Howl for Me (22 page)
Authors: Lynn Red
“You... But... But how?”
He released me, and I fell to my knees, grunting as I hit.
I felt Damon’s arm around my waist, pulling me away from the falling giant as his gray face distorted and twisted in a silent cry.
I clutched him tighter than I ever imagined hugging someone, squeezing to make sure he was really there, and not just an illusion. He turned my face to his, kissed me deeply and sweetly, and stroked the back of my head, calming me, as the tears came.
“I didn’t know what to do,” I said. “You were just hanging there and... And then, Devin came, and I thought I saw Poko, and...”
“Shhh,” Damon whispered, smoothing my hair. “Everything’s okay, Lily.”
“Thanks to you,” Hunter added.
Blight’s gasping turned to a gurgle, and he fell to his knees, then to the desert floor, face-down.
“I expected a little more than that, though, especially after the entrance he made,” Hunter said.
A huge peal of thunder ripped through the desert, and for about five seconds, a monsoon erupted. Rain pelted us, beating down on the desert, and lightning exploded across the sky.
Then, just as suddenly as it started, it was over.
“All right, that was a fitting exit,” Hunter said, pulling Cat to him and grinning.
“We did it,” Damon said. “We did it, and we’re all alive, and...”
Just then, he happened to look at Devin, lying limp on the ground, back in human form.
“He did it,” I said. “Blight had me. I was pinned down, and helpless. Out of nowhere, Devin...”
Cat was the first one to his side, and then the rest of us crowded around. His eyes were wide open, until Damon slid his fingers down his brother’s face, putting him at rest.
“I wanted to... to tell him that I was okay,” Cat said, her voice halting and punched with near-sobs. “I think underneath it all, he was just scared.”
Hunter wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
“It’s all right,” he said. “Maybe this was his way of making it up to you? To Damon?”
I shook my head.
“No,” I said. “He wasn’t trying to make anything up, to anyone. He knew that couldn’t ever happen. He just wanted to do what was right. He... I guess, this was his last chance.”
Everyone just stared, the tension between us thick and heavy. I happened to look over to where Blight had been. His body had vanished, but lying there, wedged between two cracks in the desert, was the fang. I went over and got it, balling my fist around the tooth. When I came back to everyone else, Damon had his hand on Devin’s chest.
“It’s over,” he said, although it was more of a question. “Right? It’s all finished.”
I flattened my hand on Damon’s back, massaging his shoulder gently.
Cat’s lip trembled, and she bent over, touching Devin’s cheek.
“I knew there was good in you,” she said. “When everyone else couldn’t stop talking about how awful you were, I knew the truth. I wasn’t gonna put up with your shit anymore, but I knew you weren’t all bad.”
She turned away from him, grabbing Hunter and pulling him along.
“What do we do?” Damon asked me, and I could tell he was fighting back his own tears. “We can’t just leave him here. No matter what he did before, he sacrificed...”
“We take him back to Poko. Wilton, the shaman from Scagg’s Valley, he’s going to be there.”
“Wilton?” Damon asked. “Why? What for?”
I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. But we take Devin back to Poko. Devin did what was right, so now we have to pay him back. He deserves the rituals. For everything he did, all the horrible shit he did, he deserves to be remembered for fighting back against his fear.” I choked back a hitch in my throat. “In the end, that’s what saved us.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Damon said, kneeling down and picking his brother up off the ground.
“Wait a second,” I told him, with a hand on his forearm, stopping him from turning back toward the car that Hunter just shoved back onto its wheels. “I think he should have this.”
Resting the fang on Devin’s motionless chest, I tied an ugly knot in the chain.
“Is that okay?” I asked. “For me to give that to him?”
Damon gave me a quick smile.
“I was wondering where that thing went,” he said. “Maybe this is for the best. Let that be a memory of everything that’s happened. Let’s send Devin to the spirits with it, and let it be.”
We turned back to the car, where Hunter and Cat were standing, watching us.
Everything had changed, I thought. Every single thing I thought I knew about the world was different. But, it was a good kind of different. This was the only life I wanted.
I hooked my fingers in the waistband of Damon’s shredded jeans and followed him, looking back where Joram Blight fell – where the old world broke, and the new one started.
