Pack Ruin (The Splintered Bond #3)

39. Tenebris

39

Tenebris

FLOR

I ris exhaled heavily as we watched the last Southern shifter vanish into the trees. “Well, time for us to scoot on back to the cave.”

The other two shifters with Glen had already headed off, and I saw two young males—Bo and Leroy, from the way they moved—greet them and help them carry him down the middle of the street.

“Don’t worry about the Heir,” Iris murmured, watching him go. “He was breathing, and he’s young and strong. There ain’t anyone in the hunting grounds but us now, anyway. They’ll get him to safety, and get him cleaned up.”

“Good.” I needed to know at least one of my mates was safe. Iris tried to lift me again, but let out a pained sound that had me stopping her. “Don’t. I can walk.”When she set me back down gingerly and stepped away, I was pleased to find that was true. I was still in pain, but not dying.

What worried me more were the hidden wounds I suspected were there, though I couldn’t feel much in my bonds. The dead spot where Grigor’s little tendril of a connection had been now felt like what I imagined an amputated finger would. Luke’s bond was weak and staticky, like somebody had poured a bunch of metaphysical cement all around it.

Glen felt weak, but was getting stronger. He was pulling power through me, somehow, even while he was unconscious. I was glad; I had a feeling if he knew what he was doing, he’d stop. He needed whatever Brand could give him.

My heart lurched. Finnick… Finnick felt distant but quiet, like he was asleep.

The bond with Brand, though, was slowly roaring back to life, like a souped-up car on a gravel backroad. I could almost feel the vibrations of his energy beginning to fill me again. He was coming closer every minute, and fast. My spine was still not good, but I could walk again. Knowing he was on the way gave me the strength to say what I had to.

“I need to go back.”

But Iris wasn’t having it. “Bullshit, Flor. You’re running on fumes. And smell like them, too. All it would take is one match and you and I’ll both go up like a whole packet of firecrackers.”

I had to get her to understand. “I won’t fight. But I can’t run away when my pack is fighting for their lives.” My pack and my family. If Sergeant and Mama died, and I hadn’t tried to help… It all felt wrong.

Iris was silent for a long moment. “Your pack. You mean this pack? Southern?”

I almost laughed. “Yeah. It’s a shithole, but it’s my shithole.”

“Damn, I wish I didn’t know exactly what you mean.” She let go of me, watching me sway for a moment, before we started back through the trees, side by side.“You always did get back up,” she whispered. “Every time they knocked you down. Every time anyone came for you. You got back up and got stronger.”

I glanced at her. “Didn’t know anyone noticed.”

She laughed silently. “The girls did. We watched and wanted to learn. If there had been another Del, one who could help the rest of us, train all of us unranked girls, things might have been different.”

“Another Del?” I whispered as we got to the edge of the trees. We both stopped, in awe. Shifters fought in both forms, and with every weapon they could. Aluminum baseball bats swung and caught the firelight in the darkness, along with swords and knives.

Like an answer to my question, Sergeant stood in the front of the battle, fighting the Council Enforcers with a deadly grace and efficiency that was beautiful. Like watching a hawk dive, or a deer leap over a stream, he knew precisely where he needed to be to protect the younger shifters around him, and to hurt his enemy the most effectively.

“Tenebris!” he shouted, as the line of Council Enforcers broke.One or two of them were still firing guns, but it seemed like almost all of the ammunition had been used up, as most of them had reverted to the swords or long knives that every Enforcer wore.

“Tenebris!” the rest of our side shouted, though some of the fighters yelled, “For Southern!”

I heard a howl that came from a human throat, high-pitched and strange, and saw my mama running through the battle—almost skipping, like she was playing, though she was bleeding all down her front. She had a knife in one hand and was stabbing randomly, laughing like a child. She sounded absolutely insane. Every once in a while, she uttered a word that… did something. The earth would rumble, and dust would fly into the air.

It had to be magic.

I scanned the battle, looking for Torran. But he was nowhere to be found. In fact, there were only twenty or so Enforcers left now, fighting against Sergeant, Mama, and at least a hundred rogues and Southerners.

“Where did they go?” I wondered aloud. Iris pointed in the direction of the front gate, where we could see taillights appear and vanish as they crested the only slight hill on the drive out of Southern.

The last of the Council Enforcers tried to follow, and the rogues broke off fighting at Sergeant’s command, but the girls weren’t having any of it.

“I want to kill that fucker right there,” Iris said. “I need to.” Her gaze was locked on a shifter who was fighting in human form. Normally, that would make them an easier opponent, but this guy was closer to seven feet than six. He had a shaved head and a sword in both hands, and was holding off five of our fighters.

