Chapter 115

Kral abruptly shifts his head to look at the blond-haired man again. We notice Vi taking a brief moment to study him, from his shoulders to his biceps and then to his face.
But a scream takes away all the attention of everyone around the two.
“Noooo!” Kelly lets out a piercing scream right beside me, and in an instant, every pair of eyes snaps toward her.
Open-mouthed, her gaze stares at Jordan’s head on the ground and then his body, back and forth.
Then, she sprints towards her brother. 
Fuck. I can feel the despair and horror in every beat of her heart. But before she can get too close, the man shifts again, and his big wolf lunges at her.
Immediately, my wolf shifts and runs and positions himself in front of Kelly to protect her before the other wolf even reaches her. Vi does the same, staying by my side to protect Kelly behind us.
She just lost her brother. I’m not going to let him kill another member of my pack.
My father and the other warriors' wolves position themselves behind him, ready to attack. Kelly’s crying is loud, and I can feel the tension of the other Alpha realizing that he is cornered on all sides.
The wolf growls at me, and I growl louder back until we both hear something that catches both our attention, and we turn in unison to look at the tiny woman standing behind me.
“Cedar...” hesitantly, my Little Dove says with tears in her eyes and both hands curled in front of her heart as if she’s afraid to cling to some false hope. “Is-Is that you?”
Wait... Kral’s head moves sharply to the other Alpha in front of him again, at the same time that Vi gasps beside me. Kelly’s heart, behind us, beats faster.
‘Who is he?’ Dad mindlinks me.
Little Dove steps closer, and suddenly, the attacking wolf’s snarl falters, his sharp teeth still bared but now frozen mid-growl. His piercing eyes widen, and the tension in his muscles slackens as surprise flickers across his face, breaking his predatory focus. 
He’s about to approach her, but I growl, causing him to turn his gaze to me.
That doesn’t stop my mate from running towards him, though. Just as she’s about to pass me, I growl at her to stop, but the wolf then runs towards her. 
She kneels on the ground. “How?” she asks in a weak voice. Tears stream down her face as the wolf stares at her, stunned. Without hesitation, she leaps forward and throws her arms around him, clinging tightly as if he couldn’t do the same fucking thing he just did to Jordan to her.
‘Maggie, get me a robe. Now!’ I order as I watch my mate crying and hugging the huge wolf desperately as he tilts his head back and lets out a long howl.
All the warrior wolves behind my parents lower their guard, stopping in their tracks. Kelly keeps crying, and Vi, by my side, is frozen in place, seeming to have a thousand things going through her head at the same time. 
In the corner of Kral’s eyes, I spot another white wolf—a spitting image of this one, but without the spot on his forehead like Vi’s wolf—running to his mom.
I don’t stop my protective son. His wolf tilts his head, studying the much larger wolf with a curious glint in his dark green eyes. Then, catching sight of his mom in tears, Az’s wolf lets out a soft whine. Gently, he nuzzles against her, pressing his body close as if trying to comfort her with his presence.
Seconds pass, and Josh’s mate brings me the robe I asked for. However, I don’t shift and put it on. My wolf grabs it with his mouth and then approaches the other Alpha. Kral throws the robe at him. 
The order is loud and clear. 
In seconds, the wolf moves away from my mate’s grip and shifts to his human form, putting on the black robe right after. As soon as he ties it around his waist, he pulls Allie back into his arms.
The male has tanned skin instead of my mate’s alabaster skin; however, unlike Az’s eyes, which are a darker green than his mother’s, his eyes are the same shade of meadow green.  
There is no way to misunderstand. This is her brother.
“Oh, Cedar!” my Little Dove cries. “I thought you-you were dead.”
He hugs her tightly. “I told you I would find you, don’t you remember?”
She cries louder. 
Kral has to swallow a sullen growl as Cedar wraps her in a tight hug and plants a bunch of kisses on her head.
“You’re here! You’re here! You’re here!” She repeats over and over.
Az’s wolf stays close to her side but tries to catch the blond-haired man’s attention, glancing at him and nudging him with a furry white paw. Sensing the gesture, the man’s smile turns into a chuckle. He reaches out, pulling Az’s wolf into the embrace, wrapping both of them in his arms, without even knowing that the white wolf is his nephew.
Behind me, I hear Kelly starting to walk away, like walking backward, but not in her brother’s two-piece-of-body direction. Despite the strong embrace with his sister and his nephew, Cedar turns and glares lethally at her behind me, letting out a growl.
Her backward steps get faster. 
Hurried and uneven. 
But before Kelly can break into a run, my wolf is already on her, pinning her against the wall of the packhouse with a low, menacing growl. 
Something’s off.
Kral doesn’t look back, but I hear my mate’s brother’s voice say sharply, “If I can’t kill her myself, then drag her to the dungeons. Now. I don’t know who you are, *Alpha*, but I can smell you all over my sister. If you care about her, lock that bitch up. Do it, or I swear, I’m taking my baby sister and leaving. Your choice.”
