Moonlight Avenger

Koda

I thrust the instinct to slink before him deep down. My wolf’s only weakness was this man, and I wasn’t about to cower before him. “What did you do, Koda?” I demanded. “Why are you touching my packmate?”

“First of all, Kitty, sheathe those claws. She needed help, and I and my zeta provided it.” He c****d his head towards the massive wolf that watched us silently. “Second, we didn’t attack your people.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “We’re the ones that saved her life, you should be grateful, not baring your fangs at me.”

His silver hair had dried blood streaked through it and those blue eyes of his twinkled at me. “For all I know, you’re the cause of this.”

“Kitten, why would I kill off my own pack and yours? You’ll come back to me someday, but I’m not so stupid as to try to force it through something like that. My pack is gone too, the only ones left are me and Mana here. I wouldn’t have survived without him.”

Mana nodded his head at us as he kept his distance and watched us. I didn’t want to try to get into a fight with that monster. He hadn’t been part of the pack when I had been there, and I had no desire to tango with him now.

“You mean the entire pack is gone?” I looked around the area. Cya had wandered off from me as he went to look for survivors. “But there aren’t that many bodies, just hers, where is everyone? And why are you here, Koda?”

“Your entire pack was taken, Kitten.”

I shuddered. “Don’t call me that, Koda. You have no right, and taken where? You keep answering me in short sentences.” Hades growled beside me ready to do battle if it was necessary, even if it meant tangling with that moose of a wolf. “No clan around would ever pull this. The only one that would want to hurt me anymore is you.”

“I’d never want to hurt you, just have a little fun.” Koda licked his lips as his eyes scanned me. Hades took a step forward and Mana repeated the action. Hades didn’t cower but turned his growl on the great beast. “Calm down, Mana, that’s one of her mates, of course, he’s going to be pissed at me.”

Mana snorted but stopped his own growl as he sat down and observed us. Zetas always weirded me out, one of the reasons I hadn’t opted to take one into my pack.

“Morgan, listen to me. What happened here wasn’t an accident, and as I said it happened to my pack too, and that’s because they were looking for you.”

“Me?” I frowned. “And just what do they want with me? And where did they come from? Which pack decided to show its fangs at me like this?”

“That’s the thing, Kitty,” Hades growled and he rolled his eyes. “That’s the thing, Morgan, this attack didn’t come from our lands. The wolves that came were not any that I recognized, and the fire cats that came with them I’ve never seen in my entire life.”

“Fire cats?” Cya had returned a deep frown marring his perfect face. “What are fire cats?”

“Exactly what I said? Cats, made of fire. Big ones too, these things were the size of panthers. They rounded my people up like they were sheep. The only ones that they killed were the elderly in the pack. So many died.” Koda stopped talking and he snarled his eyes dilating as the rage threatened to shift him in front of me.

Koda wasn’t his cool flippant self? Something had unnerved him to this degree? Then again, his pack had always taken care of the elderly. “Let me get this straight so I understand. Wolves attacked your clan, Koda. Your clan, when you had a witch and numerous fighters. And you lost?”

Mana growled with a grumble and flopped onto the ground putting his muzzle on top of his paws as he watched. Okay, maybe that thing wasn’t as scary as I first had suspected. Koda let the silence stretch as he stared at me. His eyes weren’t the lustful ones that I had experienced before or even the determined ones of the lead that he could be. No, these were eyes of a broken soul. “They charged us like a wave. There were hundreds of those fire cats. They worked as a team and separated the older members from the rest of the pack, and the young ones were used as hostages to get everyone else to comply.”

“You obviously didn’t,” I added. “Or you would have been taken as well.”

“I told you, Mana saved me. I know you just want to peg this on me, you always want to blame anything that goes wrong on me.”

“Because you’re the one that has been at fault in my history. You do remember Dante, right?” I demanded.

To his credit, he winced. “Yes, I do. That might not have been the smartest way to get what I wanted, and it failed anyway. Mana fought them away and got me out of there while the pack was being attacked. By the time I gathered myself enough to understand what was truly going on, it was too late. They were either gone or they were dying in front of me.”