It was ours now. Not just the pack, not just Fort Branch, or the desert, or anything physical.
Our future and our fate were
ours
.
Every step we took, was a step away from the past.
Every step we took, we were taking it together.
––––––––
“I
felt him die,” Poko said. “I felt the spirits shudder, as my son fell.”
There were tears in his eyes that dried halfway down his cheeks.
“I wish this was not the way it had to be, but... I feared this was the end. Almost knew it was. Some things,” he said, “can only end like this.”
“Lily? Damon?”
Wilton entered Poko’s cave after us, his beard jingling with trinkets and bones. “I wish we were meeting again under better circumstances, but I’m glad to see you nonetheless.”
He stuck out his hand, which Damon took and held. They watched each other’s faces for a moment, and then Wilton pulled away, intent on the business at hand.
“Is this the place? Good Lord!”
My Grandpa Joe’s voice came from the cave’s entrance, and I smiled, despite myself.
“Back here, Grandpa!” I yelled.
When he appeared, Poko extended a hand to him, and my grandpa helped him up.
“I’m glad you came, Joe,” Poko said. “I’ve had no closer friend than you for the last half a century, or... however long it’s been.”
Both of them looked like they were trying to remember for a second before they both quit bothering.
“Why’d you want me to come?” Grandpa asked. “I mean, I have an idea, but I kind of hope I’m wrong.”
Poko hobbled over to me, weaker than I’d ever seen him, and put his hand on my belly.
“You keep that one safe,” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “He’ll be a big, strong boy. He’ll keep the pack, when we’re all dusty memories.”
Outside a howl pierced the dusky sky.
“Lily?” Grandpa said. “You mean to tell me...?”
I grinned, sheepishly, and then looked at the ground.
“Oh damn!” he said, his voice a mixture of shock and amazement. “I... Sorry for yelling, but that’s...”
Poko patted his shoulder.
“I expect he’ll be a big one, too.” Poko chuckled softly. “She’s going to need about as much help hobbling around as I do right now. Only hers will end with a new life. Mine too, ends with life, but a different sort.”
Grandpa took off his baseball cap and ran his hand over his bald crown. There wasn’t a dry eye in the cave, but the smile on Poko’s face told us there was no reason to be sad.
“We’re eternal,” Poko said. “Every one of us is part of the universe, part of the earth, and the sky, yes?”
“I... Yes,” Damon said, with a little shake in his voice. “But, I don’t want to see you go.”
“Nonsense,” Poko said, sharply, and whacked Damon on the leg with his stick. “I’m not going anywhere. In fact, I’m going to be more able to watch you than ever before. Unfettered with this old, broken body, I’ll be with you – by your side – whenever you ask. One of you saw my last transformation, and now, I must join the others.”
“Your last transformation?” Damon was confused. “But... when? What are you talking about?”
“Ask your mate,” Poko said, with a smile. “She knows. But don’t ask her now. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. Don’t make me wait any more. Come with me. I want to see the night, one last time, with my human eyes.”
Slowly, we all made our way out of the cave, everyone lost in their own thoughts. Devin was already lying on a pyre that Wilton had built. He’d also been anointed with all the proper incenses and oils, and whatever else was involved in the elaborate ritual.
Poko, aided by Damon on one side, and Hunter on the other, sat down, and then lay back.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked no one, in particular. “The moon... She calls me.”
He closed his eyes and took a breath – a long one, a deep one – and let it out slowly.
“Ah!” he said. “I didn’t expect you so soon.”
We all looked around, but of course couldn’t see anyone. Damon seemed to perk up a little though.
“Yes, yes, that’s right,” Poko said. “This is... no
these
, I mean, they’re our sons, Ala. They’re... what did you say?”
He turned his head back and forth, eyes still closed.
“No, no. This one. The one behind me.” Poko tilted his head toward where Damon stood. “You’ve seen him before. Yes, he’s very big, and the other, who I suspect has already joined you, made amends. Though he wasn’t... yes, yes of course you can talk to him. He hears you, you know.”
I looked over at Damon when he clenched my hand.
“Mom?” he asked. “Is that you?”
