35. Blood

Eric

I awoke in my bed; my leg had been bandaged and Noel was next to me, he had brought a chair into the room. “Ha, I knew you would be fine. But I have to say you will have a nice scar. You know the Luna carried you for a long time, a wolf of her size dragging you, hell impressive. You know her wolf or her I don’t know is brilliant. They got you back by injuring you but had kept the blood from spilling. Only your leg was bleeding. Well other than when she released your neck when you shifted. But enough people were around you didn’t bleed out. I had them bring you here after you were patched up figured you would want to recoup in your own bed. You should be better by Monday is what doc said.”

I looked around. Where the was Lilith? “Where is my mate?” Noel bit his lip. “Noel where is she?” I yelled. Noel was silent for a moment. “Noel!” I yelled again. “No one knows. She stayed with you until the doc came and then she looked like she was in pain and ran away. We have no clue.” I rubbed my temples. If she looked like she was in pain it could only be a few things. She either was hurt or Kali was trying to shift, and she was fighting it. I tried to get up, but Noel pushed my shoulders back down. “Eric you can’t get up other than to go to the bathroom. You need to have your leg heal right or the doc will have to fix it again.

I laid back into the bed. I was the Alpha of the pack. I couldn’t be laid up for long. It left the pack weak and susceptible to attacks. Noel sat beside me. I slept and woke up and slept again. I was awake with my brother in the chair still next to my bed. I began to be bombarded with mind links. Noel sat up straighter he had to be hearing it to. “Kali is back?” I said. He nodded and both of us heard it in our minds again. Noel turned to me and said, “Holly Fuck.” I didn’t know what to say about what I had just been told.

The mind link I got was from one of the elders. “The body has been shredded and is missing limbs. Scratches and bites all over it. Kali did it. She killed him. Why would she kill a human man. My stomach churned; I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I wanted to see it for myself because what I heard was horrible. I had to get out of this bed. But a mind link came through. “Alpha, Kali is dragging the body to the packhouse.” She was bringing it here. I didn’t understand why. Minuets passed and I heard the packhouse door burst open. Noel ran from his seat and opened my door.

A few moments passed before in walked Kali. I knew she had blood on her, but you could not see it with her black fur. She dragged the body up onto the bed and laid it at my feet. Noel stood there in shock. I didn’t know what she was doing. Kali then looked at me. She sat down at the edge of our massive bed. Her tongue hanging out and I noticed there was blood dripping from her white teeth and tongue. But the body she had dragged in was leaving blood all over the bed as well as the blood falling from her mouth. I didn’t know if she wanted praise or something else. Axel was not telling me anything.

Then Kali shifted back into Lilith. She had blood all over her ivory skin. What the hell had she done? I had a dead body on our bed and a blood covered my mate. Lilith offered me a small smile. She looked down at Kali’s kill. Well, I assumed it had been Kali. Lilith didn’t look horrified by the death of a human. She looked a little concerned but not horrified. I looked at Noel and he was standing, eyes wide. He was not looking at my naked mate but the dead body on the bed. “Noel leave us.” He didn’t move. “Noel!” He finally made eye contact. “Can you excuse us.” He nodded and mind linked me as he exited the room. “When you know what happened. Inform me I need to clear this up and mitigated what the pack witnessed.” This was part of his job as Beta.

I agreed and looked at my mate. “What happened?” I sternly asked. Lilith looked at the man. She bit her lip. I didn’t know if this was shame, she was showing or if she was debating on not telling me. “Lilith what happened?” I asked again a little kinder. “I um, well Kali, she hated what happened to you. She tracked down the hunter, that is who is there.” Her eyes fell on the dead body. I looked at her sternly. “Was this all Kali, or where you okay with murdering a human?” She again bit her lip. “Lilith, I need an answer.” She looked at me.

