Fighting side by side, dying for each other, it had a way of bringing everyone together, and as Bass had promised Katalina, he would make sure Dark Shadow and River Run remained as one for as long as he should live.
Trudging up the stairs, Bass mustered a smile as Owen popped his head out of the kitchen and saluted hello—the man’s shooting skills had been a big advantage in the battle, skills they’d have not been able to survive without.
Bass was beyond tired. He’d caught little sleep since the fight had ended, but his job wasn’t nearly done. The hours that had followed had been a whirlwind of crazy—gathering their dead, making sure those that had been injured didn’t join them, rescuing Katalina’s family only to find her uncle had been turned into a shifter from his wound, and then his worst job: delivering the news to the families that would no longer get to see their, son, daughter, mother or father again.
Each family, each broken heart and cry of despair, had taken something from Bass he’d never get back. Dark Shadow were his people—each and every one of them, his to protect—and he’d carry the losses as a scar on his psyche forevermore. He’d remember them. Honor them. They’d all given their lives so that both packs could have a future of peace and happiness, and every generation to come would learn their names and the sacrifice they’d made so others might live.
Only one face was on Bass’s mind as he came to the door of Karen’s temporary infirmary though. Katalina was healing from her injuries, the knife wounds covering her body healing hour by hour, but it was the mental injuries Bass worried she’d never wake from, because while he’d carry the collateral damage of war inside him, Katalina would crumble under it, each death a far deeper wound than any knife could have ever inflicted on her.
Opening the door, he walked through and came to a stop as Jackson jumped to his feet, swaying on the spot for a second as he blinked the sleep from his eyes. It was a testament to Bass’s own exhaustion that he hadn’t sensed the other alpha in the room before entering.
“Jesus, son, you look as tired as I feel,” Jackson said as he ran a hand over his face.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Bass answered, his gaze flickering from Katalina’s sleeping form back to her father’s. “I just need a few moments with her.”
Enough to patch himself back together. A few moments of peace before he returned to his duties.
Stepping away from Katalina’s bed, Jackson patted Bass on the back. “Take all the time you need. I’ll cover things for a while. Have you heard from the crew at the farm?”
Sitting on the chair Jackson had vacated, Bass took up position beside Katalina’s bed. He took a moment to take in her face. The only signs she wasn’t in a natural sleep were the healing slashes along her cheek. Cuts he’d happily have ripped Raven’s head off for if Katalina hadn’t beaten him to it.
“All our dead have been collected. The crew’s on the way back now. Castor and his army have been burned, so were the cattle your guy found in one of the nearby fields, seems Castor was keeping his wolves’ bloodlust under control by feeding them the cows. The couple found in the house’s bedroom were burned separately. They deserved better, but with the obvious claw marks, I didn’t think we could risk it. And the heavy snowfall that fell overnight has helped cover up any evidence we might have missed.”
“I’ll go check on the wounded and meet the crew when they arrive home. Get some rest, Bass. Kat’s going to need you when she wakes.”
If Bass had had the energy, he might have been surprised at the civility between him and Jackson, and the ease in which the two alpha wolves shared the same space. Glancing at his mate’s seemingly peaceful face, Bass marveled at her power. A power she’d nearly lost her life over. Though to Katalina, it wasn’t a power at all, merely a part of who she was. There was no competition between his and Jackson’s wolves anymore. They’d each gained respect and trust for one another, which had erased the tension that had lingered before the final battle, making their interactions together far easier.
It was because of this that Bass said his next words. Revealing a fear which had been building inside of him since Katalina had collapsed into unconsciousness.
“She doesn’t want to wake up, Jackson. She’s blaming herself for the deaths of our people.”
Jackson’s hand paused on the door handle as he looked back over his shoulder and met Bass’s gaze. “You need to convince her otherwise, Bass. I can’t lose her.”
Neither can I…. “Katalina has always had her own mind. She drives me crazy, but I love her all the same. She has to want to come back to us. No one can make her, not even me.”
Jackson’s jaw went rigid as he listened to Bass’s words, his eyes filling with a pain Bass knew all too well. Stepping away from the door, Katalina’s father came back to her bedside and stared down at his daughter. “She’s going to wake up, Bass,” Jackson said. “Because without her, we’ll not survive.”
Brushing a hand gently through her hair, Jackson lingered only a second longer, then turned and left the room, closing Bass inside with his mate. Waiting until he could no longer hear Jackson’s steps on the stairs, Bass leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Katalina’s unresponsive lips before whispering his next words.
“Your father’s wrong,
