“Get inside now,” Reid screams to us just as our pack members rush into the backyard. Blood Moon Pack members coming from all directions. Grabbing Lana before pulling Amber up by her arm. She shakes me off and I watch her eyes bleed to the black of her wolf. “Go luna” Ambers says and I watch her shift.
Reid brings Ryker over, dragging him in his wolf form. Gripping his furry face, I make him look at me. His voice sifted into my thoughts.
“I want to help” I shake my head,
“This isn’t your fight son, you have a more important task. You don't let anyone through that door, you protect your sisters” I tell him. He looks at Lana and nods his furry head and I place her on the ground.
“Lana lock the doors” She nods and quickly runs inside before closing the door after Ryker. I hear the soft click of the lock.
Turning to Reid, he is glaring at me, Ryder just under the surface.
“Don’t ask me to sit this out” I tell him, my voice holding my command, he shoulders sag before he nods.
“You don’t leave my side” He says and I nod before seeing another figure come through the tree’s. My breath hitching and I fight back the urge to break down and scream at him at the same time. I hated but loved this fool, this could have been avoided if he killed him the first time around.
My eyes dart to his arms as he carries her dead limp body in them. My heart is breaking and I struggle to catch my breath.
“Lily” I cry as I rush to his side. My father has tears streaming down his face. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, sweetie. I failed you. This is all my fault”
Chapter 49
Aria POV
I take her from him, falling to the ground and I hug her close. My tears are not stopping as I squeeze her limp body close to me. My baby sister was dead, her life snuffed out. We failed to protect her, I failed. But her scent was still there, and she didn’t feel cold, not like the dead did. She didn’t feel alive either, but why is her scent still here? It should have faded.
“Abel,” Reid said, patting him on the back. My father nodded but didn’t take his eyes from Lily in my arms. He looked tortured. He loved Lily, that’s why he spent years keeping Kade alive. He felt guilty for what happened to her and promised he would find out the answer we had spent years searching for to fix Lily. Fix what he believed he broke.
Lily loved him too, thought of him as her grandfather, loved and cherished him and now she was dead. Why was her scent here still for some reason that was really getting to me, was it just my mind playing tricks on me, making me believe I could smell her even though she was dead?
I didn’t get to ponder for long when all hell broke loose and rogues started appearing from every direction. They had us trapped as they circled around the entire pack house. My pack standing ready, we were willing to fight to the death. I would give my last breath for my kids. My father growling loudly as the rogues circling us move apart and the devil himself walks toward us with a grin from ear to ear.
His dead eyes sparkling in the moonlight and he walked confidently like he had already won. Pure anger burning so hot I struggled to let it take over as his smug face stood just on the edge of the Pack house perimeter. We were outnumbered majorly. At least ten wolves to one. We knew the war was going to be big, but how did he find this many rogues and what did he promise them, for them to obey.
“Abel, so good to see you, I was hoping you would be here to witness her death. Such a shame I really thought the mutation worked. I liked Lily,” He said, his fangs shining from behind his lips as he smiled slyly, a taunting smile. He knew this was a grief I would struggle to bear.
“Now where is that son of mine?” He asks and I realise he doesn’t know that by killing Lily he killed his own son.
“Dead, like the rest of the Pack” Reid growled, stepping forward, his entire body vibrating in rage and I could tell he was on the verge of shifting. That Ryder was just beneath the surface waiting to be set free.
“Dead? That’s impossible, that makes no sense.” He said, shaking his head and I could see the hurt in him. This monster actually cared for the son he abandoned to that ruthless Alpha. I chuckle and his eyes snap to mine.
“Something funny Aria?” He says, cocking his head toward me, his eyes burning with anger.
“Yes, I figured it out,” I tell him, walking toward him.
“Figured what out?” He asks.
“You were trying to make her a pure Hybrid, what you didn’t realise is, if a pure Hybrid falls their entire pack falls including who they are mated to. My life force is tied to my pack and my mate. You killed your own son for what? Revenge?”
“No, this started with your father the day he took her from me, my jasmine was an innocent little thing and he killed her, I found her bleeding body next to the creek, her throat ripped out. After that day I started hunting your kind, until I eventually became one. Becoming the monster I sought to destroy when I realised being human was weak, I never thought I would find a mate though, mysterious how this moon goddess of your works.”
“I told you I never killed her Kade, it was your own stupidity that killed her, letting a child her age wander through the woods alone. Woods that were full of different beasts” My father tells him.
“Yes, and that beast was you, I saw you” Kade bellowed.
“No, you saw me trying to heal her. I wasn’t the one that killed her. A bloody panther did that. I would never dare to hurt a child. I am not a monster like you” My father screamed back at him.
Kade glared at him before turning back to me.