Ridge nods once, and Trystan does too. I shoot him what I hope is an encouraging look, because I know he’s got this.
A light of determination illuminates Archer’s gaze, and he looks back out over the crowd as he speaks. “Pack mates, the day has come for us to take back our lives from the threat that has haunted us for too long. We will finally face the witches, and we will emerge the victors.”
An answering roar of agreement bursts out among the crowd.
“The sacrifices we’ve all made will not have been made in vain,” Archer goes on, his voice steady. “These past few weeks have tested our strength and our mettle. In the end, I believe in us. I believe in the pack we’ve created and the bonds we share. Together, we’re going to take back our lives and move into a future of our own design!”
The resulting cheers are much bigger this time, and I notice shifters from all three packs mingling together. We’re closer to truly being one big pack than we’ve ever been. It’s starting to feel real. I expected more of a transition to get here, more reluctance from people—even though they agreed to it—but I guess having a common enemy threatening the people you love can be a great equalizer.
Ridge clears his throat and clasps his hands behind his back, just that simple gesture commanding attention. The man was born to be a leader, maybe more than any of us. He paces the edge of the stage with his shoulders back and his chin high, until not an eye in the audience can look anywhere else.
“The road that led us here was not easy,” he says, his gruff voice booming over the silent crowd. “For years, we watched the witches get closer. Get bolder. For years, they prowled our lands and picked off our loved ones like they were hunting for sport. But no more!” He stops for a moment, his expression darkening. “No. More,” he repeats. “We’ve been on the defense for long enough. Now we’re taking the fight to the witches. It’s their turn to pay for their attacks against us!”
The pack cheer
s again, and then it’s Trystan’s turn to speak. He crosses his arms and gazes out over the gathered shifters with a stony face. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look so stern, and the effect is startling. But then the expression melts away as he flashes a grin and booms, “Pack family. Today, we win!”
Then he throws back his head and howls. It’s such a fucking Trystan thing to do that all I can do is laugh. Then I join in, as does the rest of the crowd.
A bunch of shifters howling at the sky in their human voices. It’s not as badass as a bunch of wolves howling at the moon, but it’s eerily haunting anyway. My wolf whuffs and paces inside me, responding to the sound as battle fury rises up in my chest.
As the howls die off, Trystan continues. “A few months ago, if you’d told me we’d be here today—one pack united, about to set off to war—I wouldn’t have believed you. I was selfish. I was wrong. It took a special person to show me the way.” He pauses to glance at Sable, and the flush that rises in her cheeks makes my heart skip a beat. “Together, we are stronger. Together, we’ll annihilate this threat and prepare a better future for our pack. A better future for our children.”
The crowd is nearly cacophonous now, whoops and whistles and voices overlapping. The air is charged with electricity, as if even those wolves who are being left behind with Gwen are feeling the excitement.
As silence falls again, I look out over the gathering, filled with a mixture of satisfaction and pride. The feeling’s kind of bittersweet. I found a new family, found a new pack, but it took losing everyone I once loved to get here.
I realize suddenly that as I’m silently surveying the crowd, they’re looking expectantly back at me.
Startled, I glance over at Trystan, Ridge, and Archer. Trystan’s barely holding in a laugh, and Ridge raises his eyebrow in question. Behind them, Archer jerks his chin toward the crowd, encouraging me to speak to them.
Me. They’re waiting for me to make a battle speech. Because I’m an alpha of this pack too.
The realization hits me with the speed and ferocity of a semi-truck. I have a pack to lead again. Everything I once lost has been found again. Or maybe not found, but reworked. Rebuilt.
The pack I once led is gone, and I’ll never get them back. I’ll never be able to fully atone for that loss.
But I can fight for a better future for the rest of us. A safer future.
“It’s easy to get lost in grief,” I say, surprised when my tone doesn’t roughen. Emotions roll through me like a tidal wave, but I glance at Sable and her sparkling blue eyes, and everything inside me quiets. “Loss is a fact of life, but we shifters have been hit with undeniably large losses. More tragedy than we deserved. More tragedy than most people know in a lifetime. When it builds up like that… it’s just easy to let the grief overwhelm you.”
A few of the shifters watching in the front row nod, teary-eyed. I briefly wonder what their personal tragedy was—a brother murdered at pack borders? A father dead in battle? A mother struck down by magic? Maybe it wasn’t witches at all, but everyday tragedy. Cancer, heart attacks, everything that makes us fragile and breakable.
Like Malcolm.
I swallow my rising pain and continue. “Grief is one of the few universal things that unites us all,” I say. “To grieve is to be alive. To be a person. To live in this world is to know grief.”
My voice cracks on the last word, and I think, Goddammit, I can’t even keep my shit together enough to be inspiring. But then Ridge reaches across the space between us and places his palm on my shoulder. The weight of it is a tangible, visceral reminder that I’m not alone. I tried to live alone, expected to spend the rest of my life that way, but fate had other plans for me.
I found three brothers and a woman I love more than life itself, and they’ll never let me face shit on my own again.
Taking a breath, I steel myself and resume speaking. “I got lost in my pain when I lost my pack. It wrecked me. All I could think of was revenge. I became a lone wolf, floundering in my solitude and my grief like I could atone for their deaths by depriving myself of life. But I’ve learned something. You’ve all taught me something,” I add, pointing out at them, at the united packs. “We’ll never defeat the coven alone. It’s only when we come together, fight together, work together, that we’ll be strong enough to win. United, we can do anything.”
As I finish speaking, the crowd cheers again. Then Sable’s at my side, her arm sliding around my waist, and the other alphas are surrounding me to clap me on the shoulder and howl with everyone else.
I laugh and add my howl to the din once more.
Our voices fill the air, and something settles inside me. One more piece of my old wound healing that much more, maybe. I’ll never erase my scars entirely, but I don’t have to get rid of them to live a full life.