Utter devastation.
That was what they found when Warner finally stopped running.
Mari didn’t know how far they’d run, but she knew it had to be quite some distance. Mari, for her part, was rather amazed she was able to keep up.
It was probably the mating bond.
The one she’d wanted, gotten, and was going to lose to some dead girl who decided to come back and stake her claim.
It broke her heart.
Although, her heart, even as it was breaking, it knew, too, that Warner needed a mate who was his equal. Not someone like her.
Because for all of her wishing, hoping, and trying, she would never be his match. Even though she wanted to be.
A woman who was a match for Warner wouldn’t be thinking about her own loss right now.
She’d be thinking about that poor, small town that had been reduced to… meat and gore.
That’s all that was left.
Mari smelled it before she saw it, but that was all she needed to know not a single living thing was left in the town.
This was why Warner was needed.
A Dark Champion who had the power to save these people.
And why she’d step aside when it was time.
She swallowed hard.
“We’re too late, aren’t we?” Lenore said as she slid to the ground and Warner, still in his new warrior form stretched and paused just at the edge of the forest that surrounded the town.
He charged forward and Mari followed, with Lenore behind her.
Everywhere they looked, there were bits of meat left that used to be werewolf. These were all someone’s mother, father, sister, brother.
These bits had all been someone.
Bile rose in her throat.
And that’s when it hit her.
She’d seen all of this before.
Memories she’d stuffed down as a child, hidden behind lock and key in the deepest recesses of her mind were of this moment. It was as if she’d walked in a place out of time and had watched all of this unfold.
This was why she’d been afraid to transform.
This was why she’d locked her beast away and hadn’t been able to hear her. She didn’t want to. This was what lay on the other side of this.
The bile she’d been holding back surged up and she turned away as she vomited.
A comforting hand was on her back. It was Lenore. “Me too, dude. This is… I can’t even.”
“What if I did this?” Mari choked out after she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
“What? Why would you think that? It was Peter’s pack. Obviously.”
“I… know this scene. The name of the town is Morning Lake.”
“How do you know this?”
Mari looked up and watched Warner running through the various shops, and buildings, searching for signs of life.
She knew he wouldn’t find any.
“I dreamed about it when I was a child.”
“All of it?”
“Down to the muck under your foot.”
Lenore looked down. “Goddamnit. I hate it when I get it on my boots.”
“Yeah.” Mari sniffed. “I’d… I’d forgotten. This scene used to make me wake up screaming. This was why I never wanted to Change. I knew I’d do this.”
“You didn’t do this. Stop that.”
“How do you know? You weren’t here last night. Maybe Warner and I did this together.”
Lenore grabbed her by the shoulders. “Don’t even think that. But never say it. Never. Warner has enough doubt without yours too.”
“The truth is right here, Lenore. Why else would I have dreamed it? It was surprisingly easy for me to run this far. I’ve never done that before. And there’s a darkness in me that’s changing me. Like Warner.”
“Shut up with that too. He’s going to blame himself. I get it, this sucks. But he needs your support now more than ever. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe the Wendigois you?”
“Of course not. I’m not dead.”
“That could change at any minute, couldn’t it?”
“No, it’s not me. It’s the love of his life. Arianna.”
“And you’re a witch now? A prophetess?”
“Maybe. I did dream of this,” Mari said.
“Maybe you dreamed of it so you could help Warner. There are all sorts of reasons the powers that be might’ve sent you that dream. It doesn’t always have to be the worst thing.”
“Doesn’t it, though?” Mari realized how hopeless and pitiful she sounded. What did it matter if it was always the worst thing? There were very few things that were within her power. So it was up to her to do what she could with what she could. Instead of complaining like a spoiled child. “You’re right, Lenore. I’m sorry.”
“Hey, I know it all looks like shit, now. And I don’t mean to blow sunshine up your asshole, but you gotta get that Vitamin C somehow, amiright?”
Mari snorted. “You’re right.”
“I carried around a lot of guilt for a long time for something that wasn’t mine to carry. But I picked that bitch up and carried it anyway because I thought it was mine. It wasn’t. Neither is what happened here. That’s not your fault. But if you can, think back to your dream. Can you remember anything else? Any small detail you might’ve seen then that we can’t see now?”
Mari took a deep, shaky breath.
“So, normally in these situations, I’d say it’s just a dream. It’s not real. It can’t hurt you. Only it is real, but it’s already happened. It can’t hurt you. But it might hurt someone else if we don’t catch this pack.”
She began to open herself to the dream. To allow it out of the box where she’d locked it and to let it play before her mind’s eye. Mari watched in horror as the carnage unfolded.
“In the dream, Lenore, it’s me.”
“Step back, then. It’s not you. You know it’s not. Breathe.”
Mari did as Lenore instructed, but she couldn’t change the perspective. “I’m sorry, I can’t…”
“It’s okay. It might take some time.”
“That we don’t have.”
“Tonight, when you sleep, if you can sleep, try to ask it to show you what you need to know.”
“I’ll try,” Mari agreed.
Warner came back to meet them, as a man.
“We’re too late. In the time it took us to run, they obliterated this town,” he said.
Mari was still picking at the tangled threads of the dream when it hit her. While she’d been allowing that awful thing to play, she remembered in the dream she wanted—no, needed—to head north.
And there were survivors from the town.
A whole… herd. Yes, they’d been taken as livestock.
Mari wanted to vomit again.
“Mari?” Warner asked. “You’re so pale.”
“I know where they’re going. I mean… not precisely. Like, I don’t have coordinates. But they’re still moving north.”
“I saw some tracks in the mud on the far side of town that seemed to be headed north as well. Not enough for a pack, but…”
“I dreamed about this, Warner. This scene right here is why I couldn’t transform as a child. In my dream, I’m one of them.”