Kral keeps watching Kelly’s terrified face, her eyes seeming desperate to calculate her best escape route. Without taking my eyes off her, I mindlink to Josh. ‘Do as he says.’

🐺 🐺 🐺
***Alicent***

He pushes me away a bit so he can look at me. 
The last time I *saw* him, I had promised him that I would run while he sacrificed himself to buy me time. 
The last time I *heard* him, my cheerful brother, was screaming in pain. Not even when Oliver was being beaten did he scream that much. It was like he was not only dying but losing his soul. Cedar’s deafening scream had haunted my mind for the last ten years.
Now, he stands tall and whole. Taller than my memories of him. Oliver was the tallest of the three of us, but now he’s taller than Ollie was. Cedar used to have more muscle than my older brother before, but now he’s almost the same as Ethan. I can’t believe he’s here with me. I can’t stop my tears. I’m crying so hard I can barely stand up.
“I missed you,” I choke out, hugging him so tight he grunts. “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you, too, baby sister. So much.”
Minutes later, after Josh dragged Kelly away screaming, I find myself now sitting on the couch with Cedar by my side, because Ethan has shifted and carried me inside in his arms while ordering everyone around. Then he planted me here in the impeccable living room with Cedar holding my hand the whole time like he wasn’t sure I was real. He’d always had uncommonly long fingers, though now they seemed more bonelike than they were before, the knuckles swollen and his skin nicked with scars. I also held his hands. Tightly. I was never going to let go of him ever again. We both seemed afraid to let go of each other. Az followed us the whole time in his wolf form until I told him to go upstairs and put on some clothes. Seemingly understanding my cue, Maggie popped out and handed Ethan another similar robe. 
Although my Alpha Bossy Husband is still commanding everyone through mindlink as he sits in a chair in front of us, his eyes are directed at me in the same primal and intense way as Kral. 
Cedar envelops me in a hug so tight it reminds me that despite years having passed, I will always be his little sister. “Oh, Allie, I can’t believe you’re here!” he whispers, swaying back and forth like Dad used to with us when we were kids.  
Cedar squeezes the hug tightly, and when we draw back, Ethan clears his throat.
Turning to him, Cedar says before holding out his hand, “Hi, I’m Cedar.” 
“I should hope so,” Ethan answers with his deep voice after he shakes my brother’s hand. “I’m Alpha Ethan.” 
To my shock, Ethan gets out of his chair and lifts me up with minimal effort before sitting a little further away from where I was and placing me on his lap right away. “That’s enough.” 
Then Ethan pulls Cedar’s hand away from me. 
“Hey!” I protest. 
“No more touching, Little Dove.” 
Cedar’s eyebrows rise, although there’s a teeny, tiny smirk on his lips. “Seriously? I’m her brother.”  
“No.” Ethan’s strong arms tighten around me as he moves a bit farther from Cedar, putting some space between him and us, with me still sitting on his lap.
“Ethan!” Wiggling, I try to stand but Ethan isn’t having any of it. “Let me go! Cedar was only holding my hand! And he’s my brother, for God’s sake!” 
“I don’t seem to be able to stand the idea of any male touching you.” 
I stop squirming in his lap and clench my legs, suddenly feeling hot. To tease him, I say, “Careful, your possessiveness is showing.” 
Ethan’s dark eyes stare down at me. “It wasn’t showing before?” he queries. “I will have to improve it then.” 
I roll my eyes, but I can’t stop myself from smiling.
It’s night, and the living room is bathed in the soft glow of dim lights, I turn my face to Cedar, catching his gaze fixed on Vi. She’s standing near the open window in the other living room, arms crossed, watching us from a distance. Earlier, I’d asked her to come closer, but instead, she drifted further away, retreating to the far room where she now stands, silent and detached.
Then his eyes meet mine, and he opens a smile. There are so many things I want to say to my brother that I can’t even pick what to say first.
I want to ask about the rest of our family. Mom. Dad. Ollie. But I watched them die before my very eyes. If they were alive, Cedar wouldn’t be here alone, which brings me to ask the million-dollar question. 
But Ethan beats me to it. “Where have you been all this time?”
We both look at him now, waiting for his answer. 
Looking guiltily at me, Cedar replies, voice cracking, “I came as soon as I could.” 
The words come out without me controlling them. “I thought you were dead.” I thought my brother was dead, and he isn’t. 
Cedar is alive, and he is right here in front of me. Those simple facts leave me dizzy and lightheaded.  
“Why haven’t you... What have you... WHY?” I can’t decide what to ask first. “Where have you been?” I repeat Ethan’s question.
Cedar squeezes his eyes shut as if remembering what happened physically hurts him. The moment he opens them again, eyes that reflect the same shade I see in my own whenever I look in the mirror, they bear a look of haunting guilt. Hollow. “I knew I didn’t stand the slightest chance against them alone, but I wanted to buy you time that night. After I told you to run, I bolted out of that old closet, heading the opposite way to draw them off. But they were faster. They got to me before I could even make it far.”
“I heard you dying!” I say, tears stinging my eyes.
