“Don’t,” I told her in a cold voice.
Lulu nodded.
“Right,” Nikolai said sharply. “Can we commence with the beheading of every person in this shithole before heading back home?”
“We’re not killing everyone, Nik,” Mom said with a frown.
He turned to her, his eyes glittering with rage and retribution. “I don’t see why the fuck not.”
“They’re not all bad,” Mom told him, laying a hand on his arm. The simple act seemed to calm him, some of the fury leaching from his expression. “Some of them are just scared. Trapped.”
“But not all of them,” I replied bitterly. “Some of them need to be punished.”
“Okay, but how?” Larkin asked, meeting my gaze. “Do we kill them all? Put them in jail?”
“We don’t have a jail big enough to put them all,” Rhodes murmured. “Blackwater doesn’t have issues that have required the need for housing inmates indefinitely. Usually issues like this would be handled by the Council.”
“Which no longer exists,” Dante sighed.
Alexei folded his arms over his chest. “So, we kill them all. Problem solved.”
“It’s not the worst idea,” Dimitri agreed, pressing his lips together. “At least then we won’t have to watch our backs, waiting for them to stab us the first chance they get.”
“We’re not killing dozens of people today,” Remy said finally.
Nikolai arched a brow. “You plan to let them off with what? A warning? Perhaps community service? They can build a playground or some other utterly useless reminder of what they’ve done to the people you claim to love.”
“I don’t plan to let them off at all,” Remy ground out. His eyes flashed dangerously as he glared at Nikolai.
“Then explain how you plan to punish those who have committed the most heinous of acts!” Nikolai’s chest heaved as he stared at Remy.
I glanced down at the men on the ground. “They haven’t shifted back.”
“What?” Remy frowned at me.
I took a step forward. “The guys on the ground. They never went back to their human form.”
“Probably because they can’t. Humans need their ribs to protect vital organs. Their bodies probably have no idea what to do,” Lulu answered slowly.
“You can make people change,” I said suddenly, sharply.
“I can,” she agreed cautiously.
“Can you make a shifter not be able to shift?” I demanded.
Understanding dawned in her eyes. “Holy shit. That’s pretty fucking brilliant.”
“Can you?” I pressed, latching onto the idea.
“What are you two talking about?” Dimitri asked, looking back and forth between us.
Lulu smiled. “We can take away their ability to shift. Their own body will be their prison. If we keep them as wolves—”
“—they’re no longer a threat,” Remy mused. “She’s right. It’s brilliant.”
“Can you do that?” Dimitri questioned, staring hard at Lulu.
“Yeah. It’s not unlike the moon spell. It's actually easier. This time I’m just … locking a door, so to speak. I’ll sever the bond between the human and the wolf. The human aspect will eventually fade away. I can make them just an animal.”
Dimitri’s teeth ground together. “Yeah, and we both know what kind of drain that puts on you, Lu.”
“He’s right,” Nikolai agreed, looking concerned for the first time.
My heart sank. “We can’t do it if it’s a risk to you, Lulu.”
Her shoulders squared. “It’s my risk, and I can do it.”
Dimitri swore. “Lu—”
“But I might need help,” she said, turning to Remy. “You’re their Alpha now. You won the pack.”
“What do you need?” Remy spread his arms. “I’ll do what I can.”
“Command them to change,” Lulu told him. “If they’re already wolves, it will make things easier.”
“Everyone?” Remy asked.
“No,” Mom jumped in. “Not everyone. Not everyone deserves to spend the rest of their life as an animal.”
“Probably won’t be a long life,” Ryder added, waving a dismissive hand. “Farmers and hunters will likely shoot most of them. There’s a reason natural wolves aren’t around much in this area. They’ve been killed off by cattle ranchers.”
Remy looked at me and then Mom. “Can you two figure out who should be saved?”
My eyes met Mom’s. Could we? Could we objectively pick and choose who deserved a second chance?
“Yeah,” Mom answered for us. I didn’t miss the way she leaned her shoulder against Nikolai. “We can.”
Remy turned to the men we’d brought with us. “Go door to door. Bring everyone out here.”
“And if they don’t answer the door?” One man spoke up from the back. I recognized him from Blackwater. He had kind eyes and a nice smile.
“Rhodes, you and Ryder shift. If you smell people, you can alert them that people are hiding.” Remy gave the order to his beta. Ryder was known for his tracking abilities as a wolf, and Rhodes was almost on the same level.
Rhodes nodded, kissed Larkin and waited for Ryder to kiss Dante and Tate before joining him. They led most of the men away.
“What about these guys?” Remy asked, jerking his head to the men still around the fountain. Men who I knew liked to visit the omega house frequently.
I hissed out a breath. “They don’t get a second chance.”
“Lulu,” Mom asked softly, “can you do me a favor?”
“Of course,” Lulu replied instantly.
Mom stared at the fountain. “Destroy that thing.”
A second later, the marble and cement fountain crumbled into a shapeless heap, a small cloud of dust puffing into the air and being carried away by the wind.
I swallowed down a fresh wave of tears.
“Thank you,” Mom said, clearly fighting the same emotions.
It took hours to separate the people into groups. Those who would be punished for what they had done in Long Mesa, and those who were getting a second chance. The latter number was smaller than I had imagined.
“Is it just me, or are there less people here?” I asked Mom softly as she indicated for Nikolai to take a man to what we had dubbed ‘the wolf pile.’
Nikolai seemed to take great joy in literally hurling people into the ever-growing wolf pile.
“Because they’re not here,” a voice snapped as a new person was dragged in front of us.
I flinched at the sight of Norma Loomis. Allan’s second wife had always had a perpetually disgusted look on her face, and she had clearly lost weight the last few months. Everyone I saw seemed thinner and more gaunt than when I had left.
“And where are they?” I asked coldly, remembering Norma was just as twisted as her children and husband. She had no problem brutalizing omegas herself.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Norma smirked. “Bet you think you’re all sorts of fancy now, huh? Got yourself an Alpha mate. Enjoy it while it lasts.”