Page 58 of Pack Rage
Mama’s crackly voice came from the bed as she slowly sat up. “That’s because my own true mate was a monster.” She accepted the glass of water Margarette carried to her, and smiled at me. “You were the best part of him. The only thing he ever got right. Come here, baby.” I kneeled on the floor at her feet, waiting. “Ineed you to know a few things before moonrise. And I need to give you my blessing and pass on my legacy.” I had no idea what she meant, but she was as clear-eyed as I’d ever seen her.
“The sword?”
“No. I need to bless your matings. All of them.”
I didn’t get it. As far as I knew, matings weren’t formally blessed, they just happened. But Margarette sucked in a breath.
Mama put her frail fingers under my chin and lifted my head. I stared at her familiar scars, her red-rimmed eyes with dark circles like crescent moons beneath them. “Grigor tells me I’m the last Alpha Mother, and he may very well be right. But he won’t be after tonight.”
“It’s forbidden to speak of that,” Margarette began to protest, but she stopped when Mama lifted one eyebrow.
“The moon can’t be overruled. This is the old way, warrior. Listen and remember.” It sounded like Mama’s voice, but there was a thread of power woven into it.
Margarette went silent, her mouth still hanging open.
Mama stroked my cheek gently. “My own mother was dead by the time I met my mate, and sometimes I’ve felt that was a blessing in itself. But I am so glad to have known yours, all of them. I taught you that true mates were monsters. I was wrong, my baby girl. Yours are no such thing.”
Tears streamed down my face. “Grigor might be,” I half-joked.
“That’s true. But he’s the perfect type of monster for you. He’ll stay in the shadows, and guard you better than he could otherwise. Some of the moon’s children weren’t created to hunt in the daytime.” I didn’t know what that meant, but she had half-closed her eyes. “I learned these words when I was little, but no one has spoken them in so long…” She moved her thumb to my forehead and traced a crescent. “May the moon watch over your heart, daughter. May you and your mates honor Her aboveall, and follow Her laws from your first howl to your last hunt. May your matings be fruitful, and your pups strong, and when the evening of your life grows dark, may you run on spirit feet with your true mates, and return to Her in the sky as one.”She pressed a kiss to the place she’d touched with her thumb. She nodded at the sword. “Now, hand me that.”
To my surprise, Margarette handed it to her. “Alpha Mother,” she whispered.
Mama’s eyes narrowed. “So you know what that means.”
Margarette dropped her gaze. “We have a collection of books at home, all to do with true mates. Some of the books are old, with notes in the backs and the margins. I think I understand some of it. I never wondered what happened to the Alpha Mothers they wrote about. I was too worried about how few young were being born, how few mates were being found. I was trying to discover where they’d gone.”
“Many of your pack’s true mates were exterminated,” Mama said, the thread of steel stronger now. “Your pack, and others around the world, may never recover, not for generations.”
Margarette closed her eyes and fell silent again, her brow furrowed.
“The moon didn’t make Alphas to lead the packs,” Mama said. “Not alone. She balanced them, as she does all things. Light and darkness. Wolfcraft and witchcraft. Healer and destroyer. The Alpha Mothers in my pack were wise, strong women who balanced their counterparts. You remind me of them, Margarette.” I thought it was a compliment, until she continued. “You’re wise and strong, and blinded by prejudice. Easily led to your own destruction by the very ones who betrayed all the packs.”
“At the Conclave,” I whispered. “The last one at Southern, forty years back. The Betrayal.”
“Yes. My uncle told me more, on our journey here. The young girl at that Conclave, the one who was supposedly attacked by a Western shifter, wasn’t from Southern, but a smaller pack.”
Margarette spoke hesitantly. “The Southern Alpha was killed, and the one from… your pack… executed for the crime.” It was still hard for her to speak of Western, and I could tell that made her angry.
Good.More females needed to be angry at the males who’d talked them into giving up their power. More males should be afraid of what was coming for them, once the females rose up and demanded justice.
She coughed, and I told the part of the story I knew. “No, the other packs had already planned to strip Western of its rights before the Conclave began. Sergeant said that’s why they call it the Betrayal. Because the Western pack didn’t use magic at that Conclave to begin with. They’d vowed not to.”
She nodded. “The girl. The one from the small pack—she was the one who claimed she was attacked by Western, and when other shifters retaliated, Alpha Holliswaskilled by magic. But not ours. My uncle believes it was byhers.”
“The girl,” I said, putting it together. “She was Finnick’s mother, wasn’t she?” Elina was old enough to have been there, though she must’ve been a teenager.
“He thinks it could be.” I wanted to ask more, but Mama started coughing, flecks of blood spraying into her hand. When I handed her another glass of water, she was obviously much weaker. “Help me put my sword on,” she whispered. “Quickly. The moon is rising.”
My wolf howled silently in grief and agreement, and I knew the final battle was almost here. Margarette wrapped Mama’s sword in a cloth and helped her tuck it into her shirt, along her spine.
Footsteps pounded toward us from both ends of the lower levels, and I felt my mates moving closer. Not just Brand and Finn, but Luke as well.
Mama rasped the last few words just as Brand shouted through our bond, and out loud just outside the door, for us to be ready. “My daughter, Florida Witch Wills, you are the Alpha Mother of the Occidens Pack. Serve the moon with every breath, and She will give you Her wisdom and Her strength.” There was no weird feeling, no magic or mystery. Except my own mama’s eyes on me, clear as day, shining with pride.
“I love you, Mama.”
“I love you, too, Flor.”
