My dad must have put every ounce of energy he had into keeping me in my place, because I fought back with everything I had, but my body continued to lower to the ground until I lay on my side whimpering. I was furious at him for stopping me. My entire body quaked with fury as I watched Declan and what was left of his team disappear into the woods.
“Taya, calm down,” my dad demanded, but my wolf wouldn’t listen.
I snarled and snapped at anyone who came near me. Blood coated my face and I was still fuming. Killing Rafe hadn’t made me feel any better about losing Cord, but at least I would sleep better knowing he couldn’t harm another person.
During my fit of rage, Liam had shifted back to human form, wearing loose sweatpants. He approached me cautiously, but still got closer than anyone else was willing to risk. “It’s going to be okay,” Liam spoke softly, keeping his eyes lowered out of respect to my wolf. He wasn’t talking to me, he was talking to her.
He slowly reached out a hand, placing it on my head. His touch helped more than I thought it would, but my wolf still whimpered in pain and anger. My ribs were on fire. More than one were broken and my neck was going to be a hot mess on the inside when I shifted back to my human form.
I felt the alpha power lift from me as well as the adrenaline I had been operating on. I really missed the adrenaline. It had blocked out more aches than I realized.
Liam’s touch trailed from my head to my back as he continued to stroke back and forth until my wolf rolled over, giving me the opportunity to take control. I hesitated on shifting back, knowing it was going to be one of the most painful things I’d ever done, but I couldn’t avoid it. My bones wouldn’t heal properly if I stayed in my wolf form.
My body tremored and Liam backed up as my shift took over. I cried out, fighting between wanting to force the shift faster and taking my time. It was a fine balance, because either way was going to hurt like a bitch.
Augie arrived with a blanket, laying it over me as my body adjusted to my human form and new discomforts. I glanced up at him to make sure he was still in one piece and cringed at the gashes across his midsection. “Augie …” I croaked out.
He bent slowly, placing his hand under my head. “It’s okay, Taya. Just rest.”
Liam moved into my line of sight then and he was worse than Augie. Hot tears trailed down my face when I took stock of the blood that covered him. His left shoulder had a chunk missing from it and the right one appeared to be dislocated. Several gashes appeared on his sides, which meant his back was likely shredded, but I couldn’t see it.
Augie moved out of the way, so Liam could hold me. As he bent to lift me off the ground, I howled out in pain. My ribs were royally screwed and any movement was going to be agonizing for at least the next several hours.
“Ribs,” I whispered.
“I’m so sorry,” Liam growled. “He shouldn’t have been able to hurt you like he did.” His head lowered to mine to press our foreheads together.
“You have nothing to be sorry for. It ended the way it should have for Rafe. I’ll be fine in a couple days.” I tried to wiggle my way up into a sitting position, but quickly regretted it and gave up. “Help me up. I think if I don’t bend, it won’t hurt as bad.”
Liam shook his head, but indulged me anyway. He called Caleb over to help and they each took one side of me. I gritted my teeth together as the agony rolled through me, but I wanted to stand on my own two feet. I needed to see the damage to our pack and figure out why my dad let Declan limp away. Now that I was in control of my thoughts as opposed to my wolf, I knew he would have had a valid reason for it. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“You look like you had a fight with a chainsaw, Firecracker,” Caleb remarked once I was standing.
I glanced at him, slightly irritated he somehow managed to walk away from the fight with zero visible injuries. He had no marks that I could see and no dried blood like most of us had.
“You should see the other guy.” I grinned.
“I did and it will haunt my dreams for months. You did what any of us would have done after his asshole comment.”
I visibly flinched at the reminder, while nodding at him. Caleb took that as his cue to walk away. Liam stepped in front of me, placing his hands on the side of my face and carefully trailing them down my neck, checking for open wounds.
I tightened the blanket Augie had given me around my body and held my breath as he examined me. “The wounds that Zarai closed stayed shut, but I still want you to see Alex when we get back. We all need to,” he said.
