The Jeep won't work again now that it had been parked.
Without a door, the burned seats, uneven metal, a yellow shred of cloth stuck on the handle of the left door—we could have left this vehicle behind on the Lycan territory somewhere hidden.
But what was the use of it when the human pup won't be able to cross the border anymore? I couldn't look in the eyes of my mate. I couldn't hold gazes with my Beta and brother when my niece was fighting for her life.
The seat in the middle was filled with the human pup's scent.
Slow steps reached my ears while I raised my gaze up to stare ahead at the belt of trees from where she was thrown.
"Keira's wound has been treated. But the poison is working its way into her body," Stephen said, standing beside me.
His gaze moved all over the broken vehicle while my chest filled with dread.
"I will buy the time as much as I can, Gilbert. But it is not going to cure the poison for longer," He said while sniffing more around the seats.
I backed away a little, letting him explore as he took a round around it.
The mild blue color was covered with dried mud all around.
"You went to a place where your brother and my sister were stuck whole of their lives," the old man said in his rough voice. His specs hung on his nose when I glanced at him. "I want to know what you observed the whole time."
I stared back at the forest. The noon was grey, today. There was no sunlight. There was no warmth. Only cold aftermath of seeing an innocent soul owning a heart of gold despite suffering the hardships.
"The pups did more than me. I myself don't know what they have witnessed alone," I told him truthfully.
At the dawn, we had crossed the border corresponding to way ahead of our civilized valley. It was more of a mid-point between the distance from the city to the valley here. Right on the other side of the border, there was the graveyard of Lycans. We couldn't go straight because of the uneven surface inside the dense forests. There was an opening diagonally towards the south-western side.
There were no tombs to understand the lineage, no time left to waste when Keira was wounded. We could only look at the graves marked with tree poles from the far. There were no souls there, Thomas had told. After all, those were the ones who were at the moon unlike the ones he saw earlier near the forest closing in on the border.
"It is all medieval inside that pack," Stephen said, observing the hood of the Jeep. "Before Eva and Keira could gain Misty's attention, she seemed comfortable and content with her mate. As if she truly had forgotten the outside world. It was no act, Eva told me."
I blinked and looked away at the vast ground.
The wolves were told to train on western ground rather this one. If only I could have ordered that way before the ceremony, her mate wouldn't have find her scent so easily.
"You saw him. Didn't you? How is he?"
My jaws clenched in discomfort.
"He is thoughtful," I said, remembering the words he mumbled to Pete last night. "He didn't mate her all this time. He knows her vulnerability."
Stephen smiled when I glanced at him. For some reason, he always would piss me off with this gaze as if he could read me easily.
"He is not that bad as others could have been?"
I couldn't guess.
I nodded slowly. "I didn't see the Beta," I told him without a doubt. "Alvena and Savina's mates, both got impatient ones. Worse. But Human pup's mate is no saint either. He had a pup outside the bonding."
Stephen grimaced while walking around the car slowly, observing the driver's seat keenly. "Ivan found a skeleton inside the place he had explored while you and others were fighting with the Alphas."
Did he?
I couldn't enter the old medic's house and sit with the pups when everything was a mess. Behind my back, after taking care of Keira, they all must have sat down to narrate the incidents to make conclusions.
Now, it seemed as if the only mess here was my mind. Everyone else were trying to move ahead and keep the enthusiasm alive. Ivan did something incredible.
While I couldn't get over the fact that the human pup chose to take care of her mate's pup. She must be kind. But what was wrong with Moon Goddess? The human pup must be suffering hard during the mark and afterwards. I knew that kind of pain.
"If it had been Severa, we would be running towards the Lycans announcing about the fall of the border." The words escaped my mouth in a scoff.
"They are of a male as old as mine, Ivan told me. He was someone important. There were talisman and threads holding teeth of bears around his neck," said Stephen and sniffed his fingertips. It was Pete's dried blood on the steering.
