Sous looked at the burnt down village before her. She walked through the debris, kicking over brick and wood just to get to where she needed to be. Bodies were strung up and about, hanging by their own inside organs. Blood trailed through the streets and the smell of soot and ash hung in the air.
She saw signs of cannibalism: bite marks on legs, necks with large open wounds, eyes gone, tongues out-said to be one of the most delicious part of a wolf.
The pack was large and so much damaged done. With her head held down, she walked to the house where she mated with the Omega. Their bodies burnt to a crisp, the baby gone...dead.
She found a chair that was still put together. The Alpha sat on it and pinched her nose, just so disappointed at what took place. She could smell who did it. Apex. There was no question. There were also signs the Hunters had been here as well.
Crack!
Sous looked up and saw Icarus walking toward her. She had healed his wing so it was no longer broken.
"I want to thank you for coming with me," he said to her.
Sous nodded her head.
"I'll be going back to Tania now."
Again, Sous just nodded her head.
Icarus paused before her, his healed wing twitching slightly as he shifted his weight. His eyes darted over the carnage around them. The charred timbers, the dark stains on the ground, the grotesque remains swaying gently in the breeze.
He didn't flinch; he'd seen worse in his years. But the silence between them thickened, heavy with unspoken questions about Apex's madness and the Hunters' involvement. Sous kept her gaze fixed on the scorched earth where her mate's bones lay buried under ash, her fist balled where they gripped the chair's splintered armrest.
Icarus shifted, his healed wing brushing against a half-collapsed wall. Dust motes danced in the late afternoon light filtering through the skeletal remains of rooftops.
He caught the faint scent of pine needles clinging to Sous' hair, a stark contrast to the char and decay around them, and remembered how she'd torn strips from her own cloak to bind his shattered wing just a day ago as well as using aqua senere. Gratitude warred with the grim understanding that she'd brought him here for a reason beyond mercy.
"I hope you got what you came for," Sous finally said.
Zhiliary sat in the darkness of the living room. Her hands were sweaty and she wiped them on her jeans. Waiting for Monica to come and kill her after beating her daughter, but after hours, she never came.
Click, Clack!
Kara walked into the room with an elegant black dress that showed off her figure, her heels clicking on the title floor. Zhiliary stood up quickly and walked to her mate.
"I'm sorry..." Zhiliary said.
Kara said nothing and walked passed her, sitting on the couch. Her wounds were healed, her scars and bruises gone. So this was magic, was what Zhiliary thought. It was like the beating the Alpha gave her was nothing.
Zhiliary tried to sit beside her, but Kara moved away. She didn't look at Zhiliary. Her eyes were fixed on the dark television screen. Zhiliary stood awkwardly, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, finally she sat down.
The silence stretched, thick and suffocating, broken only by Kara's measured breaths and the distant hum of a fly in the house.
"I love you so much," Zhiliary said. "I know I said some things about the kids..."
"You said you would kill them," Kara reminded her Alpha.
"I care more about you-"
"They're your legacy!"
"They're weak!"
"You don't train them, you don't interact with them, you don't even talk to them. I bet you don't even know their birthdays. How many we have in the house and how many are gone." Kara got up and paced, looking at Zhiliary. "You mated with a witch."
"You're no witch, Tania is a witch."
Kara stepped back, her eyes wide at hearing Zhiliary speak Tania's name. A name she was jealous of. The girl Sous had sex with, who Sous lusted over. Tania had the strength and confidence Kara felt she lacked.
"How do you know her?" Kara asked, her voice shaking.
"A witch, at the brothels, said witches are some of the most powerful species. She named Tania one of them," Zhiliary growled. "I sought after her...I wanted to mate with her," Zhiliary's face came next to Kara. "But she hadn't reached puberty yet."
SLAP!
Zhiliary laughed, facing Kara. "I would love those kids. I'd have killed her after she gave birth and gone to you. We'd have a poweful family just like our pack is as powerful as it is now."
Kara and Zhiliary sat on the edge of the bed in silence. They listened, listened to the rodents that were scratching and screeching outside. Their ears twitching at the crickets and other insects that were outside.
"You say the children are weak, that you have no legacy so will run this pack when you retire in twenty or thirty years?"
Zhiliary nodded her head and laid back on the bed. "I will have to do what your sire did. Find an exceptional pupils who I can trade to be an excellent leader," Zhiliary said. She looked at her mate and sat back up. "Are you on my side now?"
"Yes," Kara answered.
"Sous is gone? From your mind?"
Kara nodded her head, feeling trapped between wanting Sous and the well being of her children. The remaining ones in the house.
She will admit that she slipped, allowing Zhiliary to beat her as she did. Zhiliary was the type to say Omegas deserve it for correction, so she wouldn't fight it, but she would be quicker next time.
"Sous..."
"Leave me alone," the Alpha said, still sitting in the chair in the burnt down house.
"Sous...I'm for the baby."
Sous wiped her eyes and placed her face into her arm, not wanting Shadow to see her cry. She was tired and sick of losing children. Two out of three were gone.
"Why can't I have a family!?" She yelled out, using her shirt to catch her tears. "I HAVE A SON I HAVE YET TO SEE. WHO I CAN'T EVEN FIND! I HAVE A DAUGHTER I LOST TWENTY YEARS TO. TWENTY YEARS- GONE! I GET A CHANCE TO MATE, SAID SOME ASSHOLE THINGS AND GONE!! GONE!"
Sous stood up but when she took a step, she fell to her knees.
"You and your daughter don't have the best relationship but you got to see her walk, talk, play-" she was about to break down again. Shadow came to her aide and...hugged her.
He hugged her, allowing her to cry it all out.