0102
Raven
Every single day I sat and waited. Thirty days and still nothing. Complete radio silence. Not a single link, nothing, but he was still alive.
I lean back against the stairs, letting it dig into my back as I close my eyes trying to force a line between us to open.
"Why won't it work?!" I snap at midnight. My sanity was holding on by a thread.
'You know why.' She mutters back, just as frustrated.
"Well that's a fucking stupid reason." I shouldn't have to mark him to be able to link him. He had already claimed me.
She nods her head in agreement.
It doesn't make me feel any better. In fact, it was just a reminder of how different we are. A Lycan and a Wolf. I'm sure my parents must be turning in their grave.
Three children, all mated to Lycans.
Even worse, I had been mated to two.
'I wish they were still here to see how you had turned out.' Midnight whispers softly.
'I'm sure they would be pleased. '
I knew mum would. She was the reason I became a pack doctor.
I sigh and push myself up, pleased when my leg doesn't cramp. It was getting there, but still had a long way to go. I still walked with a limp, and the pain wasn't constant. Maybe I would be walking properly by the time Damien got home.
Just as I'm on my feet, Eric tumbles in through the front door. A bottle of half drunk whisky hanging from his hand. The liquid swirls as he struggles to stay upright. He frowns as some sloshes onto the floor.
He had started drinking a couple of weeks ago and even his parents were at a loss of what to do. They were grieving for their grandchildren and now it seemed like they were grieving for their son too.
Dane had tried talking to him along with most of the pack members but his grief was heavy and he just couldn't see a way through it. I wondered how his ex was coping. I knew she left a while ago and I half expected her to turn up, but nothing. Almost like she didn't care.
I never understood how a mother could leave her children behind while she runs off.
"Hey Eric." I mutter, limping to him. When I grab the bottle, he lets me take it. Which was progress in itself.
"Where is he?" He slurs, wobbling and falling back against the door frame
"Who are you looking for Eric?"
"Big bro...." he laughs to himself, his body slipping down the door frame until he hits the floor with a thud. His chin drops to his chest and in seconds, snores vibrate through the foyer as drool creeps out the corner of his lips.
He stank and looked like he hadn't shaved in a while. I groan and try to pull him up. His dead weight just slips through my arms.
"Dane!" Less than a second later, the office door opens. Danes' eyes fall on Eric and I watch his shoulders drop.
He was at a loss too, they had been best friends for as long as I could remember. Yet he didn't know how to help Eric. None of us did. Could you even help a grieving parent?
"Vodka?" Dane mutters to me as he crouches in front of Eric.
"Whisky." I mutter, lowering the half drunk bottle onto the small table near his office.
A quick glance through the office door and I see Neah curled up asleep.
A stack of books like the ones Klaus had been reading a few days ago are piled high on Danes desk.
It wasn't like Dane to research something. He got the others to do that for him.
"Raven, give me a hand."
I pull my eyes away and Dane is lifting Eric off the floor.
Limping forward, I pull Eric's other arm around my shoulders. "Where are we taking him?"
"Just into the lounge, let him sleep it off."
"You need to find a way to help him, Dane. He can't keep drinking like this."
"You know as well as I do, he will burn it off in less than an hour."
"And he will start all over again. It's not good for him." I groan
"Just like it isn't good for you to sit on the bottom step everyday waiting for Damien."
"I'm not harming anyone." I snap
"You are harming yourself."
We dump Eric onto a sofa. He groans as his body sinks into the cushions while Dane and I glare at one another.
"What would you do, if it were Neah?" I fold my arms up.
I already knew the answer.
He would burn the world down looking for her.
He should be grateful that I'm just sitting on the stairs, waiting, hoping and praying to the Moon Goddess that he walks through those doors.. "You have a point." He mutters
I look at his tired crimson eyes as he straightens his spine. "Are you going to lead the pack run tonight?"
I still wasn't strong enough to go, but he needed the strength of the full moon.
"I need to keep an eye on Neah."
"I can do that. Dane, you missed the last one because of Salem, you need to go this one. And Neah will be fine. We will probably eat ice cream and she can listen to me moan about Damien."
He snorts and cocks an eyebrow. "I will think about it."
Glancing at Eric he tells me to let him sleep it off, "We can only help him when he is ready."
As Dane leaves, I settle into the sofa opposite Eric.
He barely spoke when he was awake and if he did, everything came out in either a slur or sounding like he had developed a lisp and none of it ever made sense.
I wanted to tell him that everything will be alright, that.
... But it wouldn't be, would it. He had lost his world.
How could one beast destroy so much of our pack by himself?
Dane had worked hard, for years, implementing strength and power. We had always had the upper hand and now one beast was gradually tearing us apart. Even all the bitten Lycans with Cassandra and Trey hadn't done this much damage. He had to be having help, but who?
Midnight is quiet, but panicking. I knew why, she had the same worrying thought as me. What if the real reason Damien left was because he was helping his brother and didn't want to be caught?
It can't be. It was a stupid idea. He wouldn't have bothered marking me.
'Mallory?' Midnight mutters
'I don't think so.' I whisper back. Though we were no longer bunking together as she had decided to go back to her home. 'She's trying so hard to prove her worth here in the pack. If she was trying to cause trouble, I think she would have given up by now.' Maybe I was just tired and overthinking it.
Maybe Salem was just a monster with no actual endgame other than to slaughter us.
Leaning forward, I rest my elbow on my knees and cup my chin, watching the drunk sleep. There had to be something I was missing.
I still hadn't moved by the time Eric started to wake. He rubs his eyes and stares at me, his eyes drifting around the room. "How did I get here?"
"You practically broke down the front door. I think you were looking for Dane."
He rubs through his already chaotic blonde hair and yawns, stretching out his limbs. "Got any whisky?"
"No." I glare at him. If I had to follow him to make sure he doesn't touch another drop, then that is what I'm going to do. "Why did you want to speak to my brother?"
"It doesn't matter." He gets up and starts looking in the cupboards.
"Dane had it removed a few days ago." I snap.
"Just forget it." He storms out and I hurry as fast as I can after him, ignoring the spasming pain that decides to rip through my leg. Skidding across the floor, I slam myself into the front door, stopping him from leaving. "Raven, get out of the way."
"No."
He goes to grab me and I make a swift punch to his balls. He lets out a howl and clutches his dick. "What the fuck Raven!"
"I'm sorry but you can't keep going on like this. You are practically my brother and I can't watch you drink yourself into oblivion. I'm sorry that Salem killed your kids. I'm sorry that he targeted them. I'm sorry that I can't bring your sons....." "They weren't mine."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"They weren't my sons."
"That makes no sense. I helped deliver your second son. I was there."
"But you weren't there for conception and it turns out, I wasn't either." His fist hits the wall. "I found Mallory with them. If they were mine, I would have felt their deaths and I didn't."
I could feel my mouth hanging open and work hard to tighten my muscles so I didn't look so gobsmacked.
"You raised them. I've watched you raise them. Your bond with them was...." They couldn't shift yet which also means he couldn't link them. He would have found out when they got their Wolves. Instead he finds out because they were slaughtered. "Who....who..." I was trying so hard to get the words out
"I think you already know the answer to that."
My eyes flicker to the open office door. Dane was standing there, his face rigid as he watched us. "Is it true?"
"I had my suspicions." Dane sighs heavily
"They were Jenson's kids?!"
He nods at me. "We would have known for certain when they got their Wolves."
That's why he had been letting Eric drink himself stupid. Eric had lost everything.