Raven

“You really couldn’t find anything?” I mutter in confusion. It had been twenty four hours since the fire.

Dane shakes his head at me. “We’ve looked but there doesn’t seem to be anything that caused the fire. Whoever did it, covered their tracks.” “No scents?”

“The after smell of the fire is still strong, it wiped out any leftover scents.” Damien adds. “I expect whoever is responsible, set it and then legged it.” “So there is still a chance it can be Blair?”

“We are not ruling it out.” My brother tells me and then he smiles. “It’s nice to see you involved in pack stuff again.”

I shrug my shoulders. “Jenson is dead, I have to be useful somewhere.”

“You know that is not what I’m saying! What I am saying is I’ve missed having you hover around the house, finding you in random places eating ice cream. Neah misses you too.” He smiles at me, though I don’t return it.

I sigh. I had missed a lot of what had happened with Neah. Usually she would tell me everything, but we had barely spoken since I had been at my brother’s bedside. I had missed watching the twins learn to walk too. “Well, I’m here now. When is the funeral?”

“Tonight. It’s a full moon and I think it’s the perfect night to say goodbye to him before we go on a packrun.”

I hadn’t been on a full moon run in months. “Are the Lycans taking part?”

“Some of us.” Damien confirms, “But there are many, like the Everwood crew that don’t do it.”

“Blair’s family?” I wanted to check that I knew who they were talking about. I still thought it was weird that they were here, but apparently Hunter Abraxas had verified them. “Is that wise?”

“Eric’s not going. He will be staying in the house with Mallory, Neah and the twins.”

“Oh, Mallory doesn’t want to go?”

Dane opens his mouth but Damien answers for him. “She’s decided not to. Her and Neah have been getting on really well and she wants to help Neah with the twins tonight.”

“Neah lets her near the twins?” I try to keep the surprise out of my tone.

“I never thought I would say this.” Dane smiles. “They get on well.”

“Oh.” I can’t deny that I was a little jealous. “So Jenson is being buried in the family plot?” I ask, redirecting the conversation.

“Yes. No matter what he got himself into. He is still one of us. He deserves to be buried alongside mum and dad.”

“Thanks.” I mumble

“You don’t need to thank me, Raven. He belongs in Black Shadow.”

If only he had realised that in the first place. Damien clears his throat and is staring at me. Shit, he had read my mind.

“What time?” I ask quietly

“Sundown is shortly after eight. We will start then.”

Making my way upstairs, I briefly check to see f Damien is following me, but I’m alone, though I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted. I guess Jenson’s coma had pushed us apart. Damien didn’t understand why I spent every moment with my dying brother and I couldn’t make him understand.

Wolves tend to move on quite quickly when someone dies. Minus a few exceptions. And from what t could see, Lycans moved on quickly too They would grieve for a couple of days and then accept the persons fate.

I have seen so many people die and the sadness would pass quite quickly. But I guess this time, it’s because I hoped for it not to be true. And Damien just didn’t seem to understand that.

I hear the twins giggling and follow the sound. Neah is laid on the floor on her stomach as Evrin and Logan climb all over her.

Somehow, I had missed how much they had grown. Now they were like actual little people, little Lycans.

The twins climb down and toddle over to me. Pulling at my leggings for me to lift them up.

“They’ve grown.” I mutter quietly

“Every single day.” Neah smiles back. “Though they have missed their Auntie Raven.”

I lift up Evrin first, staring into his bright blue eyes. His hands fumble in my dark hair as he giggles while Logan continues to pull at my leggings.

“Do you ever worry?” I ask in a whisper.

“Every single day.”

“And that doesn’t scare you?”

“Are you kidding me? Logan bumped his head the other day and I went into full blow panic. And that was something he did to himself. Now that they are walking, they don’t seem to understand that they have to duck to go under things that they once crawled under.” She laughs. “The only time I’m not worried about them is when they are sleeping. You will know what that’s like someday.” She beams at me and I shake my head.