“I will never let that fucking happen,” he swore.
“Men,” Lenore snorted. “That’s not the point. The point is, in her dream, she has to go north.”
“Just saying,” he grumbled.
Mari wanted to say that she didn’t need him to protect her, but maybe she did. Or maybe she just wanted him to. She wouldn’t be able to enjoy the perks of being mated to him much longer.
Maybe she was selfish and spoiled, but she was going to make love to him again as soon as she got him alone. She was going to give him every bit of pleasure she knew how and she was going to take some for herself too.
“There are some survivors. Warner, they took them for livestock.”
“We have to save them, if we can. But we can’t leave the town like this. We need to cleanse it with fire. We don’t know what their venom will do the animal life around here. That’s all we fucking need is infected squirrels or something.”
Lenore half-laughed. “That would be just our fucking luck, wouldn’t it? Listen, I can get a crew of witches in here and stand guard until they get here. We need a controlled burn to protect the wildlife and the forest. Then I’ll catch up with you, if you text me.”
“It looks like we’re about to move out of Woolven Territory. I should probably call Blake so he can make sure no one’s tail gets in a knot.”
“These new bags that transform with you are pretty great, huh? I don’t know what we’d do without Westwood,” Lenore said.
“I’d be naked in the woods without a phone, I guess. Which doesn’t always sound terrible.” Warner shrugged.
Lenore hugged Mari. “We’ve got this. All of us. Right?”
“Yeah. Thanks, Lenore. You know, it’s crazy. I never thought I’d get to meet you, let alone be your friend.”
“You’re one of the cool kids.” Lenore grinned. “I’m lucky to know you.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Warner growled. “Come here.” He hugged Lenore too. “Take care of you until we see each other again. Don’t ever forget you’re pack.”
“No, you.” She grinned and slapped his back. “And I mean that.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
Warner took Mari’s hand and was going to lead her around the edge of the woods, but she stepped forward, walking toward the town square.
“It can’t hurt anything now,” she said. “They’re already dead and I’ve seen it at least a thousand times.”
“Mari,” was all Warner could say.
“What? I’m strong. I can do this. If I can’t walk through the carnage, however will I fight those who are willing to commit it?”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
“If not us, then who?”
She walked, fighting nausea the whole way.
When they were on the other side of the woods, he pulled a sat phone out of his bag to call Blake.
“We’re not too far from the border, so I thought I’d put in the call now. We’re tracking these things into the Northern Territories. Beyond Woolven Borders.”
Having supernatural hearing, she could hear the Woolven Alpha’s responses.
“Shit. I was hoping to keep it contained.”
“You and me both, Nephew. Damage is bad. Morning Lake is gone.”
“Gone? As in…”
“Obliterated. We suspect they took some of the residents with them.”
“Are they Turned or for food?” Blake’s tone was flat, but Mari knew the Woolven Alpha felt all of this on a visceral level.
“Food.”
“I’ll put in a call. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you to wait for my word.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Explain,” Blake commanded.
“This Dark Champion doesn’t answer to anyone. Not to you, not to me. I can’t promise I won’t, but I’ll do my damndest.”
“That’s all I can ask for.”
Warner ended the call.
Blake wasn’t like any other Alpha she’d ever met. He didn’t preen, didn’t take every question or every snag as insult to alphahood. She admired him.
“So we wait,” she said.
“That’s all we can do.”
Suddenly, Warner growled and cracked his neck as his features began to shift like some kind of alien. It was an uncontrolled Change.
“Damn it.”
“I guess the Dark Champion didn’t like being told he can’t do anything,” Mari said, putting a hand on his. “It’s okay. Stop thinking about it. We are doing something. We’re ensuring that we don’t start another war.”
At this, Warner seemed to quiet, although when he opened his eyes, they were still red.
And Mari still found that incredibly hot.
“Do you like him? The Dark Champion, I mean?” Warner asked, after sniffing the air.
“Obviously. I can’t help it.”
“He likes you too. Obviously.”
“Good. Since he’s my mate,” she said, but the teasing smile on her lips faded. “At least for now,” she managed a faux bright tone.
She hated how she sounded. So needy. So pathetic.
“Not just for now, Mari.”
“Oh, Warner. You know that’s not true. Lenore told us—”
“What do those old bags know, anyway? Not a damn thing.” He held up his hand before she could object. “No, seriously. They wanted Lenore to give their glass eye a tongue bath? What the fuck? No.”
Mari couldn’t help but laugh a little. “That doesn’t mean they don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“After all that you’ve done for the pack. For me. Do you really think I’d betray you like that?”
“Warner, being with your True Mate isn’t a betrayal. Did you think Arianna betrayed you when she chose Sterling?”
“No, of course not. But she wasn’t in the same set of circumstances that we are. You’ve walked through fire for me. I won’t reward that with abandonment.”
A lump formed in the back of her throat.
“I don’t actually want your duty in this case. I know that doesn’t make sense to you, but if you’re with me, I want you to want me for me. Not because you owe me something.”
“I do want you.”
“That will change when the Wendigocomes. Please don’t make promises you can’t keep. Not only would it break my heart, but you’d never forgive yourself. You just told Blake you didn’t know if you could obey him. That the Dark Champion doesn’t answer to him.”
“The Dark Champion wants you.”
“Maybe now he does.”
“I’m not leaving you, Mari. Unless that’s what you want.”
“How funny that only days ago we were having a similar discussion, but you were trying to get rid of me.”
“I wasn’t trying to get rid of you. I was trying to protect you. Like always.”
“Yes, just like always,” Mari agreed.