Forgiveness

Jaxon

~Sniff. Sniff.~

~Human.~

~Human is food.~

~Food is survival.~

~Survival is good.~

~Survival is everything.~

Harper

~Where on earth could Jax be?~

I was proud of my tracking skills.

I’d always been good at it.

Whether it was an animal or human trail, if it was less than a couple of days old, I could follow it.

But Jax’s trail was patchy, with lots of unexpected twists and turns.

It didn’t help that most of the trees in the valley had been cut down or burned.

Without their cover, there was no shield from the wind.

I couldn’t afford to waste time, or I might miss the last hint of a footprint or a disturbed leaf.

Wherever Jax was, he clearly didn’t want to be found.

His trail had led me to a place most wouldn’t dare to go.

Beggar’s Bluff.

The barren hills of this desolate place used to be home to a pack that died out over a hundred years ago.

The Blueblood Pack.

These wolves were the wealthy kind. Unlike other wolf packs, they’d managed to fit in well with the human world, making their fortunes as Wall Street tycoons, business moguls, and successful entrepreneurs.

I’d heard that these wolves built their summer homes here in the Pack Lands to keep their claim over their ancestral lands, stopping other packs from taking them over on the grounds of abandonment.

Instead of having one Pack House, the Bluebloods built their own individual homes, filled with every imaginable luxury.

But then the Great Depression hit. It emptied the wallets of these rich werewolves and drove them into poverty.

When their homes in the human world were taken back by the banks, they retreated to the Pack Lands and lived as squatters in their own houses, hoping their debt collectors wouldn’t find their hidden mansions.

Sadly, they weren’t so lucky. One day, they woke up to see a line of government bulldozers on the horizon. They barely escaped with their lives as the smoke-spewing machines turned their palaces to dust.

Unable to adjust to the hardships of living off the land, the whole pack soon died out.

Ghost stories about the spirits of these unfortunate wolves kept pups from venturing to the outskirts of the Pack Lands.

But as I wandered the hills, I saw no ghosts.

I saw no signs of life or death.

Jax’s trail had gone cold.

I’d run out of places to look.

~Come on, Jax. Give me a sign.~

Just then, I heard a low, menacing growl.

I reached for my bow and quickly strung an arrow.

Carefully, I turned around, looking for the source of the noise.

But it stayed hidden as it only got louder.

Then, suddenly, the growling stopped, leaving only the sound of the lonely wind stirring up dust.

~Weird.~

I sniffed the air.

There was a faint, but familiar smell on it.

~Interesting. It almost smells like—~

~SMACK!~

Before I could finish my thought, a powerful force hit me from my right and sent me rolling down the hillside.

Whatever had hit me, stuck to me the whole way down, its claws dug into my shoulders and thighs.

As we stopped at the bottom of the valley, I quickly kicked the creature off of me and stepped back to gather myself.

The beast yelped in pain as it slid into the dirt.

As it struggled to its feet, I saw where my bow had landed, and I ran over to grab it.

I dove for the bow just as my attacker started to charge me.

As I scrambled to string an arrow, I heard the creature’s feet leave the ground.

It was going to jump on me.

Without thinking, I rolled over and stuck my bow out.

The wild animal landed right on my weapon, trying to bite through to get to my face.

As I fought to keep its sharp teeth away, I got a good look at the animal.

It was a werewolf.

I gasped.

And not just any werewolf.

I knew him well.

It was my Alpha.

~No… This can’t be.~

There was no intelligence in its eyes.

No wisdom.

No emotion.

They were cold and black.

It was like it was a machine. And I was just more fuel to feed it.

It was Jax.

There was no way to escape this monster without killing it.

The wolf bit into my bow, trying to break it in half.

With his jaws firmly attached to the wood, I was able to use the creature’s own weight to roll myself on top of him. I pinned the wolf to the ground between my legs. It was mine.

As it continued to desperately chew through the bow, I reached for the knife in my belt.

