“Of course I came, pup.” She stood and walked over to my makeshift fire pit.
“I needed your help.” I wanted to be angry.
“No love, you didn’t. If you did, I would’ve been here, instead I stayed in the shadows watching the whole time. But you did it all. You figured it out and performed the spell perfectly. You saved your dad.”
“But what if I was wrong?”
She pursed her lips before she sighed. “I would have stepped in if I thought you were wrong, but you needed this.”
“I needed this?” I laughed. “What? I needed to feel like I was about to doom my father to that cell forever?”
“No, my love, you needed to trust in yourself. You have been second guessing everything since you came back to this life. We all do it. But you needed a defining moment that you knew what was wrong and that you could fix it. This was your defining moment. You saved your dad. You worked your magic and performed a large spell alone for the first time, and you came out of it on the other side.” She walked closer and raised her hands to cup my face. “It’s a hard lesson to learn, but the one you needed most.”
“But why?” I felt my lip tremble as a tear fell from my eye.
“Because, you needed to trust yourself, your wolves, and your magic to do what you needed to, in order to save someone you loved. It cements all your pieces together.” She leaned up and I felt a shadow of a kiss on my forehead and I closed my eyes. “You’re whole, for the first time in both of your lifetimes.”
I opened my eyes to find myself once again alone. But I felt her words resonating in my soul. I felt whole. I felt closer to both of my wolves, and my power was growing. I could do so much more than I could in my last life.
I rubbed my stomach where I could still feel the phantom of my pup. “I won’t let anyone hurt you in this life, pup. We will be together again. I promise you that. If the Goddess gifts me with you in this life, I will kill anyone who even thinks about hurting you.” Both my wolves growled their agreement, and I started back to the pack house.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
T
he sun was cresting over the trees as I broke out of the forest. I didn’t realize that the burning took so long.
It took the entire night.Megan’s voice sounded tired. I nodded as I ran into the pack house and up the stairs. I needed to see him for myself before I believed he was truly back to his normal self. I made it to the landing, and I was hearing the pack house wake up, but I was only focused on one thing.
“Dad?” I slammed into the office and skidded to a stop. My father was there, sitting behind his desk. He looked like he was normal, but that didn’t mean he was. Ronnie was slumped in his normal chair and they both looked up to where I was panting in the doorway.
“Yeah pup.” His smile made me burst into tears.
“You scared the crap out of me, old man. I thought I had lost you.” I ran into his arms as he stood and he wrapped his arms around me.
“I’m sorry Amy. I should have listened to you sooner. I wouldn’t have hurt you if I had.” He pulled back to look at the faded bruises. His face grew dark, and he pulled me beside him. “Where is Aurora?”
“She’s back in her cell. Beck put her there last night when we were finished with her.” Ronnie yawned.
“Get her here now.” My dad growled out, but I heard the command go out to the entire pack.Pack meeting now. Wake up and make your way to the Agora.
“Fuck.” Ronnie stood and slapped himself. “You’re calling a meeting to the Agora?”
My dad nodded. “Go get Aurora yourself and bring her.” Ronnie nodded and left.
“The Agora?”
“Come pup. It’s time you learned more of our pack.” My father stood and took my hand. He grabbed a bag on his way out and we walked out of the pack house. He took a left, and we followed a pathway cut into the dirt through the trees. “Our family has been here for a very long time, long before the humans of the land came here. We once lived as wolves, under the Moon Goddess’s guidance. We survived off the land and only shifted to make decisions.”
“What?”
“Our pack, our family, descended from the first wolves. From the Goddess herself. And the Agora is a magical place.”
“What are you saying?” My mind was trying to catch up with itself. “When I first spoke to Gran, she said something along the same lines. But I thought she meant the way that all wolves are descended from her. Not like literally.”
My father laughed. “Nope. Our line was born from the first family. The Agora is the very place where the Goddess blessed the first shifter.” My father looked back at me, when I slowed as he started his story. “It is our blessed circle, where we meet to make the decisions that affect the pack.”
I stumbled over my thoughts. “I thought the Goddess blessed humans with a wolf’s form…”
