~Kade~
Have I ever seen so many dead bodies? Lives were taken because of one man’s lust for power.
I scanned the field and saw only the crimson-colored sea that the bodies seemed to be floating in. Everyone was submitted and standing in a line at the side.
Most of them were parents unwilling to leave their children behind.
Many backed away the second they saw that Justin was about to end their king. Nathaniel.
He was over by the forest line. At least half his body was. Justin was standing over his body.
Many of our pack died today too. The sun had set, and it was time to head back, but we all seemed to be in the same trance.
We were disorientated. Watching the aftermath of one man’s sick vision. One man? Maybe we were all a little sick. This was a lot of death, even for me.
“Hey.” Mason watched me.
His eyes were bleak, and I saw the ghosts of his killings haunting him behind his eyes. They would haunt us all. This wasn’t something I would sleep off. None of us would.
“Fuck,” I said and turned around. “Where are they?”
“He took her home.” Mason walked beside me up the hill.
I stopped midway and turned around. My eyes landed on Justin’s back.
“Home?” I said and looked at Mason. Where was home for her?
“Tracey went there too. They’re waiting for us,” he said.
Home, my home. Our home.
“I’ll meet you there,” I said.
I walked down the hill and across the field. I felt like their hands would reach up and grab my legs.
The Embercalws that were left went back in search of their children. They emerged from the woods, children in hand and walked after my men. Perhaps we had to find homes for them now. Honestly, I didn’t give a fuck. Not right now.
“It’s over,” I said and looked at his dead king.
“I know it is,” Justin said.
“Why are you standing here?”
He scoffed and pinched his brows together. His jaw tensed, and he turned his head.
“Where are we supposed to go? This was my home, now what?” he asked.
“We go home,” I said and put my hand on his shoulder.
We stood in silence for a while. Justin didn’t move.
His eyes fixed on Nathaniel’s body.
Justin turned his head and locked his eyes on mine. He rolled his shoulders back.
“She’s my mate too.” Tears pooled in his eyes.
I looked down, devoid of emotion. I raised my head and clapped him on his back.
“Let’s go home,” I said and walked.
The whole way home was thick with silence and a choking feeling. The car was full, but everyone might’ve been experiencing the same thing I was. Flashes of what happened on that field. One memory played more than the others—one life meant more than the others. She better be okay.
Her father took her out of there and took her to the pack. The doctors must’ve stopped the bleeding. I hadn’t heard anything.
I parked the car outside and ran into the hospital wing.
Justin was behind me as I went around the corner and up the stairs.
“Alpha!” one of the nurses greeted me.
“Alpha Kade,” the doctor said as she came out from the examination room.
“Where is she?” I asked.
Her confused face was not what I wanted to see right now. I wanted answers, and I wanted them much faster than they were coming.
“Where is who?” she asked with a slight tilt of her head. Her lips pursed together, and her brows sunk at the question.
“Layla, which room did you put her in?”
The doctor shook her head and looked around.
“I’m sorry, Alpha. She hasn’t been brought in.”
Everyone was watching me like they were seeing a ghost.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I turned around.
“Where the fuck is she?” I growled.
We ran back to the house.
The door was open, and I could hear the faint chatter as I ran up the stairs. In the hallway outside my room was a gathering of people. My mother stood with Cara, sobbing against her shoulder.
I ran past them and into the room where Layla was lying on the bed. Her eyes were closed, and no beeping was coming from the frustratingly annoying hospital machines attached to her.
“Why would you bring her here? She needs to be in the hospital!” I told her father, who stood by the foot of her bed. Nobody was listening to me. They weren’t acknowledging me or the fact that Layla needed help. Why the fuck were they just staring at her?
Anna sat on the bed. Her eyes were bloodshot red and barely blinking.
Analiase was outside with some woman I hadn’t met.
Everyone was here—my family and Layla’s.
“Kade,” my mother said and placed her hand on my shoulder.
“Stop it,” I said and shook it off.
“Listen,” she said somberly.
“I am listening.”
A tear fell from her glossy eyes.
“Not to me,” she instructed.
No, no, I can’t. This isn’t happening. I don’t have to listen to that because I know exactly what it sounds like. I know Layla’s heartbeat, so I don’t have to listen to it.
“Is her wound healed?” I asked and stepped closed.
Justin was standing by the door. He was leaning against the frame. It looked like he was about to fall if he didn’t hold on to it. His eyes were round and teary.
“H-has her wound healed?” I asked again and walked up to the bed.
I stood next to her head. I saw her face again, finally. I missed that face. The only time I ever saw it was when I was asleep and dreamt about her. My eyes scanned her glossy hair; it was tangled in places, but someone seemed to have made it nice for her. It was probably Anna.
Tracey was balled up on the floor in the corner. Layla’s mom was crying at her side.
I sat on the bed beside Layla and gently raised my fingers towards her neck. I needed to move some of her hair to see the wound.
My fingers touched her hair, and I slowly moved it back. The first thing I saw was the wound, open, bleeding. Not healed. The second thing I noticed was the icy chill that went into my fingertips when I touched her skin. I jerked my hand back. Her wound wasn’t healed.
“Why…” I said. The words weren’t there anymore.
Well, nothing was there anymore. I raised my hand, clenched my jaw and put my fingers on her neck. Cold as ice. Not just that, but also, where was her pulse? Where was that warm blood that flowed through her veins? The heat that always made it so nice to pull her in when we slept together? The beat of her heart. It was the music I had waited for since she left, but it was gone.
I looked up at her closed eyes. It was hard to see through the tears that were building up.
“Sweetheart.” I felt my mother’s hand on my shoulder and gently moved it away.
My throat was closing. Every breath felt like a mountain on my chest, pressing down on my ribs.
I fell harder and deeper than I thought possible. My head hit her chest, and my hands circled under her head. I pulled her toward my body. My tears stained her silk robe.
