Chapter 142

Quirin

I felt like the darkness was moving in on me again. It seemed like nothing I said to Kennedy was right. I was trying to be understanding, but she needed to understand that her father killed people, people who were important to the members of this pack. You don't just get over that, no matter how many years it's been.

I wasn’t surprised that so many of our warriors had asked to accept her as their Luna early. I was, however, surprised to see them waiting for her when we came downstairs. I hadn’t realized that my pack members were starting to have problems with their wolves, or rather, that the wolves were starting to feel incompetent.

‘I would have eventually felt that way too,’ Raif said, watching the warriors talk to Kennedy. ‘Since the silver was weak enough that we didn’t realize that’s what was impacting our ability to heal, I can understand why the wolves were starting to second-guess themselves. It would definitely put a wedge in the relationship because no matter what you would have said, I’d have felt your disappointment, anger, or frustration that I couldn’t heal you. When you share a consciousness, you can’t hide those things.’

I waited, nodding to the warriors as they walked away. My mate turned without another word and started walking toward the kitchen.

“Kennedy…”

She stopped and turned to look at me, taking a deep breath as if steeling herself for a blow.

“I don’t want to fight either. I love you. Get some food and have a good day.”

“You too,” she said.

Kier and I sent out the scouts to start watching Jasper’s pack. I really wanted to know where he was keeping this silver powder, and I loved Kier’s idea to spread it around his pack. After that, he and I started working to find ways to clean up our pack lands. While I knew we couldn’t clean it completely until we eliminated the source, I needed to have an area that was clear for Kennedy’s Luna ceremony this weekend.

That night, I had planned to let Echo run, but I could tell that Kennedy was still exhausted. I heard that several more warriors went to see her today. I was glad about that. While I wanted to be with my mate, to make her feel good and to find a way to connect with her again, she was too tired. So instead, I wrapped myself around her. She was asleep almost instantly.

The next day was much the same, except this time, Kennedy was up early with me.

“I need to order more supplies for the hospital, Quirin. I used a lot to clean up the wounds of the warriors.”

“Kennedy, I’ve told you that you can order whatever you need. I’ve told Kier to push it through. If you have any problems with that, just let me know.”

“Okay,” she said, but frowned.

When we got downstairs, there were more warriors waiting to apologize to her and ask if they could stay for the weekend.

She graciously accepted their apologies and then went about her day.

Later in the day, boxes started arriving. When I got the notification from my gate patrols, I frowned.

‘Kier, did you order a bunch of stuff?’ I asked him in the mind link.

‘No, Alpha.’

‘Did Kennedy?’

‘No. She ordered less than I thought she would have after treating so many warriors. But I didn’t question it. Why? What’s going on?’

‘There’s a delivery. The gate guard said it was a large truck,’ I said, standing and heading to the front of the packhouse.

Kier joined me, and just as I saw the large truck headed this way, my cell phone rang.

I quickly looked at the caller ID and answered.

“Hey, Farrah.”

“Quirin, the first delivery of my decorations for Kennedy’s Luna ceremony have just arrived. Did you get them?”

“This is a delivery of decorations? Farrah, what the hell did you buy?”

“You told me that money was no object, Quirin. I took you at your word.”

“What is all this sh*t?” I asked as the delivery truck backed up and the delivery guys got out, sliding the back door up into the roof of the truck.

“Holy sh*t,” Kier said.

“Farrah, where am I putting all of this?”

“Put it in your conference room. You never use it anyway, since you don’t have allies except for Henry.”

I ignored her jab and watched as the guys started unloading the boxes.

“The conference room?” Kier asked, having heard Farrah.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Farrah, what am I doing with all of this?”

“YOU are storing it. Luna Yara and I are going to set it all up.”

“Fine. It’s here, you can check that off your to-do list.”

“Oh no, Quirin. There are two more deliveries coming. See you tomorrow!” she said in a much too cheerful tone.

Two more? What the actual f*ck?

By the time afternoon warrior training came around, I had a headache. Since my mind was still trying to figure out how to make things better with my mate and dealing with the multiple deliveries that had arrived today, I was in no mood for training. However, I got another shock when we started training. My warriors were stronger. I could feel it, and when I looked at Kier, I saw that he could feel it too.

Raif began purring in our mind. ‘Our mate did this.’

For the first time in a while, I had to actually focus in warrior training. He was right, the pack was getting stronger, and the only thing that had changed was Kennedy’s intervention.

When we finished warrior training, I headed inside and I was surprised to see Kennedy waiting for me.

“Hey, can we talk for a minute?” she asked me.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“I was wondering what you’re planning to do about the silver in the pack lands during my Luna ceremony. I don’t want people getting hurt, and each day I’m spending a lot of time scraping your patrols’ hands and feet to get the silver off of them.”

“Is there still a lot?” I asked, wondering just how much silver was in my pack lands.

“No, it’s becoming less, but that doesn’t mean that I want them to stop coming in. And it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to make sure that my family and our guests don’t get silver on them while they’re here. My sisters and brothers are all underage except for Connor. Wade and Yvonne only got their wolves last year, Quirin. They aren’t strong yet, and silver could cause all sorts of problems for them and for the others.”

“We won’t have time to clean up the area for your Luna ceremony, Kennedy, but we will be able to lay fake grass down. The bigger issue is going to be letting their wolves out to run. You and I have pretty much avoided the silver when we’ve run…”

“I wash my hands all the time. I noticed the stinging, but didn’t think much of it until I found silver in Tommy’s wound. Now I know why my hands and feet were tender.”

“Right. I think the best thing to do is to let them know that it’s not safe to run around the pack. They won’t be here too long, so hopefully it will be okay. If they really want to run, I’ll let them know that they need to see you immediately afterward. Does that work?”

“Yeah, that works,” she said.

“And there’s one more thing we need to discuss.”

“What’s that?”

“Arlo.”

“What about him?”

“He’s done his time in the cells for disrespecting you. I don’t want anything to mar your day, Kennedy, so I’m going to release him and tell him he needs to leave the pack lands until Monday.”

“Quirin, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Kennedy, he’s done his time. Do you really want him here over the weekend?”

“No, it’s just…”

“Look,” I said, taking her hands. “If it wasn’t your Luna ceremony, he’d be released. He’s done his time, Kennedy. I can’t hold him indefinitely, and I can’t hold him just because it’s your Luna ceremony. As an Alpha, I have to be fair. Do you understand?”

I could tell she didn’t agree with me, and while I knew that she was much more intelligent when it came to running the pack hospital than I gave her credit for, I was still the Alpha of this pack, and I’d been in my position for a very long time. She might know medicine, but I knew how to run a pack.

“I understand, Quirin. But I’m putting it on record that I don’t agree with you.”

“Duly noted,” I said. Then I smiled at her. “Now, can we get some food? I want to make sure we have everything ready for your family when they arrive tomorrow, and I’m going to let the pack know that anyone who wants to leave needs to be gone by 9 am.”

She nodded, obviously still not in agreement with me. “Okay.”

“Okay. Oh, and by the way, you should see the amount of decorations that Farrah bought.”

“What? Why?”

“Because it’s your Luna ceremony. Why else?” I said, taking her hand and leading her over to the food.

I had no idea what Farrah had planned; I just knew that in two days, this amazing woman would officially become the Luna of my pack, and I couldn’t wait.