#16 Bows and Arrows

Adira

Once the Table meeting was complete, I used the Vampire Queen and King’s portal to make a beeline for my pack. It dumped me out in the office of the Sparrow Pack’s Alpha. It was empty, but the scent of my parents hit me like a brick wall. I froze and breathed it in, bathing myself in it for a moment before gathering my emotions and heading through the packhouse.

Still dressed as an Archer, I plowed through the packhouse. It had been 24 hours since my brother had informed me of my parents death, so I wasn’t sure what I was going to find. The packhouse was empty, but the decorations had already been turned into a house of mourning. The drapes were closed, keeping the sunlight out, and all of the usually brightly colored flowers were replaced with black roses. The doors to the leisure rooms were closed and locked, and the kitchen staff had prepared a buffet in the dining hall.

I pulled open the heavy arched doors of our packhouse and was smacked in the face with the horror of my new reality. The smell of burnt flesh, blood, and death was everywhere. There were pits burning rogue bodies scattered over the grounds and the yard in front of the packhouse had been turned into a cemetary. There were dozens of bodies covered in white sheets laying in neat rows. A tarp had been laid down to protect their bodies from the snowy grass and several tents had been erected over top of them.

I stumbled down the steps, my eyes wide and my stomach churning. My ears were met with the deafening silence of the packgrounds and the loud thumping of my own heart.

“Adira.” A soft voice called for my attention and I turned towards it, slowly.

“Silver?” I spoke timidly.

I crumbled at the sight of my best friend and she rushed to catch me in her arms. We fell to our knees on the ground and held onto each other while we cried. Slyvia, or Silver as I nicknamed her, was the daughter of Niko, my parents’ Beta. Together we mourned the loss of our parents.

I pulled away and wiped my hands across Silver’s face, drying her tears. She smiled at me sadly and did the same to my tears.

“Where’s my brother?” I asked.

Silver nodded her head towards the bodies. We stood together and, still holding on to each other for strength, walked towards the tent. In the center of their people, were the bodies of my parents and Niko. They were covered by thicker black blankets, indicating their rank. My brother was on his knees between the two of them. Silver sat beside her father and laid her hand on his forehead, still covered by the blanket.

“Aidian.” I whispered and his head snapped up.

Aidian’s eyes were filled with tears and pitch black, he and his wolf were both mourning. His face was red and puffy, and his body was trembling. When he saw me, the final strand that was holding him together snapped and he started sobbing. I dropped down next to him and wrapped my arms around his large, shaking body.

“I’m not ready.” He sobbed into my chess.

I ran my hands through his hair and soothed him,

“You are, Aidian. You’ve always been ready. Hell, you were born ready,” I assured him, “But, you shouldn’t have to do this without them. I’m sorry that you have to do this without them. You shouldn’t have to be strong enough to do this, but you are.”

Aidian sniffed and pulled away to look at me. He kissed my forehead and squeezed me close to his chest.

“Thank you for coming home. I needed you.” He said,

“I’ll always come when you call, big brother,” I laughed quietly, “And I’m not going anywhere.” I promised.

We stayed like that for I don’t know how long before I sensed a presence beside us. I glanced up and saw a young woman looking over us with sadness. I nudged Aidian and he looked up curiously.

“Marcy.” He looked relieved at the sight of his mate.

“I’m glad you made it, Addie.” Marcy smiled at me, putting her hand on Aidian’s shoulder.

Aidian stood up and wrapped his mate up in his arms. Marcy was only 25 years old, younger than me by two years and five years younger than Aidian; not that age really mattered to us werewolves. She was also human. When they met 14 months ago, Aidian was over the moon, but Marcy was confused and terrified. She was new to our world and, being shy by nature, it took her a while to come around.

It’s why Aidian was 30 and still not the Alpha. Our parents wanted him to have his mate by his side before taking over, they wanted him to have that support. Now, she would be forced to become the Luna far too soon.

“Can I have some time alone with them?” I asked and Aidian squeezed my shoulder,

“Of course. Marcy, let’s go check on the pack.” He said, guiding his mate away from me.

I reached out a shaking hand and carefully pulled the blanket back from my mother’s face. Her eyes had been closed and the blood cleaned from her body, thankfully, so it just looked like she was sleeping. I brushed some hair from her face and leaned down to kiss her forehead.

“I love you, Ma. I’ll keep an eye on your baby boy.” I promised her before covering her face back up.

I did the same to my father. He had a gash on his face that had been cleaned, so he looked a bit worse than my mother. I ignored it and kissed his forehead, too.

“He’ll be fine, I promise. I’ll stay for as long as he needs, I’ll leave the Archer’s if he needs me to. He’ll be a fine Alpha.” I whispered before covering him back up.

With my hands laying lightly on their foreheads, I spoke to both of my parents,

“You two rest now. We’ve got it from here.” I mustered up a smile and then stood from the ground.

I brushed myself off, squared my shoulders, and pushed out my chin. I was an Archer, I was born to be a warrior, and I knew how to compartmentalize better than most. Today we would grieve and tomorrow we would start our new lives as orphans.