The Final Words

Orion took a slow breath, allowing his gaze to travel across every warrior gathered before him.

Snow drifted steadily from the grey sky above, settling quietly upon armour, cloaks, and weapons. No one spoke. The only sounds came from the distant wind moving through the trees.

Every warrior stood ready.

Every healer had already departed for the camp that had been prepared.

The craftsmen stood together near the back, their work finally finished. The priests and priestesses remained beside Madam Tyler, their blessings already given.

Everyone was waiting.

Orion smiled faintly.

“You know… when I woke up this morning, I realized something.”

Several curious expressions appeared amongst the crowd.

“I have terrible timing.”

A few chuckles escaped despite the tension hanging over everyone.

“I remain unconscious for several days, wake up a day before a war, and somehow still expect all of you to listen to me.”

The laughter grew louder.

Even Sophia smiled beside him.

Orion nodded approvingly.

“That’s better.”

His expression slowly became serious again.

“I wanted to hear you laugh one more time before we left.”

Silence gradually settled once more.

“I’ve spent years standing before all of you. Some of you I trained. Some of you I have fought beside. Some of you were still children when I became Alpha. Some of you were not even born. Some of you only recently joined the ranks after years of training, while some of you have been in the ranks even longer than me.”

His eyes moved from face to face.

“I know every single one of you. I may not know you as well as I know my friends, but I know enough. Your strengths when it comes to fighting, perhaps, your weaknesses, those who talk a lot, those who joke a lot, those with even more potential than some of our best fighters had when they were younger.”

His voice became quieter.

“I also know none of you are standing here because you were forced to. You are standing here because you chose to. You chose your families. You chose your home.”

His words carried through the silence.

“And for that…” He nodded respectfully toward them. “…I am grateful. Our enemies outnumber us. We already know that. They have more warriors. They have more packs, and they are confident they will defeat us too.”

A faint smile appeared on his face as he spoke.

“But while they have numbers, we have experience. They have confidence. We have preparation. They have ambition. We have something far more dangerous.”

His voice grew stronger.

“We have something worth protecting.”

His gaze swept across the courtyard again.

“Our families, our children, our mates, our brothers, our sisters, our cousins, our nephews… our home.”

He pointed beyond the gates.

“They march here believing they can conquer us. They cross territories believing this battle is already theirs. They believe that we will kneel before them.”

Orion slowly shook his head.

“But I hope we prove them wrong because we do not kneel to anyone who commands it, except we do so willingly. We do not bend to those who force us, and we have been treated as traitors for far too long. We have a home now, and they wish to destroy it. Mind you… the goddess fucking apologized to us.”

Laughter rang out. Sophia had told him all about what happened when they were alone. Truly, he had been shocked that the goddess had appeared to everyone and apologized, but at least she did.

“I won’t stand here and tell you this battle will be easy,” he said once the laughter died down. “I damn sure know that everyone here knows it won’t be easy.”

“I won’t promise none of us will be injured because some of us will. I won’t promise there won’t be fear because fear is natural.”

He smiled softly.

“Courage isn’t the absence of fear. Courage is choosing to keep moving despite it.”

The warriors remained completely focused on him.

“If you become afraid…”

He gestured toward the warriors standing beside one another.

“Look to your left. Look to your right. The person standing beside you is family. They will protect you, and you will protect them. If one of us falls… we pick them back up. If one of us bleeds… we get them to the healers. If one of us grows tired… we keep moving anyway.”

His smile returned.

“Because that’s what we’ve always done.”

Orion took another breath before speaking again.

“I also want all of you to remember something. No victory belongs to one person. If we win… which I hope we do… it belongs to every craftsman who forged a sword, a bow, an arrow, or a suit of armour. Those who made sure the forge was hot enough, who fetched water, who assisted in any way they could. It belongs to every healer who helped heal. It belongs to every priest and priestess who offered prayers, who helped create charms, who lost sleep to help us all. It belongs to every scout who risked their life gathering information, every family who supported us, and every warrior standing before me.”

He placed a hand over the wolf sigil upon his chest.

“And I promise you this. I won’t ask any of you to walk somewhere I’m unwilling to walk myself. I won’t ask any of you to fight somewhere I’m unwilling to fight. I’ll be beside you until this battle ends.”

Silence greeted his final words.

It was Sophia who stepped forward next.

She looked across the gathered warriors for several moments before speaking.

“Orion has said everything. I could apologize once more for bringing Victoria to us here, but I’ve come to realize that even if I had not been here, she would have found a way to attack the pack. To destroy us all one way or another. I’ve found a family in all of you, and I’ll do everything to keep it. Like Orion said, I’ll be beside you all, fighting too, for a future we’ve always fought for. For a future we are to take into our own hands. We fight, and we will keep on fighting because it is what we do best. And… I really hope that after this, we get to train together with friends. We get to complain about how brutal training is, or perhaps watch the next trainees take their tests. Above all… I hope all of us return home.”

She looked toward Orion before turning back to the crowd.

“And lastly…”

She placed a hand over the wolf sigil upon her own chest.

“May the goddess be with every single one of us.”

Every warrior moved together then.

Their boots struck the snow-covered ground once. The sound echoed throughout the compound.

Immediately afterward, every warrior placed a hand over the wolf sigil upon their chest.

Then, as one, they bowed.

Orion and Sophia looked at one another.

Without exchanging a single word, they mirrored the gesture.

Their hands rested over their own wolf sigils.

Then they bowed deeply to the warriors standing before them.

The others followed suit. Those who were not warriors but had gathered around also stomped their feet, placed a hand over their chest, and bowed.

When they straightened, the moment lingered only briefly.

No further orders were needed.

Every warrior turned toward the gates.

Without another word, they began leaving the pack.

As they marched through the falling snow, each warrior reached into their pouch, retrieved Oscar’s device, and carefully secured it against their teeth before continuing forward.