“My mother was the daughter of the Colorado alpha.”
She nodded. “That much I’ve gathered.”
“The Nightwolf pack and the Ferguson pack did not get along. They were bitter rivals for centuries. No one truly knows how it started. Some say it came from a dispute over land at the Colorado and New Mexico borders.”
I shrugged.
“The Nightwolfs weren’t friendly with many packs since we were known for taking land and overtaking packs. But when my father met my mother for the first time in their adolescence, he knew she was his mate.”
“Wow, they were like the werewolf version of Romeo and Juliet,” Reese said, sounding excited.
“Who?”
“Romeo and… please don’t tell me you don’t know Shakespeare.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t spend a lot of time in human school as a pup. The only time I was around humans for an extended time was when I began taking architecture classes.”
“We’re so going to watch that movie. The one with Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s so good. Anyway, keep going.”
I laughed, not fully knowing what she was talking about, but she amused me.
“My grandfather was viciously against their mating. But both of my parents persisted.”
“Just like Romeo and Juliet,” she hummed.
“My grandfather finally allowed them to be together without interruption after my father helped his pack seize the west part of their land from some bear shifters. Grandfather made my father promise to protect my mother and keep her safe. He promised.
“They fared well over the years. My mother had me, and a few years later came Chance. But my father couldn’t get his restless spirit to settle down. He was born into a pack that knew only war, raiding, and strife. He believed he could acquire more land to grow our pack and increase our investments. His philosophy was that the preservation and growth of the pack should come before all.”
“Even family?” Reese asked.
I sighed. “He believed the two were one and the same. My mother was hesitant. She had two young pups to think about. She wasn’t as hungry for pack growth. But my father was persuasive and convinced her it would be good for all of us. We ended up going to war with the few packs that remained here in the Southwest and taking over their land.
“What my father didn’t know was that one of those packs was related to the alpha of a Carolina pack. One night, while my father hunted, he was caught off guard by this alpha and his guards. They kidnapped him.”
“Oh no.”
“They kept him alive but tortured him viciously. They would send my mother pieces of his body.”
Reese clasped her hand over her face. “That’s horrible.”
I nodded but continued. “My mother couldn’t live knowing that her mate suffered so terribly. She gathered his betas and devised a plan to go in and rescue him. She planned to kill all of the Carolina pack in the process.”
“Your mom sounds kinda badass,” Reese interjected.
“She was.” I shook my head as the sadness overtook me. It’d been years, but I still ached for my parents, despite mixed feelings about my father’s behavior.
“She did exactly what she intended to do. My father had taught her well. My mother led our pack to destroy almost all the Carolina pack and rescue my father. Unfortunately, one of their packmates killed her in the process.”
Reese squeezed my hand and ran her palm up and down the length of my forearm. That was more comforting than any words she could’ve said.
“My father was barely alive by the time we got to him. After learning about my mother’s death, he was devastated. He gave up and died soon after we brought him back home. I was enraged that both of my parents had lost their lives. By our standards, they were considered young. They had barely lived a century. I vowed to avenge their deaths.
“I dropped out of architecture school and gathered the strongest fighters of my pack. We went after the alpha of the Carolina pack, who, by that time, relocated down to Florida. He went into hiding once he found out I was looking for him. Chance sniffed him out and followed his scent down the coast. He and his mate and a few of their pack lived there.”
I grew silent, thinking back on that extremely bloody and gruesome time. I didn’t want to say out loud the things I’d done. Shame warred with pride in my chest. On the one hand, I did what my father raised me to do. I avenged my pack and destroyed all of our enemies. But, my rational side knew that my pack had started that war. My father’s bloodlust for more—more land, a larger pack to reign over, more resources, all led to that ending.
“You killed them,” Reese whispered.
