39

Dear Amelia,

Are you tired of these letters yet? Is it driving you crazy that I only send one a week? With how much I have to tell you, it might take a full year before I finish. Can you handle that many letters? I could write a book out of all of them with more detail- trust me, I skipped a lot. But if I did that, you’d never read it. And I won’t do it. I can’t have all of these moments out in the world. Too many of them are personal.

Now, where did I leave off? When Devyn and I finally marked each other? Well, from here, things just go south.

I went back home to work on tribe business. Jordan was already in my office handling requests when I got there. When he was done, we went through my notes together- the ones I jotted down from Gaia the goddess and Hecate’s books. The two of us went back and forth, going over every detail of the books. But it wasn’t until Gaia made the connection that Hecate’s notes and Gaia the goddess’s notes completed each other.

After making that realization, we finally started making sense of everything. I finally found out how to win. How to fight back against Flynn and Colton. But before I could tell Jordan, we heard an explosion and people screaming.

We were under attack. Willow Lake was under attack. Our barriers were supposed to be impenetrable. Willow Lake was protected by the strongest magic in our world. But they were breached. And we were attacked.

I jumped to Tristan- who was with Grace- and Jordan went to the front lines, knowing I would get our kids to safety. I took them to Stella’s realm, and then went back to fight and defend my tribe.

When I got back, there was mayhem everywhere. Some of our own warriors were turning on us. I felt bonds breaking, chaos surrounding us as Josie led people to safety. Farrah fixed barriers, and tribe members who could jump or teleport took the injured to safety. At the center of it all was Colton, still pretending to be Xander.

I slit his throat with my claws, but all that did was get rid of his cloak- the first layer. I say the first layer because at the time, I thought it was the only one. So Xander was gone, and in front of me was Colton. I thought I was right, Colton was using fae magic.

I instantly linked Devyn to let him know that Willow Lake was under attack. But I couldn’t answer any of his questions. And I couldn’t let him leave the pack to come to me, I knew he would. Instead, I linked Sadie and had her come to me.

Farrah concealed Colton’s army in a barrier; Jordan and my parents took out the ones who managed to escape it; and the team leaders guarded the bunker and safe houses.

I fought Colton one-on-one. I had two goals: one, get close enough to see his memories; and two, kill him. Jordan came to help me. He shifted into Milo and got ready to attack, but that was exactly what Colton wanted. Colton sent a spear towards Milo that would have certainly killed him had I not jumped in front of him and took the brunt of it.

It went straight through me. And Jordan crashed to the ground, feeling my pain. It was the side affect of our bond- if I die, he dies. So I couldn’t die. That wound should have killed me- it would have killed anyone else- but I was strong. Devyn, on the other hand, must have thought the bond broke. I could feel all his emotions through our new bond.

Jordan genuinely thought he was going to die- I thought he was just being dramatic- but he wasn’t, because I was still alive. But it didn’t stop him from feeling all my pain. All the while, Colton thought he won as we played dead. We were buying time to come up with a plan.

Jordan suggested I controlled the water in his blood- something he saw in a cartoon when we were kids. Either that or I could use telekinesis… I had no confidence in either option, but I went with his idea. It worked long enough for me to jump behind Colton, bite him, and see all his memories.

Colton was planning on attacking Black Forest. I linked Devyn right away to give him the heads up. I also gave him the same order I gave during the war with Darius and Markus: don’t fucking die. Those were my exact words. I meant every one of them.

I had hope that Devyn had enough time to prepare for the attack. And that that preparation would save hundreds of lives. As much as I wanted to be there with him, defending the pack I grew up in, I had to stay and protect the tribe. My tribe.

Going through his memories is how I found out that Colton wasn’t who I was fighting- it was Flynn. The plan wasn’t for Colton to attack Willow Lake then go to Black Forest or send half his army there. The plan was to attack Black Forest and Willow Lake simultaneously. Flynn was attacking Willow Lake. Colton was attacking Black Forest. But that wasn’t any better.

I had to send Sadie back. She had an obligation to defend Black Forest, but I needed her. Only for a short while, and then I’d send her back.

~Mom

MJ. B