Chapter Fifty

June

"June."

I groaned, rolling over onto something hard and warm. That hard and warm something grunted.

"June, wake up."

Opening my eyes, my first view was Dom's chest. Bandages that looked like they needed changing.

I sat up. "Dom, your stomach! I'm so sorry."

Dom was sitting on our bed, already wearing pants and holding a plate of apple slices and toast.

"I'm fine, the bandages can come off now, it's been hours."

"I'll be the judge of that. If it was up to you there would have been no bandages at all," I said as I unwrapped his torso. "How long was I out?"

"Maybe three hours, but you told me to wake you when Kat was up and when Jerod left. Well, Kat just woke up, and Jerod is waiting on you before he leaves. Or rather, Carmine is making him stay to say goodbye."

I finished pulling away the last of his bandages. His wounds still looked tender, but a human would have been days, if not weeks, before this level of healing. A wolf's body was still a medical marvel to witness.

"Okay, no more bandages," I said.

"Told you so," Dom mused.

"Don't push it or I'll put them all back on," I teased. "Let's go say goodbye to Carmine and Jerod first. I'll want to spend a lot of time catching Kat up."

"Eat something first." Dom handed me the plate of toast and apples.

"Thanks." I took the plate, stuffing an apple slice in my mouth and then setting the plate on the bed long enough to locate a shirt and shorts. The pack probably didn't expect me to look presentable today, but I could at least wear clothes.

"Okay." I picked the plate back up and we started walking. "Let's go."

We left our small house, which probably wasn't going to be our house much longer since Dom was alpha now, and I was his luna. I looked around at the village as we walked down the main street, and Dom led us to the pack house.

It was odd to look at the untouched village, knowing the deep and bloody scars of battle that still littered the field just down the hill. Most of the pack should still be sleeping after a long night, despite the midday sun that shone overhead.

"Did you even sleep this morning?" I asked, popping another apple in my mouth.

"Jerod has been working in Evander's office and basement since the battle ended. Ryker, the dragon, helped burn the rogue bodies. Dani, the witch who came with him, cleansed the earth for us."

"You're avoiding my question," I said, starting on my toast.

"There, I see Carmine," Dom said, pointing to the front gardens of the pack house.

There she was indeed, still naked but lounging on a garden bench and probably as exhausted as the rest of us. She looked up as we got close.

"June." She stretched, yawning. "I wasn't napping. Promise."

I'd miss her terribly, the first wolf friend I'd ever made. She stood and I gave her a big hug. "Thank you for coming last night. We owe you and Jerod, big time."

"Nonsense, Evander was a stain in the wolf community. Any of my pack would do the same," Carmine answered.

"Are you leaving soon?"

"Yes, I can't wait to take mon amour back home. We have a ferry booked that we need to be on tonight," Carmine said.

"I'm going to miss you," I said.

"Oh, June." Carmine reached out to hold my hands in hers. "You haven't seen the last of me. And if only you'd put a damn phone tower out here, we could talk more!"

"Dom, is that something we can do?"

"I have no idea," he said. "But I'll look into it."

"Oh, and I need to make a request to the new alpha and luna of Moonpeak," Carmine said. "I request permission to bring unmated wolves for visits. After all, I found my mate here, maybe we can make some more matches."

"Permission granted," I squealed, giving her another hug. "But maybe wait until after we've cleaned up."

Carmine laughed. "Next summer, then. We have several teens I believe will be shifting this year anyway. I'll have a whole batch of horny wolves for you, how's that?

"Mon amour!" Carmine waved as Jerod, Dani the witch, and Ryker the dragon came out of the pack house.

"Jerod," Dom said. "All finished?"

"Yup." Jerod walked over to put an arm around Carmine. "I've got lots of new toys to play with, Ferdinand just took the last of Evander's stash for me. I can't say it wasn't exhausting to purge the house of the smoke, but the free ingredients are a definite bonus. Maybe I'm glad I got involved after all."

"You owe me, Jerod," Dani said. "And you still haven't told me where you've been since the fight in Seattle. Which reminds me—"

Dani turned to Dom. "I never got to thank you before you left. I can't say we met on good terms but you were there for the fight. So, thank you. And thank that bitch of a boss for me, I'd rather not see her myself."

Dom snorted. "Trust me, we wanted to fight Apollo as much as you did. And, we're even. You were here last night for whatever Jerod did to nullify Evander. If anything, we owe you an apology."

