Feral Bonds

Chapter 49

The new wolves settled into the pack nicely. Brady eagerly took over showing them the ropes of the farm work. Alex kept wrinkling his nose at the smell, but Hayley and Avery embraced the life willingly enough.

Gretchen reluctantly started practicing with Natania's power, though only small amounts at a time, nothing like what she had taken to face Alistair. And between the power drain and the new wolves, Natania was beginning to feel more like herself, even if the practice left her achy and sore. It was better than wanting to eat her friends.

When the first full moon after they joined arrived, Natania led her pack up into the mountain and paused at the edge of the valley. "Do you smell that?" Natania asked, continuing forward at a slower pace.

"What? The death and rot?" Alex bit out.

Natania twitched her ears. She had invited her pack to come hunt with her, Alex refused to join their pack, so he shouldn't have been there, but she hadn't wanted to tell him off. If he kept up with the attitude, she was going to anyway.

"No," she growled. She had come up to deal with the bodies a few days after the incident, and while she hadn't sung them to peace, she had given them a proper wolf burial, so all that remained was the remains of a bonfire and a tad bit of smoke scent. There was no rot. It was the least she could do. "Wolf," she said.

Her wolves bristled at her words and spread out around her, raising their noses to taste the air. "I don't scent anything," Sara said.

Natania took a few steps further in, there was definitely something.

Damien suddenly stiffened. "Dad?" he called and Natania winced. Hopefully their visitor was friendly, or else Damien had just given them away.

Her wolves backed into a circle, baring their teeth at the sound of footsteps.

"Damien?"

Damien froze and stepped out of the circle. "Dad?"

A grey-black wolf bowled into Damien and Natania tensed until she recognized Rowan. "It is you!" Rowan nosed all over Damien and the tan wolf purred with delight.

More footsteps surrounded them and Natania frowned. She recognized Oliver and Alina, Olivia's parents, Anthony and Kylie, Alex's father and sister, and Shaun, Brady's dad. They were joined shortly by Keiran, one of her old packmates, and his father Otis.

Her pack relaxed as they recognized their families, but Natania stayed on alert, pelt bristling. They shouldn't have known who was in her pack. They hadn't advertised, so unless Alistair had been in contact with Rigaldo, or they had spied on her, it was suspicious that these wolves had come.

When Lilah padded out of the trees, Natania growled and paced forward to meet her. There was no way Ezra's mate was coming in peace. "What do you want?" Natania hissed, but Lilah shoved passed her and addressed her pack.

"It's time to come home," Lilah told her children, then glanced at the rest of her pack. "All of you."

Natania moved between Lilah and her wolves, teeth bared.

Lilah gave her a look full of hatred. "You don't need to follow this monster," Lilah growled. "You'll be welcomed back home. I promise."

"She's not a monster," Brady snarled, leaping forward. Natania blocked his path before he could spring at Lilah. If they fought, everyone would be injured, and Natania didn't want to force her pack to hurt their families.

Lilah curled her lip. "She helped that witch incinerate our packmates," her gaze shot to Hayley, "your father."

"You came here to kill her mate." Bran stalked forward, his chest rumbling with a growl. "What did you expect? For her to just lay down and die?"