3. The beginning of the end

“Grab him” The alpha instructed and before I could ask what was happening and who they were referring to, two of his pack members stalked forward and grabbed dad roughly.

They lifted him and mom slid from his arms to the floor while they made him stay on his knees.

“Mary, are you alright” Dad tried to free himself so he could touch mom but he was very hurt and the men had a very tight grip on him so he couldn’t escape their hold no matter how hard he struggled.

“Dad, Dad, leave him alone” I cried and made a move to go to him but I was held back by someone who tossed me to the ground again. I wanted to wince but I had been hurt a lot already so my body was slowly going numb from the rough handling.

Mom only groaned in reply and it was barely audible that if we didn’t have enhanced hearing, we would have been unable to hear her. I left Joseph’s hand and crawled to mom’s side so I could check up on her.

I pushed against the man that still had his hands on me and he let me go so I crawled over to mom and sat on the bloodied floor, not giving a single care about my dress since it was already ruined, and gently lifted her so she was resting on me instead. She was barely awake with her face swollen and her eyes shut.

She must have gotten hurt when she was fighting at the beginning of the attack since she was one of the pack warriors and that’s why she had so many injuries and wasn’t healing, especially since wolfsbane was used on her.

“Hey mom, it’s me, I’m here okay? You’ll be fine, I promise” I don’t know if I was reassuring her or myself but I needed my voice to be strong for her and dad.

“Geneva” She whispered brokenly and tried to open her eyes but she couldn’t. She reached for me so I placed my hand in hers and she squeezed as much as she could which was very little.

“My baby girl, I am so sorry I was unable to protect you from all these,” she said in my head when she realized she wouldn’t be able to open her mouth to speak.

“Mom don’t stay that, you’ve done a lot already, way more than any of us would have done. Don’t worry now, dad would make everything alright” I spoke with determination through the mind link.

“I told him, I told your father not to go back a second time. I told him they would retaliate harder but he wouldn’t believe me. Look at he has done, he manipulated your brothers too and now my babies are gone. I would never forgive him” Mom cried through the mind link while I was left confused at the sudden confession.

“Mom, what do you mean? What did dad do?” I asked her but she wouldn’t speak. I shakes her in fear thinking she had gone as well but she hummed in reply.

“Mom, talk to me, what do you mean?” I asked her again.

“Don’t you dare Mary, she is better off not knowing anything. She would survive this and you know why” Dad warned through the mind link. I had forgotten that he would also be able to hear us since mom was using the family link and not our personal one. She was too weak to do that.

“Don’t hate them, Geneva, you’ll find out in due time we were at fault and this revenge was theirs to take. You are a strong woman so don’t let what happened tonight make you think otherwise” She warned me it was so hard to take her seriously when she sounded so weak but I would never insult her by calling her that.

“Mama, you haven’t told me why you are saying this? What did Dad and the boys do? Tell me please” I pleaded but she wasn’t listening anymore. Her hands that were holding mine went limp and they slid to the ground.

“My beautiful baby” She whispered and I felt the link we shared snap. She was gone as well. She was gone. She left me alone. It felt like I was slowly going crazy. My wolf was howling with so much distress and the amount of links that had been cut off.

Dad felt it as well because he suddenly looked crazy. He pushed the men so hard they flew across space and he rushed to my mom’s side.

“Mary…my love… talk to me.” He was shaking her so much. He took her from me and held her to him. “What have you done? you’ve taken her away from me” he roared.

I watched as the tears found their way down his face. Dad and Mom were practically glued at the hips like other mates but theirs were unusual and often pack members would say that they were conjoined twins and it was hilarious to hear.

I heard stories about what happens when one loses their mates and it’s not something I thought I would experience. I watched as my father yelled, screamed, and cried as he held on to my mother hoping she would open her eyes and tell him it was a joke but I knew that it wasn’t going to happen.

Joseph was long gone as well. I noticed he left with mom and it wasn’t a surprise at all. Joseph was the light of mom’s world, her favorite because he was so fragile and got sick easily unlike her other kids. She waited for him and took him with her but she didn’t consider the child she was leaving behind.

Dad had become so quiet. He was sitting limp with mom in his arms and his eyes no longer looked angry. They were just dead and lacked emotion. It was a scary thing to see.

