“You can see her tonight at the pack run,” I tell Maddox as he heads for town. It takes us a while because Maddox keeps hunting on the way, his hunger for death untameable. Finally stopping at the funeral home, Maddox hands me back control, and I shift back. Not a speck of skin shows under all the blood, and I curse at the sight of my body. I walk to the back door, gripping the door handle, and walk in. Good thing Mrs. Crump deals with dead bodies for a living, but still, even she shrieks at the sight of me as I stroll into the morgue at the back of the building. She is busy embalming a body and turns white as a sheet before recognizing my scent.
She flicks her long silver hair over her shoulder. “Alpha,” she gasps, clutching her chest. She rips a clean sheet off the rack, tossing it at me before pushing her glasses up her nose. She covers the dead body of one of our warriors with another sheet, and I wrap the sheet around my waist.
“Thought you were one of the dead coming back for me,” she chuckles with a hand against her heart. She always had a dark sense of humor. I suppose you had to or wouldn’t choose this for a job.
“How is my Luna?” she asks, washing her hands. She leaves the tap running, and I quickly wash mine. She was in her 60s, and I had known her all my life. Not only that, but she was a good woman.
“Fine, Ester, she will be okay, she is dealing with it rather well,” I reply before following her into the funeral parlor. Coffins and urns line the walls, and my feet leave marks on the dark floorboards.
“Everyone deals with death differently, but she has you and Mateo,” she observes, eyeing my neck with a smile on her lips. My face heats at her gaze. “It was hard to contain my excitement when I recognized you. I could smell him all over you, fills my heart with joy knowing you have let him in,” she says, making me do a double take.
“Ah yes, Alpha, I have known for a long time. Most of us older ones have. That boy has loved you since he was a child himself. It is about time Maddox calmed enough to let him in, I have waited for this day. I am just glad I was alive to see it,” she chuckles, walking behind her desk.
“So you think the pack will accept it?” I ask, and she nods, ducking down.
“Of course, we are all family, Ezra. Have always been, that is what packs are.” She retrieves a box from the drawer and places it on the desk. Removing the lid, she reveals a silver urn containing Shirley’s ashes. She grabs a smaller box from beside the urn holding it out to me, but I shake my head. My arms are coated in blood, I didn’t want to risk touching anything. Ester realizes that and opens it to show me. Inside the smaller box is Kat’s pumpkin necklace, but Mateo organized some of her mother’s ashes into a gemstone pendant. She lifts the sapphire heart to show me. It sits beside the pumpkin.
I give her a nod. Kat would love it. I let her wrap everything back up in the protective wrap before placing it back in the box with the urn.
“Can you find something to place it in? I don’t want to touch anything,” I request, though I already walked bloody footprints through the place, Ester never mentioned it. This woman was one in a million. She buried and cremated nearly every member of my family and Mateo’s. Though by the time I was done with my father, there wasn’t much left.
I didn’t know how she did it, she had one of the hardest jobs, not only did she bury her husband and one of her sons, but she was always working and never closed her doors
She hands me a plastic bag before putting her arms out. “Come on, I am already covered in fluids, blood doesn’t faze me,” she insists, and I lean down, letting her wrap her arms around me.
She pats my back gently, and I kiss her cheek before standing upright.
“Congratulations, Alpha, on finding your mates. I wish you all the happiness, you too, Maddox,” she adds, bowing slightly before walking towards the back door. She holds it open for me, and I hold the bag tighter before handing her the sheet I borrowed. She takes it before I dart off for the trees.
I run straight home before darting into the back and grabbing the hose. I place the bag on the table to avoid it getting wet before turning the tap on.
Mateo, hearing me return, comes outside before taking the hose from me. “Turn around,” he orders, and I flinch as the cold water sprays me. Mateo rinses the rest of the thick blood off me.
“Where is Kat?” I ask as he turns the tap off.
“Asleep still, wait here, I will grab you a towel,” he offers, ducking inside before returning with a fluffy gray towel. He tosses it to me before grabbing the box out of the bag. He checks the contents before tucking Shirley’s ashes under his arm and hanging onto the necklace.
“She will love it,” I assure him, coming up behind him and kissing his neck. He shivers before nodding. “Go wake her, I need to shower,” I order, and he nods before heading inside. I follow him back through the packhouse. We head upstairs and to our mate. He opens the box with her necklace before brushing her hair aside while she sleeps. She stirs, waking up, and smiles sleepily up at him. He leans down and gives her a sweet kiss. My cock twitches at the sight of them when Alex’s voice flitted through my head.
“Ah, Alpha?” he interrupts.
“What is it?” I snap.
“Um, I think I just saw Luna’s father head toward the border. Should I grab him?” he asks.
“Which border?”
“Looks like he is trying to get into Andrei’s Pack, he is on no man’s land at the moment.”
“Grab him, don’t let him cross, drag him back here if you have to,” I order him before refocusing on the room. Now, what would Derrick want with Andrei? I think to myself.