Chapter 78: Chapter 78
Atticus
“So… No. No, I don’t think I could ever love him.”
That was what she’d said. Lily. After everything he’d done for her – even going so far as to send that damned letter to Alpha Nobody – she saw no future for them. He’d saved her, brought her home, reunited her with her family…
He clenched his hands into fists as he stormed away. Veins bulged in his arms.
“Oh,” Lily whispered. He could just picture her, a delicate hand flying up to cover her pretty mouth. The yearning inside him burned hot, a smouldering ball of rage and desire making his skin prickle.
He wrenched a handful of citrine bunting down and tore it to shreds. It glittered dully as it tumbled slowly to the ground. His heart was a compass, the needle spinning wildly in all directions. Did he love her? Did he hate her? He hated that he loved her, and he hated that, even now, she still wasn’t truly his. She was all he had thought about for months, and though there were glimpses of her heart warming to him in her burning gaze, it was not enough. Atticus needed her, wholly, entirely, without reserve. He needed her in the same way that he was hers.
He marched back through the gardens, all hopes of speaking to Lily in private massacred with one single utterance. Atticus had wanted to play on their failed mating, to come to her in the gardens and sit beside her, his face warmed by the gleaming sunlight on one side and the heat in Lily’s eyes on the other. And, this time, he wouldn’t leave her. Not until she sent him away.
“Marley!” he snapped. The young boy ran to him, all stumbling limbs and wide brown eyes.
“Yes, Alpha?”
Atticus softened slightly. “It’s good to see you.” He clapped him on the back. “Blood Moon would not have survived this unrest without your eager assistance.”
Marley’s cheeks flushed, but Atticus wouldn’t hold it against him. “Thank you, Alpha. Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Yes. Fetch my parents, Beta Ralphin, and Gamma Trove for me. Tell them to meet me in my office.”
He’d spent the morning with them, listening to their boring tales of walking across Eldda and back again. He’d filled them in on his time with Lily, and though there had been a tightness to their expressions, they’d all seemed genuinely pleased for him. And if it turned out they weren’t, he would make them see how good this was. How right.
But he needed to make it official. Final. He needed to get Lily’s head facing away from Alpha Nothing and towards him. Seeing Marley had soothed his anger, and he could think clearly now. Of course she didn’t think she could love him. He’d thought the same of her, once – and it had taken time and loss to prove him wrong. Lily needed the same. Then she’d come around. She’d have to.
“Back to business already, Alpha?”
He grinned. “Of course, Marley. There is work to be done.”
* * *
Atticus shifted his weight in his chair, his body thrumming with adrenaline. He tapped his foot. He drummed his fingers against the table. He bounced his leg.
Ralphin shoved a hand through his too-long black hair. “Out with it, Att. Some of us,” he looked pointedly around at everyone else in the room, “wanted to be enjoying the Mabben celebration.”
His mother’s lips twitched. Beside her, his father squeezed her knee.
“He’ll work us to the bone before we get to go and watch the bonfire,” grumbled Trove. He scratched at the dense stubble covering his jaw.
“As long as it’s not about Lily anymore, I don’t care.” Ralphin grinned, but his face fell when he saw Atticus’s expression. “I’ve spoken too soon, haven’t I?”
“Atticus,” his mother interjected gently, “what more can there be to do? The wolves have had a hard few months. Now that you’ve struck a bargain with Red Ripper, the only pack that can threaten us is no longer a danger. We need to rest, and focus on our land. I know you’ve made a good start at rebuilding that which we once had, but it will take time to get us back to where we used to be.”
“You always taught me that the work never stops.” Atticus levelled his gaze at her, startled by the resemblance of her leaf-green eyes to his. The face they were set in was so different, so kind, even though it was the face of the Luna of the toughest pack in Eldda, that he startled. “And you were right. Because the truce with Red Ripper isn’t enough. We need to stop them once and for all.”
“How?” His father stood up and started to pace. His ponytail slapped against his back with every laden step. “Actually, I think the better question must be why.”
“Why indeed.” Atticus’s expression turned grim. “Lily is mine,” he paused, waiting for the groans to stop, “but just in body, not mind. She needs to move on from Red Ripper.” From Alpha Idiot, he added to himself. “The things that were done to her–”
“Atticus.” His father cut him off. “She left. She wasn’t your responsibility anymore. Your pack has to come first, son. Let it be.”
He stood abruptly, slamming his hands onto the table so hard that his pile of maps and papers shuddered and slipped, spilling across the gnarled wood. “I can’t,” he declared. “Until she is mine, I can’t.”
Trove sighed. “What do you want us to do, then?”
“We have a month until we can next shift. In that time, we train. We prepare. We can’t afford to travel again, and Red Ripper have no set territory – just a portal. It could take months to find them, especially if they don’t want to be found.”
“What do you propose instead?” asked Trove.
His mother and father shared a long look.
“We lure them here. When the full moon comes, we fight them. They might have magic on their side, and be able to shift at will, but they’re the nobodies of their packs – the ones that want more than they’d ever get honestly. They’re cheats. They haven’t earned their power; they’ve sidestepped the hard work. In a fair fight, it would be easy to beat them.” He flexed his muscles. “I killed a good number of them on my own.”
“Att…” His mother hedged. “It won’t be a fair fight.”
“On the night of the full moon, it will be.” He cleared his throat. “I’ve promised Lily that I’ll destroy them, once and for all. When I’ve done it, she will be mine – and no pack will ever dare threaten us again.”