Chris stood up. “We need to get going before they all leave.”
I nodded and headed to the door. He shook his head, “Nah uh. You go get a jacket and beanie on. You’re going to get frozen from wind chill.”
I rolled my eyes and stole a big jacket from the closet. I don’t know whose it is, but it was mine for the time being. I reluctantly put on the beanie and headed out to Chris. He only had a sweatshirt to protect him from the cold. He was carrying a backpack.
“Why don’t you get a jacket?” I complained.
“I’m a werewolf. I could be in my birthday suit and I wouldn’t freeze in the snow.”
I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Put this on.” He threw me the backpack. I put it on without any questions. He crouched down, “Get on.” I jumped onto his back and tried to knock him over. I wasn’t successful. “Hold on tight. If your nose starts to freeze, hide your face in my neck. Brian will have my ass if you get frostbite.”
I smiled and nodded, “Fine. Go.”
Chris was right about the wind chill. I was grateful that he made me put on that jacket. I even took him up on his offer of hiding my face in his neck. My nose was frozen and his neck was so warm. My legs were the only part of me that was cold though. All I had on was jeans.
There were five wolves and a werewolf in human form staring at us when we arrived. They recognized Chris and settled their eyes on me. These guys must not have met me yet.
Chris sighed, “She’s fine. Connor was her brother.”
I sighed. I hated when they talk about Connor in the past tense. It made everything so final. Not like the bundled up body wasn’t enough to make it final.
“Regardless of the circumstances, it’s good to finally meet you Casey. I’m Alex.”
I couldn’t respond to what he said. It’s like his words just flew right past me. I could only stare at the bundle that my brother’s in.
“What’s with the pyre?” Chris said confused.
“They changed it from a burial to this.”
“They’re going to burn him instead?”
The man nodded, “Something about making sure the rogues couldn’t get to his body.”
Chris nodded. I felt him look at me, but I couldn’t look back. I was waiting for a sign.
A movement. A twitch.
Something to tell me that this was just some horrible joke.
But it never came.
“They’ll be here soon.” Chris said looking back. “I hear them.”
The other man just nodded in agreement.
Now was my last chance to make sure Connor was really dead. There were only 6 of them. They couldn’t stop me. When I went to the bundle, Chris hadn’t stopped me. When I reached to unwrap it, he came over.
“You don’t want to remember him this way. Just remember him when he was alive and happy.”
I felt the tears in my eyes. I shook my head, “He can’t be dead Chris.” I choked out.
He held my eyes for a minute before looking away. “He’s gone Casey.”
I shook my head and tugged at the rope. “This can’t be him.”
Chris held my wrists. “Don’t undo the binding Casey. Seeing him like this isn’t going to make this any easier. You need to accept that he’s the one in there.”
I couldn’t accept that. I didn’t want my brother to be dead.
Chris stripped the backpack from me and put it to the side. He pulled me away from the bundle and sat down on the cold ground. He held me like he would hold Matt if he were rocking him to sleep. He swayed in a similar motion, keeping my face close to his.
It sounded like a stampeded was rushing towards us. Chris’ rocking didn’t cease until the wolves started surrounding us. The entire pack was here. Most of them I have never met before.
I didn’t move away from Chris. He was the only thing keeping me from falling apart right now. I didn’t bother trying to identify the wolves here. There were too many of them. I didn’t look over as two of them shifted from wolf to human. It was a gross process and I didn’t want to see another naked man.
So I kept my eyes on the bundle my brother was in…just in case it started to move. I wouldn’t question a miraculous recovery.
When the two stopped changing back, I glanced over. It was Finn and Grayson. And they were both completely naked.
Chris reached over, making me grab onto him out of fear that I’d fall back. Then he threw the backpack to Grayson.
“I thought you said you can’t freeze.”
Chris smiled. “Would you rather they had their dicks out?”
I rolled my eyes. The wolf to our side nipped Chris’ shoulder.
Chris flinched away before I could get a look at the wolf that bit him. “Ouch.” He looked over, “What the fuck was that for?”
Finn cleared his throat. “That’s Philip. I suggest you watch what you say.”
