21. Remy

Chapter twenty-one

Remy

While Remy was in her thoughts, Lykos and Bryan finished shifting back to their human forms. Lykos wore a scowl on his face when Remy looked in the rearview mirror. Remy frowned but didn’t speak a word. He was going to need a minute before he spoke. Changing forms was going to leave him tired and cranky. There were still a few bags of jerky in the backseat, but he made no move to get them. She watched him in the mirror and knew he would stew about what happened.

"That was a disaster," Lykos finally said with a gravelly voice.

Bryan grunted in return. Remy wasn’t sure what to say.

"The shit about the Old Ways is on my last nerve. If any of these people knew the history, they would know that the Old Ways did nothing but damage our kingdom. I don’t understand the appeal, and I don’t understand why people think this is the best option. Fenry could have met with all the alphas to sort this out. Instead, he has holed up inside of his territory and allowed everybody to destroy our kingdom to get what they want. Fifteen members of that pack are now dead. We cut down a pack by half within twenty-four hours because they wanted to focus on the Old Ways to regain control of their territory."

"That is what our kingdom has come down to. There is no fixing this. We can only return home and defend our home like Fenry does in his territory," Bryan responded.

Remy sighed. "I don’t understand it either. I know the dark dimension is the culprit behind this. Their blood was black. I don’t know about you, but each opponent that I faced ended up with black eyes and black blood. That is a sign that the dark dimension was the true influence of what happened there."

Lykos snarled. "How do we stop this dimension from infecting everybody in this kingdom?"

"I wish I knew. Kaida could destroy any trace of it with her power, but she isn’t available to come here. I also don’t know what her magic would do to us."

"Dragons coming here? That is preposterous. That wouldn’t happen."

Remy shrugged her shoulders. "Kaida would come here for me. I don’t know what she could do, though. The only way to destroy it is by closing the opening here. The problem is, we have covered half the territories in our kingdom, and I still haven’t seen where it is opened."

"It could be in the heart of the woods. We never go there while traveling to other territories," Bryan suggested.

Remy nodded but wasn’t sure how to navigate that. The packs under its influence wouldn’t be open to surveying their land to find it.

Especially since they would rather take over the others.

"What if, when we get home, we have the pack survey the land?" Remy offered. If there is an opening, we need to know about it right now. My friend is the only person I know who can fix this for us. If we at least find and close the opening, we may kill off the dark dimensions’ hold on some of our people."

Lykos thought about that moment. "That may be the best option we have."

Once they felt clear from the pack following them, Remy pulled over to look through the trunk. Before they went into the meeting with Levi, her father mentioned throwing many of their belongings into the trunk in case this happened. It was clever of him to do so they would have everything instead of leaving it behind. They could put on new clothes and figure out the best way home. Lykos pulled out a map of the kingdom and found where they were currently. He frowned at the paper and looked around; the frown grew, and then he grunted.

"I don’t like the look on your face," Remy told him.

"I don’t like being in this part of the kingdom."

Remy peered over his shoulder and recognized where they were. It was not a good area. Rogues had overrun this part of the kingdom so that no one could claim it. Many had tried, but all had failed. She remembered, when she was a kid, her father talked about taking their pack down here to get rid of the packs and break up the land for others to claim to broaden the territories. None of the pack wanted to join him outside of her brother.

Her heart hurt to think about that.

If Kodi had been there today, he would have fought valiantly with them. He was an amazing fighter and would have laid out half that pack himself. Lykos must have read her mind through the bonds because he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

"I know. I miss him, too."

"I wouldn’t have to worry about taking over the pack if he was still around."

Lykos chuckled. "I think you two would have duked it out."

"Ha, no. I would have been mated off to someone to create an alliance with a pack if he was still around."

Lykos glared down at her. "Stop that, now. I am not like that bastard who rejected you. A female in any pack has the right to become its Alpha. If a woman does not have her mate but she is powerful enough to lead a pack, then so be it. That is you. You are smart, cunning, and powerful. You will lead every pack someday."

Remy rolled her eyes. "Stop. I don’t need smoke blown up my ass. I know you aren’t like him, but I know that is how to make alliances. The only reason Chase has agreed to an alliance is because I am his mate."

"Chase is a smart man. He recognized the opportunities for his pack if he aligned himself with us. The bonus was you were his mate."

Bryan grabbed the map and rolled it up. "Enough with your special moment. We need to make our way through this area to get home. It is the fastest way back."

"Are we going to cut through that forest?" Remy pointed at the thick forest before them. The road narrowed to one lane and went through the dense forest.

Bryan nodded. "The other road," he jerked his thumb to the road behind them, "goes right back the way we came. That doesn’t feel like the best option to me. If we go through there, it leads right to our territory from the side. That will minimize the chances of running into another pack. That is the best thing for us with the way things are going. I’m tired of fighting and don’t think I have the energy to continue."

