“I need to track the rogues!” I push through the crowd, trying not to lose the guy who was sitting behind me. “Forget about ‘em! Get everyone home! NOW!” Bronx snarls. “That’s an order!” “What about you, Alpha?” Marco yells. I see him in front of me, looking back. “I can hold my own.” He barks back and cuts the link. “Rendezvous at the Southern border!” “Go after the rogues.” Ghost insists. “No, Ghost. You heard Bronx.” “We’ll never find them again.” “We have our orders, bro. We saw what they looked like. That will have to do.” “GHOST!” Dina dodges between people’s legs. “HELP!” I reach out so I can pick her up. I need to get her outside, but a warrior in wolf form snatches her up by the neck and crushes his jaws down on her throat. She squeals until her head turns at an unnatural angle. Blood drips from his jaws as the warrior drops her lifeless body and moves on to the next creature. “Dina! NO!” My body runs cold. I think my heart just stopped. Panic, anger, and despair
Lenora’s POV “Luna, we need you at the front gate.” A guard knocks on my office door. “It’s urgent.” I look up at the clock. It’s almost midnight. Why the Hell do they need me to go to the gate? “Urgent?” I close my laptop and go to the door. “What happened?” “There’s four uniformed Council warriors asking for entry. They have, um, prisoners?” The guard looks like he’s not too sure about the word prisoners. “Council warriors?” I furrow my brow. “Do you know why they’re in our jurisdiction? They’re bringing rogues they caught?” “N-no, Luna,” he stammers while I close and lock my office door, “not rogues. They have the Beta, Marco Sanchez, and Arnie Ikeda.” I stop on the spot. “Excuse me?” “Leni? Sugar, I’m sure you’re mad, but please don’t be mad.” Milo’s voice comes through a mindlink. “This entire thing is bullshit. I swear.” “Milo, what the Hell happened?” “Is Randall there yet?” “Randall?” I stop again. “No, why would he be here?” “These dipshits let it slip that he’s o
“Lenora, if these men don’t get their hands off of me-” “First of all, it’s LUNA Lenora. And you’ll do what, Elder Randall?” I spin around and put my hands on my hips, glaring at him. The guards holding him by the arms stop and stand tall, trying to avoid eye contact. “Thanks to you and the rogues you let onto my territory, we’re on lockdown. As much as I’d love to have my guards unhand you, I can’t. No one can come on to or leave pack territory. Besides, your actions are an act of treason against the Elder Council until they convene and decide your fate.” “I told you, they were chasing me!” He snarls. “If they were chasing you, how come they were in front?” I challenge his lie. “And how come you didn’t signal the guards? Sam from Security showed it to you the last time you were here.” Randall’s face turns dark. If he wasn’t being restrained, I’m certain he’d lunge at me. He looks around for help, but there is none. The rogues who he was with were all killed by our guards. “I pan
“Traitor?! Randall, your wolf literally attacked Justice on our own territory and you’re going to stand here and call ME a traitor?” I’m trying to hold my temper, but my grip is getting weak. “Since I became Luna I have accommodated every single one of your requests from the mundane to the ridiculous. I have complied with every stupid, fake, pompous order you mandated. You haven’t found a single flaw in our operations, because there are none. Blood River has done exactly what the Council has requested every time we’re asked. And for what? To be chastised by you? To be accused of treason?! I would say I’m insulted, but that would be a gross understatement.”“She’s deflecting from the fact that she could have killed Basalt! She held him down until guards came to my rescue.” He snarls in return. “We need to start with the head of this pack to cut out the poison. Lenora needs to be removed as Luna and the Blood River pack needs to be seized by the Council immediately. Bronx Mason needs to
Milo and Reggie leap forward to pull Bronx off Randall. Saint roars and fights against them. “Get this maniac off of me!” Randall whimpers. The Elders wedge themselves between the angry Alpha and their peer. I think calling him a peer is an exaggeration. The Elders seem to take pleasure in punishing him. I wonder what happens behind closed doors. Orderlies burst into the crowded room to help Milo and Reggie. They push past me, knocking me off balance. Ashley catches me from falling and looks at me with concern. “Lenora, are you alright? You look pale.” She murmurs in my ear. “I’m fine.” I stand and collect myself. “Just a little overwhelmed.” “Sit down.” She squeezes my hand. “I'll get the doctor.” “Take her advice, child. Something’s wrong.” Justice sounds far away. “I won’t show these dickheads any weakness.” I say out loud. “I’ll give the cue. You get them out of here, Ashley.” “Promise to sit down?” “Sure.” My head swims as I clap my hands to get everyone’s attention.
Milo’s POV—Flashback—One day, I wanna own a flower shop so I can give Mom flowers all the time. Fancy ones like Dad gets for her. I’m only ten, though. I gotta be older and have money for that, though. It only takes twenty minutes to get to the top of the mountain where the meadow is. I’ll get her flowers from there for now.Today is like a movie. The sky is so blue, and the air is like… it’s like when the teacher lets us go outside for recess. Like that. Oh waaaooooowwww!!! Check it out! The meadow is so pretty! There're red flowers and yellow and orange, purple and pink too. There are, like, millions of them! And a girl? I squint my eyes. Yeah. A girl, sitting in the middle of the field. I sniff the air. I can’t tell what she smells like.“Hello?” I yell at her. Her hair looks more red when the sun shines on it. She has blue eyes and as many freckles as the meadow has flowers. Her nose is kinda pointy and her mouth is dirty from eating wild berries. At first, she looks happy, bu
“Ryuu, thank you for coming.” I shake his hand. “Thank you for honor to Dina-chan.” He bows to me.Lenora steps forward and hands him a bouquet of white and yellow chrysanthemums. “Ryuu, we have ordered a headstone, but we need to wait until the ground has settled for six months before we place it. In the meantime, we have a bronze placard with her name and birthdate being made. We’ll place that until we can install the headstone. It’s our tradition to not include the day she died, because we believe her spirit’s journey will continue. If that’s okay with you.”“Yes, thank you.” He takes the flowers and bows again. “I speak about her?”“You mean during the service?” Lenora smiles sympathetically. “Oh yes, absolutely. We would be honored if you would join us for dinner as well.”When we have the details of his visit solidified, we walk quietly and meet Bronx, Reggie, and the rest of the unit near Dina’s grave. The closer we get, the more difficult it is to breathe. Lenora takes my han
Lenora’s POV“Miss Mason, welcome to MasonCo HQ. I’m Sonja. It’s so nice to meet you!” The bubbly receptionist comes around from behind her desk to greet me. “We are so excited to hear that we’ll be seeing more of you around here! I’m going to show you and your assistants around. This is Hana and James, I take it?”“Thank you.” I swallow back my jitters. “Yes, will they have their own offices?”“We have a bullpen situation for them outside your office, but we can get them their own if you’d like, Miss Mason.” Sonja looks worried.“No, that’s not necessary.” James gives her a charming smile. “As long as we are situated close to Miss Mason, in case she needs us.”It feels like the first day of school, except I don’t know anyone. That isn’t really true. Over two hundred pack members are employed by MasonCo. The rest of the employees are human. Yeah, I go to human places, but I don’t interact with many humans on a regular basis. I guess that changes now that I’m going into the office. Hon