Author's Note: Chapters 1-4 are posted in Non-Consent/Reluctance. Remaining chapters will be posted here in Non-Human.
*****
I caught the clothes Moose tossed me, he had shifted in the woods and dressed already. He moved back, giving me my privacy as the tears fell down my face. "I'll be a few moments," I told him.
I walked up the steps and opened the door, it was unlocked and creaked as moved it. The entryway and living room were trashed; there were beer bottles and mattresses piled on the ground, and I saw rats running across the floor. I moved in, looking in the kitchen; it was completely trashed, the appliances gone, cabinets torn apart, dishes broken on the floor. I kept going to the main stairway, losing hope with every step as I saw the damaged walls and graffiti. I reached our room to find it had been stripped of furniture except a few mattresses, sheets covered the windows, condoms and cigarettes on the floor with the booze bottles. My closet had been emptied, the clothes and jewelry stolen; the bathroom was a mess.
I couldn't take it anymore, there was nothing of my old life left here. I was finding it hard to breathe as the sobs came faster; sinking to the dirty floor, I screamed out in my loss and frustration. I heard a commotion on the stairs and Moose burst through the door, almost breaking it to bits in his haste to get to me. "Are you all right?"
I shook my head. "I'll never be all right, Moose." I must have looked like a mess, because a few seconds later he had picked me up and was holding my head to his broad chest. I relaxed into the embrace, my wolf trusted him, he wasn't like those men who had used me. He had honor.
I closed my eyes as he walked us downstairs, I didn't want to look at the house because all it brought was bad memories. When we reached the bottom, Moose froze and turned me. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU," he bellowed.
I opened my eyes and looked at the door, a big old man with grey hair and light blue eyes was standing there holding a shotgun. "I should be asking YOU that, sonny. Now... oh Luna, my Catherine is back!" He dropped the shotgun and rushed over, taking a knee and exposing his neck to me. "Thank the Goddess, I feared I would never see you again."
"Let me down, Moose." He did and I sank to my knees, pulling my old friend into a hug. "I've missed you so, Max." Max had been a grandfather figure to me when I grew up; he had served as a Beta to my grandfather, and had retired long before I was born. He used to take me fishing, show me how to track, he was a gem of a man I thought had been killed in the attack. "What are you doing here?"
"Those bastards didn't care about an old man like me, so I stayed around," he said. "I'm sorry about the house, I couldn't stop them from trashing it. The only way I could live here was if I didn't get in their way. I stayed at the heat cabin up the valley." The cabin was where unmated females going through heat would go to be protected from wandering males. It was one of the most secure buildings we had. "Now, what are you doing here, Luna, and who is this?"
I stood up and helped Max to his feet. "I'm Moose," he said as he extended a huge paw. "I'm Luna Catherine's escort today."
"Max Tomkin, Beta of the former Whiskey River Pack, retired." The two shook hands, sizing each other up. "Now, can you tell me what is going on?"
"Yes, but let's walk. I can't stand being in here any longer." I took one last look, I might ask someone to go through the place to look for pictures or other things worth keeping, but I doubted they would find anything. The house was scrap now, not worth fixing, and I had no desire to have it rebuilt. I soon made my way out the front porch and down the vine-covered steps.
"Have you visited their graves, Luna?"
"Graves? What..." I looked at him in shock, Alpha Kendrick had taunted me, saying he ordered the bodies to be left where they fell for the scavengers to feast on. "He said they were left on the ground."
"And so they were, Luna, but only until they left. It took me over a week, but I gave all of them a proper burial, all one hundred and eighty-seven. I had to leave them unmarked, but I left a map in a jar at the entrance." I was already walking, then running towards the Pack graveyard. It was on a hillside overlooking the river valley, the big oak tree at the top still going strong. A metal fence was overgrown with weeds at the outside. I ran to the gate, searching the weeds, and found a Mason jar with a note inside.
The map showed the graveyard with the named graves from before the attack, and numbered graves that Max had done afterwards. My shaking fingers moved over the list until I found him. "87- Alpha Thomas Sterling." I moved into the graveyard, I could hear the men arriving but they let me have my time. I walked through the rows until I reached the raised area, a rock with a faded number marked it. I sank to my knees and sobbed, thankful to finally have a chance to say goodbye to him. I poured out my love, my hurt, my anger at what had been done to him.
He wasn't my true mate; my father had died in an avalanche when I was sixteen and I was his only child. I had planned to travel and find my true mate, but there was no time for that now. As the word of his passing spread, others would seek to take advantage of our weakened state. My father had always taught me the Pack comes first, and I needed someone older and stronger than me to hold it together. A young female Alpha was like hanging a "Please Attack Me" sign, either to knock me off or knock me up.
The Pack elders had contacted our allies, and Thomas came to meet me. He was the third son of an Alpha, our Packs had a long history of cooperation despite being far apart geographically. We hit it off well, and he agreed to give up his true mate to become my mate and Alpha. Thomas was a good man, a good mate, and I had loved him dearly. I talked to him as my fingers stayed busy, pulling the weeds and straightening it up. My knees ached by the time I finally got up.
I looked at the map, stopping to pay my respects to some of my friends and those who had died trying to protect me. I said a word of prayer to Luna over each of them, asking her to show them favor when they are sent back in a new body.
The sun was almost to the mountains when I finally left. I didn't have tears left in my eyes. Max was crying as well, he had been holding out hope there were other survivors from our Pack, but those enslaved and taken away had not survived long. We were the only two left. "Luna?" He looked up at me tentatively. "Are you coming home?"
I shook my head. "This isn't home anymore, Max. This place belongs to those people buried back there."
I was interrupted by the sounds of howls, pained howls of loss echoing off the mountains. "
What is going on?"
I broadcast it to everyone, hoping someone was close enough.
