Life Comes Full Circle

*Rayne*

They crossed over into what was once Jade Moon territory a few minutes ago. There was no overwhelming pack aura to pass through. Just an empty void of what once was a small, peaceful pack. Her father said that Frederick would meet them at the old pack house. Rayne worried about how her father would respond to seeing his old friend after so long.

The closer they got to Jade Moon, the more withdrawn Edmund became. Rayne could sense his sadness. It was like a living emotion that was filling the jeep. Parker felt it too, but all he did was reach out to hold one of her hands. He knew that today would be hard for the two of them. Parker told her that would spend the day checking in on Cyra, the rescue party, and the bar.

They had heard nothing from Arabella for days. That made Rayne nervous that something had gone wrong. There were people out there searching for Cyra’s mate. For Dominic’s mate. For Kade’s mate. Both of whom are prisoners of the same Collector. There were so many at risk, so many lives at stake. All because of a group of greedy humans.

Pulling into the clearing that once housed the pack’s main living area made Rayne suck in a breath of shock.

The pack house was in ruins. A charred shell of what it once was. The windows were dark blank spaces where glass used to shine in the sun. The frame of the building stood out like a burnt skeleton of what the house once stood for. No laughter would to be heard in its halls ever again. Only the echos of the pack remained.

The mansion behind the pack house was a blackened mess. The marble pillars broken and littering the ground. They shattered the once proud wolf statues on the ground in front of the broken wooden door. Long jagged claw marks marred the once beautifully carved wood of the front doors. What they could see of the interior was nothing but a dark void, screaming in silent horror at what it went through that day.

All the houses around the edge of the clearing were husks of what they used to be. Hollowed out as all they once contained lay in burnt heaps. The once peaceful pack decimated in one day. Lives lost, homes ruined, all in the name of revenge for a fallen brother.

Behind Rayne in the back seat, Edmund let out a keening cry of pain that rocked her to the core. Parker stopped the jeep next to the pack house, gave Rayne’s hand a squeeze before she got out of the jeep. Edmund slowly exited the jeep as his eyes continued to scan the surrounding area, his whimpers of pain still continuous. A sound from next to the pack house made Rayne look sharply over to see who was there. The scent was one she didn’t recognize.

“Who are you?” Rayne asked as the old man stepped forward.

“I am Alpha Frederick, of the Starlight Moon Pack,” He whispered as he looked towards where Edmund stood looking around.

“I don’t remember you at all from when I was here,” Rayne followed his eyes to her father.

Frederick grimaced, “Wilson distanced himself from all his allies after the war. Alec repaired those alliances before his death.”

“Will it help to know that Wilson is dead?” Rayne asked of the man who had made her life hell.

Frederick’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, “That is surprising, but sad to know at the same time. He wasn’t always the vicious man he became.”

“How many from Jade Moon survived?” Rayne walked closer to Frederick as she spoke, changing the subject off of Wilson.

“You look so much like Mia,” He spoke in a whisper when he got a better look at Rayne.

“I remember her in flashes, always with laughter though.”

“You were the light of her life.”

“Mia died protecting her,” Edmund said as he walked to stand next to Rayne.

Rayne left the two men to talk. Knowing that her father needed to tell someone what Wilson had done that night, Rayne decided she would walk around. She hadn’t been here in a little over five years. So many memories were flooding through her head. Not all were bad. There were happy times here before the war broke out.

An idea suddenly struck Rayne as she turned on her heels and headed into the woods behind the Alpha mansion. Maybe with luck it was still standing. Alec had picked the spot because it was well hidden, about a mile behind the house. Their tree house was a place she could always go to hide from Wison when she was younger. He never knew it was there.

Moving behind a tree, she stripped out of her clothes, then balled them up in her mouth once she shifted. Ruby was curious about the area. Rayne only shifted once before that night Ruby went into hiding. There were many scents all over the main clearing, but the further into the forest she went, the less she picked up. With a new determination, Rayne took off running towards the past.

She ran for a few miles, then stopped when she lost her bearings. It had been so long since she had been out in these woods. A few moments later Rayne got her bearings. She was close to the tree house. When she found it, her heart fluttered with happiness. The rocky base they built was still standing around the trunk of the large tree. She looked up into the branches to see that the treehouse was still there. Worn down with age, but still being gripped in the v-shaped branches.

Rayne shifted back to her human form, quickly got dressed, then cautiously climbed the tree. A few of the wooden boards broke off the tree as she climbed, but she would not budge from her goal. The higher she climbed, the more of the happy past came back to her. Times where she was carefree with nothing on her mind but playing pirates with her friends.

When she reached the top, Rayne had to squeeze her much larger frame into the small doorway. Tears sprang to her eyes when she slid the leather door flap to the side. The interior was dirty from lack of use, some small animal had made its home inside. The scent she picked up under all the rest made a silent sob climb up her throat.

Alec.

It was old, nearly faded, but still there, clinging to the small tree house like a ghost. Rayne crawled on her hands and knees to the small broken box at the back of the treehouse. Three letters on the lid are well worn and faded, but she could still read them. ABR. For Alec, Bridgette, and Rayne. Edmund had carved their intitals in the wood when he made them the box.

They used to keep toys, food, flashlights, and other things children thought important. Rayne lifted the lid slowly, careful not to break the already cracked wood. Their scents flooded her nose as it revealed the contents. Tears coming to her eyes as she reached a shaky hand inside to pull out Alec’s stuffed bear.

She put it to her nose to breathe in his scent, a sob finally escaping her as memories of him flooded her mind. All the times he protected Rayne and Bridgette from pack’s bullies. All the times he was the bully. The day he patched her skinned knee so that her mother wouldn’t be mad they were in the forest when they should have been in school.

