CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED

Chapter 8

Ember's POV:

As I follow my beta, Brendon.

The fact that I have a beta, a pack, is still hard for me to believe.

"Hey, how come you're a part of the pack leadership? Isn't this a pack lead by females?" I asked, curious as to how Brendon came into power if this was common in the pack. I didn't want to make a fool of myself on my first shot at representing the pack.

"I was born to a couple of this pack. They were both warrior wolves. They died defending the pack from rogues one night. It's not common, but it happens. My brother too is part of the leadership. He's younger to me by two years. He leads the warrior wolves." Brendon seemed to be speaking in a cautious way, taking his time to assess me before he told me about the pack.

We took a fifteen-minute detour as he showed me around the common areas of the pack.

The little clearing where there were wooden benches arranged in a circle around a dead bonfire where the pack apparently had weekly dinners. The mini basketball court where there was a match going on between the teenaged wolves.

"The omega, although usually means the lowest of the pack, actually means the lowest amongst the leaders of the pack and deals with simpler issues. The healer doesn't attend most meetings as it's not a major requirement but attends biweekly meetings as she needs to be updated too as she looks after the wellbeing of the pack. Sylvia used to be the delta for your grandmother. She's away right now though." Brendon tells me as we walk towards the living quarters of the wolves.

The pack also had a lake towards the edge of the woods away from the main road. Although the main pack common house was made of wood, behind the common house the homes of the pack members were in rows of modern homes made of exposed concrete and glass. Brendon gradually warmed up to me as we walked and I was glad I had an amiable beta. We walked around back to the common area and ascended the stairs.

Brendon placed a reassuring hand on my back as he urged me into the room where five more people sat. The delta, omega, leader of the warrior wolves, the healer. All women.

"Hello. I'm Ember Zane. The granddaughter of Jasmine Zane. I will be your luna." I walked into the room and faced the women in front of me. They didn't look much older than me. I tried to quell my nerves and look at them confidently.

"Cheyenne." The delta stood to shake my hand first.

"Rhea." The healer stood too.

"Willow." The omega gives me a fist bump out of the blue. To be fair, she did look like she was 18 years old. Her actions relax me a bit more as I flash a smile at the rest of them.

"And this is Brendon, the loner in the girl squad." Cheyenne laughs.

Brendon rolls his eyes at Cheyenne's childish behavior.

"I was nervous before this." I confess, "But I honestly think we'll get along." I sat at the head of the table as the rest occupied seats too.

"Right. We're a team Ember. It'll be more nerve-wracking to meet the rest of the pack. But the six of us, we have your back." Rhea says.

Brendon nods and Alecia quips up to add, "Our pack is filled with warm-hearted people and they were all loyal to our luna. We had all come into power when Luna Jasmine turned sixty, a new team of leaders was put into the leadership and our parents retired. Except for Brendon. He's been here since he turned 17. We have been long awaiting your arrival, but that gave us a chance to get to know Jasmine as our luna. That's why we have all been looking into her murder in-depth."

I feel the blood in my veins turn icy at her words. Grams couldn't have been murdered. She was the kindest woman.

"What do you mean murdered? Grams died of old age. She wasn't murdered. She had a fever before she died and she just... didn't get better. She was too old to fight it. She was 70 after all."

"Ember, we found traces of wolfsbane in her blood. That's what induced that brain fever." Rhea whispered, tucking her dark hair behind her ear.

An angry growl escapes my lips as I digest what she says.

"Why? Who would do that to grams? Has the pack found anything yet? Any leads? Also, how did you conduct the postmortem?" I ask.

Other than the occasional argument with the mailman about late deliveries, grams had never been aggressive with anyone. The only thing that made her rageful was people bullying me in high school.

Brendon ducks his head and the girls turn red in the face.

"ANSWER ME!" I yell.

"We dug up her body from the cemetery. She had told us that you didn't know much about werewolf traditions and so we assumed you didn't know that werewolves are cremated." Brendon says.

"And I conducted the postmortem with a few other doctors from the pack." Rhea added.

I let out a pained sigh. I rise from my seat, needing to put some space between myself and the woods. I needed to be near Luca. I needed to make sense of all the information that had just been thrown at me.

"I'll see you all tomorrow. I'd like to meet the entire pack tomorrow. Please organize a pack dinner near the bonfire." I order in a clipped tone.

"Ember We're sorry." Cheyenne says, the remorse evident in her eyes.

"It's what she would've wanted." Brendon adds. His head tilting and his eyes pleading for me to understand.

"Fine. I get it. But that's the last time you keep me in the dark and treat me like an outsider." I snap.

They nod in unison and tell them to leave.

As they walk out, I turn to look out of the window of the common house, the clear blue lake glistening in its serenity as if to mock me. I stand there for ten more minutes before my phone buzzes.

Luca: I'm here darling.

I walked quickly out of the wooden house as if the walls were closing in. I embrace Luca when I see him and he caresses my hair.

"Ember...I found your grandmother's diary and a book about the history of your pack." He tells me.

"Yeah, I knew she had one. I never opened it. I knew I couldn't take it without shattering. She didn't write in it too often. She had the same one for years. Did you bring them along?" I ask him.

"Let's sit in the car." He says, his face contorting in worry.

When he locks the doors and finally faces me, Luca continues to tell me what he saw in the diary.

"You're right. There weren't many recent entries in the diary. But there were entries from when you'd just moved in with your grandmother." He leans to pull out the two books from under my seat and hands them over to me.

"Yeah. I'd left home because of all of my father's illegal work." I tell him.

"Do you remember why your father left the pack?" He asks.

"Nope. He left when I was three. I just know it was because of some disagreement between him and Grams. I wrote to Grams a week before I ran away and she said I could live with her." I tell him.

"Ember your father left because he knew he wouldn't be able to come into power in the pack. He's been ordering random attacks on that pack since then." Luca says. He gently takes my hand and watches my face as I absorb this.

I glare up into his eyes as realisation hits me.

"He killed my grandmother."

Author's note: so how have you all been? Drop into the comments all the things you do to pass time in the quarantine.