Chapter 20 Aftermath

The Bibre Cruors' human blood provider arrived two days later, with Anjael and Ouro's allies; Alec was a military medic turned nurse and the other, Wicce and Catholic Priest named Justus, who was also a therapist specializing in PTSD. The two humans and Wicce worked as tirelessly as Ouroboros and Anjael to help the pack recover from its trauma, but they still lost five more to suicide. Alpha Abel still had not woken and Beta Ethridge did everything he could to try to hold the broken back together. His sister Heather was now the Beta female after their parents' deaths, but she often would just stop and stare for long periods with tears running down her face. The force of her brother's will kept her from joining her mate, child, and their loved ones in the fields of the Moon, as the werewolves called their afterlife.

Early on the fourth day, Anjael and her fosterling-feeder Jake made breakfast for the remaining survivors while Ouro tried to talk Ethridge into going to bed.

"You need your rest, Beta Ridge."

"Not until Abel wakes up." Ridge refused. "I can't... I won't wake up to that feeling again." He referred to the sensation of feeling one of his pack mates dying by his own choice.

"You are exhausting yourself trying to keep all of them alive. If you collapse, it won't do any of them any good," Jake admonished him. "If they are going to kill themselves to join their loved ones, you can't stop it, only delay it."

"I can keep them from killing themselves until they adjust." The werewolf gave the human a glare that drew a growl from Anjael.

"My niece's thrall is correct, but you," Ouro held up his hand to stop Ridge's objections, "Are also correct. They need time to accept that they lived while their loved ones did not. Survivor's guilt is something they all have to work through with Justus, Alec, and Jake. Something even you have to work through."

"I'm fine," Ridge snarled. "I have to be fine." He turned and stomped out.

Ouro watched him leave with a stoic expression.

"He reminds me of Nigel," Anjael commented quietly as she took a baking tray of bacon out of the oven without an ovenmit because it was just easier. Ouro cast a glance at her.

"Momster! Really?" Jake scolded her.

"Jake, honey, I can't be burned." Anjael reminded as she pulled out trays of biscuits.

She quickly filled serving dishes with meats and hot biscuits while he emptied pans of scrambled eggs into chafing dishes. They carried the pans and trays to the pack dining area. Ridge was forcing everyone to come and eat. Brother Justus spoke to them about survivors guilt and after the meal he encouraged them all to talk about what they experienced and who they lost. Then he had them talk about a happy time they all shared, encouraging them to focus on the memories before the attack. Ridge stood against the back wall, holding his sister in his arms as she cried. Anjael ached for them all as she followed Ouroboros to the makeshift hospital ward with a tray of plates for the bed bound patients and Alec. The old medic grinned as she sat down and devoured the food. She murmured around bites of bacon and eggs to Ouro about how the patients were doing, while Anjael passed out the trays. She brushed her nails through his dark hair as she passed by Abel's bed. She could smell Lycaon's blood in his veins. She knew the rest of his bloodline still lived in Vermont, but she couldn't bare for him to die and take his resemblance to her long-lost lover away.

"Wake up, Abel. Please, don't leave me just yet," she murmured as she sat down, with her hand brushing the hair above his ear.

His eyes cracked open, but again it was his wolf looking at her, there was none of his human mortal side's awareness.

"Hello, Abel's beast. Welcome back to the land of the living. It's been three days." She smiled gently, pulling her hand away but he turned his head and pinned it to the pillow with his cheek. She left it there as he sniffed and licked it with a whimper.

"Abel, I need to lick your wounds to help you heal faster, may I? Cruor saliva has healing properties."

Whimpering slightly, he nodded, and licked her wrist again before Anjael started on his wounds. She rolled him over and licked his back, grateful for the numbing and healing properties of Bibre Cruor saliva. It made her inner demoness very happy to groom and care for him. When she finished, and rolled him on his side, Abel's beast reached out and held her hand to his heart then sank into a deep slumber. Ouro and Alec came over so Alec could change his I.V. bag.

"His wolf woke up, but his mortal wasn't there," Anjael revealed.

Alec shook her head. "Justus told me they used sorcery of some kind to subdue their wolves so they couldn't fight back as effectively. The males were made to watch as they... you know... the females." Ouro put his hand on her shoulder as she continued, "Then they made the males fight to the death in a pit they made out of the pack pool. The males were told if they won, their females wouldn't be killed." She inhaled sharply then asked, "Can we do something for them? Do the same thing you did for me?"

