The Full Moon Effect

Chapter 7: Without Him

As wolf, Leyton's scent was all the more intense and I zipped to the door to follow it. I neared to jump over my uncle's body but I was thrown back into the room by the scruff off my neck. Growls tore through my throat as I sized up Amar, who now stood in the doorway, his face hard.

"Let the others track Leyton, Tara. You should be with your father."

One of them was moving my father's body to the floor. I snapped at him and lunged, but he backed towards the door. Amar let them pass and I heard the rustling of clothes and paws hitting the floor.

"They're good trackers as well as fighters. Trust them."

I growled in Amar's direction but relented. The man who had lowered my father's body had closed his eyes too. I whined and pushed my nose into my father's hand. It was stiff—his whole body was. I stared at him, my eyesight enhanced through the wolf. The hair around his forehead was beginning to grey, something I'd never noticed until now.

Amar had been speaking quietly on the phone and I hadn't paid any attention until he said a certain string of words. The order of them didn't make sense but looking at my father with a hole in his chest opened a hole in mine.

I couldn't control the howl that sprang from me. It didn't emit from my throat, but from my soul. I knew how it sounded—broken, mournful. It sounded like how I felt. The reverberations of my howl only enlarged my hole.

The howls turned to snarls. Now, Leyton hadn't just taken my past, but my future, too. My father had dreamed to see our pack living under just leadership. And now his previous Alpha hadn't just robbed him of his choice, but his life. My father would never get to see the pack thrive under his caring hand. No, he died believing the opposite. I had chosen to let Leyton live instead of killing him. I killed my father.

Another howl ripped through me, this one laced with whines.

Amar never left the room as my mood swings alternated. I went from howling and nosing at my father's body to pacing and snarling. After a while, Amar approached. The hair on my haunches stood straight up as I stepped over my father's body to protect it.

"Tara," he said gently. "Your father was a great werewolf and man. He strived to please the moon. He did as a Beta, and I have no doubt he did so in short term as Alpha. He deserves to be honored. Will you let me burn him?"

My snarls transformed into whimpers and my ears flattened against my head. Reluctantly, I stepped away from his body and let Amar take him. I yanked the dagger out of the desk with my teeth and gently rolled his heart into my mouth. My tail swished nervously as Amar carried my father's body down the stairs and out the front door. While he went to gather wood, I placed my father's heart back in his chest and licked his wound, cleaning it as best as I could.

I watched carefully as Amar drug my father's body onto the small pyre he made. My chest heaved as Amar fought for the flame to catch onto the wood. And then I watched the flames burn up his body. And the pain of our past, the pain my father had endured for nothing. The future—the dreams of leading a pack with my father, of him holding my pups. A new howl sounded for each memory, real or dream, that sprang into mind.

This went on for hours, until the flames died down and all that was left was ashes. Amar stayed by my side the entire time. He sat with his arms hooked around his knees.

"Alpha Jones is on his way, Luna."

I whined and circled the ashes, sniffing. Father's scent had been completely erased and all that filled my lungs was smoke. My legs started shaking.

"Your wolf will always remember his smell," appeased Amar. "But, while we're still here, his scent will still be all over his bedroom."

Amar was right. Even with the overwhelming scent of blood, I could zone in on dad's scent from here. My ears perked up and I led the way back inside, bounding up the stairs in two leaps. I pawed at the closed door until Amar opened it for me. He relented, his face full of sorrow. I curled up in dad's bed and his scent surrounded me.