That was when a terrible realization dawned on me. This wasn’t about the lake at all, or even necessarily about the pack war. Luna had something else to worry about, something I hadn’t realized before.
She was carrying the weight of two incredibly powerful bloodlines, and if we weren’t careful, it could easily squash her. There was madness among the Savage Alphas and in the Clayton family—and there was something else, a strong bond to the pack, one that wouldn’t have faded even if Luna had left it behind.
“I’ll be fine,” Luna said, having obviously caught onto the thought. “There’s nothing the Wolfsbanes or the Firewolves can give me right now. I already have my family, right here.”
“Yes, but can they protect you from your own heart?” Ivy asked.
“My mate bond is more important than anything else, Ivy,” Luna replied. “They’remy heart. I don’t need anything or anyone else.”
I wanted to believe that, but I remembered our meeting with the Bone Crushers, the way they’d looked at her and what their leader had said. Luna was still part of the Wolfsbane Pack, and she was the only heir of her line. Without her, the family would die out, and possibly be left into chaos. Would she really be at peace with leaving all that behind? Then again, did we have a choice?
It was dangerous enough for us to not leave the valley like we’d originally planned. I might have said I’d go back to spy on our packs, but Luna was with pup. We couldn’t take any chances with her safety.
“This is a pointless conversation,” Rowan finally stated. “Luna needs to rest and we’re certainly not going anywhere during the chaos.
“You’re welcome to stay with us, Ivy. You don’t have to go back if you’re afraid of the pack war. But we can’t get involved, not anymore.”
Ivy’s shoulders slumped. “I suppose I should have known you’d say that. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
That was the last warning I got before Ivy changed into her wolf form and launched herself at Luna. She was close enough to Luna that we couldn’t stop her in time. Luna didn’t do any better. Even with her strength bolstered by our connection, she was taken by surprise. She went down under her friend.
At the last moment, she shifted into her lupine form. It was the only thing that saved her when Ivy leaned over and buried her fangs in her throat.
Ivy didn’t have a lot of time at her disposal, because in the blink of an eye, we were on top of her, clawing at her and forcing her to let go. We couldn’t just pull them apart since we risked tearing Luna’s throat out that way. But a dead wolf wasn’t a threat, and Ivy wouldn’t be a threat once we ripped her apart.
It was Rowan who severed Ivy’s spine, and it couldn’t have lasted more than a minute. By then, the damage was already done.
When we shoved Ivy away, her body was in a terrible state. Her back was a ruined mass of flesh and her belly was scratched open. Somehow, even trapped as she had been, Luna had managed to target her so-called friend’s weak spot, and Ivy’s intestines were spilling all over the ground. But none of that changed what she had done, or the fact that she’d succeeded. She looked at us, her eyes flashing with a secret, feral madness. “You’ll pay for what you did to us, to the pack,” she growled. “You won’t be able to hide now. Never again.”
At first, I didn’t understand what she meant, but then, my acute sense of smell caught onto something I shouldn’t have missed in the first place. There was poison in Ivy’s blood, on her fangs, and now, inside Luna.
Luna didn’t move. She just lay on the ground, breathing hard. She obviously realized what had happened and was trying not to panic.
“I won’t go back,” she said. “I can’t go back.”
“You have no choice,” Ivy answered. “You have to take responsibility for what you’ve done. If you don’t… Well, die like the coward you are.”
I dropped to my knees next to Ivy and buried my hand in her fur. “What did you do, you bitch? How do we fix it?”
Ivy didn’t answer. Her heartbeat was already slowing, the damage she’d suffered too great for even a werewolf’s body to heal. I let out a frustrated snarl. We weren’t going to get any information out of her. It was too late.
“Fucking Wolfsbanes,” Rowan snapped. “How is this even possible?”
“There are some rare poisons in the pack that can be used like this,” I said. “Most notably… Wolfsbane.”
For our pack, wolfsbane had always been more than just a plant. It was also the name of the most virulent poison ever created. To this day, I had no idea how it worked. Only the Claytons did, and only the Claytons understood how to heal it.
I would have asked Luna, but our bond with her was already growing fuzzy. The fear that pulsed through her was so powerful it almost sent me to my knees.
“The pup…” she croaked out. “The poison will kill the pup.”
For a few seconds, I was paralyzed with dread. I almost hoped we’d been wrong about the pup, and she wasn’t pregnant after all. But those moments passed, and I realized it was beside the point. As much as I hated to admit it, Ivy was right. We had no choice now but to go back to our former pack.
I picked Luna up, tenderly cradling her to my chest. “Come on. There’s no time to lose. We have to go.”
Before we left, we threw Ivy into the cave with the bear cubs. She wasn’t dead yet, but she would be soon, and she’d serve as a good meal for the cubs. I’d have liked to make her suffer more for what she’d done, but we didn’t have time for it.
Rowan took the lead, and together, we headed back the way we’d come. In the sky, the chaos moon still burned crimson. And when I looked at it, a strange feeling rushed over me. I knew that by the time this was over, the blood of our two packs would make the waters of the lake redder than ever before. It would be up to us to make sure Luna wasn’t a victim of this war.