A look of utter serenity passed over Poko’s face, his smile evened out, and Damon shuddered.
“Are you taking him?” Damon asked.
“Yes,” Poko whispered. “Yes, I’m ready. I’ve been ready for what seems like a thousand years. Take me home, Ala.”
I crouched down beside Poko, and grabbed his hand.
“I’ll miss you,” I whispered.
That brought another smile to his face.
“No, you won’t,” Poko said in a voice so low, it was barely audible. “You won’t have to.”
He gave me one last squeeze, and then his fingers relaxed.
“The elder is gone,” Wilton said, in a hushed whisper. “Well, his body is anyway.”
A howl from the ridge, past the little ring of forest that hid Poko’s cave, drew everyone’s attention. Damon gripped my hand and wrapped his arm around me. His fingers curled against my belly.
Moments later, a second howl joined the first.
“He’s found her,” Wilton said. “They’re together.”
A tear rolled down Wilton’s cheek as a third howl joined the others. It was a little smaller, a little younger. Wilton smiled again.
“They’re
all
together,” he said softly. “Everything is as it should be.”
I heard Damon swallow hard. He stroked my stomach with his thumb.
Wilton turned toward us. “Now, alpha,” he said. “The elder’s body is ready.”
Damon knelt, collected Poko’s tiny body, and placed it atop the pyre.
“Goodbye,” he said, crossing Poko’s frail arms over his chest, and kissing his forehead.
“Oh, no,” Wilton said. “Not goodbye. He’s with you, still, don’t you hear? Like the elder said. Now, he just runs free. He hurts no more.”
Grandpa Joe shook with a sob and squeezed my shoulder.
“Howling or not, I’m gonna miss that old fool,” he said, with a fond smile.
“Now?” Damon asked, handing torches to each of us.
Wilton had begun to dance, to sing, and to sprinkle fragrant herbs over the flames. Each one leapt up as if they were following commands.
“Now,” Wilton answered. “Now, we send their bodies to the stars.”
One by one, we touched our torches to the tinder packed in the middle of the pyre. The fire licked the wood, and Poko and Devin drifted into the heavens. Damon grabbed my hand, and held tight.
I looked at him, at his clenched jaw, and the tattoos he’d received.
The three wolves howled again, and tears rolled down everyone’s face, but we all smiled.
“Sing now,” Wilton said. “Just match my voice.”
As our song, and our memories, reached the sky, I thought I saw something flicker, way up above. A light blinked, and then steadied, like a star was coming to life.
The fire climbed higher, blazing fiercely in the dusk. Damon’s palm warmed my back, and I looked at him again, to find him looking back at me. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to.
We watched the flames climb, and listened to the three new voices howl in the distance. We watched the fire cool, smoke, and die.
Damon pulled me close. I was his anchor. He was my safety.
A word rolled around in my head for a second.
Home.
We were home. This was our future. Whatever we made it, whatever happened, we had each other.
Forever.
*
A
s we made our way home, I distracted myself by thinking about the story I was going to write. When we got there, I sat down with a pen, and drew a swirly thing on the top while I tried to think of a title.
When it hit me, it hit hard.
I drew a line across the paper, the way I always do to write the title of the story before I get going.
On that line, I wrote six letters, scribbling a little doodle on the first one. Then I sat back, settled into the crook of Damon’s arm, and smiled.
It was right. It was perfect.
The End.
Did you love
Howl For Me (Alpha Werewolf Shifter Paranormal Romance)
? Then you should read
To Catch a Wolf (BBW Werewolf Shifter Romance)
by Lynn Red!
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Isabel Taylor was more than a little frustrated when she answered a very vague job ad to be the personal assistant of a mayor in a town she didn’t know existed. That was two years ago. Curvy, tough and with more than a little bit of a naughty streak, Izzy has long since gotten used to the weirdness of everyday life in Jamesburg... but she’s fallen hard for Erik’s rough charm.
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Note: The Jamesburg Shifters is a series of standalone books. Each installment has its own hero and heroine, and the stories never cross over. Each novel or novella is a complete story, complete with happy-ever-after ending. Enjoy!
Read more at
Lynn Red’s site
.