Redeeming the Lost (A Comforter's Tale)

Chapter 8

"Julie, did you take a granola bar?"

"Nope." My tail twitched as I fought to keep it from wagging, betraying my already-suspected guilt. The sharp-eyed cook spotted it.

She paused. "Did you take two granola bars?"

"Nope."

"How many did you take?"

My tail began wagging full-tilt. "I took all five of them!"

Fighting a grin, she eyed me up, knowing I wouldn't have been able to eat even one of those bars. "What did you do with them?"

"I hid one in each of the kid's homework bags! So they'll find theirs as soon as they decide to do their homework!"

"Let me guess, they get carrot sticks for their snack today?"

"Good plan! They can't call me a rabbit if they're the ones eating carrots."

With a chuckle, she replied, "And you'll probably still beg a carrot stick or two from them."

"Probably."

We both paused, as did the other three people in the kitchen. There was a tension across the general pack mindlink, as if a guitar string had been strung too tight. Something was very, very wrong.

"Nix! No!" the Luna's frantic cry tore across the pack mindlink.

"The mining tunnel D4 is collapsing, and people are trapped!" the Beta called out. "Get to your places! This is not a drill!"

The people in the kitchen raced out various exits in their rush to get wherever they were most needed. My feet slid across the wooden floor in my haste to get to the front porch. The children would know to look for me there if they got scared. It also kept me from being underfoot while people ran to and fro.

I froze mid-stride as a sensation like lightning flashed painfully against the pack mindlink. Despite never feeling it before, I knew what it meant. Our Alpha had died.

I threw back my head as a howl escaped my throat, trying to echo the pain of my loss. The man who had taken me into his pack, the one who carried me around and found my pranks amusing, was gone. It felt like my heart was being ripped out.

My Comforter senses vibrated from the waves of others' anguish; there were too many for even it to know where to send me first – with one exception. The Luna. She would have felt her mate die.

She was already racing to the mine, inconsolable and in denial, simply trying to get to her other half. There was no way I could catch up or even reach the mine on my own power.

The main packlink was a chaos of voices as people tried to find out what had happened while getting organized. Normally, we couldn't sense someone's death across the packlink, but Alphas and Lunas were different since their powers were what amplified the packlink's abilities. If either of them died, everyone in the pack would feel it.

The storm of emotions battering my senses wasn't any easier to bear. My head was starting to pound, both from my grief as well as everyone else's. I had to partially raise my mental shields to keep from being completely overwhelmed.

Half-blinded by my tears, I stumbled out the front door and curled up on a cushion as sobs wracked my body. It wasn't long before a young girl came out and sat on the floor beside me, weeping even though she didn't really understand the full extent of what had happened. Her need overruled mine, and I climbed into her lap and increased my aura, trying to offer comfort while I was also mourning.

The loss was finally sinking in as I got over my initial shock, and the fur under my eyes quickly went from damp to wet. I truly wished my aura could affect me since inner calm and peace seemed so distant at the moment. The worst part was that there wasn't anything I could do to help right now. My wolf shape was too small, and I couldn't hold my human form long enough to perform even simple tasks.