Cody didn't even have a response. He just stood there in disbelief, with a mixture of anger and heartbreak whirling around him. "I don't believe you," he breathed. He loved Willow... he loved her more than life itself. But she was a spy... she'd lied to get in... she'd lied about her past... every word, every breath she'd spoken to him had been a lie. How did he know that this wasn't just another lie of hers? Rage and sorrow unlike most wolves would ever have to face in their lifetime bubbled up like lava and rose from deep within his heart. "You lied to Stonepack. You lied to Senkah, the alpha who saved me from death when I was a pup... who saved me from a traitor like you." His mind flashed back to a memory of his mother, who had died in battle. Although Cody's expression was furious and vengeful, his voice was broken from the sorrow that had torn his heart in two. "You lied to me. A wolf who loved you more than life itself."
"SHUT UP!"
A screech split the air like a knife as Akira surged across the battlefield and bowled Cody over. Cody didn't even have time to react; the daughter of the alphas of Darkpack clamped her jaws down on his hind leg, and swung him into a tree by the edge of the densite. White light flashed in Cody's vision for a split second as his head slammed into the trunk of the tree, and a searing pain shot through his skull. It was enough to leave him lying on a heap on the ground, gasping for air... but it didn't hold a candle to the pain he felt in his heart.
Go ahead and kill me, Akira.
( So. Darn. Deep. Ain't playin' around, either. )
Willow had begun to say that she had regretted every minute of the mission and that she wanted to make things right, but it was a lie. She didn't regret every minute of the mission; in fact, she had relished the first few months of making Darkpack stronger, until she had realized how deep in love with Cody she was, until she had realized how much world was outside Darkpack, and how much she wanted to experience it.
She could have. She could have gotten away before the battle started. Ran away, as far away from these wretched packs as she could get. But, yet... something had stopped her from making even one paw step.
Stonepack.
They had been so kind to her, offering hospitality when she had acted like a poor Darkpack refugee when she was actually a spy. Realization had dawned on her that day when Cody and her had gone deep into the world. She had seen the endless prairie and the mountains that touched the very heavens themselves. Darkpack was simply mucky holes in the earth that leaked when it rained and a measly parasite-infested spot of land full of scrubby plants and a hoard of deceiving, dirty wolves.
And she had been one of them.
As Akira flung Cody into the tree, everything was in slow motion. She could feel the white light flash before her own eyes, blinding her until she found herself at Cody's side.
"
Please live...
I need you."
))
