Convalesce (Book 2 in the Wolfen Brethren Series)

Bonds

1 Week Later

The camp was in disarray.

The moment they had been awoken by the loud call of Ju-long at the crack of dawn, they had been on their feet. Worry riddled faces, speaking in hushed whispers as they prepped the camp for the return of the warriors. The sombre atmosphere was a clear signal that things had not gone as well as they had planned.

Ju-long, the resident Alpha had received a distress call last night, they had told him to ready the bays. Who exactly had contacted him she wasn't quite sure but he had responded as if fire had been licking at his feet.

They had been up before the sun had ascended across the skyline and they would be up until it descended if need be. There would be no rest until they were home and even then the work would only really begin.

Tension was in the air as the camp got ready to tend to their mates, the medical bay was prepped and the children were taken to the pool under the watchful sight of some of the mateless wolves. They would remain for a while before they would be taken to the furthest part of the camp for lessons. Anything to keep their little insightful minds off of what was happening around them.

They were playing a waiting game now. Time ticking and the sun descending as they waited with abated breath for the horror story that they would see. Jana wanted to panic, she wanted to cry for the horror that they would surely face this day but as the Luna she couldn't.

She had to be strong, even when these people before her were crumbling on the inside. She had to hold onto hope. Hope that Simeon was okay and that none of her pack would have to experience that soul crushing loss.

She couldn't loose anyone else. Loosing Jeremy had been hard enough, his death had been abrupt and horrific. His body had been covered by a sheet as she had demanded to see him. She had to see to believe and she had seen.

His face had barely been recognisable, half of it smashed to mush. Nothing but bone and flesh. His plummet to his death had been horrific and heartbreaking to live with. It had taken her months to close her eyes and see anything other than his ruined face and even longer to move on from his death.

She didn't want any of these people to have to experience that unbearable pain, yet she knew that this was the life they lived.

Every wolf here had accepted this. They had created a pack, a home around this type of lifestyle and when their mates went a way they lived that bleak existence. They created a community that did more than survive when their mates were gone to war, they thrived.

These wolves were strong, not physically like their counterparts but mentally. They had a strength that was unfathomable. Every night the fear of their mates lives hanged over their heads and instead of being inconsolable, they straightened their backs and continued fighting.

They raised their children, hunted and most importantly supported each other. Women helped widowers with raising their children, there was nothing that one woman couldn't do that another wouldn't help with.

They were intelligent and resourceful. Some females cooked whilst others practiced medicine under the three main doctors. Others worked in the armoury, they followed leads and inputted data from the large comms devices. Each device alerted them to attacks that had taken place across the country and the females would chart this in hopes that they could pinpoint one of the many hundred bases that the Resentiam occupied.