Alpha Damon (Sienna) novel Chapter 243

Damon:

The earth was still soft where we’d buried him.

I was still in deep pain for the last that we had of him, for the fact that we could not save his life or understand what had happened to him in the first place.

I didn’t wait for rest. I couldn’t.

Not when everything that we depended on, not when everything that we loved was on the line. The family, our pack, our home, everything felt different. The air around us felt different.

And I knew after that mist had formed around us within the pack that we were going to need to stand stronger, otherwise whoever was watching us was going to grow stronger by the day.

Hours after Caleb’s funeral, I was back in the woods, walking the same cursed path where his lifeless body had been found. Walking through what we believed could be a path that led to who brought him here. Carter and Ethan followed in silence, their faces grim. None of us spoke about the weight pressing on our chests. Neither one of us allowed ourselves to show the pain that we felt. Though it consumed us, it consumed A deeper part than we wanted to admit.

We had one goal; to find out how Caleb got back to our land… and who brought him here. To find a scent that could lead us to him.

The trail was thin, nearly invisible. But Caleb hadn’t come back alone. He was long dead when he was brought back, When he was laid the way that he was. Someone had brought him here. That much I was sure of. And we needed to find out who it was, no matter what was going to happen.

“Here,” Ethan said, crouching near the edge of the clearing. “Blood. Not his.”

I joined him, kneeling low.

It was faint, dried into the leaves, but unfamiliar. Not rogue. Not pack.

Carter stood nearby, eyes scanning the trees. “There’s something else. Do you feel it?”

I nodded. The air was wrong. Thicker. Heavy with something that didn’t belong. It was unseen, but I could tell that everything around felt it. There were no chirps despite it being night. The nests above us seemed to be quiet. Hell, I believed that they were abandoned, it was a natural for them to be so.

We followed the trace beyond the border, deeper into neutral territory. And then, just past the stones marking forbidden land, we caught his scent

A rogue.

I let out a warning growl, stopping the rogue from approaching. I expected him to hide. He did not. He walked towards us. He looked down at his feet, avoiding my eyes, silently letting me know that he was not challenging us, that he was not here for a fight.

Tall, thin, mud-caked. He didn’t run. Didn’t growl. He just stood there like he’d been waiting for us. Like he was waiting for something to happen. Like he needed help, or at least was trying to find something to help him, someone to help him.

I raised a hand, and we slowed.

“Don’t move,” I warned.

He didn’t.

“I’m not here to cause any harm, Alpha.” He said, looking away from me, looking at my betas, before turning his attention to me.

“What’s your name?” I demanded, stepping closer.

“Taylor,” he said, voice low, hoarse. “I knew you’d come. I was waiting for one of you to come, someone to trace the body, someone to try and help.”

The wind shifted. A low mist crept across the ground again. The mist formed around us in a way that I did not like. I let out a warning growl, but Tayler seemed frightened.

“They say the dead are walking,” Taylor added, backing away. “Not all of them, but enough. And not as ghosts. As weapons. There is blood being sacrificed, a lot of blood. There is fear and anger. There are screams, there are whimpers. But neither one of them makes sense. Everything just seems to hold its breath.”

Ethan’s breath hitched. “This doesn’t make sense. Why would they be walking? What is it that they want?”

“Revenge.” Taylor said. I stayed quiet for a moment, watching as the mist darkened before fading again.

“It’s starting,” I said, my voice a growl. “This was never about war between packs. This is about something bigger. Older.”

Carter stared into the trees. “And we buried a body without knowing it was the beginning of something else.”

I didn’t respond. I couldn’t.

Because I knew now, Caleb’s death wasn’t the end.

It was the summoning.

And whatever it was summoning, I knew that it was just the beginning of it.