AxelThree days later, Nick and I arrived in the East.The place was warm, beautiful, and noisy.It was very different from the South, where the humidity made the body sweat more, even though we were not yet in summer. So I took a handkerchief and wiped my forehead before we settled in a hotel downtown, a place where all the packs from the East lived together.“Do you want me to go ahead and go to the bank?” asked Nick, and I denied.“No, after we take a shower, we'll go to the Alpha who's in charge of this area, introduce ourselves, and tell him what we'll be doing at the bank,” I said calmly. “If I don't, I can get us in trouble.”“Fine, we'll do things the way you have them figured out,” Nick said carefully.Unlike me, who was really urgent to get everything sorted out, Nick looked very anxious and fidgety. Something about him didn't feel right.“Is something wrong with you?” I asked carefully.“No,” Nick said. “Or well, yes, I can't stand this sweltering heat.”I couldn't help but
AxelAfter the first notification, another official notification came directly, asking me for evidence of anything unusual, out of place, or that had been attempted against the pack. It was easy for me to do that because I still had traces of Clare's magic signature, as well as the parasite that screwed up the crops and livestock. And the betrayal. But saddest of all was finally having the exact number of Crescent's death toll as a result of the silk sickness.It was a bitter fucking pill for me.Twenty 23% of Crescent's population died, and of that percentage, 74% were elderly people who contributed a lot to the community. It was crazy to know the terrible losses we had, and I was sure that had the cure they created in the North not arrived, we would have possibly been decimated to a much worse number.Nick looked at me calmly and sighed at my expression of unease.“We should be glad that the dead were not young people,” Nick said, and I grunted. "Sorry to be harsh, but if the young
AxelMy body jerked at the news.I closed my eyes as my friends' expressions turned serious.“Is something wrong?” asked the chief tracker. “Is there a problem?”“Did the Belmont just stop their search?” I asked anxiously."Yes, that's what we're telling you; they showed up in the North themselves and went to ask permission in the Eclipse Pack to continue tracking in the forest. As far as I know, that pack is the one who watches over the stability of the warm forest," the chief tracker explained, and I felt the earth beneath my feet shake. “That got our attention, especially since, after that, the Belmont terminated the contract with the trackers.”“How did they terminate the contract?” asked Eugene. “Did you pay them half, or what did they do?”“That was the strange thing,” said the trackers' boss. "The Belmont paid for everything; it was a clean close, and that's why the trackers stayed cool. They assumed they either found the Moon's body or the pack had their own trackers. They did
AxelTwo whole weeks passed since I learned the truth.I was in a tremendous spiral of self-pity; I could not get out of the hole. Amelie had to leave the pack because she had to attend to other matters and had to support Yasa, who was having more work than expected in the North. But her words before she left shook me hard.“You have to get out of the hole,” Amelie said. "Crying won't do you much good. You needed to do it, but you must remember you have a pack to lead."“Crescent is falling apart because of me,” I said angrily.“It wasn't your fault,” Amelie said. "You sinned of innocence, but you did what you thought was right for everyone, and that was to empower the council. You can't torture him all your life for that; you have to grow up, deal with the situation, and move on. You have to do your best, and becoming a fucking alcoholic won't do that. Rethink your life."“You ask a lot of me,” I said angrily to Amelie.The sorceress frowned sharply.“I shouldn't be telling you this,
IzanMarco said nothing until everyone was in the office, including Daemon and Grandfather. The vampire looked tense, ready to defend himself from Marco's stare. My Gamma looked at Daemon sternly.“What do you know about the half-breed clan?” asked Marco, and we all looked at Daemon.Selene raised her eyebrows and then frowned.“It's a clan of wolves that got involved with dark wizards that were part of our community,” Daemon said matter-of-factly, and this time I was surprised. "I thought everyone knew about the existence of the clans. After all, whole packs from the South ravaged and took over these people's lands."“That's impossible,” Maurice, Selene, and Solange said at the same time.“That was real,” Daemon said and folded his arms. "It's one of the reasons we didn't see eye to eye with you and why the war came about. Many Puritans didn't accept wolves mixing with warlocks because they became stronger and posed a real danger to the race. So when I talk about us not being uniquel
AxelMy pack was hell.Chaos had broken out in Crescent in a way I couldn't control.With the death of more than half the council, I discovered that I had been a bad Alpha.To be more specific: I was a shitty Alpha.I was afraid of discovering the truth that I refused to see, but the absurd reality was that I hadn't realized the mess that was orchestrated behind the scenes, in secret meetings where I wasn't important.Many things never worked out because I didn't know what to do.And that didn't just tell me I should resign and offer my damn head on a silver platter for the people to decide what to do with me; that was a real reality check. I was inept, inefficient, and a fool.My best friends were just as sorry as I was because they didn't see the disaster happening behind our backs either. They didn't even think about it. They blindly trusted the people who offered to guide me after the war.After the silk sickness we opened a floodgate that released a sewer.There was no clearer wa