Sacrificed Soul

Chapter Ten

The pack rumbles their general response of apologies and welcome that are only a quiet murmur passing through the stagnant air around us. I don't want to turn, to see in them the rejection that I'd only just skirted past. They doesn't matter right now. The alphas have welcomed me. It was enough that they'd announced it publicly.

I still haven't lost the bet, though. Dodger can kiss my ass.

"Thank you," I say when alpha Siobhan looks at me, her stature expectant. I enunciate, speaking clear and slow so all can make out my words, "I am very happy to be home."

"And?" Mark Cobbler challenges. I can smell his anger at Siobhan's message. He doesn't think they should be sorry.

I can't help myself, and the lie that skips through my teeth rattles the fur I keep hidden, "If I can manage to stay in control of my wolf during a fourteen day long incursion of bullets flying over my head and mortars tearing apart my soldiers, then the government did their job, Leader Cobbler. Twelve years is enough time for anyone to change for the better."

He stares beyond me, unashamed. I wonder what he's looking for in the audience. I still don't bother looking.

Stepping away from the podium, Siobhan makes quick work of getting to me. Moving much faster than her mate had dared, she snatches my hand and pulls me along with her, "We need to have a little chat while everything is put to right, Honey-girl."

I clear my throat, "I'm sure you understand why, but I prefer to be called Leanne."

She nods, smiling at the Ashton clan as we pass by them. I'm not sure she heard me. I look toward them, and Victoria isn't the only one to wave their hello's, and I'm reminded that they knew my Honey-girl once. I don't think Victoria or her wolf will tolerate them excluding me.

Siobhan leads me through a single door that turns into a hall directly into a tall set of stairs. They switchback once, the only sound that of my boots and Siobhan's squeaking sneakers as we climb. She continues to hold my sweating hand, her thumb rubbing circles over my knuckles. She must not have any words of comfort though I'm sure she feels my stress beyond the excess moisture on my palm.

The stairway ends at a long hall with six doors on either side, a huge window at the very end that shows me the view of the silver forest outside. I'm dragged away from my staring as we enter the first room on the right. It smells of only a few wolves, an ancient conference table taking up most of it that had seen better days. At the back is a glass door that leads out to a balcony, and as I move closer I can see the stairs that must make a fire exit.

I breathe in. The chairs are new, only leather and smelling of the factory they had been made in, Siobhan sits me down in the one furthest from the door. I set my pack carefully on the ground as she takes her own across from me, though rather than talking to me she pulls her phone out and begins tapping away.

Leader Ashton enters the room shortly after. I recognize the nervous wolf by scent and don't look up, instead staring intently at the carved letters on the wood's grain. It reads 'Jessa Orion'. I think that's Mammy Orion's name, but I can't be one hundred percent certain. While my family knows the truth of who and what I am, they sometimes forget that I don't know everything Honey-girl had been raised with.

"Poppa Orion carved that some forty years ago," Jeri Ashton whispers from my right.

I turn a little towards her, but stop when she flinches.

"Larry says he passed last summer," I say, still looking at it.

"Yes," Siobhan says as she sets her phone onto the table face down, "Your brother certainly took it the hardest. Your Poppa was a great man. Strong wolf. He was one of the cleverest leaders Clan Orion has ever had."