3. Forty- five

~ Harper’s POV ~

I growled low and raced towards Damon as he stood over Ethan's corpse like some vindicated hero. Some things were so hard to believe and Ethan being dead was one of them. Ethan was dead, I repeated the three words in my head as I lunged at Damon and he escaped my attacks by ducking at the last minute. 

My mind was boggled. It was stunting and I found it hard to believe that the corpse a few feet away was standing alive a few minutes ago. Ethan had howled to the pack members and had declared victory over Aaron. How had he been defeated by Damon? It seemed so unbelievable. I was facing difficulty in accepting the simple face. I had no idea how Zara was going to accept her dear friend was dead.

Damon growled viciously at me, murder in his eyes, while I probably looked dazed and a bit uncentred. I had no idea that Ethan's death would me to lose my footing or act as if I were in a dizzy stupor. My wolf had taken over from me in my momentary lack of control and was now battling with Damon on pure animal instinct. 

Surely, others had lost their lives in this battle and I would have to carry out their final rites as the alpha. I had no idea what would happen to Ethan, though. He wasn't a part of the pack and wouldn't get the same treatment as the pack members, even though he deserved it. He had fought beside the pack warriors even after he knew Zara was safe and because of the same loyalty and determination, I had considered offering him a place in the pack. 

My wolf pounced on Damon and tore a chunk of meat off his back. Damon mewled and whimpered but her turned to face me again. I forced myself to put away the thoughts of the dead and their final rites and Ethan's way and concentrate on killing my brother so that more innocent lives could be saved. Surely, the pack members didn't deserve to die because of my father's crime of abandoning the children he had fathered. I planned to do anything in my power to prevent that. And to do it, I would have to kill Damon, my half-brother.

My wolf growled in satisfaction as Damon staggered from the blood loss and without waiting for him to regain his balance, I attacked him and tore off a chunk of his tail, blood spraying everywhere. The metallic smell of blood was pungent in the air and my wolf growled in pride as the sweet smell of victory reached his senses. He didn't mind the foul taste of blood or the strips of Damon's meat threaded between his teeth. My wolf wanted revenge and today he was going to get it. 

Damon lunged at me and my wolf moved away from his fake maneuver at the last minute but he managed to swipe at my underbelly, creating deep wounds that started gushing blood immediately. Immediately, my wolf lunged at him, and before Damon could get away, I sunk my teeth into his neck and finished our battle with a twist of my jaw, breaking his neck. I felt him lose the strength to stand and I felt Damon slink to the ground, defeated and dead. Very dead. 

I watch as his breathing stops and he glazes over. I watch him for a second and my wolf prowls at the back of my mind, pleased that he has taken care of this threat to the pack. Bursting with pride, I lean back and howl as deep as I can, with enough muster for everyone on the battlefield to stop fighting because the leader of the rogues has been defeated. I would be surprised if the wolves staying in the pack hadn't heard me howl of victory. 

I shifted back into my human form and watched as I took in all the blood and gore. Red blood was splattered around and the heavy metallic smell hung in the air. If I hadn't had a strong stomach, I would have been puking my guts. 

I registered from the corner of my eyes that the fighting around me had stopped and my eyes settled on the dead figure of Ethan. Right now, the pack warriors must be rounding up the rest of the rogues and counting the casualties on either side. The dead bodies of the rogues would be collected and dumped somewhere in the woods with no final rites while Aiden would execute the alive wolves in a public gathering of the pack, sending a message to every enemy of the pack that we would stop at nothing to destroy our enemies. 

I winced as the wound in my belly screamed in pain as I moved. The last blow landed by Damon had gotten me good but I could already feel my wolf healing kick in. Soon the streaks of blood on my stomach would be the only indication of there ever being an injury. 

I looked around and my eyes landed on Aaron's and Damon's dead wolves. They would remain in their wolf forms and not get a chance to ascend to the moon goddess in their human forms, a dishonorable and grievous fate feared by all the werewolves. I turned a bit to look at Ethan's black wolf, who would suffer the same fate as he too, had died in his wolf form. 

