My magic is for you, Alpha

Chapter 17

He jumped from the forest and ran to intercept Erik's wolf, colliding with him roughly. Erik was lying on the grass, confused about what had happened. Caelan looked at Trish and he and Yar spoke in unison in their heads: "Safe." However, the problem still stood. Erik would need to be defeated.

The battle between the two mighty Alpha wolves was awful, with no one ready to intervene. Trish stood silently, focused until a sound made her twitch. Olly, in his human form, naked and covered in blood, appeared and said, "Come with me."

"No, I need to stay!" Trish cried out, not realizing the danger and stupidity of her move.

"Whatever you say," Olly shifted back into his wolf, standing beside Trish, ready to protect her while she tried to shoot some of Erik's wolves. She couldn't aim at Erik, both he and Caelan moved so fast that it was too risky. She could take down the arctic wolf instead.

Caelan was faster and stronger, but Erik was cunning and experienced, avoiding every blow and still managing to land one. He scratched Caelan's face, poked his ribs, bit his leg, and did everything to anger him more. When Caelan finally got the upper hand by taking Erik from the side of his injured lung, Erik growled and fell to the ground. Caelan was the winner, but Erik used his last strength and clenched his jaws around Caelan's neck. Caelan couldn't breathe, failing to escape the jaws.

"No! Caelan!"

He heard a woman's voice - was it Trish? Yes, it was her, running towards two Alpha wolves with her gun, when she got crashed by Olly.

"No, it's too dangerous!" Olly cried.

Caelan was losing consciousness and couldn't feel his limbs when he felt a sudden blow of breath hit his throat again. This time, it was Erik who was lying unconscious, with a dart and syringe in his skin. He must have been shot with it from somewhere on the roof. Caelan took a glance and saw Luna Alexandra and a few female warriors standing on the rooftop.

Caelan howled so loud that the battle stopped. He took Erik's neck in his jaws, as if to show the other warriors that their leader was defeated, and it was time to stop fighting.

"The battle is over. Your pack no longer has an Alpha," he communicated through a mind-link to Erik's North Star pack. He still possessed the connection to the pack that became his second home. One by one, the wolves of Erik's North Star pack began to shift back into human form. Caelan, still in the form of his arctic wolf, Yar, left Erik's lifeless body on the grass and let out a howl. His warriors, who had joined the battle to help Dean's pack, followed his lead and let out their own howls. The excitement of the battle being over was contagious, so Dean, Arne, and all of the Eastern Old Nott pack joined in the calls. Now, it was time for the victorious to transform back into humans.

"Detain all North Star warriors and put them in jail. They are prisoners now until we decide their future," Dean declared in his powerful voice. His heart was still pounding, "Is he alive?" he asked Caelan, looking at Erik's motionless body.

"He is," he heard his mother's voice instead. She had managed to quickly leave the roof and was by her son's side. "I injected him with a powerful paralyzer, the same one that he used to paralyze all the Alphas in the guest wing tonight. Well, not all Alphas," she looked at Caelan with a hint of suspicion.

"He needs to be kept in silver," Caelan responded matter-of-factly.

"And he will be. Take him to the silver box and put this bastard in silver handcuffs," Dean barked out more orders.

Trish didn't know what to do. She looked around at the dozens of lifeless wolf bodies lying on the ground that was now covered in dirt instead of grass. The entire landscape was destroyed, and it was no longer a beautiful lawn with fountains and bushes. Olly was still by her side, afraid to leave her. Trish dropped her gun on the grass from her trembling hands, suddenly feeling so weak, as if her body had given it all during the battle but now couldn't go on.

"Are you alright?" Caelan gently asked, approaching her. He was completely naked, but just after the battle, it was not something that anyone noticed. He was covered in blood.

"Yes," she murmured, but he could tell that she was anything but. Somehow, he had a connection to the girl. He could feel her waves of sadness, desperation, and guilt.

"You are not to blame," he told Trish, who looked into his eyes, and his heart nearly broke. Her eyes were glistening with tears. He touched her arm. Suddenly, he felt her arms around his waist, and her head on his chest with hot tears streaming down her face. Caelan hugged her back. Finally, Trish felt safe. Now she could be at ease, a wave of warm feeling covered her, and all was well again.

They were interrupted by a shriek. Luna's warriors and medical assistants were injecting another syringe into dead wolves to make them shift back into human form. Although a dead werewolf could not shift into a human form, it was a tradition to say goodbye to them as humans. At that time, Astrid left the house, scared and confused. She felt relieved seeing Dean, Arne, and Lars, but then she asked: "Where is Shaun?"

Everyone was silent.

"Where's Shaun?" she asked again, her voice rising in agitation. "Where is he?" She was about to repeat herself even louder when her father-in-law, Lars, took her hand and nodded towards the side. He would show her.

Astrid emitted a non-human shriek when she saw Shaun lying on the grass, his head almost torn from his body. He was in his human form already, but the sight was too gruesome to bear. She fell to her knees, drowning in her tears and whimpers, unable to say anything. Her sobs were suffocating her, her eyes were on fire, she saw red, and she nearly shifted to her wolf form. Her wolf was howling in her mind, and both their hearts were broken. The bond was broken. She was alone in this world.

She cried on his body, and when Lars nudged her slightly to leave it, she didn't move. Her desperation turned into anger and irritation. How could the world do this to her? How could Shaun leave her? At that moment, she didn't want to live herself.

Finally, Astrid turned towards Lars, but she didn't see him. Instead, she saw Trish in the background, looking at her with pity and sadness, standing in the arms of the Northern Alpha. Why did Trish always get what she wanted, and Astrid always had to suffer?

"You!" she began, standing up from her knees and walking in long strides towards Trish. "You! He died because of you! All of them died because of you. You cursed us, you fucking egomaniac!" She would have choked Trish if she was not being held back by Alpha Dean. Alpha Caelan protectively placed his body between the two women as well.

"You should have died instead! You should have burned! I would have burned you myself if that would spare his life, you insolent girl!" she kept shouting through her tears. "I hate you!" That was her last call, after which she spat in Trish's face. At that moment, she truly hated her. But then all her strength evaporated, and she fell into the arms of Dean, sobbing and continuing to be inconsolable.

Trish froze, tears pouring down her cheeks, but she pushed herself away from Caelan, took more syringes from the medical workers, and went to help inject them into the dead wolf bodies. Every time she injected someone she used to know, she said goodbye to them in her mind and apologized. It was all too overwhelming. Perhaps Astrid was right. Perhaps she could have prevented it if only she had agreed to the proposal of the crazy Alpha. Perhaps she could have spared all these lives just by giving her own. Caelan was wrong. She was to blame because she could have prevented all of it.

Never before had she felt so much pain, rage, and powerlessness all at once. Was this a lesson from the Moon Goddess? Trish moved closer to Shaun's body, looking at his features. It was torture to look at the man, murdered so cruelly, but she wanted to inflict it on herself. Trish needed everything to make herself suffer. It would be her penance.

"Don't you dare touch him!" Astrid cried out once again, this time with even more desperation and weakness in her voice.

Trish hesitated and did not approach Shaun's body, instead turning to walk back to where Dean, her parents, Lars, Astrid, and Caelan stood.

As they began to leave, Astrid uttered her final words. "A morning glory to you, Trish!"

"Astrid!" Luna Alexandra was taken aback by Astrid's statement.

"What did she mean?" Caelan asked Trish softly.

"A morning glory flower dies within a couple of hours of blooming. She wished for my early death, Caelan."