45. FORTY

FORTY

Lachlan

Dissatisfactionplowedmybrows low over my eyes. I hated not being near Wren, and I hated not knowing if the rest of the guys were okay. I was glad Kian had Nightshade with him since we knew that he would be facing the necromancers today, but I wished I could be with one of them to help.

They were my new pack.

I ran a hand through my curls with a sigh.

“Lachlan,” Dad said, and my spine jerked upright as I clicked my gaze with him. “Your mate will be fine, son.”

I nodded, lowering my gaze before covering my face with my hands and sighing again. “There’s something I need to tell you before we go.” My chest tightened. “I saw Lily.”

Dad’s brows shot up.

Mom gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

“Because at first I didn’t know if it was really her, and then I found a journal in the human facility.”

Dad’s brows edged closer together as he listened to me, and Mom’s eyes simmered with something like anger.

“The journal was written by her. She’d been experimenting on werewolves, torturing them.”

The sting registered before I realized my mother’s hand had cracked against my cheek.

Dad gripped her arm and jerked her back. “What are you doing?”

“He kept the fact that my daughter was alive from me!”

“He’s your son!”

Mom jerked out of his hold, glaring at me. “I don’t care what you saw in those journals at the facility. My Lily would never do anything without a purpose.”

“I knew you’d understand, Mom.” Lily’s voice hit the air, and we turned.

Tears welled up in both of my parents’ eyes, but Mom was the one who flung herself at my sister.

“I was so worried! I can’t believe you’re here.” Mom sobbed as she held her. “How did you find us?”

“It’s time!” Alpha announced, and we paused our little family reunion to stare at him. “Let’s go.”

Our pack started to move from the camp toward the facility, but we stayed put.

Air stalled in my lungs as I stared at the reunion unfolding in front of me.

“All I wanted was for our family to be together again.” Lily’s voice was soft, and her gaze held hope. “The humans promised me that they would always leave us alone as long as I gave them his mate.”

“His mate?” Dad’s gaze narrowed at her, and my chest tightened.

Hearing that my very own sister, my twin, wanted to do away with my mate hurt.

“I love her, Lily. I am nothing without her. If you hurt her, you hurt me.”

“But I’m your twin. I’m a piece of you. Not her!” Tears poured down her face as Mom shook her head at me.

“How could you?”

“We aren’t going into war. They won’t hurt us,” Lily said cryptically. “But I am sorry for this.” She raised her hand before letting out a piercing howl.

Then chaos ensued.

Human specimens started rushing out of nowhere, and I had no idea how we didn’t notice them before.

The specimens grabbed our pack members and tore into them.

“What did you do?”I bellowed.

“She didn’t do anything!” Mom defended her, hate sizzling from her gaze.

“She just ordered an attack on our entire pack!”

“But not on us,” Mom said, certainty in her tone. Dad shook his head slowly, stepping beside me.

“You’re still acting on the human’s behalf, but you have your family back. You don’t have to act like this,” Dad said. “You didn’t have to sacrifice our pack like this.”

“It’s a fair fight.” She shrugged, watching our pack members fight against the specimens without blinking.

Even I couldn’t say that they were holding their own very well. My skin felt prickly listening to my sister and the delusions she spread.

“We can go back to the village now and just live together as a big happy family.” Lily’s face spread with happiness as she smiled at us.

“We’re never going to be a family again,” I snarled. The person in front of me looked just like my sweet sister, but she was completely different. There was none of the old Lily within her.

“Whose fault is that?” Mom snapped. “If you had just kept your sister safe—”

“Mom!” Lily shouted, pushing Mom away from her. “It wasn’t his fault. He tried. He was just a kid just like me.”

Bile crept up my throat, but I swallowed it down as it burned. “I won’t let you do this.”

“Then you’ll have to kill me because I have to do what I know is right.”

“And what is right, Lily?” Dad asked.

She smiled and glanced around the camp that was filling quickly with death. “The werewolves aren’t good, so they need to go. They have the gift, and they abuse it.”

“How do they abuse it?” Dad’s tone was questioning but tinged with disbelief as he stared at her.

Lily ignored him, her gaze trained on me. “Your mate has so many mates, she won’t even notice that you’re gone.”

I reeled back at the lack of logic or compassion within my twin. “Why don’t you tell our parents how you tortured our kind?”

She nodded. “That’s how I found out that we’re inferior to humans and must die.”

“So why are we allowed to live?” I asked. “We’re werewolves.”

“Oh, we’re not.” She shook her head. “But I figured we could at least die together as a family back at the village.”

That was what made my mother’s face drop. “Lily.”

I glanced down and noticed the blade in Lily’s hand, and I rushed forward, knocking into her, my shoulder smacking against hers until she lost balance, and I gripped her wrist to take the blade so she couldn’t kill our mother.

Before I could get the blade out of her grasp, a sharp pain exploded in the back of my head. Spots blackened my vision as I dropped to my knees.

“What the fuck?” Dad shouted, and I glanced back to see my mother behind me, holding a large rock.

The familiar tingle of my healing settled in the back of my skull as I stared at my mother. My mother who had essentially tried to kill me. Our heads were where our weak spot was.

“What did you do to my brother?” Lily screeched before throwing herself forward and embedding the blade in Mom’s throat.

Mom’s gaze widened as she stared at Lily, not sparing me a glance. Her shaky hand rested against Lily’s cheek as she smiled, blood oozing down the blade and over Lily’s hand as the scent of her blood permeated the air.

“No one hurts him but me. We’ll join you soon, Mom,” Lily promised, pressing a kiss to our mom’s forehead before pulling the blade out and letting her fall onto the ground.

A broken howl exploded from my dad, and sweat beaded around my hairline as panic clawed my throat.

With a flick of her wrist, Lily gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “We’ll join her soon enough.”

“What did they do to you?” Dad croaked, and Lily blinked a few times.

“What do you mean? They made me better.”

My heart twisted. “They ruined you.”

I couldn’t find the strength to get to my feet, and I would be forever grateful that when my twin raised that blade above my head, my father moved faster than I had ever seen him move before.

He grabbed the dagger and turned it in her hand until it shoved into her stomach and sliced sideways.

Her intestines slipped out of the new cut on her stomach, and her eyes widened. “You’re going to join us, right, Daddy? Right, Lachlan?” she asked, her eyes big and innocent as if she hadn’t been completely deranged.

Dad nodded. “Sure, Lily.”

Her gaze darkened, and her body went slack as Dad pulled the dagger out, and Lily fell to the ground. “Get up, Lachlan. There are specimens everywhere, and we need to help our pack.”

He held his hand out, and I took it quickly. I stood on my feet, and my body swayed, still a little woozy from the blow to the back of my head.

“We will mourn our family later. For now, we need to fight.”

“Thank you.” I gaped at him, still shocked that he’d chosen my side.

“Don’t thank me for saving my own son.”

I placed my hand on his shoulder and squeezed, knowing there would be a lot to unpack later. “Let’s end this war.”