Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 176 Ava: Attending the Rites

Odd? How so?

Selene's soft whine catches Kellan's attention. "We'll be there soon. Will she be okay?"

It doesn't seem that he realizes the dog is not actually a dog. "She's fine."

| thought | had all my memory, but when I try to think back, everything is fuzzy. Even my own ndoesn't

cto mind.

My head aches at the thought of trying to unravel that. What kind of memories? From becoming a dog?

Not exactly. My past life. My identity. Many things... Things | thought | remembered. Vanessa's words sound

familiar, but | cannot access the memories. It feels important.

That just sounds... Yeah. She's right. It's odd.

How long have they been missing?

Silence.

Then, | don't know. Forever.

Leaning down, | rub at Selene's head. It'll be okay. I'm sure we'll figure it out. But we both know my promise is

hollow. | have no way of keeping it.

Selene whines again, resting her head on her paws as she stays beneath my chair. Ava, am | a detriment to you?

Of course not. My denial is swift and from the heart. But... | think we might make bad decisions together.

Her mood plummets; | can feel it in the back of my head. Like Lucas and his wolf, as children.

Scratching behind her ears in gentle consolation, my heart is buoyed when she leans against my touch. You have

givenmuch strength by being here. We'll figure it out together.

Together, she confirms, but that insecure edge to her words is still there.

* kK

Nerves have my knees so weak, my walk resembles the wobbling of a cooked noodle.

But | make it to the pack lands as twilight hits. The entire place is like a ghost town.

No lights on.

No people.

No signs of life at all.

Not until we make it to a large field deep in the forest, filled with people. Sare in wolf form. A few are naked.

Others are clothed.

We're the only ones to drive; everyone else used four paws to get here.

My stomach clenches, twisting painfully in my gut as | see so many of them turn in our direction, surprised by

our arrival.

Selene presses against my leg; Kellan hadn't wanted to bring her, but I'd insisted she come.

Grief makes this air thick, she whispers, slinking out of the car with her tail low.

I've never seen her with such insecure body language. She usually struts about with confidence, tail high and

head erect... But | feel the sway.

Like I don't belong.

Filled with shame.

There are eighteen pyres, and my heart sinks. Lucas hadn't mentioned that three more people had died in the

hospital.

No sound breaks the silence, save for the occasional mourning keen. There are no words to be said. No

platitudes.

Only a crowd of bodies surrounding the pyres, the entire clearing bathed in the darkening edge of twilight.

Kellan stays close to my side as we make our way to the back of the crowd. His hand rests on the small of my

back, guidingwith gentle pressure as he points or tugsin different directions as he leadsthrough the

throng of mourners.

We finally settle on a place near Jericho, who stares grimly ahead, his jaw clenched. Even his weathered face,

marked by countless scars, can't hide the sorrow etched into his features.

The entire mood is somber, a heaviness pressing down on my chest until it's hard to breathe.

Standing here, surrounded by the weight of so much loss, I'm hit with the price of my willfulness, of my blind

demand for independence. How many of these deaths are on my hands? How many lives were lost because of

my selfish choices?

All of them.

Every single one.

My heart aches for Lisa, trapped in the clutches of a madman, but it bleeds for the dead. For the families left

behind. For the pack that will never be whole again.

Tears burn behind my eyes, but | blink them back. | have no right to cry, not when my actions have caused so

much pain. Not when I've been so focused on my own desires that | didn't stop to think about the consequences.

Kellan's hand tightens on my back, and I glance up at him. His face is a mask of stoicism, but | can see the

cracks in his armor. The way his eyes shine with unshed tears. The tightness around his mouth.

"I'm sorry," | whisper, my voice barely audible over the soft keening of the mourners.

He looks down at me, his brow furrowed. "For what?"

"For everything. For being so selfish. For not thinking about how my choices would affect everyone else."

Kellan stares at me, anguish clear in his eyes. His face. In how his lips curve down at my words.

Eventually, he turns away, staring ahead again. "It's not your fault, Ava. You didn't cause this. We were too

arrogant in the safety of our land."

But in my heart, | recognize the lie.

If I hadn't been at that party, those vampires wouldn't have gone there.

We might not understand why they would risk outright war... But we know what their goal that night was.

Perhaps another attack, on another day, would have happened.

But it wouldn't have been that day.

It wouldn't have been that place.

Facing this crowd—

Those pyres—

These lives, forever changed—

The weight of my guilt is crushing.

Selene presses against my leg, her warmth a small comfort in the face of so much sorrow. You couldn't have

known, she says softly, her voice echoing in my mind. You were just trying to find your place in the world.

But no longer is her voice confident.

No longer are her words a secure beacon, holdingabove my fears.

One person's place in the world should never be created at this cost.

No. It's tto stop this distance; tto give up the dreams of a quiet life in Cedarwood.

Reality isn't beautiful. It isn't pretty. It isn't idyllic.

Reality doesn't wait.

Life is unfair. Accepting that is my only way forward; my only way out of this quagmire of my own creation.

This is not Lucas' pack.

This is my pack.

And they're hurting.

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