Fear

Chapter Ten

Murder.

That's exactly what it looked like to Louden,

He'd never seen so much slaughter in his entire life.

Countless bodies, some humiliated and hung upsidown, other's in their own front yard, heads strewn this way and that, random limbs, skin pieces littered the ground in tatters.

It was downright sickening.

There were several pack members milling around, identifying what was left of bodies, and dragging them away.

To stick them six feet under.

Laney was speaking to one of his organizers, a boy that couldn't be more than twenty two summers, he knew him of course, his name was Ackley, his parents had died last night, and his mate was Grayson, one of Louden's finest warriors.

Unlike most human cultures wolves did not differentiate between sexuality.

They were not gay, or bi, or lesbian. They simply existed until they found their mate.

There was no judgement, or any form of hate crimes, you were destined with who you were supposed to be with, nothing more, and nothing less.

It was just another thing he couldn't comprehend about humans, they despised eachother- not for killing, or taking territory, but for their own lifestyles. Things that they didn't choose. It was down right disgusting.

"Hey Louden!" Laney came jogging over, the strain obvious on her face. A clipboard clutched in her grip tightly, turning the tops of her knuckles white.

He couldn't meet her gaze. The green of his eyes shifted to the bloody ground.

He failed them. He failed them all.

There was no way he could look her in the eye, especially when the last three names on his own clipboard had the last name Bordeux.

"Louden?"

He couldn't even hear her say his name. Louden's eyelids squeezed together, painfully trying to stop the tears threatening to slip down his cheeks.

"Louden, honey why're your hands shaken baby doll?"

This time it was not Laney who spoke, but an old woman, an ancient with weathered soft skin that looked like leather, sparkling almond colored eyes, and the thickest Cajun accent he'd ever heard.

"S-Sabel?" Louden barely choked out, his voice was shaking while the tone was wobbly with grief.

"Aw baby doll, c'mere." Sabel's voice was more like a soft summer lullaby than a voice roughened by age, it soothed him.

But still even as she drew him in a hug, his shoulders shook with sobs, and he began to wail quietly.

"Louden? Are you okay?"

He jerked out of Sabel's arms, knowing he had to tell Laney the truth.

"Laney I-"

"Louden, no-"

"I'm sorry-"

Her eyes started to water, and depression overtook her face.

"Please, no!"

"Laney, your cousin, and your brother didn't make it-"

She hunched, knees buckling to the bloody ground in grief, back heaving with every sob, "No!" She wailed.

You're a failure.

It was no longer Laney's voice he heard, or the shouts of packmembers, not even Sabel's soothing coo's in the midst of Laney's breakdown.