She nodded. “I’m good now that you’ve claimed me and we are tethered.”
Whew. “Cool.”
She chewed her lip. “But the rest of the pack will lose their magic if you don’t claim them as well. Their wolves will slowly die until they become weak humans. Our land has already started dying.”
I squirmed. This was nothing she hadn’t basically told me before, and I’d accepted when I said I would stay and help that I’d have to become alpha of these people. Claiming them all? It was a bit insane, but if it would save their magic…
“I’ll do it,” I said, waiting for the relief to show on her face.
The look never came. Instead her mouth twisted into a grimace.
“What’s wrong?”
She reached out and grasped my hands. “In order to become our alpha, you have to prove yourself to the land, the magic, the people, the Father.”
I could actually feel the frown pulling my face into a scowl. Is that why Rab called me a trial alpha? He didn’t think I could pass the test or whatever.
Oh fuck that. The best way to make sure I did something was to tell me I wasn’t capable.
“Bring it,” I told her. “I’ll prove myself.”
She squeezed my hands, giving me a small smile. “You are so brave, Alpha. I knew the second I met you that you and your lineage would be the one to lead us for generations. I believe in you.”
Nervousness crawled through me and I wondered if it was me or her. “So what do I need to do to prove this? A fight?”
I didn’t want to kill Rab. He was Arrow’s brother, and although he was a bit of a douchebag I knew he was just protecting his people.
She sighed. “You will have to journey through the Dark Woods alone, to the Cave of Magic.”
I gulped. Alone? Dark Woods? Cave of Magic? Okay, shit just got a little scarier than I was expecting. “What’s in the cave?”
Astra shrugged. “I don’t know. The only people to make it back alive are dead now.”
My eyes widened. “Red Moon?”
She nodded. “And Run, your father. Only alphas can enter the Dark Woods and go searching for the cave.”
“Biological father,” I corrected her, not wanting to discount the man who raised me, the man I considered to be my dad.
She bobbed her head up and down. “It’s supposed to be a three-day journey in and out … if you don’t get lost.” She paused and I raised an eyebrow.
“Get lost? Has anyone ever … gotten lost?” Her hands clamped down on mine as if willing me to stay on this couch with her. Then her eyes seared into my soul with an astonishing flaming gold as her wolf came to the surface.
“Run got lost … and came back three years later. Some say the Dark Woods will hide the cave from you, only revealing it when you are ready. You could be gone years.”
What. The. Fuck. Did she just say?
I yanked my hands out of hers and stood, backing up to the wall. “Whoa, you never said anything about being gone years.”
She shook her head. “It’s just a possibility.”
Hah! I barked out a laugh. “I could just possibly get lost for three years? No way.” I pointed to the ring on my finger. “I am marrying the love of my life and if I am gone for three years his entire family will die, including him, because of a curse your people put on him!” I yelled and she bowed her head in submission, which made me immediately feel guilty.
“Shit, I’m sorry.” I stepped closer to her, then rubbed my face, trying not to have a panic attack. Dark Woods for three years to save thousands of people? Pass. HARD PASS. “I just … I can’t, Astra. It’s asking too much. If you could guarantee me I would be in and out in three days, I would totally do it, but the thought of getting lost for years … I can’t.”
A single tear slipped from her eye and she wiped it away with the back of her palm. Turning back to face me, she walked over to the little wooden alter she had set up and kneeled before the purple flickering candle, clasping her hands and muttering unintelligible words under her breath.
I sat there awkwardly, unsure what to do when she stood, a smile back on her face. “I understand, Demi, and I respect your choice. Let me give you a tour? See if you can help in another way?”
I frowned.
She called me Demi, not Alpha, and it felt like a slap in the face, but I ignored it.
“Absolutely. I can totally help in other ways. Food, goods, I mean whatever you need I can get them when the war dies down.”
She nodded and we stepped out of the room and back up the stairs.
Two hours later, I knew exactly what she’d done. She didn’t “give me a tour,” she threw my heart into a blender and hit pulse. I’d been through the dying wheat fields, the rotten corn crops, the completely foul fruit orchard, all black with disease, all screaming: You are a piece of shit if you don’t go into the Dark Woods and heal this land.
“The land is dying from the loss of the alpha’s magic that is tied to it. That can only happen when the trial alpha reaches the Cave of Magic,” Astra had told me as we’d walked through the putrid corn field.
I’d just nodded at first, ignoring her apparent sales pitch. But then she brought me to the birthing center. There were over two hundred women currently pregnant, and when Astra set one of the brand new babies in my arms, I frowned when I noticed something was off with the child. He seemed happy enough but … I couldn’t put my finger on it.
I stared down at him, so small and innocent, while I tried to figure out what was nagging at my brain. Weeping came from the room down the hall as Astra leaned in close to me. “Born without a wolf. It will happen until our new alpha goes through the rite of passage, finds the cave, and shows they are worthy and claims the land and people.”
I stared at her in horror, and then back at the baby. The eyes. It was the eyes! They were … brown. Beautiful brown baby eyes, but … not the magical blue of the Paladin people. I inhaled, smelling the baby.
Human.
“Are you telling me that two Paladins just gave birth to a human?” I whisper-screamed to her. How the hell was that possible? Even a Paladin and a human would have a child that could shift into wolf form.
Astra nodded, stroking the boy’s forehead lovingly as I held him. “Not enough magic to go around now that Red is gone.”
The guilt of her words hit me like a ton of bricks. I quickly handed her the baby before the sob ripped from my throat. Then I ran down the hall and burst out of the door. The cool breeze hit my face as I thought of what that poor mother must be going through. What that child would live with. Was being human awful? No, but to grow up different, among wolves and not being able to shift or heal, he’d be a freak. Because of me. He was a beautiful healthy baby boy, but he wasn’t a wolf, not like he should be. My breath came in and out in ragged gasps as I surveyed the dying land before me. What I’d seen today was a good people, a hardworking people who didn’t deserve to lose their magic, their wolves, all because I was scared of being gone too long.
‘I need to see you. I have to talk to you about something in person. It’s important,’ I told Sawyer as the panic threatened to fully take hold of me.