Chapter 24: Blood Claim

CLARA

Elias stepped between me and the approaching black monster, holding a hand out to warn me not to move.

“I didn’t think you Graveridge scum would dare set foot on my land for at least a few days after the last fight, Marius.

“Clara is ~my~ mate. ~My~ luna. It’s not my fault or hers that your alpha rejected her mother and made her a rogue. Xavier lost any claim on her the moment he broke his bond with his mate.”

I felt the breath catch in my throat as the implications of what Elias said hit me over the head. I didn’t have much time to process it, though.

The black wolf lunged at us, and Elias’s wolf burst out.

He transformed so quickly that Marius had barely crossed the thirty feet between us by the time the silver wolf met his attack.

Marius went for Elias’s throat, but Elias headbutted him and knocked him back a pace. Elias swiped at Marius with his claws and made contact with the black wolf’s face, but the attack seemed to have little effect.

Marius simply shook his head to clear the sting and jumped at Elias as he reared back. The two wolves were now standing on their back legs with their front legs entangled and their jaws snapping as each fought for control.

While they weren’t looking, I slipped into the darkness of the cave and tried to calm my racing heart with a few deep breaths.

It was entirely ineffective. The yelping and growling just outside my field of view grew louder and more intense by the moment.

I tentatively opened myself up to the mental communication, afraid of what I’d hear.

“~You’ve violated the pack code by getting involved with her. Her mother may have been rejected, but that doesn’t mean that Alpha Xavier also rejected his unborn pup.~”

“~As far as he’s concerned, the girl is still the heir of the Graveridge Pack! You’re only going to cause more death!~”

“~He should have thought of that before he rejected his mate over rumors! Clara is ~my~ mate, and I have every right to protect her. I would never reject the bond we have, no matter what your pathetic alpha wants.~”

I pressed my back against the cold stone of the cave wall and clenched my eyes shut.

I considered closing off my mental connection with the wolves but decided it was better to stay informed. What other information might I gather about myself? I’d never know if I pressed my proverbial hands to my proverbial ears.

Then a third voice joined the fray.

“~Where is she, Elias? Where is my daughter?~”

Xavier’s voice echoed through my skull, and it made my entire body tremble. Could that man ~really~ be my father?

I dropped to my stomach and peeked around the entrance of the cave to see a second black wolf, even larger than the first, standing in the moonlight. The same one as before—Xavier.

His presence filled me with an odd mixture of fear and reverence.

“~She may carry your blood, but you have no daughter, Xavier,~” Elias spat, his lips pulling back in a deep snarl. “~Perhaps you should have listened to your mate when she came to speak with you, instead of the lies that Borik told you about Laura cheating. But once again, you let your temper take control.~

“~I bet you didn’t even know your mate had been pregnant until Clara interviewed Marius, did you?~”

“~I killed Borik with my own teeth when I found out he’d lied to me, and I spent nearly three decades looking for Laura. How was I supposed to know she was pregnant? You act as if you’re so much better than all of us because you’ve never lost a mate, but you couldn’t even find one!~

“~And now you think you can use my daughter as leverage, don’t you? There is no way a member of the Graveridge Pack would truly have any kind of bond with weak Northfang wolves like yourself.~”

“~Fight it all you want, Xavier, but Luna Clara and I have already mated. As far as pack law is concerned, she is mine and there’s nothing you can do about it.~”

The confirmation of hearing my mother’s name in their argument helped settle some of my lingering doubts as well.

Perhaps…I really ~was~ a wolf!

Though I wondered why she’d never told me about this life. Maybe because I’d never shifted, she thought that part of me would stay dormant forever? She always seemed to be perfectly happy, never even thinking about where we’d come from.

Or maybe I just didn’t have a wolf at all.

Elias said holding back on shifting took practice under extreme emotions, and Grant had given me plenty of those. Not one time had I experienced any sign I’d turn into a werewolf when he was beating or berating me.

Despite the negative emotions swirling around inside, the smugness in Elias’s voice made me snicker silently.

At least, I thought I was silent. No sooner had the air left my nostrils than the two black wolves shot to attention.

