Clarity pack felt different when we returned the next day. Quieter, with less energy, but also less darkness coating the essence of the town. Len and I walked through, with Tabitha in my arms. Shadow and Mera were there as well, the beast holding his daughter as we moved forward to deal with the pack.
Their time to manage their corruption was done, and with Shadow deciding to pay a little more attention to the shifters, they better hope they’d chosen right.
“Shifters!” he bellowed when we’d reached the center of the small town. “Get your asses out here.”
I wandered a few feet away from him, looking down the path toward the main forest, seeing that Alpha Lorenze remained frozen in the same spot, right where I’d almost lost my freedom to his son. Just seeing that area, with the debris of wedding decorations still tangled around his frozen legs, had dark memories attempting to rise.
I was too strong for that to take me down now though. I chose what memories to keep, and that was one I was more than happy to discard.
“That’s where it almost happened?” Len asked quietly, his eyes swirling as he followed my gaze. “That’s the alpha who hurt you and Tabby?”
Exhaling deepling, I turned away from that direction, facing Shadow and Mera once more. “Yep, that’s the asshole.” Or what was left of him. He looked very beat up, and I wondered if it wouldn’t be kinder to just kill him now.
Rid his presence from the worlds.
Only a few dozen shifters emerged at this point, following the call of their god, stepping into the clearing with their heads hanging low. I knew all of them. They’d been in Clarity when I was, and I wondered what happened to the others. There were none of the stronger members here, including Grant.
“Where is everyone else?” Shadow asked, his voice lowering as he looked between them all.
Floe, who was no more than seventeen, shuffled forward. She ran a shaking hand through her white-blond hair, which was standing up in messy disarray. “They left,” she whispered, more of her body trembling as Shadow faced her. “When you told them to clean this pack up, most of the strong ones bailed.” Her eyes strayed toward Lorenze. “After they beat up the alpha for a while.”
Jack, one of the older males, stepped up to join her. “It’s just us left. Those who had no need or place to run to. We’ve been living like a pack, but without an alpha, and we’ve had no trouble at all since you left.”
Shadow gestured for Jack to step forward, and maybe it was that I moved closer too, but they finally appeared to notice me in their midst. “Sam!” Floe called, eyes widening, but she at least stopped shaking like she was about to fall apart. “You’re back. You’re… so strong.”
I stepped up to stand beside Shadow. “I am stronger. You are as well.”
They were. Each of the shifters standing here had been the lower end of our pack, copping the worst of the abuse, but outside of their visible fear of Shadow, they looked stronger and healthier than ever.
Jack stopped before Shadow, and barely flinched when the beast placed a hand on his head. It took a minute for him to rifle through the older shifter’s memories, but he seemed satisfied by what he learned.
“This pack is safe,” he confirmed. “You can rebuild your ranks slowly, and be selective about who you add, for it seems that you’ve found a way to govern without an alpha. I’ll deal with the shifters who left here and joined other packs as I make my rounds, you can be assured of this.”
Jack moved away, relief crossing his face. All of them looked relieved, and as they returned to their homes, a few even waved at me. A final goodbye.
“So, what now?” Mera asked, glancing around. “I think our work at Clarity is done.”
“Not quite,” Len bit out. “I’d like to avenge my family and kill the alpha, if that’s okay with the rest of you?”
Shadow cracked a smile. “Fine by me, brother. I’ll absorb his soul when you do and send it to a place that there’s no rebirth from.”
I remained quiet, holding Tabitha, trying not to allow additional memories of this place to infiltrate my mind. Shadow and Len both turned my way, and I met their gazes, one a winter storm and the other a fiery blaze. “You both do what you need,” I said, feeling contented. “I’ve already moved on from this place, and as long as that bastard can never hurt another, I don’t care what happens to him.”
I really didn’t. It was growth I’d never expected.
Shadow’s and Len’s smiles grew, as if they’d been given permission to go and be deadly fuckers without consequence. We all knew their mates were the only ones keeping them in check, a truth that was awesome and a little worrying. The worlds had better pray nothing happened to any of us.
Shadow handed Aurora to Mera, before the two hurried off down the path, and we exchanged a knowing smile. “They’re enjoying this way too much,” she said with a laugh. “Murder should not be on our Sunday to-do list, but these pieces of shit keep popping up, needing to be eliminated.”
Wasn’t that the sad and scary truth. Just as I went to saying something else, there was a flap of wings nearby, and we both turned to see Galleli landing silently.
Where he’d come from, I had no idea, but the fact that he was on Earth didn’t even feel that odd.
“Galleli,” Mera said, stepping toward him. “Is everything okay?”
He bowed his head gently. Everything is perfect. I’ve completed my task on Earth, and now can return to life as it was.
I wanted to ask him so many questions. But the main was if he’d found the being with the energy that matched his own.
“Do you have any unfinished business now?” Mera asked, hedging around the same questions filling my mind.
The transcendent shook his head. I am content. There’s nothing more that needs dealing with.
He stepped forward and pressed a brief kiss to her cheek, and when he pulled away, I could see her blinking rapidly. That had taken her by surprise.
It was even more surprising when he did the same to me. Thank you, Sam, he said as he pulled away. You have given me a great gift. Closure.
With that, and I was no doubt blinking as rapidly as Mera, he disappeared in another flap of wings. It had all taken place so quickly that I wondered if Shadow and Len had even noticed their brother in our midst.
“I have so many damn questions,” Mera breathed, before shaking her head at me. “Just all the questions.”
A small laugh escaped me. “Yeah, same, but I get the sense that he’s closed this chapter, and we need to accept that and move on.”
Mera didn’t argue with me, and we remained in a comfortable silence for a few seconds before I changed the subject. “What will you and Shadow do now?” I asked, leaning back against one of the towering trees in Clarity’s main square. “Travel between all the packs and prune out the evil?”
She took a second to answer, watching the two maniacs below who had just finished obliterating Lorenze into a cloud of death. “We’ll sort out the shifters, one way or another,” she finally said. “Their unchecked reign on Earth has gone on for too long. The packs are about to change, and if they don’t get on board, they’ll go the same way as your former alpha.”
Into a cloud of death, apparently, never to be reborn again.
“We’ll help,” I offered, and she shot me a grin.
“I think you’ll have your hands full with Faerie and your mate. But I appreciate the offer. It won’t take Shadow long to sort these shifters out. He’s their god after all.”
And hers too, if the look on her face as he made his way up the hill was any indication.
I understood that look, with every part of my being, as Len’s brilliance filled my vision. Tabitha held her hands out for him, and as he wrapped his arms around us, I relished the new life coming for us all.
It burned through the haze of even this magicless world, hanging here like a beacon of hope.
New days, new powers, new gods.
Together, we were going to shape the new worlds.
For better or worse.