“On that request, I won’t fight you. I probably have several broken ribs and need to be wrapped up, but first a shower. A long, steamy shower with my mate.”
“That can definitely be done. Let’s go check in on the others first, then I’ll get you home. Zarai and Lex are doing what they can for those most injured and Alex is on his way down here to help.”
Wolves may have fast healing, but we could still die from blood loss, which reminded me that Liam likely needed some advanced healing as well. I took a closer look at his shoulder. Blood still trickled down from it, but at a decently slow pace. Regardless, I wanted the exposed wound closed before we did anything else. Infection was another thing we weren’t immune to. I didn’t want to risk anything happening to him.
Walking was easier than I thought as long as I kept a steady gait and didn’t turn too fast. I found Zarai standing up from healing one of the wolves and pulled Liam in her direction. She took one glance at him and went right to work. Liam had already been given sweatpants after he shifted, so I didn’t know if he had any injuries on his bottom half, but the top was almost back to normal after Zarai was done.
“Lex and I will finish up here, but we need to get Mari back to our coven as soon as possible. It’s not wise to underestimate her, and the sooner we can strip her power, the better.”
“Thank you for everything today. It meant a lot to have your help today and these past few weeks. I was worried you two weren’t going to make it. How did you finally stop her?” I asked.
“Lex transferred her power to me and, when Mari headed for Lex’s defenseless body on the ground, I overpowered her. As soon as Mari was incapacitated, Lex used binding cuffs to cut off her access to her power. She’s a sorceress, so the cuffs won’t last forever, but they’ll hold out for a day or two until we handle her with the coven.”
“You two played that well. You had us all convinced that shit was about to hit the fan and we needed to act quickly. I’m glad it worked out the way it did, though. Thank you, again.”
Zarai smiled warmly at me as she nodded, acknowledging my statement before moving on to the next injured wolf.
Liam rolled his shoulder and smiled. “Feels better. I’ll have Caleb or Aiden pop the other one back in place when we’re done.”
I cringed. He sounded so nonchalant about it, but I knew how it felt to have a shoulder out of place. There was no way he wasn’t in pain right then.
Most of the men had shifted back to their human forms and bottoms had been passed out to everyone. Dried blood coated most of the pack, but when my gaze finally landed on my dad, his wounds were still freshly bleeding. Whatever Declan had done to him had been way worse than I thought.
“Dad,” I said softly as we walked up to him, Augie, and Aiden. “What happened?”
“First, I need this.” He pulled me into his arms, gently hugging me. “I’m very sorry I had to use my alpha power on you, but your wolf was feral, and I didn’t know how else to stop her.”
I placed my hand on his arm as I pulled back. “It’s okay. I understand and appreciate you looking out for me, but I don’t understand why you let him go.”
“We took a major hit today. We lost two of our own and most of these injuries will take days to heal even with Zarai’s help. Something snapped in Declan when you killed Rafe. He tore into me good one last time, then retreated. Those in his pack who were able to followed him, but he lost a lot of people today.”
My dad moved over and nodded behind him. There were eight shifters either laying or sitting on the ground, unable to move. Zarai or Lex must have done something to make them immobile, making it hard to tell who was only injured and who was dead.
“I saw your injuries and knew the extent of mine. It wasn’t worth the risk to engage him again. I can promise he won’t get away again.”
“Why are you still bleeding?” I asked.
“Because he refused my help, like a stubborn old man, until we treated the rest of his pack,” Zarai said as she moved in front of my dad. “I’m done now. Are you going to cooperate?”
Her attitude made me smile as I waited for my dad to respond. “Thank you. If you’d close up my wounds, I’ll see Alex later about the rest.”
Zarai went to work and I watched in amazement as blue light incased my dad’s stomach. His skin began to stitch back together as she moved her hands over the wounds, then up to his neck to close up the last of the injuries.