Their glowing eyes shot to the cave entrance, and Xavier lifted his muzzle slightly. His nostrils flared and contracted as he sniffed the air, then took a step toward the cave.

“~You’re hiding her in the Union cave, aren’t you? How dare you disrespect a sacred site such as that! I might consider letting it go if you hand over my daughter and stop trying to influence the prophecy.~”

“~Clara is not an object to be ‘handed over,’ Xavier.~

“~Now, you can get off my territory, or you can accept a declaration of war. Because I am beyond sick and tired of chasing you and your pathetic puppies away. I thought you’d at least take a few days off after the last beating your pack took.~”

“~If it’s war you want, Elias, it’s war you’ll get. I ~will~ have my daughter back, even if we have to kill every single member of Northfang. The prophecy only said the lunar bond would reunite the pack, not how.~

“~If it means the solution is cutting out the cancer to retrieve my daughter and bonding her to my beta, so be it.~”

I cut off the connection and retreated deeper into the cave. I didn’t want to hear any more of this.

The thought of an entire group of people being killed over ~me~ made me sick to my stomach. Suddenly, I wished I’d never even moved to Melville.

The sounds of fighting began echoing down the cave walls toward me. I kept my hand lightly touching the wall and retreated until I sensed that I’d entered a large room. It was warmer than the winter air as it was entirely protected from the wind.

No amount of time would have allowed my eyes to adjust to the pitch-blackness around me, so I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight. If light couldn’t get in, light couldn’t get out, I figured.

What I saw around me was entirely unexpected, despite Elias telling me the purpose of the cave.

The far wall held a fireplace carved out of stone and well stocked with firewood, seemingly in the same shape as when it had been gathered. A large rug covered much of the cavern floor, and a large bed with plush bedclothes stood across from the fireplace.

The walls were entirely covered in a mural that had been carved into the stone and then painted. The colors reflected back at me as my flashlight beam passed over them.

Pair after pair of wolves formed a family tree spanning back ten generations before reaching the floor. Next to it was what I could only guess was a succession chart, with the alphas of the pack and their lunas painted in both wolf and human form from generation to generation.

“Woah,” was all I could say, and as much as I wanted to run my hand over the mural, something within me told me to keep a respectful distance.

So instead I began reading the names of the wolves, pausing when I found some I recognized: Morus, Elric, and Caias. Seeing them brought home the truth of everything Elias had told me.

I heard footsteps coming down the stone passage and hurriedly turned off my phone flashlight. Total darkness consumed me.

I hoped that if whoever was coming wasn’t friendly, they wouldn’t see me well enough to stop me from escaping.

I shivered against the wall until I heard a familiar voice.

“Clara? You can come out now. I sent Xavier and his lackey packing.”

My body sagged with relief to hear Elias calling for me. I turned the flashlight back on and hurried to meet him, nearly running into him as I turned a corner. I stopped a half step shy of his bare chest and flicked the light up to see his face.

But I almost wished I hadn’t.

The light revealed blood oozing from a deep gash across his cheek, which started near his ear and ended at his chin. The blood dripped down to his chest, where a dozen other wounds of various sizes allowed red streams to fall down his torso and soak into his jeans.

“Elias, are you all right?” I squeaked, forcing myself to look closer. “You’re sliced open like a loaf of bread! We’ve got to get you to the hospital and get some of those stitched up!”

I grabbed his hand and attempted to pull him out of the cave, but Elias simply began to chuckle.

“I’ll be all right, beautiful. It will be an uncomfortable night of healing, but I’ll be fine by morning.”

Elias pulled my hand to his lips and brushed my knuckles with a kiss.

“Let’s get back to the cabin before Graveridge decides to pick a second fight tonight. I don’t want to have to wake up the pack two nights in a row. I already have to tell them in the morning that we’re officially at war.”

I nodded and pulled away, relieved by his assurances but overwhelmed by everything I had to process.

War sounded ~awful~.

Was I going to stand by Elias? Or would I be better off climbing into my shitbox, abandoning everything, and starting over again somewhere else?

At this moment…I could go either way.