"He explored more with the mystic widows. There were some markings on the wall, counting the days and chants that mystic do for worshipping. The mystics concluded that it was one of them. Probably the woman who was the mother of the pup Misty had adopted," said Stephen, making my eyebrows narrow. "So, either this man found her here and she killed him. Or he was already dead there way before she inhabited that place."
"She had to hide to save her life," I said while observing him sniffing more into the middle seat, bending down to sniff near the floor. "Despite being an outsider, she couldn't cross the border. Because she had a Lycan pup inside her."
The old wolf hummed and gave me a sudden look of disbelief. "I can't believe none of you recognised her scent. She smells of heat all clear here."
My jaws clenched and fists tightened.
Stephen observed my silence. "Rain couldn't make you so vulnerable. Just confess that you were too busy observing her condition, pitying her and feeling desperate to save her."
I looked away, holding the top of the door of the Jeep, sighing heavily. "She was drenched. Her pupils were dilated but I couldn't ruin her hope. I wanted to try till the end of the territory. I would have stopped if the border had started to harm her. But her mate found her first."
Stephen stayed silent while I suddenly remembered.
"She screamed a lot," I said, remembering all the time when she looked at the back as if someone was whispering in her ear all of a sudden. She was paranoid. She seemed fearless in front of her mate and his brothers. What if her heart as clean as of Thomas, made her able to see the souls around too?
"Yet you didn't hug her." He said sadly, making me blink in sudden annoyance. "If I were you, I would have told her that she dared to visit a rumoured ghost's Temple up in the mountains and searched for her ashes right under the female Lycans' noses. That she was braver than all other females we have trained and dearer than the real daughters. I would have told her what she wanted to listen all this time, Gilbert."
The anger ripped through my chest and I growled lowly. "It wasn't the last time."
Stephen raised his eyebrows. "She is marked and almost deep in love with her mate. Of course, she would eventually mate and forget about ever getting out of that pack. She forgave Pete because she knew that blaming himself would hurt him all his life, he won't be able to move on and live proudly like an Alpha should. Of course, it was the last time, Gilbert."
I knew that pup.
She got it from her mother.
The circumstances weakened her heart, she was barely a child. But she wasn't the one to get used to someone else controlling her life.
"The Lycans knew our plans," I said while giving Stephen the blank look. "The Alpha was calm when Pete threatened him. He saw our weakness. He knows that the human pup is precious. If he arrives today with the flower, it might not be a start of a warm exchange. He is self-esteemed. But he would be doing it for the human's sake, they need a pure-blooded heir. The way they looked for her around the forests, chasing us, was obvious that they had been winning her trust and love. They only allowed this attempt of escape when they had no worries about her being able to cross the border. She is their only chance to give them the heir."
Stephen seemed confused as he tilted his head and stared at me.
"The mate flipped the vehicle, roared around for her. She has him wrapped him around her finger and she doesn't know it yet. But now she is marked, and she sees his whole life. Even the memories he himself doesn't remember. She is a clever pup. I hope, she makes use of it."
Stephen's eyebrows straightened and mouth opened as I nodded.
"It is not in her nature to give up on life. She rebelled to me every chance she got here. She never feared me. I fail to accept that it was a goodbye from her side. She cried and sulked in front of the Lycans. Of course, she did. She is a little pup. But I fail to call it a good bye. Even if she won't come back, she won't be oppressed there like the others."
Stephen raised his eyebrows. "You know her," he mumbled slowly, making me clear my throat and look away. "Thomas did tell us that she wants to stop sending the females. There is no use."
I grimaced. "Maybe, there is no key at all in the end. The border just stays forever."
Stephen shook his head. "What if we eventually find Severa's grave? Pete has lit this hope in our hearts. Ivan has left a clue there for our females whoever might end up there cleverly. Thomas too did the task he was allotted well and he believes that as soon as Misty gets back on her track, we can do something. Even if not break the border, but a way for the mates to not stay apart in pain. Yet I don't expect a poor human to resist her mate's love now when he is the only one she could trust and stay safe with."
