The more I watched the mother and son, the more agitated I became. Not because of them, but because of what they had gone through… and how Mr. Beaumont and Molly only felt bad now is due to them being caught. Otherwise, we’d be having a different scenario.

A low growl rumbled out of me and I noticed Mr. Beaumont leaned back, brows furrowed as he cautiously eyed me. My wolf eyes shimmered and my jaw clenched tight. I could sense that the other pack members stared wide-eyed, glancing nervously at their current alpha and his mother.

Shaking my head, I narrowed my eyes and growled that there was so much to say in so little time but right now the townspeople of Carmel were more important.

“I had every reason to turn against this pack,” I pointed out, glaring at Mr. Beaumont and his accomplice. “I could have ignored the warning about what was coming! I could have turned the other cheek after you banished me, and could have let that damn manic she-wolf kill every last one of you!”

Murmurs from the crowd only made me keep talking. I turned to face them, shaking my head that because I cared about them, I came back to Carmel! Even when they all had turned against my family—not so much me—they were so determined to hold onto their pride instead of trying to survive.

“You might not believe me…” I looked at the wary faces, some curious. “But by the time that army gets here… it will be too late!”

Facing the alpha family I sneered, “If you don’t warn the humans now, they will die!”

Again, the murmurs erupted but still I faced the alphas. Ridge slowly lifted his head, forcing himself to get it together. His mother remained close by him as the alpha stared at me. Those green eyes unreadable with my anxiety flowing but the alpha took a few short steps forward.

Despite the trouble he was in, Mr. Beaumont frowned, “Ridge…”. His son was quick to hold up a hand to silence the former alpha. His mother even shot Mr. Beaumont a look for the man to shut his trap.

When he was standing in front of me, I couldn’t tell what Ridge was thinking from the look he was giving me. His gaze lingered on my face, brows furrowing as he really looked at me. His lips parted, irises pulsing as they looked over my face again as his nostrils flared.

Ridge’s brows furrowed more, growling as he looked over his shoulder at the doctor and asked how long until what Ridge had been taking weened out completely. The doctor swallowed hard, glancing nervously at Mrs. Beaumont then back to Ridge. He replied in a stammer that it could take days, weeks or even months, depending on the dosage consistency.

When Mrs. Beaumont snarled, eyes shimmering, the doctor stammered again with a shaky finger up in the air.

“Per-per-perhaps tonight if I can get a lock of his actual mate’s hair. She—She would not affect him as the other female had.” He says this last part quickly, hearing the mother and son’s disapproving growls. “In—instead… the suppressant would have a backwards reaction. Making—making his natural instincts— return—return to their original level.”

When the doctor went quiet, Ridge sighed, brows furrowed again. He slowly turned to me and asked, “Is… Is that something you would want?”

In the first time, in such a long time since I’ve had decisions made for me, it was unexpected to hear someone ask me what I wanted. What would make me happy. Sure, my family and friends said I deserved to be happy but it somehow always came back to me wanting to make decisions so that they could be happy. So hearing Ridge ask me, if I even wanted for us to go back to where we were… it… it was considerate… and sweet.

Was it was best that, maybe, Ridge didn’t remember what we had? What happened between us that got us to this point?

After all, Ridge had gone through years of manipulative abuse at the hands of both his father and Molly. To now understand that Molly forced herself on Ridge—my blood boiled just thinking about it—since a young age… no matter that he was a boy… it was under the suppressant’s influence. Ridge was conscious but not entirely aware of what he was doing because of the suppressant mixed with the concoction that tied him to Molly.

I didn’t know what to say because I know I will always cherish what Ridge had given me in the short amount of time we had but is it better that he never remember them at all? Would remembering only confuse him more?

And right now I needed him to be an alpha focused on what was coming. He needed to defend this pack.

If I said ‘no’ to Ridge so he could work through what he’d had over the years… would it be the right thing? Or would giving him back what we had, be the right thing?

I licked my lips, shaking my head that I didn’t know. His green eyes lowered, slight disappointment in his face I noticed but he tried to hide it as Ridge nodded that it wasn’t important right now anyway. That I had been in the middle of warning him about the danger coming to Carmel.

With the understanding that this unfortunate turn of events needed to be placed on the back burner, I nodded and warned the alpha that the army was closing in, and that we needed to start evacuating the town immediately. I told Ridge that my dad and I could get a head start with my brothers.

“We need to sound the emergency alarm!” I instructed. “The one the humans recognize if Carmel’s under attack! We have to start alerting them at least until we get to town to explain what is happening!”

Ridge nodded, saying that he was going to go too. He let his mother know to start gathering the warriors on the front line while directing to the guards around his father and Molly that they were to put the latter two chained up in the basement. There was no time to deal with them now.

Although the pair protested, Ridge turned back to me to nod, “ I’ll follow your lead.” as we headed over to where my family waited.

