Please forgive me…. Her eyes slid shut against the wave of failure threatening to consume her. And though deep in her heart Katalina knew none of the dead would blame her, she wasn’t sure she had it in herself to be so forgiving.
“They all gave their lives so we could be here today. The war is over, the battle won, but the effects of it will linger for months if not years to come.” Her voice wavered, became stuck in her throat as whimpers and sobs echoed through her people. “We are two packs, but one family, and together we grieve their loss, the absence of them an ache in all our hearts. But it will not darken us. Instead, we will use our pain to drive us forward, and together, we will step into a future where our children will grow up without fear and with the choice to love freely.”
Bass’s loved filled her hollow soul, his support pulsing down their bond. “Their deaths will not be in vain, and the love, the friendships, and the loyalty that binds us all together will create a shield against any foe that may threaten our freedom.” Turning toward the pyres, Katalina brushed away the tears rolling down her cheeks and nodded to those ready to light them. “Goodbye. You might be gone, but you’ll never be forgotten.”
The flames grew, turning the dead to ash as smoke smoldered thick and black into the air. Tears glistened on cheeks and fell to the earth, and cries of sorrow spread through the group. Hearts broke that day, bodies faded never to be seen again, but throughout all of it, two alpha wolves stood shoulder to shoulder, silent, deadly reminders that Dark Shadow and River Run were one.
Chapter 62
Eva
She’d always known John was important to Dark Shadow, but until the mass funeral, she hadn’t truly understood it. He was a shoulder to lean on, arms to hold those up who could no longer stand with their grief. John was a figure of strength and comfort to more than just herself.
So many had died, and she would have joined them if it hadn’t been for the virus that had mutated her DNA. What was yet to be decided was whether the virus was a gift or a curse. She’d left their home for the first time to attend the funeral. Eva didn’t know all the faces to the names of the dead, but she did know some, and she mourned them as much as anyone else.
But it wasn’t her emotions she was struggling to contend with, but the many seemingly swirling in the air around her. John had purposely positioned them on the outer edge of the crowd, but after Katalina’s words, he’d been drawn in by those who needed him. He’d held tightly to her hand as if she might run as far and as fast as she could if he was to let her go, bringing her into the grieving mass of bodies and as he had done so, she’d wanted to do nothing more than run as he feared.
Their emotions hit against her mind as if physical objects, hammering at her defenses until it was taking all she had not to grip her head and scream. Scents filled her lungs, sounds rushed her ears, all overwhelming Eva’s newly sharpened senses.
There was no wonder Zac went crazy after he was turned. Eva had a new appreciation for her brother’s resilience. He’d never once complained of the many changes she was now going through. It was so much more than simply being able to shift into a wolf—something she hadn’t yet done and feared beyond anything else. It was the heightened emotion and the now stark clarity of the world around her. It was the sound, the smells, the need to howl and scream and run. Run, run, run!
“John,” Eva whispered, forcibly tugging her hand from his. “I need a little air.”
She took a step back as he turned, eyes wide as she backed away. “Eva?”
“I’m okay,” she lied.
Reaching toward her, John called her name, “Evaline.” But before he could reach her, John was stopped by a wailing woman, and as he wrapped the woman into his arms, her and John’s gaze connected, an awareness pulsing between them down the bond that was so strange and new.
“I’ll come back,” she mouthed. And as Eva turned and slipped into the trees, she wondered whether her words were a lie.
Her feet ran on their own accord, her body darting through the trees at a speed she’d never gone before, but no matter how far and fast she went, Eva couldn’t escape the pounding in her head and the screaming need burning through her body.
Collapsing to the ground, she gripped the earth, snow melting between her fingers as it met her hot skin. She was burning up from the inside out, being taken over in a way that scared her more than anything else she’d ever experienced. The wolf was there in her head, invading every cell of her body, erasing all she’d ever known, controlling her to the point Eva was no longer herself.
She screamed as her bones began to crack, the sound nothing human. Pain rippled across her skin as golden fur erupted along her arms for seconds at a time, over and over, a continuous torture. Eva fought with all she had, refused to give in to the wolf possessing her soul and mind. The harder she resisted, the stronger the pain.