I wanted to console Dad and tell him everything would be okay but I could not bring myself to utter a single thing to him. The words mom uttered to me were the only thing clouding my senses.

I had never had a reason to doubt dad before so now I kind of hated mom for putting doubts in my mind about the person that had loved me unconditionally all my life.

“Dad?” My voice was so small as I spoke but he didn’t answer me. It was like he wasn’t here anymore and the air around him scared me so much it made me reluctant to go near him.

“I don’t understand, why would you people do this to us? We are a peaceful pack and we’ve never hurt anyone ever. We don’t even involve ourselves with pack wars so I don’t understand why you would do something so wicked to us.” I couldn’t even yell because I was so exhausted sitting amid the bodies of my family.

“What is she even saying? A peaceful pack?” Someone scoffed but another cleared his throat as a warning sign so the person who spoke stepped back but I didn’t miss the disgust in his eyes when his eyes found Dad. They felt no pity for us.

“Why are you still here? Haven’t you done enough? What more could you do? Everyone is dead, everything is gone so please leave us alone and go back to whatever hell you came from” I pleaded but nobody moved.

“I want to kill you myself. I want to put my hand through your heart and rip it out but what you are experiencing is way worse and it makes me satisfied since I know you wouldn’t survive this because of the wolfsbane. You deserve so much worse for what you did to my pack and this is me giving you an easy way out” The alpha finally spoke and his words sent a chill of fear down my spine. I thought he would leave us alone but he wouldn’t rest until Dad was dead.

Dad wasn’t saying anything to this man but I understood. He was mourning and in pain. He failed to protect his mate and his family so I spoke up again instead.

“You are sick. You are worse than the rogues and the devil himself. Can’t you see what you’ve done? You’ve killed them all and you still want more? How could you?”

“The only one I owe an apology to is you, I didn’t mean for your whole pack to die, I just wanted him and his heir but, unfortunately, you lost them all. It happens in war. I wanted to kill him in front of his family but, sadly, they aren’t here to experience that” His eyes finally met mine and he held regret but I knew that the regret wasn’t because he regretted killing my dad but because of my brothers and it gave me a sense of closure but it wasn’t enough to make me feel an ounce of pity for him.

“You think that is enough? Do you think saying sorry to me for killing a pack of over 300 people is enough? You better kill me here and now else you will regret it big time because I would make sure to repay this favor a hundred times worse”

The hatred in my voice was thick and laced with venom and I could see that he knew I wasn’t joking. He gestured toward my dad.

“Make sure he is dead”. I didn’t bother to look as the man brought out a knife laced with wolfsbane and stabbed Dad. There was no indication of pain from him and the final snap of the mind link and bond we shared as a family and pack. They are all gone now. I was alone but maybe not for long.

I sat there still and empty. My head felt like an empty hallway and loneliness held my hands as I sat there all bloodied waiting for my judgment.

I couldn’t cry anymore. I already exhausted my tears so I had none to give. I have never felt so alone as I did. I felt like an empty desert. It was as though I no longer had a sense of direction and my emotions took a pause because I couldn’t feel anything.

“Let’s go” the alpha gave me one final look before walking away leaving me lost. I thought I would be left alone but I was so wrong because I was grabbed by the brunette who had tossed Calum like a bag of dirt earlier and he was equally as rough as he had been with my brother as he lifted me to my feet.

“Where are you taking me? Leave me alone” I struggled against his grip but it was no use as I was dragged away from my family. I kept turning my neck to get a look at them and I caught sight of dad on his knees, his head bowed and his arms around Mom. He didn’t look dead but I knew otherwise.

“Please leave me alone. I have to bury them, please” the tears were back as I cried and pleaded “please, I beg you. Don’t let me leave them like this” I whispered but he didn’t listen.

The other men started to leave as well, not looking back. They were done with what they came for but they were taking me with them.

Nobody looked at me as I struggled and cried to be released. I was tossed at the back of a car and the door was locked immediately. I tried to open it but couldn’t. I kept tugging at the lock but it wouldn’t budge.

The car began moving, taking me away from my home. My voice was hoarse as I begged to be left with my people but my pleas fell on deaf ears and we left the pack land.

They were killing me a second time by taking me away from my family.