I watched in fascination as his body slowly changed form and I exhaled in disbelief as I finally set eyes upon the humanoid form of Ethan, his eyes closed and his body devoid of any wound encountered in the battle. He looked clean like a baby and if I didn't know any better, I would have assumed he was sleeping. I had heard about this happening to some werewolves. Whenever wolves died in their wolf forms, their bodies stayed like that. Ideally, werewolves wanted to die in the human form so that they could greet the goddess in the form they had been born in. Rarely, did a werewolf who had died in his wolf form ever change and shift into his human form. Whenever I read about it, it happened to pack alphas or beta who had died fighting for their packs in an honorable way. I had never heard it happen to a rogue wolf who was fighting against rogues but here it was, right in front of my arms. No one would believe me if I told them that Ethan had died fighting in his wolf form because he was here in front of me, in his human form looking unnaturally still. 

"Alpha," I turned around to Roland's call and thanked him for the pair of shorts he was offering me. "Most of the rogues are dead, only a few of them are alive. Arrangements are being made to take them to the pack for being executed."

I nodded and asked the question I dread asking him every time," How many of our warriors are injured and dead?"

"Two and seven injured," Roland replied to me solemnly and I nodded gravely. Two warriors are dead. Two innocent men died because of some stupid vendetta against my father. 

"I want arrangements made to carry the bodies of the dead and wounded." Roland nodded at my command. "Also, I want Ethan's body to be carried into the pack." He looked at me for a moment as if surprised by my command but didn't comment on it. 

I roughly cleaned myself and rid myself of all the blood on my body to look a little presentable for the pack members. I helped the warriors make stretchers for the wounded and the dead and helped them dispose of the bodies of the rogues. Once everything was settled, all of us trudged back to the backlands. The two dead bodies of the pack members and Ethan's body on my command would be placed on a pedestal of praise in the pack grounds so that everyone would be able to pay their respect. The wounded will take a detour towards the hospital where they will be attended by the pack doctor immediately. While the rest of the warriors would go back to their families to relish the victory and mourn the loss of their pack mates. 

Various congratulatory noises assaulted my mind as soon as we entered the pack boundaries. My wolf growled in my head and shut off the mind link to stop all the ruckus inside my head and I was instantly glad of the interruption. We all walked solemnly and I watched as different warriors took off in the direction of their homes to greet their family members while the rest of us continued in the direction of the pack house. 

I took a deep breath in when the pack house came into view. When we reached the steps of the building, the door burst open and my eyes landed on Zara, her chest rising and falling in rapid bursts of energy. She must have come bounding down the steps from the upper floors. Before I could say anything, she was bounding down the stairs yet again and flung herself onto me. 

My reflexes kicked in and I picked her up and secured her petite body in my arms. Her sweet and intoxicating smell of chocolates and pines flooded my senses and my wolf growled in pleasure at her sweet touch. It has been way too long since I held Zara in my hands like this and it has been forever since she had initiated any contact with me on her own. The fact that she had hugged me on her own accord, even though it was probably due to her worry for me because of the battle with the rogues, I would take every little touch I could get. 

"Oh, I'm so glad you're back," she whispered in my ear and her sweet scent assaulted my senses and my wolf urged me to mark her then and there, followed by the primitive urge to claim her before the whole pack and declaring her my rightful Luna. Those things would have to wait for now. Even if it had been months since I had held Zara, my body hadn't forgotten the way her body fit perfectly with mine. Our bodies recognized each other and I knew whatever we had, whatever we could have would be so much more than the result of the mate bond between us. 

She leaned back from me as if the grave solemnity of the death had just reached and navigated her being. I watched her as she took in the dead bodies and I noted the exact moment her eyes fell on Ethan's body because I felt her instantly becoming rigid in my arms. 

She stepped away from me and I let her go. A draft of coldness surrounded me when she walked away from me. Her body was stock-still and tense. She took a few steps towards Ethan's draped body and I watched as her legs trembled as I watched her brain process what she was seeing. 

I was beside her in a flash and captured her body against mine. She settled her face in the crook of my face and I let her sob against my shoulder. I felt her body collapse and I lowered both of us to the ground and held her till she was exhausted and passed out.