A Shifting Land

Chapter 40

Frost's head turned, following his sister as she carried her child away. He shook his head, his words soft. "I told you you shouldn't have bothered coming here you know."

Swift turned back to Frost, waves rippling across her fur with faint blue lights. She raised her nub, staring at it for a long moment. "You may not be my heir, but you'll never be hers. Is that not what you said, when you chose to make her fail?" Her eyes flicked up to his, "Are you so afraid that I would be that much better with training?"

Soft fur brushed her mind, surging back into her space in a heartbeat. "Swift, I- it didn't work. I'm sorry."

"Kiri?! No! Why are you here? You were supposed to-" She turned to the door, Frost's knowing smirk haunting her.

"I told you." He purred, his tail brushing across her shoulder as he slipped out of the room.

"Alpha! Rogues! Outside the west gate! A massive pack of them!" Someone howled, their cry heard both mentally and physically.

Kiri tackled her, burying his face against her chest. "They wouldn't listen."

She pressed her face to his shoulder, soothing him with a quick lap of her tongue. "Where is Loki? Where are you?" She leapt, surging past Frost in a blur, each press of feet to earth sending her forward with ground eating strides

"He went... To the road. To the place where we met Alpha Jeremy. You had no connection to me when you were there, I can only pray it works again. Only Lana and Daf went, and Daf only went because Lana scruffed her and carried her there. We saw them through."

"Where-"

She skidded to a stop, the sight before unnerving her to her very core. Kiri met her eyes, their pack at his back. They sat, heads held high, a wall of people standing for her.

"They wouldn't leave you at risk." Kiri whispered. "They broke orders for you. I tried, I really did..."

Ryker stepped forward, flecks of light inversing as Vrennik tackled him, his fangs bared. "Why'd you come back, rogue?" He snarled, his voice cracking. "Why did you come back here again, when you said you wouldn't. You promised you wouldn't!"

Ryker wrapped his paws around the little fox, pulling him against his chest. "I'm sane, little brother. My new alphas kept me sane. They rebuilt the crumbling sections." He pressed his head against Ren's. "They brought me back, Remy."

Ren buried his face against Ryker, his tears soaking into the male's fur.

Dukari cast wary glances to Firestorm, creeping ever closer as they scanned the pack for their own families.

"Freeze." Her voice trembled, "It's a trick, pack. A trick brought on by an insane alpha, lending false clarity."

"No." Snowlily pressed herself close, her head shoving against Firestorm's chin. "No! It's not. Stormy, please." She slipped away, trying to catch Firestorm's eye. "Remember.'

She held herself still. So very still. Like porcelain, millimeters from the edge of a cement pad of ruin.

"Kill them. Kill the traitors. Kill the rogues." Like a mantra, drilled into her mind. Elders, the basis for knowledge, keeper of the libraries. Denying her with every turn, hiding memories of her past.

"Kill them. They will breed your ruin." Came the whisper, memories sticking her fur across her feet. Her father, his body torn apart, snarling beasts fighting to feed on his corpse. Her friends.

She raised her head, "Kill them." she whispered, tone soft. She drew a breath, her voice hovering on the edge of command. "Kill them all."

Ren rested his chin across his brother's back, "Alpha, you told us there was no choice, no chance for life. My brother stands here, perfectly mentally stable with an alpha too young to have any of the abilities you do, and you want me to kill him?" He straightens up, his eyes closing. "No." His mind twists, severing itself from her pack link.