Chapter 44

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When Jade woke up, she was still in the hospital, a tube connected to her arm as well as heart monitor on her finger. Dante was asleep in a chair in a corner of the room, but he woke up when Jade sat up.

"How long was I asleep?" Jade asked.

"You've been out for two days," Dante replied. He quickly got up and sat down on the bed next to her. "We had to give you an IV for fluids. Dr. Anderson said it was likely all of the strain of the last couple of weeks, and your body gave out. How do you feel?"

"I don't know" Jade replied. "Physically, I feel drained. Where is George?" she asked.

"He's right where we left him, in his cell."

"What would you do with someone like him, a captured traitor, if I weren't here and involved in any way?" Jade asked.

"It's a pretty rare situation, someone wreaking this much havoc and facilitating the slaughter of their own pack, but objectively, he would most likely be turned over to the Council to stand trial and be dealt with however they saw fit. But as I told you before, the choice is yours."

"I need to see him again" Jade said. "As soon as possible."

"Are you sure you don't want to recover more? Seeing him before took a lot out of you."

"I'm sure" she said, as she pulled the IV out of her hand and started to get up.

"At least go back to the pack house, take a shower and get some clean clothes, and have something to eat. Please?" Dante asked of her.

"Fine," she said, "but then I want to see him again so I can get this over with" she said with decided resolve.

After getting cleaned up, Jade headed to the kitchen to eat something before going to deal with her uncle. Evelyn was in the kitchen preparing a meal for her.

"How are you holding up?" Evelyn asked her, as she handed Jade a plate of food.

"I'm ok" Jade responded, "I just want this to be over with."

"That's understandable" Evelyn replied as she sat down across from Jade. "Do you know what you plan to do?"

"I've been considering a few different things" Jade said, as she toyed with the food in front of her.

"You'll make the right choice" Evelyn said to her. "It's who you are. We haven't had the ceremony yet, but you are Luna of the Black Shadow Pack, daughter of an Alpha, and one of the strongest wolves I've ever met. I've heard you call yourself weak, but that isn't who you are. You were victimized, but you are no longer a victim. You will know what to do."

After she finished speaking, Evelyn got up and walked over to Jade, she gave her a hug and kissed her forehead. "Be true to who are, not what has been done to you" Evelyn said, and then she left the kitchen.

Jade sat there a few more minutes trying to eat, but she wasn't hungry. She could still hear the screams of her uncle when she had dug her nails into his chest. She could see the blood on her hands from when she broke the fangs from his mouth. She could still feel the burns from the silver bars on her arms, even though they had healed. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to decide what to do.

A few minutes later, Dante came into the kitchen to find her. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

"I'm ready" she said. "Let's finish this."

Dante took Jade's hand the two of them walked toward the holding facility, where George was locked in his cell, behind silver bars. They didn't speak on the way. Dante wanted to support Jade in whatever she decided to do. He truly felt that she needed to handle this herself, for her own closure as well as exacting whatever revenge she felt was due. George had subjected her to an onslaught of misery, and Dante wanted Jade to get her revenge. But at the same time, he didn't want it to overtake her and he didn't want to lose the beautiful uplifting creature he had come to love and cherish.

Jade walked with her head held high, still unsure what she was going to do. Part of her wanted to destroy her uncle. Pull him apart, piece by piece until his pain matched her own. But she also felt that she didn't have it in herself to torture someone to that extent, even someone as guilty as her uncle, and she wouldn't ask Dante to do something like that either, even though she was confident that he would, if she asked him. Jade also considered what Evelyn had told her. She wanted to be true to herself, but she was struggling to identify what that meant.

Jade walked down the steps toward the cell, where she had confronted her uncle a few days prior, and shuddered at the memory. She had wanted to tear him apart, and it honestly terrified her that she felt capable of what she did and that she had actually broken his fangs. She felt justified in what she had done, but didn't like having so little control over her rage and emotions. By the time she reached the cell, where her uncle was huddled into a corner, she knew what she needed to do.

"Stand up!" She ordered.

"Come back to terrorize a defenseless wolf?" her uncle taunted. "You think it makes you strong, to attack me when I'm behind bars, with your Alpha by your side? Let's see how strong you really are. Let's go, just you and me" he said, before he spat at her.

Dante growled at George, once again ready to kill him immediately, but again Jade stopped him.

"I have every right to hate you" she began, ignoring the spit that had landed on the front of her shirt. "I have every right to tear you to pieces, and as the Moon Goddess could testify, I certainly have enough anger, rage and the physical capability to kill you where you stand, imprisoned or otherwise."

"Then do it!" George snarled at her. "Kill me and me done with it!"

"No" she said with force. "You have robbed me of so much. My family, my pack, my dignity and so much more. You held so much power over me for so long, but not any longer. I won't let you rob me of who I am. I am not a murderer, and I'm not going to let what you did to me dictate who I become. You will be punished for your crimes, but not by my hand..."

"Just like I've said before, you're weak!" He screamed, interrupting her.

"I'm not weak, I'm strong enough to make you a part of my past and to stop you from manipulating my future. After today, I will never see you again. I will move forward with my life, picking up the pieces and becoming the Luna the Moon Goddess has intended. But you will be sent to the Council to be held accountable for all you have done. They will decide what to do with you. The only stipulation I will request of them, is that you never get to remove the wolf's bane cuff I wore when I was a captive with the Blood Moon Pack. Every day you will be reminded of your atrocities, and your wolf will be suppressed. You don't deserve him."

After she was done speaking, Dante ordered the cuff that had been on her upper arm while a slave for Luther's pack be brought over, and they fastened it around George's wrist, as he fought and howled. Jade then had them melt the silver of the lock, so that it couldn't easily be removed.

"May the Moon Goddess have mercy on your wolf" she said to George before walking away and up the stairs toward her new life, as Luna of the Black Shadows Pack, followed closely by her proud and adoring mate.

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