I took in the way Iris stood, practically vibrating with rage. “Yeah, I can see that. You’ll need a weapon.” I jogged a few steps forward and picked up a discarded sword. “You know how to use one of these?”

“No. I’ve never used any weapons.”

Ah, right. The damn Alpha command was still affecting her. “You shifted yet?”

“Yeah. Sergeant helped me find my wolf last night.” She blinked, and a tiny, evil smile crept over her face.

“I bet she’ll know what to do.”

“Hell yeah.” In less than a minute, she’d stripped out of her clothes, dropped to all fours, and shifted into an underfed golden wolf. Her fur gleamed in the dying firelight.

“Go fuck his shit up, Iris,” I encouraged. “You’ve got this.” She gave a quick bark and ran at the guy.

He never stood a chance. Between Iris and her equally revenge-thirsty friends, Sergeant and his wild boys, and the ranked and unranked leftover males from Southern, the combined packs of Southern and Tenebris had it covered.

The hour after the battle was messy and satisfying. Three of the girls had died, but the ranked Southerners were treating their bodies like war heroes. One of the rogues was close to death, but Mama went over and laid her hand on his cheek, whispering in his ear, and holding his shoulder. He died, but he had a smile on his face when he did.

I didn’t understand it. When I tried to approach Mama, she got a peculiar, heartbroken look on her face, and started mumbling again. Somebody had wrapped a bandage around her middle, but I could see blood already seeping through. She needed to stay calm, so I steered clear.

Sergeant was the center of all the work after the fighting was done. He directed the rogues to move through the bodies and finish off any of the ones who were dying slowly, the girls to collect all the fallen weapons, and the ranked Southerners to stack the Enforcers’ bodies and burn them.

The unranked girls got upset when they couldn’t pick up the swords and guns, though. Sergeant cussed a blue streak when he realized Callaway’s orders were still hurting them. “Tenebris! You five”—he pointed to some of his shifters—“pair up with those girls. They’ll find the weapons, you stack ‘em. Look for any ammunition, too.”

“Yes, Alpha!” they chorused. The ranked shifters seemed unsettled when they heard the word Alpha, but no one asked about it. Everyone was too tired.

Sergeant approached me once the pyre was burning. It smelled awful, but no one left the area. We had to see this through to the end. “Where’s Glen?” he asked, holding out a knife by the blade to me.

Not just a knife. My steak knife. I took it with a nod of thanks, and thought about Glen. “He’s in the cave. I think he’s sleeping. It feels like he’s sleeping, but restlessly. Like he’s having a dream.” A good one, actually. I kept getting flashes of his wolf running with mine, or at least I thought it was. It was small and an almost-reddish black color, running with his large gray one.

“Just like your grandmother,” Sergeant mused as we both stared at the fire. “She always knew what her mate was up to. It’s the way of bonds, for our kind.”

“For… blended shifters?” I wasn’t certain I should speak about it out loud, even if we were surrounded by our own side. I knew how fast shifters could turn on you. It had happened at Northern quick enough.

“Exactly. The wolf bond is more solid, from what I’ve been told. But the other side gives a more flexible connection.”

“The kind of connection that would let you talk to your mates through the bond, even from a long way off?”

“Maybe don’t tell anyone about that, hm? That’s not something that happens in wolf bonds. Ever.”

“Ah. Got it.”

Iris came over with cups of water, and we all drank. “Glen’s not awake yet, but the ones guarding the cave sent word that he’s healing faster than they’ve ever seen.”

I thanked her, and we handed back our cups. Another Southern shifter turned on a hose, and we took two-minute turns underneath it in the dark. I almost cried when someone scrounged up a bar of soap and let me get some of the gasoline smell off. My clothes were soaking wet when I finished, but I felt a thousand times better.

Sergeant found me again when I was done. “What’s next for you, little warrior?”

It was so much like Luke’s nickname for me, tears stung my eyes. “They took Luke,” I said once I could talk. “Finnick’s parents. They have him, as well as Finnick and the Hilliers. And Grigor.”

“Grigor?” Sergeant faced me, his eyes narrowed. “The Russian? Grigor fucking Dimitrivich? They did us a favor with that, Flor.”

“Tell it to my wolf,” I muttered. The crazy thing was clawing at me, wanting nothing more than to run after him and Luke, to save our mates from the woman who’d taken him.

Sergeant’s silence was worse than one of Del’s lectures. But I wasn’t going to back down. Grigor was mine, as much as the others. Or he would be.

“She had magic,” I said softly. “All along. She had magic.”