Yet I believed that it wasn't the last time.
Her mother's blood was running through her veins.
She yelled at the younger brother, at the older ones, at her own mate. She managed to reach the temple. She managed to escape under her mate's nose.
She wasn't an ignorant one.
If not her, I would go inside the pack again to see her.
Because this one truly didn't feel like it was the last time I was seeing her. I failed to believe it. I had promised my mate that I would do something.
"Our Valeria was as stubborn as Misty is," mumbled Stephen while glancing at the forest.
"She wasn't a human, mated to one of the Alpha's brothers," I told him.
Stephen looked at me quietly, trying hard to read my eyes. No matter how experienced he was, I was his Alpha. He was doubtful but he didn't force it.
He nodded slowly while glancing towards the border far away.
"Keira was being followed by a female. Particularly, a Severa's follower. In the rain, drenched and hiding from the other Lycans," said Stephen, making me tense.
Keira didn't explain it all while on the way. I too couldn't believe that the female would claw her for no reason.
"She asked Keira to send in the males so she could meet her mate."
My lips parted. "She wasn't the Luna?" I asked immediately. Because if she was, she wouldn't have asked for something like that. The important members of pack by then already knew that the Rucussan Alpha had entered the territory. The Luna would have knows her mate's presence around the territory already.
Stephen nodded. "Right. She was someone else, asking to meet her mate. To send in the boys because the longing is getting unbearable of course. Before Keira could ask her name or her family, five other females appeared at the scene and started dragging the first one."
The wind had started to turn strong. The sky was getting darker.
"The first one didn't want to let go off Keira. The rest were dragging her away. Keira herself fought the others to make sense of what the first one was saying in the greed of looking for the Luna. The actual Luna dragged the first one away with force who ended up clawing Keira in the process," explained Stephen while the sound of trees swinging around started to fill my ears.
"The actual Luna herself got clawed by the female who has gotten uncontrollable. She fought the other five females with all her might. It is that hard for her to stay in that pack anymore. She clawed the other members. The rest managed to take the first one away. Our Luna, in all the process, made the most of the moment by putting her hand full of her own blood on Keira's forearm and clothes hurriedly."
I sucked in a breath. "She didn't say anything?"
Stephen shook his head. "She didn't. Keira heard no names. The females were wild and disappeared hurriedly. Keira had to catch up with you guys. But the Luna gave her blood intentionally. The first one did an act so the Luna could pass on her blood. The clawing was unplanned and happened abruptly."
"They don't trust each other too, enough to not tell each other that one of them is Pete's mate," I concluded. "Either the first one genuinely asked for her mate who wasn't present in the territory, or she did all the act for the Luna to pass on her blood. Or maybe, the moment was just a coincidental golden chance for the Luna to do her part all of a sudden."
Stephen nodded. "Absolutely. It is hard to believe after knowing they get along in the temple and stay at the houses, grow up together, that no one recognises that one of them has reached the border twice or more to meet Pete."
"They know. They definitely know," I mumbled while looking up at the grey clouds. "Now even the human pup must be aware of who she is, if her mate knows the Luna. If the human pup and her stick together. . ."
Stephen passed me a sad smile. "Take a break, Gilbert. You are thinking way too much. Come to the clinic. I'll check for any wounds."
I shook my head while glancing at the forest.
I had no wounds.
The human pup had a big one on her neck. My mate had one in her heart. My niece had one on her forearms.
I couldn't rest.
The footsteps were echoing. I could feel the auras approaching the forests from fat.
"I can't. They are coming. Hopefully, with the flower."
_______
"What do you think?"
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I missed you all.
Ah! It was hard to write this chapter. I hope you like it.
Will update soon.
Tell me if you want Malina's POV first or Misty's.
Happy full moon!
May we all get to make
our dreams come true.
Aaaaaooooo!