Page 4 of Finlay

“That is impossible. The clan canna be without an alpha.”

Calan’s lips thinned. “He got the remaining council members to agree to a leave of absence. He has vowed to return when he takes a mate. They have decreed a beta is to stand in for him until he is mated.”

Danny and Sarah had been waiting for the next blood moon before forging a mating bond. It had been important to Sarah. I thought Danny would have offered it the night he met her.

I knew he would regret not doing so now. A mating bond would have given Sarah his strength. His healing.

And her death would have taken him from the world too. A fate I knew Danny would prefer, instead of the endless void now stretching in front of him.

In front of me too.

I ignored that thought. The right to grieve them as Danny would was not mine. I had to be strong. I had to pull through this.

“Danny will not ever take a mate.” I knew it. Especially as shifters had chosen mates, not fated. “Not now.”

“No,” Calan said softly. “I do not think he’ll ever return. How could he, knowing what happened here?”

Calan was right. Danny would not be able to stand seeing the home he had shared with his wife and child. The clan he had led with grace, who had taken everything fromhim. The council, who likely still held traitors hidden within it.

Myself though…I would have to do those things.

Fuck.It hit me then.I was going to have to do it. All of it.

Without Danny here, I was the next in line. The beta Calan referred to…it was me. This could not be happening. Leading the clan was never what I had wanted, doing it at Danny’s side had been enough for me.

Now though…

I swallowed, needing Calan to confirm. “Who will be leading the clan?”

Pity shone in his brown eyes. “Ye already know the answer to that, brother. Come. Let us go for a run. Ye need to burn off some emotion before we face them.”

Them being the council. The ones who had decided my fate while I was absent. How many of them knew about the attack? Who had slipped through the net when the others had cleaned house?

Yes. Calan was right. I needed to run before I faced them.

If my wolf broke free in front of the council, I was not certain any of them would be left alive.

I shifted, my brother’s wolf appearing at my side. He leaned into me, silently giving me his support. His strength.

Just as he always had.

We took off into the woods at speed with no destination in mind, just trying desperately to outrun the horror. The grief.

The pressure.

My limbs burned as I pushed them harder. Trying to drown out the thoughts with my own breathing.

Sarah.

Maria.

Danny.

All of them, taken from me in one fell swoop.

It was impossible. I could run forever, and it still would not be far enough.

Somehow, I found myself at the loch again. The same one where I had spent their wedding night. Just like then, I allowed myself to fall apart, knowing I’d have to pull myself back together. To lead the clan. To protect the innocent ones from the toxic members of the council.

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