With frantic speed, I drove the knife toward the creature’s neck.

It moved its head, causing the knife to miss its throat and make a deep, bloody cut in the left side of its neck.

The wolf let out a pained howl.

The wolf used my moment of surprise to wriggle out from under me and limp away into a patch of dead grass.

I listened closely to the sound of his howl.

There was no doubt about it, this was Jax.

He'd gone completely wild. There wasn’t any trace of humanity left in him at all.

But that didn’t matter.

I had to catch him.

Whether there was any hope of bringing him back to his old self or not, I had to bring him home alive.

But first, I had to catch him.

Quinn

I cried in my mother’s arms.

It felt so good to be wrapped in her warmth.

I couldn’t remember the last time we’d just hugged each other.

Not since before I ran away.

But even then, she was always sparing with physical affection.

Now, I felt like I could stay in her loving embrace forever.

After fighting back the tears, I finally managed to speak.

“Mom…wh…what are you doing here? How did you get here?”

She gave me a warm, gentle kiss on my wet cheek.

“Your buddies told me you were in trouble. From here on out, whenever my girl needs me, I’ll be there. Doesn’t matter when. Doesn’t matter where.”

“What happened to me?” I asked, confused. “Feels like I’ve been out cold for a lifetime.”

Beyond my mom’s shoulder, I saw Theodore step up.

“Matheius did this to you. He messed with your head, made you forget things. Made you believe we were the ones who drove a wedge between you and Jax.”

I gasped.

None of this rang a bell.

Isabelle moved to stand next to her brother.

“Looks like he must’ve overheard your plan to confront him. He was probably trying to take you out before you could even get going.”

My heart pounded with fear.

The thought of Matheius controlling my mind without me even realizing it was terrifying.

“Selena said the only way to get your memory back was to bring your mom to you,” Isabelle went on.

“You traveled all this way…to rescue me?” I asked, stunned.

The last time I saw my mom, she was pointing a shotgun at me.

I never thought I’d see her again after that.

Especially not as my hero.

“Quinn…” my mom said, her voice choked with tears, “after your dad passed away, I dedicated my life to making sure you wouldn’t meet the same end. You were so much like him; it scared me to death.”

Mom took my hand and squeezed it tight.

“I did everything I could to keep this world away from you. But despite my best efforts, it found you. When you accepted it…I felt betrayed. Like all my love and protection meant nothing.”

“Mom, none of it ever replaced you,” I told her.

“I couldn’t spend the rest of my life locked up in a tiny room. I never expected to stumble into all this. This life has given me excitement, adventure, and friends. But it hasn’t given me a mother’s love.”

Mom sniffled and gave me a warm smile.

“I’ve been living with the guilt of what I did to you. I know I’ve made mistakes. Some of them are hard to believe. If you…could ever for—”

I leaned in and kissed my mom on the forehead, then nodded.

She didn’t need to say anything else.

In that moment, I felt all the tension between us melt away, leaving only the pure love of a mother and daughter.

After a long hug, I turned to Theodore, Isabelle, Alex, Zara, and Sky.

“Thank you all for saving me.”

“Not the first time,” Zara said, winking at me.

We all laughed, and I got up from the bed for a group hug.

“I’ll let Selena know you’re okay. She’ll be over the moon.”

After Theodore left, I turned back to my friends.

“Has anyone heard from Jax?”

Their faces fell.

“Harper went after him. She hasn’t come back.”

Her head dropped, heavy with worry.

I put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Harper’s a tough cookie,” I said, “I bet she’s fine. Probably still trying to find Jax.”

“I hope you’re right, Quinn,” she said, managing a weak smile.

“Quinn!”

Theodore rushed back into the room, panic written all over his face.

“Come quick! All of you, come quick!”

“What’s going on?” Isabelle asked.

“The time has come,” he said, his voice heavy. Theodore looked at me, tears welling up in his usually emotionless eyes. “She’s dying, Quinn. Our goddess is dying.”