings was overwhelming the other, the fear or the anger.
The man who she had addressed as Liam was beside me in an instant. He grabbed hold of my arm roughly and I hissed from the feeling of it. As the sound left my lips I saw the woman's back tense but she dared not turn back to meet my gaze. The man loosened his grip but not nearly enough for me to run.
If circumstances had been even slightly more in my favor, I might have punched him straight in the face. As we drew nearer to the pack square, I felt the flimsiest of hopes aching in my chest. I had leverage here. The Alpha of the Valeriano clan was my mate, for better or for worse, and right now that might mean I could save whatever lives remained here. I wasn't sure how much or how little regard she held for my safety or my happiness, but it was woven into the fiber of every fated pair a deep desire not to cause harm or stress to one another.
My father couldn't bear to invoke even a look of disapproval from my mother. As soon as I thought of my parents my despair swelled up and I feared I might vomit just from the anticipation- just from not knowing if they lived or died. Even if I begged my mate not to kill them, she almost surely could not let the Alpha and Luna live without them seeking revenge. And my father would surely die before he would bend the knee to her. I forced myself not to cry or weep or show any sign of weakness as the view of the square came into my view.
My father was chained down to the ground in iron chains which seared into his skin and made the air smell of burning flesh. Rage. Rage filled my eyes so thickly my vision blurred and I had to force myself to regain my composure and search for my mother. Just across from him on the ground, being held rather than branded down was my mother. I swallowed, grateful to the Goddess that she had been spared the chains.
My mate stood over the both of them and Liam pushed me forward into the view of my parents. My father met my eyes and searched my face for confirmation of whether or not my task had been accomplished. I nodded to him silently and relief touched his features despite his clear state of physical agony. Most, if not all of the children had been spared. They would be rogues without a pack, but rogues in numbers have better chances than rogues alone.
My mother noticed I wasn't chained or restrained and a sort of confused, scared look entered her eyes. I didn't know how to comfort her. I remained silent and watched my mate with burning eyes as she stood beside the man named Liam over my parents.
"Are you Alpha Alfonso, leader of the pack?"
My father nodded silently. My mother's face was streaming with tears.
"Five years ago a small group of wolves broke into the Valeriano pack and kidnapped a blind girl with white hair. I have an informant who told me that you, Alpha Alfonso, are responsible for this kidnapping. How do you pleade?"
My father averted his eyes to the ground and his shoulders slacked. For a horrified moment, I recalled the misty eyed look he gave me in our home. Something was not right here. I tried to meet his eyes and he would not look at me. My mother was aghast and pale as she looked at him. A dread the likes of which I had never felt filled me as I watched my mate's face as she looked at him. Her eyes were swimming with fire and desperation.
"How do you plead, Alfonso?"
My father met the eyes of Liam who had pushed him once again. Then he turned his gaze to the Valeriano woman and sorrow swirled in his eyes.
"I am so, so sorry for what I've done."
I saw the twitch in her limbs and her face. I saw Liam beside her look like he wanted to murder my father on the spot. Shock replaced the fear and anger in my stomach as I stared at my parents with absolute disbelief. Before I could process what I was seeing and hearing, the Valeriano woman's ever calm voice filled the night air again.
"Did you kill her? Where did you take her?"
"To the witch."
"What witch?"
My father's eyes found mine finally. I couldn't even tell what kind of face I stared back with. I couldn't believe what was happening. Couldn't dare to imagine what was going to come after this moment had passed.
"I will tell you everything. I will pay for every crime I have committed in whatever way you wish. But please, do not harm my daughter."
The words made me feel sick. To my surprise the Valeriano woman answered immediately, firmly.
"She will not pay for your crimes."
My father's head sank in shame. An outburst flooded from the lips of Liam, as though he couldn't restrain himself from his anger. He stepped forward towards the pair of them and shouted.
"You cannot let him get away with this- she is the only way to destroy him completely! He cannot be allowed to suffer less for what he did- what he took from us."
The woman met his eyes with rage and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
"And should we be made to suffer for all our crimes then? The crimes of our father?"
Liam's jaw snapped so tight it looked like it might burst and she released him, turning back to my father. She questioned him again, commanding him to answer.
"What witch did you take her to?"
"Morgana. I don't know where she is, but that is her name."
"How can I find this witch?"
"I don't know, I swear to you I have no idea. She appeared to me from darkness, summoning herself from nothing- please I do not know how to find her."
My mate nodded and swallowed hard. She spoke then to her men.
"Kill the Alpha and Luna. Take the daughter, she's coming with us."
Burning flesh and ash suffocated me. I couldn't determine up from down in all of the havoc and before I could run or fight or scream or move, I lost my balance and passed out where I was standing.