Chapter Sixty-nine: Fire

I feel a single tear roll down my cheek as I become aware of the gift of immortality I didn’t know I had had, but should have known based on what I’ve learned so far.

I look at Nuria frightened, not having felt like this for years. I learned to cope with my fears when I was wondering alone. However, the fear of losing Lukas and spending the rest of eternity without him is tearing me up inside.

Nuria sees me fighting an inner war and pulls me in for a hug, her arm wrapping around my shoulder. “You have a long ass time till that happens Wolfie. From what I hear, Wolves have a very long life expectancy, so you shouldn’t worry or even think about it just now. I’m sorry I mentioned it. Just remember to live in the moment.”

I feel her guilt wash over her and I calm down, taking a deep breath, knowing that Lukas and I have a very long time till the inevitable happens.

I want to ask her about who betrayed her but the words never leave my lips as we notice smoke rising close to the centre of the pack. Nuria and I look at each other and we instantly jump to our feet and start running over there.

As we get closer, I notice the area that is burning is close to Elijah’s new place, and I groan internally already knowing that is exactly what is burning. This time however, I hope the pack members who were watching it saw who had done it.

Nuria and I arrive and low and behold, it is Elijah’s cottage burning. I move past the small crowd that has gathered and I can see Elijah hovering over Loretta with a grimace plastered on his face.

“Are you both ok? Anyone hurt?” I ask hurriedly, hoping that no one was.

Elijah shakes his head but looks a bit pale. “No, we’re ok. Loretta has a really deep cut though, we’re just holding out for Doctor Lowe to come and bandage her up.”
I look at Loretta who has what looks like a towel wrapped around her leg and is slowly seeping blood.

“Let me take a look at it.” I say and rip some of the fabric off my shirt to create a make-shift bandage that will stop the bleeding before the Doctor gets here. “I suspect you’ll probably heal quite a bit before Doctor Lowe gets here, but that should stop the river of blood from pouring.

I see Elijah look away and shake my head at him. “You really need to get over your fear of blood Elijah. It’s not even that bad!” I say with a light scolding tone.
“Thank you Luna. I appreciate you helping me.” Loretta says with a small smile.

I half smile but instantly frown. “Did you see who did this?” I ask Elijah directly. “This is the third time somethings happened to you specifically, and twice with fire.”
I think for a few moments before mind-linking Lukas.

“Hey sweet. Elijah’s cottage has been burned again. Do you know who was on rotation this time so I can ask?”

He immediately responds. “Let me speak with Blaine, he worked on the shifts this week.”

I cut him off without answering as I want to start speaking to the few spectators before they disperse. Nuria mouths that she’s going to head to her room and I nod in response.

I spent what felt like a few hours speaking to the crowd before they all headed off one by one. Everyone arrived when the house was already burning and they saw nothing. I frown feeling like I’ve gotten nowhere. Hopefully whoever was meant to be on shift watching will know.

Doctor Lowe has since been and gone, happy with the bandage I had made and has now replaced it with something more sterile.

I look to Elijah and Loretta who are looking into the charred cottage that they had only recently moved into, this time together.

“I understand some people aren’t happy with Elijah being here, but he’s only brought positive things with him since his arrival. What’s so hard to accept?” Loretta says, clearly becoming upset with the constant violence against him.

Elijah just sighs and it breaks me to see them only just finding each other and now having so many issues to deal with.

A wave of anger washes over me and I decide to take drastic action. I mind-link the entire pack, effortlessly.

“Hello all. Today, one of our newest arrivals, Elijah, who came from an elven community outside the pack lands a few weeks ago, had his home burned down, seemingly on purpose. I must add that he is also the destined mate of Loretta, your Alphas youngest sister.

This is not the first time this has happened. I have arrived on scene and have conducted an investigation, which is still on-going. If the culprit wishes to hand themselves in, then the consequences will be light. If they do not, then I will not hesitate to give them the harshest punishment I can.”

I cut off the mind-link there and see Loretta look up at me with a small smile. She then goes onto explain what was said to Elijah who nods to me in respect.
I look up to the sky and see it’s almost pitch black, the earlier sunset disappearing far across the horizon.

Elijah and Loretta are looking at their small cottage and gazing past them I can see the cinders still burning, but no longer dangerous.

Sighing, I clear my throat. “Loretta, take Elijah back to the pack house and you can both stay in your old room. I reckon nothing’s changed yet as you’ve not long moved out.“

“Thanks Luna. We’ve got nothing left so we’ll just head over now.”

I look at Elijah who looks devastated. He didn’t come with much from what I remember. I sigh deeply, but don’t say anything about the dire statement about their belongings.

I nod in agreement. “Ok. I’m going to hang around a bit longer. I catch up to you both later.”

They wave their goodbyes and I see them heading towards the pack house. I look back to the burned house. I try to envision why someone would do this. I understand that some people don’t like outsiders and are against Elijah joining, however the pack has a hierarchy and if the Alpha was happy for him to join then they should just get on with it.

Instead now we have to deal with violence occurring and although I’m sure Elijah and Loretta can handle themselves, it’s still not something they should have to put up with. What if they were sleeping?

I dismiss the thought, not wanting to imagine someone stooping that low.

I suddenly smell the intoxicating scent of caramelised apples and look in the direction it’s coming from. I see Lukas coming towards me on his own, not with his Beta or Gamma which surprised me as he had been with them all day.

He embraces me in a warm hug, taking a deep breath of my hair. “You smell divine little one.”

I smile as I snuggle into him, forgetting for a moment the scene in front of us. But I’m pulled back into reality as I open my eyes and see the burnt cottage.

I pull away gently from him, wanting to find out who did this. “Did you find out who was on watch today? Did you manage to speak to Blaine?”

I see his smile falter slightly. “Yes, Blaine let me know who was on watch and I’ve spoken to them. The fire had started just as they had left their post to deal with an incident just down the street. When they came back, the cottage was already ablaze and they immediately went into help Loretta and Elijah as they knew they were in there. They pulled them out. One of the warriors on watch was Josh, who was burned trying to pull them out and Percy took him to the hospital to get treated quickly. That’s why you didn’t see them when they came on site.”

I frown, thinking that it can’t be a coincidence that the guards were called away at the exact moment someone started a fire.

“Did the guys say what it was they were called to?” I instigate, not believing that it’s happened by chance.

Lukas thinks for a moment. “No, I didn’t ask. I’ll find out and will let you know.”

I purse my lips and look up at him, unsure why he didn’t think to ask…..but I nod my head, hoping that the reason the guards were pulled away was legitimate. We’ll see soon enough.

Lukas and I leave the grounds of the burnt cottage and start heading home. I feel a sense of dread loom over me, feeling like something sincerer is going on.

“Nothing’s been proven yet Ali.” Athena says to me. “However I agree that something is going on. Let’s not get worked up about it until the ones who were watching and were called away get back about what they were called away to.”

I know she’s right, but I just can’t shrug the feeling off. I look up to Lukas as we walk, noticing he’s mind-linking someone as his eyes are as dark as coal. We continue to walk towards the pack house and I see his eyes return to normal, followed by a deep frown appear across his face.

“Who was that?” I ask, hoping that he got the information he needed.

“I just spoke to Josh, one of the guards keeping an eye on Elijah’s place. He told me who it was who pulled him away for the few minutes between them leaving and the fire starting.”

He doesn’t say anything for a few moments so I prod him slightly. He sighs heavily.

“It was Emma that called them away.”