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Looking around the battlefield, tears welled in Remy's eyes. It was difficult to see so many Lycans dead around her. These were the people who watched her grow up and were there for her when she needed them. Now they were gone after diligently protecting this territory, and they would need to be laid to rest. This was not something she ever had to grow up with, but since her return from the island, it seemed like she was constantly fighting for her life and witnessing death that did not need to happen.
Lykos and Tala gathered the pack around, Kodi's pack remaining in their assigned rooms as they felt they were not permitted to leave due to confusion about who was friend or foe. Remy understood why that order would be given to them but was also angry that they did not engage in battle, which might have prevented their pack members from falling. While the pack gathered, Remy shifted back into her human form. Blood covered her body once again, the scent of cedar constantly wafting in her nose and making her stomach twist.
Levi sent his pack to attack ours. This is a declaration of war. If that’s what he wants, then so be it, but he didn't need to send the entire pack here to destroy ours. There are laws about this! He could have challenged us for this territory.
Remy must have been snarling without realizing it because Tala walked over to her and hugged her. "This is not your fault. This was a long time coming. We should have put more people on patrol tonight."
"What do you mean?"
Lykos cleared his throat. Remy looked at him in confusion as if her question was being ignored. He bowed his head at her before addressing the pack.
"I received a letter from this pack, issuing a challenge for our territory. The date of the challenge was to be determined, but the Alpha decided an ambush would be better. I am taking fault for this attack happening while we were sleeping. With things becoming a living battlefield in our kingdom, I should have created a better patrol schedule and increased the number of people guarding our territory. This is my fault, and I have let you down as Alpha."
Bryan growled. "Bullshit, Lykos. You did everything right. You sent out a letter requesting the date of the challenge. Levi is the one who ignored Pack Law and ambushed us."
There was a collective agreement amongst the pack. Remy knew her father would not take that as the forgiveness that he should. He wasn't like that. He would live with that until his dying day if he saw this as his fault.
"I still should have increased our guard. With our kingdom falling to those claiming the Old Ways are to return, I thought the amount we had would be enough. We have survived centuries with this schedule as our previous Alphas created, and I was arrogant to think it was foolproof. But now I will be increasing them moving forward. Tonight, we will gather the dead and honor them with a funeral. We will stack pyres in our ancestral space and give them all a proper send-off before we return to bed."
Giving their enemy a proper send-off made Remy's lip curl in disgust, but it was the proper thing to do. It was the way to bring the souls to the Ancestral Realm of the Goddess so that she could greet them as they passed through the gates. These people were led by a homicidal maniac. It wasn't their fault they had to agree to this idea and execute it on his orders.
Just because it is the right thing to do doesn't mean I have to be happy about it, though.
The pack members who shifted all walked off to gather clothes and then got to work. It took a couple of hours to build the pyres and gather the bodies to place them properly. In total, ten Lycans from their pack were laid to rest, while Levi's dead was twenty. There wasn't a complete total because a few of the pack members got carried away with their kill, and pieces were missing from at least two bodies. There could be more, but the thought of searching and asking those questions didn't feel like a necessary detail.
Lykos walked over to her and stood by her side as the family members of the fallen were saying their goodbyes. She could feel the tension in the air from him, and she wanted to make a joke about the situation, but none came to mind. It had been only a few hours since she drew on the power of the Moon Goddess to heal her brother. Lykos was already afraid of her ability to perform magic when no other Lycan could. Now, the mate who rejected her was sending his pack in to try to kill as many of their pack as they could to weaken Lykos before the challenge.
Yep. I should have never left the island.
"Levi mentioned reclaiming you once he is done slaughtering our pack in his letter."
It was a slap in the face to hear those words. Why would Levi send such a thing in a challenge letter? It wasn't as if Lykos and she had an unstable relationship, and he would let this slide. Levi gave Lykos more fuel to wipe the floor with him in this challenge.
"That was stupid of him."
"I have also received word that Levi is behind some of the attacks from the other packs. He is doing what he tried to do here: ambushing to cut down the pack's power, then killing the Alpha. Once they have no Alpha, he forces the rest of the pack to join him or perish. He wants to reclaim his Luna before he takes over every pack in his path, including Fenry's."
Remy laughed. The sound was not of amusement but a laugh of rage she felt in her heart. She knew what Levi was doing. He was amassing as many under his rule as possible before attacking Fenry. If he had her by his side, it would be considered a win by a landslide. The power of a Meta was far more than that of an Alpha if it was with the right person. Remy was an Alpha's daughter, bringing her dominance and power that matched his own. Add the power of a Meta to it? There was a reason Remy had no trouble playing the dominance games with other dominants. She knew her power, and her Lycan would not bow to anyone. She listened out of respect for her father for the time being.
But another thought occurred to her.
Why did he reject me if he planned all of this? Is this why he wiped my memory? Was he hoping that I would forget about being a Meta and lose part of my power? No. That would be a long shot. The beast would have always known how powerful she was.
"Levi knew I was a Meta Wolf when he rejected me. Why would he do that if this was his endgame?" she asked aloud, hoping her father would know the answer.
Remy tried to regain the memory of the rejection for the first time in a long while. The bright white wall was still in place. A flicker in the brightness gave her hope that it would collapse if she pushed it hard enough. The pain started in the center of her forehead. She felt her face scrunch up from the pressure but still tried to remember. The pain seared through her head, making her eyes water in the process. She relented just in time for her father's hands to grab her by her shoulders to keep her upward.
"What did you do?" His voice sounded frantic.
Remy groaned from the pain. "I was trying to remember him rejecting me. It didn't work."
"Did you hear what I said?"
She shook her head, making the pain radiate again. Her fingers found her temples, and she began to rotate them clockwise.
"I said he planned to do all this without you present. Once he was crowned the new Lycan King, he planned to return to the island and reclaim you."
That was a solid theory. If that were what he planned, that would keep her away from her family and give him more of an edge over his plan. Lykos was stronger right now due to her being amongst his pack. Without her power, he would still be a tough opponent, but if she wasn't present and he grew his pack's numbers enough, they would at least be equal. Remy ruined that plan by a long shot, so he rejected her, breaking her pack bonds and leaving her father weaker, and then he slowly built an army. He could be why the Dark Dimension was in the Lycan Kingdom in the first place. The idea of him bringing the coven into the kingdom and unleashing the hell that was consuming it all slowly by infecting every pack was starting to make sense.