Wade narrowed his eyes at the alpha, but didn’t say anything. He just looked at me for instruction when I turned to Dad to gather his Warriors. He nodded, taking Wade and my other brothers with him.

For Iota and Vicky, I told them to get to the tower in the middle of the pack and push the blue button that would ring out a whining siren that would be recognized by the humans.

“It’ll let them know something is happening and by the time we get there we can start the evacuation. It will—” I stopped, eyes wide when my hearing picked up on something.

I had to tune out Vicky asking what was wrong.

Tilting my head, brows furrowed as I stared in front of me, I could now hear that the thundering paws were doubled and a few moments later, I could hear snarls so much closer than before.

Turning to Iota, she could read my horrified look.

“Get Emory safe,” I told her quickly. “Meet us in town! We won’t have time to prepare!”

Turning to Ridge I gave him an order to march out the pack.

“They’re here! They’re on the edge of town and breaking through the forest. We don’t have much time!”

Ridge nodded, turning with that stoic look of his and ordered, “Line it up! Those who are able will fight! Those who cannot will help in evacuating the humans! Move out!”

The alpha nodded for us to follow him as he led the way towards the pack gates. The rest of the pack was quickly following in step, and I took a deep breath as I watched them pass me by.

Dad came up to me, this worried look on his face and I aksed if the Warriors were ready. Dad nodded, assuring me they were running over to stand with the alpha on the front line. He let out a slow breath, brushing the side of my head and swallowed hard.

“This is it, Button. This is where you choose between the Light and the Dark.”

It was hard to keep my dad out of the loop that I was going to let the Darkness in. That I was going to need to use it to my advantage. I was able to have a little more strength in myself so I was sure that I could handle it. Hopefully.

Nodding, I assured him that I’d save the town no matter what.

“Good. Now, let’s go.”

He waved for me to follow, running past the pack to get to the front where Ridge was standing with his mother. He nodded to something she was telling him.

My eyes took in the small group of those assigned to help the humans rushing down the path to get to the main part of town. They kept glancing over at us as they hurried away, and I hoped they got away in time.

“Ridge! Son!”

Turning, Ridge’s eyes went gold, baring his teeth at his father sprinting over. He had escaped his restraints and the guards were catching up, bringing Molly along with them. Mr. Beaumont panted, shaking his head that his son needed to hear him out and that all of this was me blowing things out if proportion.

The alpha family began to argue but I snapped my attention to the forest outlining the side of the pack. I narrowed my eyes, no longer hearing the pounding of paws. It was so quiet.

The tree line of the forest across the way was hard to see in the dim lighting of the sky. There was a breeze swaying the branches from side to side, the sound of the leave rustling was all that was heard now.

“Gianna? What do you hear?” my dad asked.

I slowly held up a hand, shaking my head slow before looking at the the alpha who picked up on my tension. With everyone murmuring and the former alphas arguing, Ridge had immediately turned my way. His eyes looking me over and frowned as if he sensed I was on edge. That was unexpected, to say the least, but I was glad that perhaps subconsciously we were still in tune with one another despite his circumstances.

Slowly, my eyes changed to my wolf’s in a silent warning that we were not alone. For a split moment, Ridge’s face scrunched and eyes squeeze shut as he turned his head. He sucked in a breath, letting it out slowly then opened his eyes to mine— his shimmering gold taking over.

Oh, yeah… There was definitely a lingering subconscious connection there.

After he gave a firm nod in understanding, Ridge snapped an order for his pack to be alert— silencing his obnoxious father.

Facing the treeline, my wolf eyes took in every single leaf attached to the branches, every ripple the leaves made against one another in the wind. And I could see the hundreds of golden eyes peering from the dark.

My low growl was heard from behind me. I stood protectively in front, but then Iota and Vicky showed up. They both were now standing beside me. They muttered under their breath that, as my Caretakers, I was their responsibility and that involved protecting me in this battle.

Wolves now emerged from the shadows. All of them snarling and salivating as their gold eyes locked on us. I swallowed the lump in my throat seeing how they were all grungy from their long journey and their teeth bared as they salivated.

A golden wolf emerged to the front and I immediately knew who this was. The snapping of bones through her shift until she took her human form broke the silence until I could hear the growls behind me.

I looked over my shoulder as Mr. and Mrs. Beaumont went wide eyed, recognizing who this woman was.

Rolling my shoulders back, I narrowed my eyes at the sneering grin on Madilynn’s face. Her gray eyes were nothing like Iota’s soft ones. Madilynn’s had a malicious gleam.

The she-wolf took in the crowd in front of her. Her eyes wandering slowly over every face. Madilynn’s gaze did a double-take when they fell on me. That smug grin of hers widened, a small chuckle behind her lips.

Tilting her head slightly, she raised a brow and grinned, “My, my, my… What a naughty little Quail Wolf you’ve been.”