"Speaking of which," Jerod said, "that antimagic field is permanent. Or at least, it will last about a thousand years, so as far as you're concerned, it's permanent. The only real thing that can be done here now is cleansing."

"Which I did, by the way," Dani said. "The battlefield, the pack house, and most of the village, really. The bad-magic energy hanging around here was insane. No wonder these people were passively letting that dick get away with his weird behavior."

"Thank you," I said. "It's going to make it a little less uncomfortable to have to move into that place."

We looked up at the pack house for a moment. Yeah, I'd probably want to burn every piece of furniture Evander touched and replace it with new. Soon.

"Well, that's about that," Jerod said. "Ryker here probably wants to get his mate back to wherever they set up their love den."

"I do ," Ryker rumbled, slipping a hand behind Dani and grabbing a handful of her ass. "And you better not call me for bullshit like that again."

"Come now, you're not telling me it was too heavy for a dragon to hold." Jerod snorted. "Befvelzetah couldn't very well hold his eternal burden and drink the magic in the village at the same time, now could he?"

"Hmm." Ryker narrowed his eyes at Jerod. "Still, never again, warlock."

"Yes, yes, I owe you one." Jerod waved off Ryker's concerns with a hand as he turned to Dom. "Anyway, congrats, Alpha. We'll be going now. Good luck with everything, I suppose."

"You're welcome back any time," Dom answered. "Especially if this antimagic thing applies to you too."

Dani laughed and elbowed Jerod in the ribs. "That's what you get, you saucy asshole."

"All the same," Jerod said. "Goodbye, wolves of Moonpeak. I've got a very different bunch of wolves to go impress."

"Oui," Carmine said, leaning in and kissing Jerod's neck.

The warlock blushed, shocking me until I looked closer and saw the fresh teeth marks in his neck.

I grinned as I watched Carmine nudge the mark on her mate's neck.

"See you later, June. Dom." Carmine winked at us, and the odd mix of wolf, warlock, witch, and dragon walked down the hill and away.

"I can't say I'll miss them," Dom said.

"They did help us." I giggled. "Come on, I need to check on Kat."

I walked with Dom into the pack house and to one of the guest rooms we had set up for displaced and visiting wolves. And Doc's clinic was overflowing, so he'd moved his patients here to the first floor, where he could keep a close eye on them.

We passed by a room where I could clearly hear Doc sigh as Smokey cursed him out. It reminded me how close a call Smokey had really had, and it warmed my heart that he was well enough to swear at anyone now.

At the end of the hall, a shifted wolf lay in front of the last door. Guarding it silently and watching as we approached.

Dom kneeled, looking the wolf in his eyes. "June wants to talk to her. I know it's hard, Aaron, but she doesn't know anything about us yet."

Aaron growled lightly, but shifted enough that I could get through the door.

"Thank you, Aaron," I said. "Kat will get there in time, but let me have today with her, okay? She's been through a lot."

Yes, Luna , Aaron said. Naomi is in there too .

"That reminds me," Dom said. "My beta needs to get his ass in gear and help me with the village. Come on, let's take your mind off of it for now. She's safe, she's with your luna. That should be enough for now."

Aaron sighed and got to his feet. He didn't shift, but he reluctantly went with Dom, giving me some space to be with Kat.

Once they were around the corner, I knocked on the door.

"Kat? It's June."

"Come in." The voice wasn't Kat's, but Naomi's.

Kat was sitting up in bed, wearing a pair of Naomi's old pajamas. Someone had found her a hat too. I was glad; her head got cold when she wasn't wearing a wig. Naomi sat in a chair nearby.

"June." Kat sniffed. Her eyes were puffy; she'd been crying.

"Kit Kat." I sat on the side of the bed and took her hands in mine. "I'm so sorry you got dragged into this."

"It's my own fault for sticking my nose where it didn't belong," she whimpered. "Naomi filled me in. Sounds like you got mixed up by accident too. I still don't believe the werewolf thing entirely, but . . ."

"Kat." I sighed. "You turned last night."

"It feels like a bad dream," she answered, her voice shaking. "A really, really bad dream."

I hugged her tight. "I don't know what to do for you from here."

"I'm staying with you," she said.

I moved to look her in the eyes. "That's a big decision to make in one day."

But Kat wiped her face with her sleeve and shook her head. "It's easy. I don't have a job and we lost the apartment."

My heart stopped. "We what?"