"You mean kill their attackers in front of them? We already did that," Anjael revealed, "And I burned the bodies. Only the hides are left."

Alec leaned into Ouro, who hugged her and said, "Did it help you so much?"

"Yes, Lord Ouro, it did. To burn their bodies after what they did to me and how they killed my wife... I know revenge isn't the best plan, but it gave me closure." Alec walked away to check her other patients.

"Abel waking is a good sign. He is healing and didn't suffer any organ failure from being so dehydrated and tortured." Ouro looked down on the young Alpha. "I will discuss a burning of the hides with Justus."

"The sooner the better. I want them to start moving forward."

"Blood of my blood, not everyone has your drive to escape the aftermath of a trauma." He walked away.

When Anjael tried to withdraw her hand, Abel growled and squeezed it tighter. She brushed the fingertips of her other hand over his face. "I'm here, I'm not leaving, and I promise I will never leave you or your bloodline unprotected again."

/\^^^/\

***Trigger Warning- Trauma, depression, suicide attempt***

Abel woke again, mostly healed and much stronger, he went to evening meal with the others, but it was clear that his wolf was in control and not his skin side. Watching him sniff and hug or lick his packmates and their reactions of grief and relief gave Anjael and her allies cautious hope. Brother Justus came in and had a meeting with them all. Three-times-a-day group therapy sessions and one-on-one time kept several survivors from ending their lives. The physical scars were healing but the mental and spiritual ones would linger as Anjael knew all too well because her soul carried the scars her stone flesh never would.

Justus announced, "It has been suggested by Nurse Alec that we have a bonfire. As you know, Lady Anjael saved the hides of those who attacked you. We were wondering if you all would like to gather and burn them together as a physical sign that they can no longer harm you and you are taking control of your lives back." He offered the opportunity to give them agency in their recovery.

Ridge and Heather sat on either side of Abel, and stiffened as the Alpha growled, "Yes, burn them."

Justus appraised him for a moment then asked, "The Alpha has expressed his desire, what say the pack?"

Several males growled in agreement, but one timid female raised her hand. "Brother Justus, may... May I have a specific skin?" She trembled as tears filled her eyes and leaked out. Alec immediately went to sit beside her.

"We will accommodate you as best we can, Tetley," he promised.

Anjael looked around the room then announced, "Lord Dartanian, Lord Shishi, and I will make the preparations."

She walked out and looked at the other two cruor and Jake, "Well, how do we make this happen?"

Dart rubbed his chin, "May I suggest using the pool they used for a fighting pit?"

Shishi nodded in agreement as Jake added, "I don't think any of them will ever be able to swim in it again even if we scrubbed out the blood and filled it. We should tear it out and build a new one."

"Very well. Jake and Dart, please go to town and buy as much firewood and charcoal as you think we will need. Shishi, I will set up the chairs if you can please prepare the skins. Also see which skins the females want. Cut them in pieces if you have to so each has a piece of their attackers."

Dart and Jake nodded but Shishi started to bow. She gave him a grimace, "You know I don't care for that when we are alone with our family."

The Stone Lion-Dog Gargoyle just grinned at her sheepishly, "It is hard not to bow to you when you are such a generous and compassionate queen."

Rolling her eyes, she shook her head as Jake chortled and Dart smirked, then she waved her hand at them. "Get busy. We have an hour until sunset, and we need to do this before midnight."

/\^^^^/\

***Trigger Warning- Trauma recovery, Suicide attempt***

Standing around the empty pool, with the quarter moon peeked at them from above the horizon, like it wanted to witness the cathartic action the wolves of Lost Mine were taking. Abel took the torch from Ridge and held it up. Abel's wolf looked out from his skin's human eyes.

He growled out in guttural hatred then through the torch in the fire and howled as flames leapt skyward. All the wolves joined him. Every living pack member had a wolf hide or skin or pieces of several. As he watched them come forward, each spoke a few words of anguish or anger and threw the fur or skin pieces into the flames. When it came to Tetley's time, she sobbed almost inconsolably as she tried to throw the pieces into the center of the pool and into the flames, but they fluttered to her floor below her feet. Shishi hopped into the pool and picked them up for her.

"Please allow me to aid you, Tetley."

The glowing coals and intense flames did not bother him as he threw the scraps into the hottest part of the fire. Suddenly to everyone's shock, Tetley bolted forward and jump toward the flames, but Shishi was faster and leaped into the air. He caught her then scrambled out of the pool turned firepit. His stone skin was hot and started to burn her, so he handed her off. Tetley cried in Nurse Alec's arms as she carried the tiny she-wolf inside with Ouro following.

