Everything beautiful in our home was destroyed. Not one thing was left untouched, unmarked, or intact. The library inside Marren’s study was destroyed. Many of his family’s priceless heirlooms were gone, burned by a fire that was held in the middle of the room. Blood covered everything, staining the once brilliant white marble.
While he gave me the tour, he told me of how he found the Cyrs that followed us. He and Enid broke their necks before they had a chance to react and alert the others of their coming. Every room, except for ours, had bodies of dead girls in them. Mauled and barely recognizable as having once been human. Marren thought they were there so the blame could be placed on us. An attempt to expose us for what we were and create such an enormous fear that we would be hunted. He and Enid killed most of the Cyrs. The rest ran back to where they came from. Whether their plan would still work or not would remain to be seen.
We walked outside so I could view the damage done to the garden. I had been so consumed by my emotions, I didn’t pay attention to anything but the mounds of dead bodies burning. Lives lost so needlessly. I was saddened, but not surprised to find that the statue of the woman, who once appeared as though she stood at a perfect peace was now reduced to mere pieces of rubble.
My beautiful home, in pieces.
“Why didn’t you come back to get us?” I asked as soon as I found my voice.
“Because we were clearing out as much of the mess as possible. You loved this place, if not more than I, and I realized how much it would’ve affected you.”
I listened as he explained and formed his apologies. I smacked tears from my cheeks as the last light of day faded beyond the horizon.
“I’m so sorry I made you worry and you had to find this.” He gestured to everything around us.
I nodded, realizing night had fallen, I hadn’t changed, and Marren still appeared human. “Why haven’t we changed?”
“Dark night. No moon, no werewolf.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever learn enough about this,” I said.
He chuckled. “Trust me, you will…Someday.”
“So what do we do now?”
“Now we take things a day at a time.”
“What about Jiren?” It would only be a short span of time before he would start to worry about him again. Even I thought of glancing over my shoulder after every turn just to make sure that the shadow in the corner of my eye wasn’t him.
“We follow the plan,” he replied.
Nodding, I turned and walked into our sad and debilitated home and straight to Naloud, still playing on the stone bench. Marren followed behind me.
“Why did they leave our room alone?” I asked.
“That’s hard to say, but the doors won’t let anyone who’s out to do harm through them. It’s likely they couldn’t scrape enough of the carvings off to be allowed in.”
“Like that night it wouldn’t let me through. I hit it because it wouldn’t open. I was angry and willing to fight if necessary.”
“Very likely,” he said as his eyes darkened. I knew he remembered that night.
The cry of a lonely wolf, seeking his mate, filled the air. The hairs on the back of my neck would have risen if I were still human.
“Home sweet home,” I murmured.
Chapter 27
All Grown Up
Five incredibly short years passed without a sign or word of Jiren. For months, Marren and I were antsy, jumping at the slightest creak. Slowly but surely we relaxed into a steady rhythm. Enid and Raden took turns traveling across the country to find other immortal races and to see what they’d learned of Jiren and how to kill him.
The last few times took longer and longer for them to come home with word that more and more of our kind were disappearing. With no trace or word to follow, they would come home. This last time they left together, finding it safer to travel as a pair than alone.
If our kind were disappearing, it meant that Jiren either killed them or they crossed back over. Believing the first to be the more realistic of the two, we were aware our time rapidly ran out. We needed to find a way to bind Jiren to something or kill him. Needless to say, the disappearance of the immortal races put us all back on edge.
Naloud had grown up stronger than Marren and with more attitude than me. Strong, stubborn, and beautiful. She was trained by the best fighter around. The human age of five, she was actually the size and intelligence of a young adult. With no word from the rest of the therianthropes, her ceremony for changing never happened. Instead, she had the company of me and her father. A private affair in the woods, near the cave where she was conceived.
She begged for us to let her travel with Raden and Enid. I wouldn’t allow it. She sulked for weeks. I almost gave in until she turned around. She would leave every morning to pick fruit, berries, and nuts. She seemed so excited to leave that she couldn’t be bothered to take her basket the last two times. Every evening, she’d come home, dragging her feet with the biggest smile on her face.
“Marren, our child is up to something,” I said over dinner.
“She’s just enjoying the taste of freedom. She’s ready to be on her own…find a mate, have some kids.”