Crawley, along with the White Rose team and the AFA mbers like Numba, Ian, and Izzy, were working tirelessly to help the Howlers inside the ruined restaurant and out in the parking lot. The sll of scorched wood and dried blood still hung in the air as they moved between the wounded and the dead.
Bodies were being lined up in rows outside the building, laid out carefully on the cracked pavent. Saide, Frank, and Vlad flew back and forth in silence, carrying them in one by one from the scattered areas of the battlefield. Each ti they landed, their faces were drawn, their movents slower. They were trying to make it easier later, for the investigators, for the families, to know who had lived and who had not.
When the police and ambulances eventually arrived, they would take over. They would tag and collect the bodies, begin the grim paperwork, and send out letters and phone calls that would shatter lives far beyond this blood-soaked place.
It was a crushing task for all of them.
As the Howler mbers gathered the dead and tended to the wounded, the weight of what they had done began to settle like cold ash. Had they actually won? On paper, it sounded like they had... but with so many lives snuffed out, it didn’t feel like any victory they had imagined.
There was no celebration, no shouts of triumph, only a heavy, suffocating quiet.
anwhile, just outside the ruined front wall, several of the survivors had gathered in a loose circle. They were speaking in low voices about what ca next, the future pressing on them even while the past still clung to their hands like blood.
“We can really do that?” Xin asked, her brow furrowed. “There’s... a way to integrate one pack into another?”
“There is,” Luzen replied calmly, his voice steady as if the carnage behind them didn’t faze him at all. “But there are certain conditions that must be t. For one, only a Luna can perform such an act. Not even an Alpha of another pack can do it, unless they are turning an Oga Wolf.
“That’s why we know your Alphas are still alive. If they weren’t, every one of you would have turned into Ogas by now. An Alpha isn’t sothing that’s simply reborn on the spot when one dies. Regardless, this ritual is sothing only a Luna can do.”
Marie’s arms were folded, her expression doubtful. “But if that’s true, couldn’t Ylva have done it to us already? Just snuck in and turned everyone to her side?”
“You’re right to question it,” Luzen said with a faint nod. “It’s not that simple. Each mber of a pack has their own will, their own instincts and pride. The Luna’s ability can’t override that completely. The Luna plays a crucial role during battles between Alphas, especially in the old ways, but there’s a condition: the person must be willing to be claid. If they’re not willing, the Luna’s power won’t work.”
“Willing?” Xin echoed, frowning. “That seems like an impossible condition. How are we supposed to know if any of them are actually willing to change sides?”
Maybe, deep down, none of the Lupus wolves truly wanted this. Maybe they were only staying calm because they were too beaten down to resist.
Luzen let out a low, amused laugh.
“A person’s will isn’t as strong as you think,” he said. “You can make soone willing. Beat them until their will to resist shatters, and the desire to stop the pain will make them submit. If none of them step forward on their own... I can help with that part.”
A thin, unsettling smile curved across his face as he said it, and several of the others instinctively shifted their stance.
“You can change first,” Luzen went on, unbothered. “Once I join you, the rest will follow. There’s no doubt in my mind. Place your hand on my head, and with your will, bring over to your side.”
Xin and Marie exchanged a wary glance.
Was it a trap? Could this be a trick?
But looking around at the ragged, blood-stained survivors on both sides, they knew there wasn’t space left for tricks.
“You should do it, Xin,” Marie said quietly. “Kai made promise that we wouldn’t add anyone new to our pack, and I still plan to keep that promise. If this works, you should be the one to bring them over. It might be the only way to stop any future struggles.”
Xin nodded faintly. She still wasn’t sure it was fair, but they were a team. Even if Marie technically belonged to another pack by werewolf law, they were both Howlers in spirit, and they both wanted to protect what was left.
She stepped closer and placed her hand gently on Luzen’s head.
Closing her eyes, Xin let her breathing slow as she focused inward. She reached for the well of energy inside her, drawing it up and outward, thinking about pulling this stubborn, dangerous man over to her side. She pictured their energies rging, their bonds reshaping.
And then she felt it.
A warmth, like a thread swirling between them, and a strange, radiant glow building where their powers t. The air buzzed faintly around them.
When Xin opened her eyes and pulled her hand back, she could sense it instantly.
The tension that had been radiating from Luzen had vanished.
He had joined the pack.
“You’re quite a quick learner,” Luzen said, smiling with faint approval. “I thought we’d have to go through that a few tis. Now... let’s continue with the rest, and then we can figure out what to do from there, once we’re sure none of us are going to slit each other’s throats.”
The words were spoken so casually it made a few of them stiffen, but Luzen just kept smiling as if he hadn’t said anything strange at all.
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