Profound Devotion

Chapter 21

Sorry for the late update. These holidays are crazy!

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July 29th
Monaia

  Many of our pack members were eager to hear Raian speak, everyone desperate to understand more of their previous life.

  Cassius stilled at my side, as if the thought of opening up turned him to stone.

The guilt consumed me. Was this my fault?

"Can you tell us about...the attack?" One of our warriors leaned forward on his bench as his mate smacked his arm with a hiss.

My stomach sank further into the pit of my guy, and my eyes flashed between Cass and his all-too-eager brother.

Raina's face lit up as he peered over to us for permission. I silently begged him to sit back down, but something must have passed within Cassius' eyes that told him everything he was searching for.

"Of course."

I dropped my face into my hands and shook my head to try and mask my second-hand shame. This will not end well for him.

"Although, the truth is different than how your previous Luna had told." The humor brightened his face as my mother laughed it off and snuck a handful of chips into her mouth while my father wasn't looking.

The longer the attention was on the brother, the higher the tension that wound Cassius' muscles became. I rested my hand on top of his that was clenched tightly in his lap, his other gripping the back of the bench tight enough for me to fear that it would break.

"You see, no one really expected an attack. Up until one of our member's wives and pups went missing, we had always been left to live in peace."

The mood around the fire began to shift. As I leaned into Cass' side and settled into his warmth, I found myself wanting to memorize every last detail of their story.

"James came to us that morning, claiming something was wrong. He swore his wife had never been gone for more than a few hours without letting him know her whereabouts, and she left the night before, never to return."

Cassius lowered his arm that was once draped across the bench onto my shoulders and pressed me deeper into his side, seeming to seek comfort from me the same way I'd done to him many times.

"Cassius, as our new leader, agreed to form a search party to find her. However, they never expected for her to be brutally torn apart as well as their children and left at our border as if to send a message. Cassius tried to restrain him, but his beast had already taken over all control."

There was a hum of whispers that washed over the crowd as they were engulfed into his story.

"By the time we were able to wrangle him in, he had destroyed half of the village nearby. This was all the wolves needed before they invaded the mountains from the east at midnight. We expected some retaliation, so Cassius moved our people to the deepest depths of the mountains that are practically unreachable to those that know nothing of the area."

"Our warriors fought off everyone they could, but there were just so many wolves that poured into our land. They tore through families as if they were nothing but swine. My family used our gifts when we could, but eventually, they had lit the trees on fire to smoke us out."

Kyra uncrossed her legs next to Taylor and rested her chin in her hand. "How did you two make it out?"

I thought back to my first conversation with Raian. He'd mentioned how, if it weren't for Cass, he wouldn't have survived. It was clear by the gratitude on his face as he peered over the fire toward his brother that there wasn't a part of him that doubted it for a second.