➶aʟʟ ɨ աaռtɛɖ➷[ON HOLD]

|քʟɛasɛ ɖօռ't ɢօ|

WARNING: ¡UNEDITED!

"You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you. That's where I'll be waiting."
~Peter Pan~

➶ʝɛʀɨċɦօ➷

    When I woke, I found the grey sky sulking down at me and a deathly silence hung in the air. Groaning, I used my hands to push my sore body up from the ground and my hand immediately flew to my ribs. A sore, aching pain radiated from the area as it was still continuing to heal.
    I slowly lifted my dirt stained shirt to see my purple and yellow bruised ribs. My back seemed to have healed fine although it had left little energy for my body to heal the rest of me.
    I lowered my shirt and slowly took in the bloody scene before me. Bodies. Bodies were everywhere. Blood lay in drying pools all over the ground and the earth was up-turned from the fierce fighting that had happened.
    A lump formed in my throat when my eyes fell on the limp, broken body that was Angie's. I forced my eyes away not wanting to see her glazed eyes that were now void of the brightness and life I remembered them to have. The false light they had tricked me with.
    She had betrayed me. She had wanted to protect her family, but she betrayed me. If she had just come to me I could have protected her and her family I could have--
    There was no use in dwelling on 'could haves'. What had happened, happened. I just wish I could have killed fucking Anthony. Shit. Anthony. Keira.
    Keira. Oh gods, Keira. I grunted in pain when I forced myself to stand and begin stumbling away in the direction I remember seeing her run. She should have been back by now. If she was alright she should be back now.
    Shut the hell up, I yelled at myself and continued to half run, half stumble through the woods. My hand flew to my ribs as a searing pain shot through my ribs and I grunted in pain and doubled over.
    "Please, just get me to her," I pleaded. Pleaded to the god that Keira had told me about all of those years ago, prayed to the fucking wood fairies, to the wolf goddess,  or whatever the hell was listening that could help me. Of all the supernatural gods and shit people talk about, there has to be something. "F*CK!" I roared in pain as I straightened and continued my journey.
    I began panting in pain and had to brush the river of sweat from my dirt stricken face. She was here somewhere. Her scent lingered all over the place, so I had to be getting close. "KEIRA!" I called out for her and winced in pain.
    "Keira," I called out to her again and looked around finding no sign of a scuffle or anything that could lead me to her. "Kei-"
    I stopped completely when I saw her. Sadness. Rage. Hopelessness. Need. All of those and more were what I felt when I saw her small, naked body laying curled against the ground. She looked so small and innocent, so broken. "Keira!" I yelled causing a pair of mourning doves to take flight from a dead pine tree nearby.
    I stumbled more than ran to her and took her now pale body into my arms. "Keira, baby," I pushed her hair away from her blood and dirt streaked face and her head limply fell back against my arm.
    I frantically searched for a pulse and felt hope flutter inside of me when I felt a very faint, weak pulse at her neck. "Come on, stay with me," I encouraged her unconscious form and tugged off my jacket to wrap around her nakedness.
    Steadily, I balanced her in my arms and ignored the aching coming from my ribs when I rose from the ground. I shifted her head to the crook of my neck and held her protectively as if she were a baby. Then, I ran. I ran as fast as my weakened body could take me without stumbling and only slowed to look at her blood drained body and ghostly white skin.
    I was it. I was the one thing that could save her and I was growing weaker by the second. I held my soul purpose for everything I did in my hands. I fought to build a pack to make sure she was always safe, I killed to keep her safe, and I vowed that I would never allow anyone nor anything to hurt her. In the end, I was the monster that most likely killed her.
    I was a fucking idiot, a heartless bastard, a monster that didn't deserve this-this broken angel in my arms. Blinding pain ran from my ribs up and around my back and I stumbled and cursed as I tried to keep my balance. My attempts to keep from falling were useless and all I could do now was hold on tightly to Keira as I fell to my knees in pain.
    My whole upper body seemed to be throbbing and pulsing with pain, I couldn't take it. I was too weak to heal, too weak to protect her, too weak to save her. I let a pain and anger filled cry and looked to the sky cursing it. I cradled Keira in one of my arms and used the other to try and push myself up from the ground. Pain courses through my body as I stand and I managed to take a few shaky, staggering steps before my legs collapsed from under me.
    "WHY?!" I asked in agony towards the sky. Distant thunder was my only answer. My throat burned with tears that I had not shed since I was a little boy and pooled as my eyes threatening to spill over with heavy tears.
    As if on cue, the rain began to fall just as the tears began. I was weak. I was nothing. I was a failure. I had failed. I had broke my promises and now I was punished with having my world die in my arms.
    I scooted my way over to a towering oak to shield Keira from the rain and pulled her as close to me as I could. Gazing down at her pale face, I gently brushed away the loose strands of hair and wiped the droplets of rain from her face. I laid my shaky chapped lips against her forehead and pressed a lingering kiss against her cold skin.
    "I'm so sorry," I choke out in the beginning of a sob. "Please don't go. Stay with me, please," I beg her and rest my cheek on her forehead. I close my eyes weakly as another round of pain nearly causes me to black out, but I force myself to stay conscious as I feel the faint breathing from Keira's mouth on my neck.
    I kiss the tip of her nose and match my breathing with her slow heartbeat. She was dying. She was dying and there was nothing I could do. I was useless now, too weak to even stand. I was a dead man now. If she couldn't live then I sure as hell wasn't about to carry on without her.
    I opened my eyes and gripped her limp hand in mine and grasped it tightly. We were going to leave this world together and I guess that's better than her dying on her own. At least I was here for her now. "I'm here, Keira, and I'm never letting you go again," I whisper with my head laid against hers and close my eyes.
     "I'm so sorry," I sob and massage the back of her damp head with my fingers and I clutch her tightly to me. A high howl cuts through the air and I open my eyes to see numerous shapes running towards us. No. They would not take her from me.
    A deadly growl grew from deep within my chest warning them to stay away, but they slowly were upon us. My eyes flutter closed and I force then open again to see Isaiah and Maliki, along with a few other men, standing in all of their glory a few feet away. It was like seeing naked angels sent from heaven.
    "Jesus--HURRY AND GET THEM UP! COME ON!" Maliki orders and I close my eyes weakly once again and inhale Keira's soothing scent. Someone tries to take Keira from me and I growl not even bothering to open my eyes to see who it was. "Come on, Jericho,  I can get her to the medicine woman faster than you can," Maliki's voice stated and I reluctantly loosened my hold on Keira.
    I felt empty without her in my arms and was quickly pulled up and rested against two men who half dragged me away. "Keira," I called out weakly.

Please, don't go....