“Don’t overdo it for the next couple days and you should be fine,” Zarai said. “We have to get Mari out of here. I’m not sure that we’ll be back after this, but if you really need me in the future, I’ll make sure it’s not as hard to track us down. Just don’t abuse it,” she warned.
“Thank you,” Dad said. “We would never take your help for granted, so you have my word to only call if we have no other options.”
Zarai nodded, but didn’t say anything else. She was on edge and ready to leave. I couldn’t blame her. My dad lightly wrapped his arm around me, bringing me in for another hug as Zarai walked toward Lex and Mari. “You did well, Sweet Girl.”
“He killed Cord. I couldn’t let him live.” My voice was rough and filled with emotion.
“I heard and I wouldn’t have handled it any differently. Are you okay, though?”
“A little sore, but I’ll be fine.”
“I meant up here.” He pointed to his head. “You’ve never had to fight like that. It can mess with your head, so when you need to, make sure you talk about it. Holding it in and trying to act like everything is okay will only make it worse.”
“I will, I promise.”
I turned to find Liam who I thought was right behind me but was now off to the side getting tortured by Aiden. I flinched and closed my eyes as Aiden jerked Liam’s shoulder back into place, causing a loud crunching noise. Liam let out a sigh of relief when it was done, though.
Once he was back at my side, my dad addressed us both. “Go back home, clean up, and let the other pack members know the fight is over.”
“For now,” I added with a mutter.
“Unfortunately, that’s true, but for today, we’re done. We will worry about everything else tomorrow.”
Liam tugged on my hand and I willingly followed him back toward the house. It took twice as long to make the walk back home with our internal injuries. Only once we were standing under the scalding water, did the weight of the world crash down on me as I observed the red tinged water swirl down the drain of the shower. Liam stood behind me as my body finally surrendered to the mental and physical assault it had been through as of late.
I sank to the floor, letting it all out. I cried and screamed over and over again. Liam held onto me for the duration, never loosening his supportive hold on me.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered as the tremors that wracked my body finally slowed down. “I love you and I’m here for you. Just breathe.”
I closed my eyes, settling into his embrace. We stayed like that until the water began to go from hot to lukewarm. Liam stood first, helping me up before we finished rinsing and shut off the water.
We dressed in silence, too emotionally drained from the day, but I couldn’t hide away just yet. My pack needed me and if I really thought about it, I needed them, too. We were family and needed to stick together.
Liam held his hand out for me. “Are you ready to go get the others?” he asked.
I nodded. “Let’s do it.”
We walked outside, then over to the pack house, taking one of the ATVs to head toward the mountain. The ride over was mostly silent, but companionable. Liam kept one hand on me at all times, which eased the emotions storming within me.
I had killed someone.
Even though Rafe had taken my brother from me, the thought that I had actually taken a life from this world bothered me a lot. I welcomed the guilt. I’d be more worried if it didn’t bother me that I had been the cause of Rafe’s death.
My wolf kept rationalizing everything inside my head, but the humanity in me was still struggling to process it.
“It was you or him, Taya,” Liam said as we came to a stop at the base of the mountain. “You had no choice when it came to Rafe. I know that if he would have surrendered, you would have stopped. I know you might not be ready to talk about how you’re feeling, but I need you to know that you did the right thing.”
It was me or him.
That thought repeated several times over in my head until it stuck. Liam was right, and it made me feel slightly better about the situation I found myself in. I’d still need the time to process it, but his statement went a long way to help.
“Thank you,” I said with a smile. “I needed to hear that.”
“I’m happy to be of service any time you need it.” His signature cocky grin made an appearance, causing my mind to go momentarily mushy.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go get the others, so they can go home. It’s going to be a lot to process losing two of our own today. Four pack members within the last six weeks.” I shook my head. “It’s just not right.”
Death seemed to be smacking us in the face at every turn. I wondered when it would stop and at what cost. How much more would we have to lose before we won?