Rayne cried harder at the thought she could never tell him sorry. Sorry for leaving without a word. Sorry for never once looking back. Sorry that she left Alec behind without ever letting him know that she would miss him.

An owl hooting from a branch outside the tree house let her know that Parker was near. He would wait until she called him in to be near, so she knew he was there for her. “You can come in, Parker”

He came in the form of a squirrel, but changed into his human form when he saw that there was more room. As soon as he did, Rayne threw her arms around his shoulders as sobs wracked her body. He held her while she cried for her lost friend, for the happier times, and for the innocence that she can never get back.

“I left him behind, Parker, and I never looked back,” Rayne said with a sob.

“Hey, look at me,” He whispered.

Rayne lifted her tears stained face to his as he cupped her cheek with one hand.

“You did what you needed to do to survive. If he was anything like you described to be, Alec would have understood that.”

“I know, but I still have this feeling that how I left was wrong somehow. I didn’t say goodbye to anyone. Not everyone here was weak with fear of Wilson’s wrath. Some would help me anyway. They all remembered my parents and they better times.”

“Then you should know that they would have understood too. You took the freedom that was given to you by the events of that night. Ran with all you had for a better life,” Parker ran his thumb over her cheekbone to remove a tear.

“What would have happened had I stayed? Wilson got banished soon after. Alec became Alpha. My cage was broken, and I was free to live my life.”

“No one can tell you what would have been. You know what is now. What you make for yourself.”

“I wouldn’t change any of that, because it wouldn’t have brought me to you. Being here has just brought back all the things I thought I forgot.”

“Who built this place?”

“My father, a few of the pack warriors, and us kids,” Rayne looked around and laughed as she looked around. “It was nice once.”

“How often would the three of you come out here?”

“Every chance we got, and then some. We came out here even when we were meant to be in school. Alec would always give us this brief signal we made up to let us know he was ditching class. One by one we would all sneak away to play pirates in the woods.”

“Pirates, huh? Were you the first mate?”

“No, that went to Bridgette. I was the lookout in the little nest up there,” Rayne pointed to the ceiling.

Parker laughed, “That’s what that was.”

They spent the next hour inside the cramped childhood treehouse. Rayne telling Parker stories of her childhood antics with her friends. Parker sat listening, occasionally asking questions, or holding her. Rayne felt better after just talking about the good times of her past. She knew the feeling wouldn’t last long as there was still one more place to visit before they left Jade Moon behind them.

Her mother’s grave.

*Edmund*

So much damage was done to this once small, peaceful pack. He wasn’t here when they had to rebuild from the war. The destruction that night paled in comparison to what he was seeing today. They had lost many lives. So much needless death.

“How many did you take in?” He asked Frederick as they sat on a log near the mansion.

“Five. I would have taken more, but my pack didn’t have the supplies for too many more.”

“How many survived?”

“Not enough to restart the pack. Only fifty wolves survived,” Frederick looked at Edmund like he had an idea.

“What? I remember that look, old friend.”

“If you came back to stay, we could all help rebuild. You were their beta. With Wilson gone, his heir dead, you are next in line to lead.”

Edmunds eyes widened at that thought. Rayne’s words from earlier coming back to his mind. It would break her heart if he stayed. Yet rebuilding Jade Moon to its former glory appealed to him.

“Alec left an heir. That child would be the Alpha of this pack, not me.”

“That is true, but also years off. None of those that survived here have officially joined the packs that took them in. Except those that went up to Oregon to join Redwood Pack. That leaves forty wolves to help rebuild Jade Moon.”

Edmund had to admit that the idea appealed to him. It would also give some wolves that Rayne would move a place of refuge. Maybe even more than wolves could come here. He would have to speak to her later. For now, he had one thing on his mind that needed to be done. His mate was waiting for him.

“I will think on it, but right now I need to go to Mia. She has waited long enough for me,” Edmund stood from the log.

“My pack is always open to you, my friend. Find me before you leave,” Frederick extended a hand to shake Edmunds.

Edmund grasped his friend’s forearm, bringing the other man in for an embrace. He clapped Frederick on the back, then left his friend to begin the walk to the small Cemetary at the back of the Alpha mansion. A path led deeper into the wood to a small clearing. There lay the headstone of pack wolves long past. He knew where she would be, so he ambled between the stones until he stood before the one that broke his heart to see.

A small marble statue in the shape of a wolf howling at the moon sat waiting for him. They etched her name in beautiful script on a metal plaque at the base of the statue.

Mia Solas
Mate, Mother, Warrior of the Moon.

Tears overflowed his eyes as he fell to his knees. The pain of Mia’s death fresh like that night he watched her die. His heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vice. Edmund reared his head back and let out the howl of pain he had been holding back. It echoed throughout the clearing. It causes birds and small animals to flee. Yet he did not stop there, as he continued to howl out his pain.

Soon he caught Rayne’s scent. Edmund looks behind him to see her standing at the edge of the Cemetary, her eyes locked on the wolf statue that symbolized her mother. Tears of grief shining in her pale green eyes. Edmund looked away for a moment to catch his breath, then lifted an arm out behind him with the palm up, signaling for his daughter to join him.

Once she joined him, Edmund held her close while they both cried for the woman they loved. Mother. Mate. Warrior Goddess. The sun took that moment to shine down on the marble statue. Making both of them gasp out in surprise. It was as if Mia was shining down on them, letting them know she was happy that they had found each other again. That they had found their way home together.

Life had come full circle for both Edmund and his daughter. One lost in the world thinking her parents were both dead. The other not knowing who or what he was. Now that sat together near the one who once loved them both with all her heart. A sense of peace settled over them as the sun continued to shine over the statue.

“Remember the past, plan for the future, but live for today, because yesterday is gone, and tomorrow may never come.” - St. Luke.