Her uncle clicked and whistled in the language of the Cruor, 'I will have to sedate her again. This is the second attempt today.'

'Do what you must.' Anjael noticed Abel starting to tremble and moved beside him as Justus talked quietly with the distraught shewolves who were clinging to each other in distress. "Abel, my beast? Are you okay?" Anjael murmured to him, but he growled at her. A thin sheen of sweat formed on his brow, but it was not from the heat of the fire in the cool desert night air. His grief was as strong as the acidic scent of a volcano belching ash and sulfur.

Heather was the last female to go. She threw a handful of several pieces into the fire, hurling insults at those wolves. "You could never satisfy or seduce a female because you were all so pathetic!" Then she raised the leader's skin over her head, "And I hope the moon's hounds treat you like you treated us. I hope they do to you what you and your mangy beast did to each of..."

She screamed as Abel's wolf knocked her down seizing the human skin of the leader of the rogues who killed his parents and mate. His wolf dragged it away from her, shaking it and standing on it to rip it into shreds. The Alpha wolf was obviously out of control in his grief.

Dart, Ridge, and several other males put themselves between the Alpha and the females of the pack. Several of the males were shaking and reeked of fear.

"It's okay, it's okay," Repeating the words softly, Anjael eased a male named Woods around the violent wolf and to the group.

The timid male had soiled himself, but she still hugged him to her side until she could stash him behind Dart's giant gargoyle. Carefully, she moved back toward Abel as she trilled and clicked for her uncle to bring a sedative for him. The wolf was tearing off and throwing shreds of skin into the fire.

"Abel?" Anjael stepped closer, "Abel, you're scaring your pack. Can you change and speak to me?"

He snarled ferally and flung the last scrap of the rogue leader's flesh where it sizzled like bacon above the roaring flames. His wolf glanced over at the moon just above the horizon and whimpered before it howled its song of grief. Anjael knew in that instant what he meant to do and that it would mean the death of his entire pack. She flung herself between him and the improvised firepit as she grew into her gargoyle. Her inner demoness shrieked at him to stop as his claws dug into the cement. Powerful legs propelled him toward certain death, but her wing knocked him back. Shifting to his warform, Abel charged forward but she caught him, grappling with him to stop his grief-driven madness. Her toe-talons dug into the concrete as she pushed him back. Holding his forearms and digging her talons in, she held him there as he snarled and howled demanding his own death.

"I won't kill you, descendant of Lycaon!" Her demoness snarled, "You do not get to die until you give me a child to carry on your lineage!"

"Death!" his warform growled out in almost human speech.

"No! You owe me, Alpha. Your Pack owes me." She wrestled him back from the edge.

He bit and kicked at her with his claws, but he could not cut her stone skin. Suddenly, Ouro grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, making Abel yelp, and injected him. Abel howled as he shrank to his skin. She shifted with him with tears running down her face, holding him against her as he sobbed.

"What do you want of me? Why won't you let me die?" He groaned in agony as he laid in her arms.

"Because I can't," Anjael ran her pearly nails through his sweat-soaked hair as she repeated, "You do not get to die until you have another child. You owe me for your pack's rescue. And you can't die until you give me what I want."

"You want our pups?" Heather panted out in horror from over her brother's shoulder.

Anjael looked at her. "Yes, I want all of you to have pups." She hoped her demand would give them a reason to live. "I will keep them in my clan, and you can go to your moon afterward."

For a moment, he stared at her in horror. "No..." He convulsed as he tried to change again to fight her, but Ouro injected him with a second syringe, and he fell unconscious.

Anjael shifted to her demoness and lifted him, carrying him inside.

"Was she serious?" Ridge asked as he backed his sister away from Ouro and Dart.

Ouro blinked at the Beta wolf that made him long for love again. "Yes, just as you are, Beta Eldridge. We are demons and we don't do anything for free. Your pack is beholding to us. The tithe of the first born is a not unexpected nor unreasonable request in this situation. You and your Alpha are first born, if I am not mistaken, and ours until you bear a child. We are only doing this to protect your lineage, as we always have, and through it protect ourselves."

Jake called out to Ouroboros, and he started to walk away, then turned back and growled deeply, "Lord Dartanian and Lord Shishi will tend the fire. Enjoy your evening but do not attempt what your Alpha and little Tetley attempted or else you will be made a thrall."

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