I looked over at the wolf. I had to look up at the wolf. He was huge, bigger than Grayson and Connor. His fur was pitch black and had Philip’s eyes.
I turned my attention back to Connor’s bundle. Grayson and Finn were lifting it up.
I hadn’t noticed a hole dug for Connor. I assumed that they were going to do that now. But they lifted Connor and put him on a pile of wood, stacked up neatly.
Then it registered. Chris said something about a pyre. That was meant to burn bodies.
“Do you want to go home?” Chris whispered in my ear. I shook my head in response.
“How about after everyone says what they came here to say?” I shook my head again.
Grayson and Finn were so careful with my brother’s body.
Everything anyone said was a blur. Nothing stuck.
I didn’t even notice that they were done saying their peace until Chris nudged me forward.
I looked at Chris. “What?”
“We should get you home now.”
I sighed and looked back at Connor. “I can’t leave him.”
Chris looked over at Connor. “He wouldn’t want you to see this.”
“Why not?” I leaned back against him, getting comfortable.
“You don’t want to see what’s going to happen.”
I groaned. “I’m a big girl.” I was annoyed. All Chris was doing was asking me if I wanted to leave. It was like he insisted that he wanted me to leave.
I didn’t even notice when Grayson left the pyre and walked over to me. I didn’t really care about what Grayson had to say. This wasn’t the place for the talk we desperately needed to have.
“Come on. We need to talk.” Grayson held his hand for me to take. Chris nudged me a bit. Obviously he wanted me to go with Grayson.
I took his hand, but I wasn’t going to be happy about it. Once I was on my feet, he crouched down. “Get on.”
“I’d rather walk.” I said truthfully.
He didn’t stand up. “It’s 10 miles to the house.”
So I climbed on his back.
When we got back to the house, Grayson didn’t let me off of his back until he took me to Connor’s office.
“So what did you want to talk about?” I asked taking off my jacket. It was too warm in the house for this huge jacket.
“You need to know a few things.”
“Like what?” I sat down on one of the chairs. Today had already been too much to have a heart to heart with Grayson. It was just bad timing.
“You wanted to know what Finn’s plan for this pack is.” Grayson sat on the couch opposite of me.
I looked up at him and nodded. I was surprised he was going to tell me. Maybe Connor had ordered everyone to keep it quiet. Now that he was…gone, there was nothing stopping them from telling me anything.
“This pack is the training grounds for all pack fighters. They come here to train then they are assigned to other packs.”
That’s it… “That secret isn’t exactly Fort Knox material.”
Grayson nodded. “It’s not so much the secret, as what we’ve done to earn that reputation.”
“Did you guys beat up everyone you came across?”
He shrugged, “Not exactly.”
“Then what? Exactly.” I didn’t want to be in the dark anymore.
“We killed anyone who threatened us.”
“Which makes you guys the best fighters?”
He nodded.
“And Finn wants you to train other werewolves so they can defend their assigned packs.”
He nodded again.
“And what happens if one of your trainees goes rogue?”
“The alpha hunts them down and kills them.” He said matter-of-factly, like it was no big deal to just kill someone. To him, it probably wasn’t a big deal.
“So, who’s going to be the permanent Alpha now?”
He sighed. “Me.”
“Does that mean that the order Connor gave you about your little whore can be gone?”
He looked away from me, shaking his head. “No.”
“Why not? You said you wanted us to be together.”
He nodded. “I did.”
“So what? Now you don’t want me? You got what you wanted so I’m no good anymore?”
He shook his head, “It’s not that. I’m going to love you until I die.”
“Then leave her!” I ordered. I wasn’t going to go along with this anymore.
“I can’t.” He said calmly. “Connor made the deal with Finn and now I have to honor it.”
“What deal?” What could be worth breaking my heart?
“As long as Miranda is taken care of, you’ll be spared.”
“Spared from what?”
“From Finn. It’s not a secret that Finn wants people like you dead. Connor knew about Miranda and made the deal. It was the only way to keep Finn from coming after you.”
“Well you can talk to him. Renegotiate the deal.”
He shook his head. “I can’t.”
I stood. “You mean you won’t.” I stormed off, so mad I wanted to kill him, but I couldn’t. If he wasn’t even going to try, then neither would I.