Alpha Damon (Sienna) novel Chapter 239

Damon:

The ground was damp beneath my boots.

It had been raining. It was as if even this guy knew that things were changing, that things were far too cold and far too dark for this world to just be able to stay calm.

We stood in silence.

No one spoke. No one dared.

They were all in pain. Everyone was showing the pain that they felt for the loss of our beta, for the loss of a man that we all knew as a friend. A man who was always putting a print, he was always willing to help.

The funeral was simple, Caleb would’ve wanted it that way. He was never a man for extravagance. There were no speeches, no ceremonial rituals. Just the pack gathered around his grave, each of them mourning in their own quiet way. Warriors didn’t need eulogies. They needed justice.

They all needed to come. They all needed to be remembered by the greatness that they had, that they held the influence that each one of them wanted to be able to make.

I stared at the casket as it was lowered into the earth. I looked at Sienna for a moment, who nodded in assurance, letting me know that she was by my side despite her not standing beside me. She was allowing me to be an alpha here. She was telling me to be, she was encouraging me to be, but she knew that I was going to be hers and hers alone. I was going to show her my weakness when we were by one another side when we were alone. Just as she showed me hers.

My chest felt hollow, my throat a tight knot I couldn’t swallow past. I kept my expression neutral, stern, unreadable. Alpha- like. But inside, something burned so violently it felt like it might rip me open. Inside, something felt like it was being ripped apart, like I had lost a part of my own soul as he was being put inside that hole.

It is said that sometimes when you’ve lost someone so dear, you wondered how they would stay warm under the ground, but you knew that they would be engulfed by that sword somehow, one way or the other. I took a deep breath, forcing myself to stay calm. A calmness that was refusing to allow itself to fill me.

When the last shovelful of dirt hit the top, I finally stepped forward.

The pack turned toward me as one, all eyes waiting, expecting. And I knew that I was going to need to fulfill despite the pain that I felt.

I took a breath, and it felt like swallowing glass. It felt like it was tearing me apart from the inside. Each breath felt like thorns were cutting me open.

“This is the last time we bury one of our own without a fight, I know that he doesn’t want this to happen this way. I know that this pain for him is going to be one that we are all going to carry on our shoulders, in our hearts, and it is going to be a memory in our minds.” I said, my voice steady. “Caleb didn’t fall in battle. He wasn’t taken down by rogues or traitors. He was stolen. Life drained from him by something we don’t yet understand. But I know this, he would have fought until the very end and that is what we are going to do for his sake.”

A murmur passed through the wolves, a low wave of grief and fury.

I clenched my fists.

“I know you’re angry. So am I. Don’t let it consume you. Let it sharpen you. Don’t let your pain weaken you, let it make you stronger. Wear it as a shield, because when more pain starts to form around you, you’re not going to be weakening under it. You’re going to be standing stronger. You are going to be fighting those that think that they can oppose you, think that they can stand against you, think that they can make you weak. Wear your shield of pain where no one is going to be able to attack, where no one is going to be able to hurt you without losing the sense of humanity, a sense of goodness in you. Caleb was good, and he wouldn’t want us to lose our good side. He wouldn’t want us to lose ourselves for his sake. He would want us to fight, but he would want us to do it with humanity.”

I scanned their faces. Sienna stood near the back, her eyes on me. She didn’t approach. She knew I needed space. She gave me that space.

“This is just the beginning, I do not know what did this and I do not know what is hidden for us to face.” I continued, louder now. “Whoever did this wants to break us. Fracture us. Make us question ourselves, our strength. But we are not prey. We are not weak. And we do not stand back when we have chosen this war. The bullet has already been shot and right now all it’s waiting to do is hit the target. And we are not going to be that target. Yes, we are going to get hurt, just as everyone does in war. But it doesn’t mean that we’re going to stand back, nor does it mean that we are going to weaken ourselves.”

And then, without warning, it vanished.

Gone. Like it had never been there.

I stared out into the trees, the forest beyond thick with silence.

“We’re being watched, and they are listening.” I said flatly. “But that’s exactly what I wanted.”

I turned back to my pack.

“Let them see. Let them know. We’re ready.”

And for the first time since Caleb died, I didn’t feel like I was crumbling.

I felt like fire.

“Let them know what it is to stand against wolves who are more united than they have ever been…”