Unattainable Fruit

Chapter 51: Appreciation & Invitations

Percy

James' POV

After a few weeks to heal and get affairs in order, Cody and I have finally found our stride.

We've decided to shave the Elder Council down to five people, and change the Wolf Law, with the support and plans to do the same from Winter Moon, so that being an Elder isn't something you're born into, but something you've earned according to your peers.

I got a lot of push back from older wolves and some have even left to go to the Wolves in the South or cross the Tagian Ocean to the Supernatural owned country of Vinshore.

But it doesn't bother me.

A long time ago it would have. It would have been used as proof that I'm unable to lead this pack. But sometimes leading means being able to go against the grain and make a few enemies in order to do what's needed for the good of your people.

Something I'm now realizing Alpha Richard never understood.

He never was a leader or a real man, but someone still searching for what the really means, trying to force age old ideas that didn't fit either of us quite right. In the end, all I feel is pity for the man. The man who wasn't able to live because he was so focused on trying to prove he was a man.

It's a miserable existence.

One Cody saved me from.

I smile now as we walk hand in hand through the forest, the first time in months that we've come here without a sense of dread or urgency.

When we got back, I made sure to go visit Jessica sometimes even twice a day. We had a long conversation where she talked and I mostly listened. I wasn't the only one going through something and sometimes helping my pain distracted her from her own, though I never cared to help her back. I was so caught up in my own family shit, my own drama and Soulmate I neglected to really be there and be honest and vulnerable towards someone who I claimed meant a lot to me.

It was a blow to the ego.

One I hated to swallow but a mistake I need to own. Because that's not the person that I wanna be anymore and the only way I can hold myself accountable to that is to accept the person I was and needed to be to survive the situation I was in.

She's out of the hospital and is thinking of traveling through Kaulike for a change of scenery or something to do.

I told her whenever she is, if she needs help, we'll come for her. I'll come for her. And I intend to keep that promise if it ever comes down to it. I owe her at least that.

I hear Alex and Zee laughing behind us, Charlotte indulging Timari's wishes for a cartwheel contest ahead of us, the spymaster winning measurably. Even Titan lazes forward with hands in his pockets and a small smile on his face, the most relaxed I've seen him in a while. I roll my eyes at Johnathan as he takes a running start to leap over Zee's head, but my advisor and friend just lifts a hand to knock his foot, throwing him off balance and crashing into the grassed dirt.

Cody and I can't help but laugh, shaking my head when my Commander gets up pouting like a big baby.

It took a long time for me to stop waking up in cold sweats in the middle of the night, checking on Cody to make sure he was still here. Sometimes I can feel anxiety closing around my throat when I feel like the shadows are moving, thickening. It's hard some days, but it's getting easier every moment between my Soulmate and my pack, I'm slowly beginning to heal from the nightmare of almost losing my bean.

And I have so many people to thank for it.

All of us skipped graduation, even Cody who claimed it didn't matter since he would be back in the prison for Higher Education next year. After everything's that's happened, pararding ourselves in front of thousands of strangers is the least of our concern.