The Arena novel Chapter 16

The man who called himself my half-brother ran while he had me fighting his ‘pack’ members. I have to assume he stayed someplace and watched until he realized I had defeated everyone who betrayed my pack. I never even got his name, but if I ever see him again, he’s a dead man.

It’s amazing how quickly things can be destroyed and how long it takes to rebuild them. The pack was decimated. My pack members had been starved, tortured, beaten, and raped. The first order of business was to provide food and medical care to everyone.

I found a couple of people who were knowledgeable and healthy enough to triage the injured while I went hunting. As I began to bring in food, those who still had the energy to stand began pulling together a fire and setting up a spit for cooking the meat.

All day, I continued to hunt and bring in meat. Those who were able pitched in to clean and cook the food. They started by feeding the weakest in the pack, including the pups, and then moved on to those who were working and helping others. It was a grueling day, but in the end, everyone had full stomachs and found a place to sleep, knowing they were safe, and things would begin to improve.

The next day, I started in the packhouse. Because my family are Lycans, and we are werewolf royalty, our packhouse resembles a castle more than a standard werewolf packhouse. But that just made it more depressing walking up and seeing its state of disrepair.

I wanted to see what, if anything, was left of my family. There was very little. The safe had been broken into, and the money was gone. My mother’s jewels were all gone. I did find the secret compartment in my room and in my parent’s room, where we kept a stash of funds, just in case. There is another one in the surrounding forest in case the packhouse ever burned to the ground.

I began taking inventory of what needed to be replaced and what could be rebuilt. Many homes had been burned to the ground. If they weren’t in ashes, they were dilapidated and unlivable. I had the cages dismantled and the metal set aside for use in rebuilding where we could.

I quickly realize that one pack member in particular, Bastian, had taken a leadership role among the pack members. They all look to him for guidance, and he is very responsive to all of them, listening and helping. I also notice that while all of the pack members have scars from being beaten, Bastian’s are more significant, meaning he took the beatings to protect the others.

It takes months to rebuild the pack. I quickly go through the money I pulled from my family’s stash. Thankfully, there is money in financial institutions and investments, so the pack continues to have an income.

All I want to do is go and look for Tana, but I can’t. I have a responsibility to this pack, and I need to be here to lead them and help them rebuild. But every night, when I go to bed, I think of my mate. I wonder where she is, wonder if she’ll forgive me for leaving her. I worry that she will find another mate. Maybe she already has. If so, I will have to kill him. She is mine. I know we have things to work through and things to discuss. But if the Moon Goddess decided that Tana is the one for me, who am I to disagree? She wears my mark, and that makes her mine.

Besides searching for Tana, I need to find my half-brother. He needs to pay for what he did to my family and my pack. This has to become my first priority. I’ve sent some of our trackers to find him, but he’s very wily. Whenever the trackers think they are getting close, he disappears.

I’m in my office, looking over the patrol reports, when Bastian comes in. The pack’s dedication to Bastian and his commitment to them in my absence gave me the idea to make him my second in command, my Beta.

The pack accepted him more easily than they had accepted me. At first, they didn’t recognize me. Then, they weren’t sure that I had what it took to lead a pack, having never had the opportunity to prove myself as their leader. But we had quite a celebration on the night of our Alpha and Beta ceremonies, officially making us the leaders of the pack, and every member of the pack submitted to me.

“Any news on Troy?” I ask. The pack members had overheard the warriors speaking of my half-brother. They told me his name was Troy. Whether or not that is his name, it’s what we now call him.

“He escaped the trackers again. They thought they had him this time, but somehow, he got away."

"Do you think he can hide his scent?” I ask. This is the fourth or fifth time he’s escaped our trackers.