The Infinite White

Chapter 45 - Truth at a funeral

We all stood at the Knight Family mausoleum, today was a day we allowed ourselves to become vulnerable, Alpha Viceras left a few of his wolves to guard the territory but all of our pack and majority of his was standing at the cemetery created by the pack in the middle of the forest not far from Memorial Hill. Pack members get buried at memorial hill, I will get buried on Memorial Hill, but the Alpha and their mates started this mausoleum as a way of preserving the line of the Alpha's. Of showing even in death the lineage from which all future and past Alpha's came from; I stand beside Holden but even a blind man could tell the tenseness between us, the way he took two steps to his left when I moved in beside him, I didn't expect him to accept this new reality within the few days it happened but I didn't intend to severe our bond in the morning and notify him of his mothers death in the afternoon. She had lost the battle within herself, the damage was too great even for a Luna, if her mate were here maybe his blood would have been able to help but that is a big if and I believe Holden blames me for that too, which only reaffirms my actions in my eyes. He was once such a strong, proud and arrogant Alpha to be but it is much different to hold that arrogance without the weight of the responsibility than it is to maintain it with every emotional and physically draining trial he has had to face since becoming Alpha. However, he will need to get a grip soon, if he wanted to be the Alpha this pack needed. The forest was quiet today as if it was allowing a moment of peace, not many of the wolves here are mourning the loss of the Luna, they are here out of Duty and respect to the Alpha, a lot of them blame the Luna and former Alpha for everything that has happened, some are slowly coming to the realisation that maybe Holden isn't the Alpha he had promised to be either.
I scanned the wolves that stood in attendance, Alpha Viceras and Cole stood in the front row, with Amber and my parents beside them, then Roland, Cooper, Jeremy, Alexis, and it went on and on, Tala stood at the top of the hill with the best from the defence line, always on high alert.
In front of the mausoleum was Darius Kirk, he was the main officiant of the pack, he did everything, he was the most connected to everyone and everything, we all believed he was chosen by the ancestors and by the mother to be the connection between our past and present so he was up there about the eulogise the former Luna of this pack.
    "Three days ago the pack suffered a tragic loss, our Luna Knight passed into the mother land, where she was met with the warm embrace of her family and the All Mother, where her and her wolf will forever run free. I know there has been a lot of controversy regarding the Late Luna, however I ask you all put that aside as today is the day to celebrate her life and all that she has done for this pack." I zoned out as Darius went on about her accomplishments in her life, how her visit to the pack was a joyous occasion which resulted in the mating between the Alpha and his fated mate, Luna June Knight. I started listening to the forest, the sound the birds, the bugs, the leaves bristling with the wind, the rustling of leaves which sounded too big to be a squirrel or other small forest creature, I looked behind me further down the hill to see Stephen Simmons and a group of hunters walking up the hill, he stood there watching me. In the midst of this I hadn't realise Darius had stopped his sermon and now all wolves eyes where on them, I looked at Holden waiting to see his reaction but he wasn't even looking at the Hunters, only at the mausoleum,
    "Deal with it" was what he said and he offered nothing else, not even a glance in my direction, I sighed and started to descend the hill, and I ended up a few feet away from Stephen,
    "We're in the middle of a funeral Stephen what is it that you want?" I grit at him,
    "We are not here to cause trouble, we just wanted to make sure the bitch was dead" I glared and him and stepped forward,
    "Regardless of your feelings or mine, you will be respectful of our former Luna and of our pack and our traditions. I can confirm that she is dead, because I am the one who watched as life slipped from her body, now I will ask you all to leave while I am still willing to be nice" I growled,
    "Lily" I looked and see Taylor step forward out of the crowd, he was the one who pushed, who forced his way through the dense cloud of smoke that I had hovering around me after my defeat from the meet up, he helped me more than I realised. He kept stepping forward and when he realised I wasn't going to back away he wrapped his arms around me encasing me with his body, he lightly wrapped my arms around his waist keeping my hands on the middle of his back.
    "Thankyou" I whispered into his chest, "You don't understand what you did for me, what you allowed me to do for myself, so thankyou" I squeezed him tightly and let go and so did he,
    "I asked him not to come, but he wanted to make sure and the others insisted on coming just in case" he explained,
    "I understand, I know this isn't the time or place to talk about the treaty but where does it leave us?" I ask, Taylor was in front of me but I looked around him to his father who still stood in place staring up at the mausoleum as if it was a reminder of everything he had lost and I guess in some cases it was.
    "You technically upheld your end, even if the culprit was someone else, but still the one who killed Lorraine is now dead and that is all I wanted to begin with, we have an understanding Lily, we will not mess with you if you do not mess with us but we don't not speak for all Hunters, the rest of them you will have to talk too, just look at us as enforcers of balance, if a wolf harms a human that wolf is turned over to us for punishment anything within the pack we do not touch. We will not run to your aid in this fight with the Demon Wolf but should we happen to be aligned once more in our goals we wouldn't mind helping you kill that son of a bitch" That sounded good enough to me, so I nodded in agreement. I looked over the hunters faces one by one, Eric stood beside Stephen, I still didn't know where we stood with one another, but he gave been a nod in recognition which I reciprocated. In between two faces I looked and saw a familiar one,     "Kyle?" I asked looking at him and he just smiled and moved forward. Everyone looked confused,
    "Julian what are you doing here?" I looked at Stephen like he just slapped me in the face, this man standing in front of me was Kyle, the same man who came to stay with the pack, half human half wolf, the same Kyle who we kisses were soft and powerful, the same Kyle who made me feel alive and noticed, but this Kyle was Julian, Taylor's brother Julian.
    "You're Julian?" I question, "The Julian who was fathered by Alpha Knight, the son of of Lorraine and Conrad, half human half wolf, Holden's brother" I looked up at Holden who was now looking down at the scene befalling us, "The demon wolf called Alpha Knight Father" my eyes widened when I saw Holden's widen,
    "Lily" I hear him shout but I've already turned back around to see Kyle's face darkening and his features contorting,
    "What the fuck?" I gasped stepping back wards,
I looked at Taylor and Stephen and they're reactions were the same, they were unable to hear the demon wolf speak that day in the clearing, they didn't know, nobody knew,
    "Nice to see you still alive Lily" he spoke, as his body started shifting.