Chapter 22 : Blood on the Border

*Shawn*

“So, we’re not expecting any onslaughts from our neighbors for a while, right?” Aaron asks.

I shake my head, eyeing the papers in my hand. “Doesn’t look like it. Patrol reports say that they haven’t spotted any packs trying to claim the contested borderlands. So, by the time they do, we’ll probably have built up a decent enough defense.”

“We’re back,” he answers through a yawn, stretching. “It’s about time. I wasn’t sure we’d ever recover after … well, you know.”

“We’re getting there,” I correct. “We’re not quite there yet, but we’re getting there. I think we can do this.”

“Of course,” Aaron says. The look we share says everything we don’t–we both lost important people in the name of defending the pack and both of us doubted our capabilities to help bring Ashborne back to where it once was. But now…

Now we have hope we didn’t before.

And it’s an amazing feeling.