“Your mama?” Sergeant sighed as we watched Mama dance at the edges of the flames, her wild boys dancing along with her, all of them howling as loud as they could. “She did. She does, a little. It’s been coming back to her. But it’s like trying to fill a cracked pitcher with water. She can’t use it reliably.”

He scanned the area, barking out a few orders to his rogues to get food for everyone. Some of the ranked shifters walked across, shaking hands with the boys, and showed them the back door of the dining hall. It was the older guy with the baseball bat who busted the lock off the door, but all of them carried food out, as well as some tables, and started setting up a feast. Well, as much of a feast as Southern could provide.

One of the rogues ran over with a hot dog and handed it to Sergeant. “Alpha, first one’s for you,” he said, his head lowered. Sergeant patted it and sent him off.

“Cute,” I teased. “You got a real little pack here. Tenebris?”

“Means darkness,” Sergeant grumbled, and tore the hot dog down the middle, handing me half. “I’m not sure about the name, but they’ll be a good pack. We can’t stay in the cave.”

“No, you can’t. Why not bring them…” I stopped, knowing it wasn’t my place to make the suggestion that had come to mind.

“Alpha Mate! Can I bring you a plate?” one of the Southerners called out.

I blushed when I realized he was talking to me. “Ah, sure. Anything you got.”

I could feel Sergeant’s stare on my shoulder, where Luke’s claiming mark showed just a little. “Coulda sworn that was on the other side before, Florida.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a collection,” I grumbled. “Luke.” I pointed to the new one.“Finnick.” I tilted my head. I pulled down my ragged shirt so my shoulder showed. “Brand.”

“Where’s Glen’s?” Sergeant asked.

My face flamed. “Nowhere you’ll ever see.” He laughed, and every shifter around looked at him, most of them in disbelief.

Yeah, Sergeant laughing was pretty unbelievable.

Finally, he settled down, and Iris wandered over, two hot dogs in her hand and one in her mouth, and I remembered what I’d been thinking.

Luke wasn’t here. The boys and Mama and Sergeant didn’t need to stay out in the woods. And with all the girls who’d run there, they probably couldn’t. There wouldn’t be enough food or water, for one thing.Maybe it was my place to offer what help I could.

“Hey, Iris. Would you and the girls be happier in the compound, now that the assholes are gone? Or dead, whatever.”

“Not all the assholes are either one of those things,” she said, cutting her eyes to some of the ranked Southern shifters, who were talking quietly on the other side of the fire. “I for one don’t want to come back to the life we had here.”

“What if it was different? What if there was an Alpha who’d protect you, teach you to fight?” I glanced at Sergeant, who nodded slightly. I thought about the way they’d treated Mama in the cave. The way they’d treated Bo and Leroy. “What if there was a whole pack of guys who had honor?”

She swallowed her mouthful. “Wouldn’t know what that looks like, to be honest. Those males… Not all of them know what it looks like either.” Her gaze moved to the dorms. “Even if it was safe, we couldn’t go back in there. We’d rather burn it down.”

I could tell she wasn’t going to go for it. “Sergeant, what if you bring your pack inside the fence?” I suggested. “Let the Tenebris pack and the unranked set up in the Pack House. Let your boys be given the job of protecting the pack. The females.”

“They could do that,” Sergeant said slowly, as he considered it. “It might be what gives them the last bit of control they need. The pack is meant to protect. They need something more than just Lily to take care of. It’s a good idea, Florida.”

Iris wrinkled her nose. “All of us in there together?”

I shrugged. “It’s connected to the dining hall. It’s got lots of bathrooms and guest rooms. Nice carpet, and I don’t know… The rogues—the Tenebris boys are used to sleeping together.”

“Denning,” Sergeant told me. “That’s what it’s called. In some smaller packs, they still den. All in one room, or one house.”

Iris hummed. “We could den together, I suppose. The females, I mean. If we could use weapons ourselves, we’d be even safer.” She was practically batting her eyelashes at Sergeant, clearly hoping for some sword lessons.

I snorted and held up my steak knife. “I never had any problem keeping myself safe with this. And there’s a shit ton more of ‘em in the Pack House. A couple dozen, at least.”

Iris nodded grimly. “Let me go ask the girls.”

When she left, I pressed a hand against my heart. It was aching. “So, Tenebris. Sounds badass. It’s a good name. And they have a truly great Alpha.”

Sergeant stayed quiet, as we watched the females gather together. He put a hand on my shoulder. “Your pack will, too. Don’t stop fighting. Your pack needs you.”

“Southern isn’t mine. Not really.” Not exactly. “It’s my past.”

“I didn’t mean Southern.”