Virago

5. Hesper Lowe

When the adrenaline rush finally wore down, I was shaking in my grandmother's embrace. Somewhere between comforting me, she had given Kade to his mother while Aston and Syrus had left for scouting the tunnel.

I had no idea why that black wolf had let me... us go, though a small voice from the bottom of my heart told me the reason. A reason that was as true as my beating heart.

He was my potential mate.

But he had been with Cailan tonight. He was under Cailan's command.

He was my potential mate.

He would have captured me. Took me to Alpha Aresis and they would have tortured me or killed me.

He was my-

I had to stop my wandering heart. Just this level of attraction, I knew that our compatibility would be high. But that was just the genetic compatibility. We could have clashing personalities and it would burn my life.

Iliara blinked at the entrance side of the tunnel as if she was expecting someone to come from there and attack us.

And the Luna of my pack, my sister-in-law was sitting there petrified with her kid sleeping on her lap. She was pale and tired, but her spirit was not broken. My father, mother and my second brother had died tonight, but not Archer, my eldest brother, Paige's mate.

As long as he lived, she was the Luna of MoonLight pack, though the pack was scattered and if... if Archer were to die, she would act as the Alpha until Kade grew up and took the title. Or, she would be the Luna and me, as the other blood of Alpha, I would act as an Alpha.

I licked my chapped lips and tried to sit up. But the loss of my pack and my family was gnawing at me. Was this how Hailee felt when MoonSong invaded BlueMoon? Was that why she left her confines to fight the invasion though she could have escaped by hiding?

Was I a coward? Would she... would even look at my cowardice now? No, she would turn her face to me the second our engagement fell through.

Right now, I could not think about her. Or about anyone who was no longer with me physically. I had to think about the living now. If Cailan Aresis wanted someone, I knew that he had the methods and means to get them to his side.

The black wolf left us, but that was just buying us some time. In a world where kindness was a rarer occurrence than meeting a witch, I would rather squeeze every drop I could get. Though I may know how this would end, I could change a few things. At least get the remaining few to the safe confines of our ally pack.

Just as I rose to my feet, Aston and Syrus came. While one had died his hair a freaky colour of blue, the other kept it in natural brown. Syrus' matching blue eyes landed on all of us as if he expected an unfortunate encounter, while Aston's gaze never left Iliara.

It was not a secret that Aston and Iliara were potential mates. But for some reason, they wanted to find other mates and decided that they would be better off as friends. It was a stupid decision, but who was I to judge?

Had even one met another mate and Marked them, these two would not make it obvious and awkward for us.

"Is the path clear?" I asked.

Syrus nodded. "It is. But it leads somewhere in the neutral lands. Not exactly to MoonDust pack."

I closed my eyes and tried to locate the scattered members, the living members of my pack. And just as I expected, I was able to feel only a few. Either they were too far from me or the pack boundaries were destroyed and I was able to detect only a select few.