They file out, standing out the front of the packhouse. I continue down the steps and walk over to Mateo.
“Where are Ezra and Andrei?”
“Ezra is trying to locate Andrei after he took off, I was going to wake you, but…”
“Save it, Mateo, I am pissed off enough, but right now, we need everyone to be calmed down before they do something reckless. How many people can the packhouse hold?”
“Fifty at most, I have people setting up bunk beds in all the spare rooms. We also have nine houses being set up.”
“How many are here from Andrei’s pack?”
“There are 114 people left,” he says, and my face snaps toward him. 114? That was all that was left? Andrei had the 2nd largest pack!
“Does Angie’s family know?” I ask him, looking out at everyone standing around talking. I can still remember her trembling voice on the phone, her crying to come home, and now she was put in a body bag. She was one of my only friends here, besides Jasmine, and had been my brother’s mate.
“Kat?” Mateo whispers, and my eyes burn with unshed tears. His hand touches my arm, but I jerk away. I cannot break, not in front of all these people, it would cause chaos again if the Luna of our pack lost control.
“Please don’t touch me, okay? Just don’t. Not right now,” I scold him, knowing if he does, I will just want to crawl into his arms and cry. That wouldn’t help anyone. There would be time for grief later and all the mourning that came with it. “Where is my father?” I ask instead.
“Helping Ezra find Andrei, he was here helping with all this, but when he heard about Angie, he went to go help.” I nodded, I was going to ask him anyway, so I am glad that some fatherly instinct kicked in, and he went to go find his grieving son.
“Okay, let’s deal with this for now and get everyone housed and fed while we wait for Ezra and Andrei to return, I want to speak to the neighboring pack Alphas too,” I announce.
“Why? They can’t help.”
“No, it is too late for Andrei’s Pack, but Jackson wiped out an entire pack nearly full of elderly and even children. No pack will take that lightly, especially with what they did to the pack Luna, Jackson wants to go to war? He will get one. I know the other packs will come for this.”
“They will, but Kat, if you do this, every pack will know you are a Gemini wolf, they will be able to tell just by looking at you.”
“This war started because of my family. Jackson killed all these pack’s families, and for what?”
“Ezra said to warn the other packs not to get involved.” I nod to his answer. “What about those that don’t come?” He asks.
“We won’t force them, they don’t have to, especially the smaller packs, but I doubt any would turn Andrei and Ezra down anyway. Jackson has made a lot of enemies over the years, but every pack has always agreed there is one thing you don’t do, that the children of the packs are off-limits. Jackson breached that with Anthony, he breached it again, but this time everyone knows about it, they will come,” I announce, and I have no doubts left inside me. This butchery wouldn’t be ignored.
“You can speak to the Alphas, I have their info inside, but nothing gets planned until Ezra and Andrei are here.”
“I’m not stupid, Mateo, this has gone on far too long now. We should never have waited. Ezra and Andrei can plan it, but every Alpha will have time to get here. Then we just need to think about getting the mothers and children separate from the pack once we get in there. It shouldn’t be a problem, though, once we step over, Jackson has bunkers for those that won’t be in the war, those bunkers need to be off-limits. We just need to make sure Andrei’s pack understand that”
“Yes, Jackson will be ready for us when we come,” Mateo agrees.
“Jackson was always big on evacuation, there are three bunkers, one under the schools and two under the community center in town.” I explain.
“Andrei will want blood, Kat, from what Ezra has been saying, he has gone off the deep end.”
“That may be so, but if we kill children like Jackson did, we are just as bad as him, they are innocent in this. We are not monsters, death will come, but only to those that deserve it.”
“What about Jackson’s alliances? He still has two packs that may stand with him.”
“They get involved and back him, they die with him too,” I declare.
Mateo nods. “Okay, let’s organize everyone.” He whistles loudly, grabbing everyone’s attention.
Ezra
Derrick and I have been running through these woods for hours now, and it is getting dark. Still no sign of him. Derrick is almost frantic. Even though he wasn’t a part of Andrei’s life, I could tell he did love him in his own way. So he should, Andrei is his son.
We came to a stop. We had just run the entire border over once again and through the mountains. Heading back to town, we spot a fire burning in the distance that wasn’t visible from the gully we had just come out of.
“That’s the packhouse,” Derrick points out as we look down at the town.
“He must have gone back, come on, let’s see if we can get him,” I suggest to Derrick, and he nods.
Shifting back, we approach the town center and the park. I spy Andrei standing out the front of the packhouse, his back is to us as he watches his home burn. The smell of fuel is heavy in the air, and the packhouse is engulfed in flames.
“Andrei?” Derrick calls, approaching him.
I hold my breath, not knowing how Andrei will handle having his estranged father here, though when I catch sight of his eyes. I realize Donnie, Andrei’s wolf, is in control again as he looks his father up and down.
“Son,” Derrick calls, placing his hand on Andrei’s shoulder.
I half expected him to lose his hand for touching him, Andrei isn’t one for physical contact. The only person I had seen him even touch affectionately besides Angie was Kat. But, instead, Andrei’s eyes flicker, his wolf receding.
“Dad?” Andrei croaks out.
“Right here,” Derrick assures him, and something inside him breaks. I have never seen him cry, but Derrick broke him the moment he touched him.
Maybe he didn’t hate his father as much as he thought he did, because the giant bear of a man folded. His legs collapsed out from under him, as his entire body is racked with sobs. Derrick grabbed him, going to the ground with him, trying to console his son.
“I know, buddy, I know,” Derrick tells him softly, and nobody knew better than Derrick what it felt like to lose a mate. He didn’t lose one, but two.