“That night, I’m certain a part of me died—”
“I heard your screams, Cedar! You screamed in so much pain! You screamed and screamed, and then I didn’t hear anything else... I thought you were dead!”
“Back then, I had no idea what was going on. It wasn’t even the reason they were there, but in the end, they turned me into a werewolf anyway. Just to make me suffer. Because the agony of the transformation, Allie... it’s a kind of pain that’s almost worse than death itself.”
My heart aches just thinking about what my brother and my son must have gone through.
“When I woke up again, I was locked in a grimy cell deep in the dungeons. Even though the pain was gone, and I was desperate to get out of there and go find you, I couldn’t escape. Because before I could even think of a plan, they noticed I was awake and hurried off to summon their leader, who I later found out was called Razor.” 
Ethan’s hands curl into fists. 
“Do you know him?” I ask.
“I’ve never spoken to him, but I know who he is. His pack isn’t that far from Summerville. He’s known on the streets as Razor, but in his pack, he’s called—”
“Alpha Arion,” Cedar adds. “Not everyone makes it through a transformation like that. When he realized I was an Alpha, he didn’t want to kill me anymore. It was much worse. He wanted to use me.”
Cedar’s top lip curls in rage. It isn’t just him. Anger roils in my stomach as Ethan tries to control his growl. 
“For the first eight years after I was turned into a werewolf, I was stuck in prison and only got out to do meaningless jobs until I was...” His Adam’s apple bobs, and he looks away. “Until I was forced to learn to obey Razor. I made several escape attempts before that, but no fucking luck. They always caught me.” Finding my eyes again, he continues, “Until two years ago, I was in a very dark place... and unfortunately, I convinced myself it would be better to get out of that dip than to stay there. It was selfish, I know. Deep down, I understood that getting out meant I’d have to do whatever Razor demanded of me. And to say what he asked was wrong doesn’t even come close to capturing how twisted it really was.” 
Silent tears fall from my eyes, and I don’t even bother to wipe them away. My brother spent eight years in prison. Oh, God! My chest hurts so much.
“In these last two years, I obeyed every fucking thing Razor asked. All of his orders. Until I got what I wanted—Razor promoted me to be in charge of a team that he sent out to collect payments. And when those payments are short or not ready...”
Cedar closes his eyes for a moment. No one dares to enter or pass by the living rooms. Az should have come down by now, but I have a feeling Maggie or Emma must have held him back upstairs.
“Razor’s mistake was being too sure of himself. Too fucking cocky. He was sure I wouldn’t run away because they knew exactly where you were, Allie. They’ve known all this time. If I ran away, he’d hunt you, Allie, and then you’d be in danger. If they got their hands on you... killing you would be a mercy.” 
Ethan growls loudly, his chest vibrating. “Over my dead body!”
“That spray Ollie put on us was to camouflage our scent,” Cedar goes on. “But Razor... That asshole assured me that the spray wouldn’t hide you. He knew you were using it because I was, too. When I dared him if it was true, he shoved a photograph of a girl in my face. She was so thin... With black hair...” Cedar shakes his head. “Despite looking so different, that was you, Allie.”
“Oh, Cedar!” I cover my face with my hands.
“He knew where you were all those years, and he used that to keep me trapped. If I disappeared from his sight for even a second without a reason, he would end your life. There were people ready to do that. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t run away. I just couldn’t. Not after—” Cedar cuts himself off and shakes his head again as if trying to make a haunting thought go away. “There was only one time, not long ago when I managed to find a way out. But they caught me before I could make it far. I was almost…” he shakes his head again, his long blond hair brushing his shoulders. “They showed me a picture of you and the messages they sent you. I almost freaked out! You were so close, Allie. So grown up!” 
I cry louder. “I’m so sorry, Cedar. It was my fault—” 
“None of this is your fault,” Ethan tells me at the same time as Cedar. I feel Ethan’s hand comforting me, running up and down my back. 
Eight years locked in a filthy dungeon. 
Two years doing everything a monster forced him to. 
All of this was to keep me alive. If I’ve suffered these past ten years without my family in Summerville, Cedar has been through absolute hell during that same time. He didn’t deserve any of this!
I wish I had known. Maybe I’d have done things differently.
Hot tears stream down my face, blurring my vision. “But it was because of me that Cedar—”
“Allie, I’m your big brother.” Cedar gives me his censuring eyes, and it is so familiar and so wonderful that I can’t breathe. “It’s my job to protect you. I’d do it all over again to keep you safe! I’ll always—no matter how much time passes—protect you. You will always be my little sister.”
Swallowing hard, I choke down the sob that threatens to erupt from my throat.
“Why you?” Ethan asks as he wipes away my tears. “Why was Razor so fucking obsessed with you? Why did he do that to your family?” I notice he doesn’t choose the word *kill*, which, given my emotional state right now, I’m very grateful for.
The right corner of Cedar’s lips lifts up. He shifts his eyes from Ethan to me. “Can’t you see her aura?”
“What do you mean?”