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“He can come here. I’m not his dog. I have what he wants right here, the person responsible. He can come if he wants to talk to the child he claims to care for. Otherwise, I’ll happily fight to the end against him.” I shrug, showing my petty side, but I don’t care.
“Why are you so stubborn and headstrong?” Jasper yells at me, a flash of his temper breaking through and very much like the brother who would lose his cool with me when I was being willful. It only riles me all the more.
“Same reason you are, you stupid asshole. Why the hell are you so dumb, so sure the only answer is death to the Santo pack? Why can’t you see past the hatred in your heart and realize there’s a better way than this.” I snap at him, moving forward so we hit almost nose to nose, squaring up to his taller height with a new fierce building inside of me.
“The only way to avenge our parents is to see this pack fall! What don’t you understand?”
“I’m this pack…so if they fall, then I do too. What is it that you don’t understand huh? Your own god damn mate will fall too, and if she does, you’re dead jasper. The girl you rejected is still going to be your downfall. All of us will perish here today….is that what you want?”
Jasper snorts and then chuckles in a weird out of place way. His whole manner becoming hostile and he shakes his head as though I’m a naïve child and he’s slightly amused.
“You think I planned on life after this? My last ten years have been building to the moment I can bring down those who took our family. Once that’s done, I have no reason to keep breathing. If my death is hers, then so long to another Santo.”
“You’re an idiot” I fly for him, slapping him in the left peck so hard it sings my hand, and then punching his shoulder hard. Letting out all the pain in my heart he’s causing me. “I’m your family! Carmen is your family…..this pack could be your family too, if you just let them. You have so much more than revenge to live for. Why can’t you let it go and listen to me? We can fix this without the death of an entire pack.” My emotions break and instead of fury, I begin to sob in desperation. So overwhelmed that my brothers own hatred will be the one thing that can destroy him, us. There’s no solution if my brother won’t let this go. I need him to be on my side, like he always sued to be.
“My family died on a battlefield and my sister…..” he snorts again, a sadness taking over his expression and his eyes glaze over as the amber dims away “Isn’t who she used to be. So in reality, you already died too. I have nothing left to fight for after this.” His words are softer, almost pitiful and even though I know it’s said in anger, it wounds me to the core.
“Screw you. You’re not the brother I remember and love either. You’re a fool. Do you really think mum and dad would want this for us? Do you think they would make us sacrifice our all to even a score on a pack who don’t deserve it? Juan is the problem, and his loyal…..the rest of the wolves are as innocent as the Whyte pack was…. These wolves raised me in your absence, and they have paid for their wrongs against me in the last year. They stand here ready to die for me…. how can you condemn them for that?”
“They did nothing when it mattered!!!” Jasper erupts at me, all rage and fury directed as his eyes glow with fire and his teeth elongate from sheer emotion. His pain on show, and despite his sheer anger, tears fill his eyes and his mouth trembles. A tell that underneath, his heart is in chaos.
“How do you know what they did or didn’t do? You weren’t there…. Sierra sacrificed herself to protect me or else I would be dead too. Santo wolves died alongside Whyte wolves when Juan made the truth disappear about what happened to us. They have been manipulated and oppressed by him for a decade and yet here they stand, willing to die in a war that isn’t theirs, protecting me, their luna, while he hides among them like a coward and uses them as pawns.”
“Enough! I canny listen to another minute of this. You two are clearly siblings with that same thick skull and ability to open your mouth to let nonsense spew out.” Leyanne shoves my brother back away from me, bringing herself to the side of us so she snaps all focus to her. Agitated with our squabbling. “Alora’s right. This is about Juan, not the Santo’s. Tell your master to cease fire and his daughter will freely see him. After all, this is what this is all about, right? You know it’s the right way to do things, you’re not stupid.” Leyanne brushes down the side of Jaspers cloak in a weirdly maternal way and pats him on the shoulder. Somehow soothing his fire without doing too much and I can’t miss the slight hue of yellow mist where her touch hits him. He seems to deflate a little, some of that fierce dying at her words and he shakes his head and looks away. I wonder what kind of magic she has that can diffuse someone like Jasper with only a touch.
“Fine. I’ll link Darrius and have him call a truce for now. Your wolves better not try anything…. Varro won’t be lenient if you piss him off.” Jasper’s unfriendliness shines through, only less venomous, and it breaks my heart a little inside. He no longer considers himself a wolf, he’s just one of them now and his loyalty is with Varro. Leyanne may have cooled his jets but his will remains unbudged.
“I’m staying right here; he can come to me.” I reinforce my stance, my words biting with my own stubbornness. I refuse to back down and chase after this man who thinks I owe him anything just because we share DNA. He came to ruin my people; I won’t run along after him.
“Whatever. Just call back your dogs and have them sit and stay like good little mutts.” Jasper turns on his heel, his cloak almost slapping me across the legs with the speed he marches away, and within seconds I realize the humdrum of cries and noise around me seem to drop off to an almost eerie silence. It’s sudden, like the jump from light to dark with the flick of a switch.
I look around in the darkness, lit only by the full moon and adding to the spookiness, and see creatures pulling back. Slinking out of the shadows, peeling away in fluid motion back to where they came from, and some diving upwards into the air with huge bat like wings. The sky full of giant creatures scurrying away to god knows where.
“We can’t link how do we call our own off?” Sierra’s voice brings me back to reality, my brain getting that snap back and I turn and shake my head, a new problem rising, and I have no answer. The weapon is still disabling some of our gifts and standing here, even I feel weaker while exposed. Carmen still hasn’t managed to do anything about it.
“Word of mouth…. we are still wolves after all.” Radar jumps to his feet, suddenly renewed with energy and strength, as he shifts in the blink of an eyes, throwing back his huge furry head and let’s out a long blood curling howl. Loud and proud, the depth of his howl vibrates around us and spreads through the air. An echoing call and message to our kin, one they will understand, and within seconds distance howls join as they pass the message along the ranks to wherever my mate must be.
Stand down, wait for orders. Stop fighting.
It’s as clear as day and almost like magic, everything around me starts to separate as vampires and Lychan push away from one another and stumble backwards to tend to their own wounds. From harsh screams, tearing, and gnashing of teeth, comes the weird and sudden pause that let’s the noise of the rustling trees sound louder than I have ever heard them. From chaos to calm, form blood lust to stillness.
The quiet of a battlefield in a temporary lull and yet I only feel fear intensify and nausea rises that this is far from over and only the calm before the typhoon rips though. Everything relies on me now and whatever I say to convince Varro that the only death needs to be Juan’s.
