Chapter 87: Standing My Ground
The hours blurred together after Rowan’s announcement.
The pack was a flurry of motion—strategizing, fortifying defenses, gathering supplies. Everywhere I looked, wolves moved with purpose and fear simmered under the surface like a pot about to boil over.
I should have felt safer knowing preparations were being made.
Instead, I felt caged.
Once again, I was shoved to the sidelines while everyone else got to fight for my future.
Luther and Liam tried to soften the blow by giving me small tasks—packing emergency supplies, preparing food—but it didn’t erase the truth.
They didn’t intend to let me fight.
Not really.
I sat at the small wooden table in the safe house, my hands idle, a half-packed bag of bandages and supplies sitting untouched in front of me.
Frustration roiled inside me, dark and bitter.
I wasn’t a child.
I wasn’t the powerless little girl I had been all those years ago.
I was a Luna. A wolf.
I had power now—and I was *done* letting others dictate how I used it.
“Stop brooding, little mate.”
Luther’s voice rumbled from behind me. I didn’t turn. I couldn’t.
If I looked at him, at the worry etched into every line of his body, I would crumble all over again.
“We’re doing this for you,” Liam added softly, entering from the hallway. “To keep you safe.”
I slammed my palms down on the table, the sharp crack of wood snapping through the room.
“And what about *your* safety?” I demanded, whipping around to face them. My heart thundered in my chest. “You’re willing to fight, bleed, and die for me—but I’m supposed to just sit here and pray you come back?”
Pain flickered in Liam’s eyes.
Luther stepped closer, his expression fierce. “You’re more important than any battle, Charlie.”
“That’s not your choice to make!” I shouted, chest heaving. “It’s mine.”
The room fell silent except for the rasp of my own breath.
They didn’t move.
Didn’t argue.
Didn’t apologize.
Their silence spoke volumes.
They didn’t trust me to survive. Not because they thought I was weak—no, they knew how strong I could be. They didn’t trust *themselves* to survive my loss.
And that terrified them enough to try and lock me away again.
“You’re going to need every able wolf you can get,” I said, quieter now, though the steel hadn’t left my voice. “I’m not asking for permission. I’m telling you: I’m fighting.”
Liam looked like he wanted to argue, to throw his body between me and the danger outside our borders.
But Luther stepped forward first.
He cupped my face between his rough palms, forcing me to meet his golden gaze.
“If you fight, Charlie,” he said, voice raw, “then you fight beside *us*. Never alone. Do you understand?”
Tears stung my eyes, but I nodded fiercely.
Beside them. Always.
“Good girl.”
Luther kissed my forehead, then my cheeks, then finally my mouth—a desperate, lingering kiss that tasted like fear and hope and love.
When he pulled away, Liam was there too, wrapping me up in his arms, pressing kisses along my hairline.
“We’ll train until sunset,” Liam said gruffly. “Then we fight.”
A surge of pride bloomed inside me.
I was no one’s prisoner anymore.
I was a warrior.
\---
The training was brutal.
Every spare second before sunset was spent drilling hand-to-hand combat, perfecting my aim with a blade, and practicing coordinated attacks with Liam and Luther by my side.
My muscles screamed. My lungs burned. My knees buckled more than once.
But I didn’t stop.
I *couldn’t* stop.
Every drop of sweat, every ache, every bruise was a promise to my mates, to myself: I would be ready.
I would be their equal on that battlefield.
When the sun dipped low behind the trees, casting long golden shadows over the clearing, Rowan approached with grim news.
“They’re moving,” he said, gaze flickering toward the mountains in the distance. “We have maybe an hour before they hit the perimeter.”
The time for training was over.
Now, it was survival.
\---
The pack gathered in the clearing near the outer houses, a sea of tense faces and sharp claws.
Luther stood at the front, Liam at his side, their presence radiating authority.
I slipped in between them without hesitation.
A few surprised glances were thrown my way—warriors not expecting their Luna to fight—but no one dared say a word.
The time for doubting me was long past.
I caught the glint of pride in Rowan’s eyes as he nodded once at me from across the clearing.
I returned the nod, heart swelling.
Whatever fractured our family before, we were united now.
“Listen up!” Luther’s voice boomed across the clearing, silencing the murmurs. “They come for our Luna. They come for our lives. We will show them exactly why Hidden Valley has *never* fallen!”
A chorus of growls and snarls rose into the air, vibrating through the earth beneath our feet.
Liam stepped forward, lifting his sword high.
“No mercy,” he said, his voice low and deadly. “No surrender. Protect your pack. Protect your Luna.”
Protect *each other*, I thought fiercely, gripping the daggers strapped to my thighs.
The forest beyond the clearing shifted.
Shadows moved.
And then, like a flood, they came pouring through the trees.
Snarling wolves with bloodshot eyes and foam-flecked jaws.
Dozens of them.
Maybe hundreds.
The enemy.
Luther let out a roar that shook the ground itself.
“DEFEND YOUR HOME!”
The pack surged forward like a wave crashing against the rocks, meeting the enemy head-on.
Liam and Luther flanked me, their bodies a wall of muscle and fury as they carved a path through the chaos.
I moved with them, every instinct honed from training, every heartbeat pounding with purpose.
My blades flashed silver in the fading light.
A wolf lunged at me—ribs jutting out, eyes crazed—and I ducked low, driving my dagger into its exposed side.
It collapsed with a yelp, and I spun to face the next.
Everywhere I turned, blood sprayed, bodies fell. The scent of death and desperation filled the air. But through it all, I felt them—my mates—an unbreakable tether anchoring me to this world.
I fought harder for them.
I fought harder for my pack.
I fought harder for *me*.
Tonight, I wasn’t a symbol. I wasn’t a secret to be hidden or a weapon to be wielded.
I was Charlie.
And I was *done* running.
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