Remy and Lykos nodded. He was right. They couldn’t continue with the fighting. They have very limited supplies even to get them through the last part of this road trip. From what the map looked like, there were no gas stations along the way to stock up on food or to get more supplies, either. There were no packs here, so they could not stop for any rest or food that way. The only way home was through; that was how they would do it. Remy stretched out her body and gave the two men a look.

"I am taking the back seat. You two can drive."

Lykos didn’t argue. "You need more rest than us. Pulling on the pack bonds to shift may have drained us, but you can shift faster. If we ran into trouble, you would be the best weapon we could use to fight against them."

"I agree. After you eat one of those bags of jerky, take a nap. I’m pretty sure there are two other bags as well. We can take one each and then take shifts driving."

Without any further words, they all piled into the car. Remy did as she was told and scarfed down the bag of jerky as she was laid out in the back seat. Once her stomach was full of the dried meat, exhaustion took over Remy, and she drifted off to sleep.

When she woke up, it was pitch black outside, and the headlights were the only light to give them some idea of where they were coming from. As far as she could see with the assistance of her night vision, there were nothing but trees. Remy’s stomach twisted at that thought. The last time this happened, they were ambushed. Lykos and Bryan were discussing their tour of the territories, and it didn’t really sound pleasant.

"We have a problem, Lykos. What if we get home and our home is in shambles?" Bryan asked him.

Lykos stared out the window and kept his hands on the steering wheel, "We would have felt through the pack bonds if there was an issue. I’m not concerned with those matters."

"Doesn’t our enemy’s next plan involve attacking the heart of our territory? They have been tracking us somehow and attacking us every step of the way. It is like the Dark Dimension is some kind of hive mind. It knows where we are and has its people stationed to bring us down."

Remy scoffed, alerting them that she was conscious. Bryan turned to her, "Is the Dark Dimension a hive mind?"

Remy shrugged. "Not that I know of."

"That’s not helpful."

"What do you want me to do? I don’t have a lot of information on this damn thing. I know a dimension has been opened, and a bunch of aggressive smoke has come out that can take over people’s minds. It made people lose control of themselves and unlocked their animal instincts. That’s all I’ve got."

"Wonderful. We have an enemy that we don’t even know all the information needed to kill it."

"I gave you the information on how to kill it. My friend Kaida is the only one who can close the opening on the island. When she finds out who the infected person is, she can wipe out the rest of it on the island."

"That isn’t a lot of information. How did it open?"

"I’m pretty sure a Witch who went to the dark side is the one who opened it. How? I have no clue. Not even Adrien knows."

Bryan tilted his head to the side. "And Adrien is?"

"My friend who is a Witch."

Bryan looked at Lykos, who shrugged, and then back at her. "Why are you friends with a Witch? It’s bad enough you are friends with a Dragon."

"I’m friends with a Vampyre and a Faerie as well."

"I don’t know why you would do that to yourself. That sounds completely dangerous if you ask me."

Remy shook her head. "On the island, species don’t matter. Everyone is cool with everyone else. We were there because our mates didn’t want us. Sometimes, people have a similar reason for being rejected. We could bond over that experience, which helped us through the pain. I didn’t really remember why I was rejected, but Adrien kept me alive when she found me. I’d think twice about hating another species just because they are different. I would have died if Adrien thought that way."

Bryan huffed at her. "I’m not saying they are all bad; I am saying that, as a whole, the other species feels the same way that I do right now. Some are amazing. Most are going to hate you for not being one of them."

"Not what I experienced on the island."

"You’re not on the island anymore, Rem. Here, things are clearly different."

Remy rolled her eyes. "I don’t see much difference now that the Dark Dimension has its hold on our kingdom. People are killing one another for the stupidest reasons."

"Fighting over territory has been a thing in this kingdom since it was created," Lykos told her.

Remy shook her head. "Meanwhile, look at all this land. You said so yourself, years ago, that it would be best for the kingdom to come here, get rid of the rogues, and then divide the land up to those around it. There is merit to that idea. Even approach the rogues and offer to join the packs so that they can finally have the resources they need."

Lykos smiled at her in the mirror. "You might be onto something."

The conversation ended as Bryan made himself comfortable and drifted off to sleep. With one person not alert, Remy kept her eyes peeled. Her father kept the car moving at a good pace, but it wasn’t fast enough to get them through this forest fast enough. The darkness within the forest didn’t allow her to see too far past the road and into the lines of trees. Remy found herself praying to the Moon Goddess to watch over their car.

Then, a weird tingle went through Remy’s body. It started in her chest and worked her way into her soul. Remy looked out each window she could get to until she was satisfied that no one was around the car. The car slowly came to a stop, and Remy looked at her father. He was staring straight ahead, and his face was twisted in anguish. Remy followed his line of sight, and her jaw dropped to the floor. Standing in front of a fork in the road was someone the both of them thought was dead.

Kodi Howell was alive.