She looked tired. “It was not my idea, but fucking no, I didn’t care about killing the man who had maimed Axel, and as a result you. I didn’t tell Kali to go out and hunt him. But I am glad she did. This fucking filth deserved to die. What kind of coward lays traps. He can’t face the beasts alone. Fucking despicable.” Then she lashed out at the dead body punching it. “Fucking Bastard.” She yelled as she punched the lifeless man for a second time. I knew the hunter had no chance when it came to a shifter. But only one wouldn’t have drenched her in blood like this. He would have bled on her as Kali attacked him, but not to this degree.

“Lilith why are you covered in blood? The way his body is says he was killed. He would have bled for sure but your whole body wouldn’t have been coated like this.” She looked away. “Eric it is not important.” I examined her. It was clear now, this she was ashamed of, not the body Kali brought me, but whatever Kali had done to coat her in blood. That she was ashamed of. I reached my hand out and touched her. It was like her pale skin absorbed the deep color. “Lilith you can tell me.” She looked at me. “You will think bad of me. I think it’s best if you don’t know.”

I sighed. “Lilith, I need to know.” She stood up suddenly and naked covered in blood she began to pace. I could see most of the blood was dried to her skin. “The hunter” She looked at the one next to me. “He was with a group. All of them had animals. A few of them were skinning a large one. I think a moose or something. They had so many pelts. They had to have laid lots of traps. Well, Kali, she didn’t like it. She didn’t like that they were cowards. Or that they were killing animals, more so the cowards than anything. They had a bunch of traps with them.”

She continued “She killed them all, slowly. First, she wounded every man, then she slowly tore them apart keeping them alive as long as possible. Leaving this hunter for last. As he was the one responsible for your injuries, but he watched. He watched as she slaughtered his friends.” She stopped speaking. “Is that all?” She shook her head. “I want to hear it all.” She couldn’t look at me. “Lilith I can see it in you. This part was all Kali. She wanted the others you just wanted the one who had hurt me and Axel. So please tell me, I will not be cross at you.” She sighed and turned around. Her arms where across her chest. “I will tell you, but this stays between the two of us. Please don’t tell Noel, he won’t look at me the same.”

I nodded. Lilith had to know I wouldn’t reject her. Seeing as we were mates. Lilith took a long breath and without looking at me she said “She killed two of the men's sons before their eyes. They were begging for her Kali to spare them. Of course, they knew she was different than a wild wolf. She had made them watch and was not in a pack, but they begged her, and she killed their sons in front of them as they begged for them to die instead.” I couldn’t believe it.

Kali was dark, more so than I expected. I could understand the need for revenge. If someone had hurt Kali, or Lilith I would want revenge. But the other deaths and then killing their children in front of them. That is a different kind of messed up. “Look I need to shower, and I am tired, can you send someone to clean all of this up.” She looked around at the state of the room. I nodded. “Take a long shower. I will take care of all of this. We will need to talk more.” She nodded and turned and shut the bathroom door.

I was not angry with Lilith in the slightest. She had gone out and gotten revenge on the man how had damaged Axel and in turn me. I could understand that. What I didn’t get was what Kali had done. Maybe if she had killed the other hunters for trying to harm her, but she hadn’t. Kali had targeted them all. Making sure they were immobilized and made them suffer before she killed them all.

I still couldn’t believe it. I leaned back against the headboard. Had she done something like this before. Lilith seemed not as shaken up as I expected her to be with her wolfs behavior. I would need to find out if this had occurred in her past. I rubbed my temples. This would be hard to explain to the elders and to the rest of the pack. We didn’t kill humans except for in self-defense. I guess her killing the hunter who had hurt me was a kind of defense so he couldn’t hurt anyone else. The other hunters too were future threats. But the manner in her kill.

I would need to handle this lightly. Maybe they would not need to know that Kali had killed the others. Or maybe I could just omit the way she did. I knew the pack would have little sympathy for poachers. It was better they were gone, just not how she had gone about it. I sighed. I would need to think, I could talk to Lilith about it. I just know It will need to be addressed soon. All Grey Crest Pack had seen Kali drag the body here for me. I needed to mind link someone to clean all of this up, I looked at the dead man in our bed, then there were the bodies in the woods. Fuck this could be bad.