“Enough of you two bickering, Morgan, I know you hate him but this is important.” Hades had shifted at some point and even found clothes. I hadn’t even noticed when he left my side. “What did you find out about these attackers? And how, if you snuck out while they were murdering your people?” He said the last line with a sneer.

Mana growled a warning but didn’t move from his spot his eyes locked onto Koda. “Easy,” Koda waved him off with a hand. “Because as they were torturing my people and we made our escape I heard loud and clear exactly what they’re looking for, and why they’re even here to begin with.”

“And the reason for that?” Hades pushed. My mate didn’t have patience when it came to threats, still not after all this time.

Koda chuckled a wry dark chuckle. “Maybe you should say your goodbyes to this one before she passes.”

Cya glared over at him. “She’s not going to die, are you Mary?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t hold on much longer,” she gasped. Every word was a visible effort. “They told us they were looking for the Moonlight Rogue,” she coughed and then went into a sputtering fit.

Cya rubbed her back as he tried to calm her down but pulled back his palm to reveal it dark red and sticky with her blood. “No…”

There was no goodbye, no drawn-out words of pity or thank yous. When Mary quit coughing her body stilled for the last time and she slumped over. Moonlight Rogue, the title I had been given for my habit of taking out the abusive alphas in the moonlight. This was all my fault then, this and even Koda’s pack. Our members had died and been taken away because of me. Why hadn’t I left one of the twins behind? Just one could have stopped whatever happened here.

“Now, don’t go blaming yourself.” Koda was chiding me but his tone was different. Instead of the sultry purr he used or the dominant tone of an alpha this one was filled with concern? But, how was that ever possible? He had ruined my life once, I wouldn’t let him get close enough to do it again, I couldn’t afford to. “I’m serious, Morgan. The army they used would have wiped you out if you had been here, or maybe they would have taken you too. They didn’t really stress if they were wanting to take you with them, or kill you.”

“How did they end up in your pack?” Cya demanded. His eyes were still damp from the tears he had shed for Mary.

Hades, however, had jolted to attention. “We need to go back to mother and protect her pack as well. If they were looking for you here, I’m sure they went for Maya as well.”

“No,” Koda interrupted. “She never lived there, that’s why they didn’t search your mom’s, and why they did search mine. The beasts weren’t the ones tracking her, the wolves were.”

“What did they want?” I demanded. “And where are they from? You said not our lands, so where and why? I’ve never left this land so why would strangers outside it target me?”

Koda sighed and scratched under his loose ponytail. “I wish I knew. I only know they’re after you and determined to find you. When they realize this is your pack, they’ll come back for you. You need to come with me.”

“Go with you?” Hades shook his head. “No, we’re not going anywhere with you.”

“Staying here isn’t exactly a great idea you know, Kitten. They’ll realize that this is your personal pack and they’ll return. I won’t hurt any of you, I’m trying to help.”

Cya set down Mary’s body as he approached us. “I don’t care what we do as long as we get revenge, Morgan.” He nodded to Koda. “And if I ever find out you are part of this I will personally pull your ribs apart, pull out your heart, and feed it to squirrels.”

“What squirrels are left.” Koda shook his head. “Those things eviscerated all the animals they ran into. Let’s just get out of here.”

My nose twitched. That burnt odor still lingered in the air and now that I wasn’t so close to Mary I realized it wasn’t just from her. That stench was moving, and even more worrisome, it was coming closer. I was the first one to see it as Koda had his back to the woods at the time. It was the size of a cow but its cat-like design could not be denied. It licked a bloody paw made of fire and watched over me. Golden eyes sparkled as they observed me. The beast’s tail whipped back and forth before it got up from its crouch and dashed away.

“After it,” I whispered.

I didn’t expect to get answers from the feline, but I wasn’t about to let it escape and put my mates in danger for any reason. I shifted and ran after it and from the heavy paw steps thudding behind me, I wasn’t the only one.