"We were talking about finding a better one, anyway, and I had no idea how long you'd be gone. You were acting like it would be a while, and after I lost my job and the accident in the plaza happened and all, our landlady let me pay out our lease early. I used the money you sent me and the money I got from the new plaza owner. Oh! But our stuff is fine. I shoved it in a storage unit. I figured a hundred bucks a month is a lot easier to handle than a whole apartment with utilities. I just had such a strong feeling that I needed to come and find you."

"I'm just glad you're safe." I said. "Honestly, most of my stuff is replaceable, but I do have some things like my old picture album and the clock Granny left me and stuff like that. But you're more important, and you're safe."

Kat sniffed. "And since my family is all in Arkansas it's not like I don't still have a long way to go to see them either way. Canada, Washington, it's a plane ride or a really long drive regardless. At least now I can stay with you."

"You're lucky, Kat," Naomi said. "Evander is . . . was an evil and manipulative man. Chances are that you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Since you were bitten, he was probably waiting to see if you survived a shift, and if you had, you'd be in his house just like I was." She shivered.

"He's gone," I reminded her. "You have nothing left to fear from him. Besides, you have Nathan now."

Naomi's face took on a warm smile. "Yes, I have Nathan. And my sister, and all the others. They came back."

"They did," I said. "I guess this makes us neighboring lunas."

"I guess it does. I'm so glad Dom found you. He deserves all the happiness in the world after what's he's been through."

"We all do." I sighed. "And speaking of mates . . ."

"Whoa, hold that thought," Kat said. "Naomi told me about it, but I'm still not on board with it. Just . . . let's not use the term mates , okay?"

I sighed. "Okay, I understand. But we're going to have to do something about Aaron."

"I have a suggestion," Naomi said.

"Yeah?" Kat asked.

"Why don't we refer to Aaron as your blind date," Naomi said. "We can set up something simple, like maybe dinner tonight or lunch tomorrow. You can meet him as a date, something you're more used to, and from there you can choose to call him boyfriend or not. It's up to you."

Kat let out a sigh of relief. "Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot."

"I'll talk to Aaron, then." I grinned. "Thanks for the idea, Naomi."

"Of course, I'm happy it works for you." Naomi smiled, standing up. "Well, speaking of mates, I should go find mine."

"Tell him I said thank you for taking over our patrols while we dealt with the aftermath," I said.

"Oh, it's our pleasure. We're as happy that Evander is gone as you are. I hope to repair the lost bonds between Salt Fur pack and Moonpeak pack. We were close once. We even shared full moon runs and new moon picnics together sometimes."

"I can promise you, we want the same thing," I told her. "Thanks for all your help, Naomi. Would you like me to have the things from your old room boxed up and taken to Salt Fur?"

Naomi looked thoughtful for a moment, her eyes distant. When she looked up at me again she smiled. "Burn it all. Please."

I knew the sentiment. "I will."

That brought a wider smile to her face. "We'll see you later, June. Congratulations, Luna."

I gave her a wave as she left, closing the door behind her.

"We should get you some breakfast." I turned to Kat. "Or lunch, or something."

"I think I want clothes first," Kat said looking down at her pajamas. "Before you burn Naomi's old things, can I grab an outfit?"

I laughed. "I'll get you something for now and we'll get you a new wardrobe as soon as we can."

Kat smiled. "Okay. I'm going to shower then."

"Go for it. I'll run home and get you some things."

I left her to get cleaned up, and left the pack house.

"June," Dom said. He was waiting for me, leaning on the side of the building. "How is she?"

"She'll bounce back," I said. "Kat's a tough girl."

Dom nodded and pushed off the wall, coming over to hold me in his arms.

"Where's Aaron, I thought you had work to do?" I asked.

"I have him running the whole territory," Dom said. "He needs to run off a lot of energy and give Kat space."

I nodded. "Thanks for that. I know she'll come around, but she does need time. I'm just on my way home to get her some clothes, actually."

Dom frowned. "Give her something that covers a lot of skin. For Aaron's sake."

I laughed. "Okay."

"Come on," Dom said offering his arm. "I'll walk with you, my luna."

I smiled and looked out over the village. It was waking up to the aftermath of a terrible night, but little acts of life were already getting back to normal.

Chickens were being fed. Gardens were being weeded. Wolves were on their front steps, talking to neighbors. Visibly shaken, but recovering.

Moonpeak was now in our hands, and I would use my life to protect it.

"Let's go, my alpha," I said warmly.

And side by side, we walked through our village, a new era for Moonpeak ahead of us.