My Alpha Mate

Chapter 25: Raven

"Death makes angels of us all and gives us wings where we had shoulders smooth as raven's claws." 

-Jim Morrison

Violet's Point of View-

My lips curled in what I hoped was a smile, as I passed the sugar to my father. He grinned at me and very generously placed several cubes of sugar in his tea. Oh the poor fool, he thinks I actually care.

"Raven?" He asked testing out my name.

"Yes papa?" I responded eager and obedient like a good little girl. Like a little girl, who doesn't realize her father is insane and a monster. And who doesn't feel slightly guilty because it's all her fault.

"You have forgiven me for having your little friend executed, right? What was his name again? Allen? No, his name was..."

"Alex." I finished for him curtly, letting the smile fall off my face. At my flat tone, I saw my Father's head turn in my direction keeping his head up and resisting to go back to looking in the reflection of his tea, deep in thought. I plastered a smile on my face.

"No, papa, really it's okay, he was just the only friend I ever had. I'm sure I can make another one." I responded back in a cheery tone. I am so happy that the memory potion wore off. My father smiled again, his smile happier and wider.

"Yes, I'm glad you agree. How about after we finish this dinner we go out for ice cream? My treat." I nodded my head in agreement as I munched on the steak in my mouth. I wish I could say that he was the worst cook ever and eating his meals was like eating glass, but sadly I can't say that. My mind wandered to Alex, and I resisted shedding a tear. I remembered his dead body, holding his pale, limp, face in my arms as I begged my father for mercy, but I received none. Now, I was out for revenge.

"You remind me so much of your mother, Raven." My body froze in shock at the mention of the woman who probably dumped me at the footstep of a church. Yet, I couldn't resist my curiosity.

"My mother?" I replied back with a questioning glance.

"Yes," He answered happily, "You are the spitting image of her. She was kind, and strong, and brave, too bad she..." He stopped and took a long sip of his tea. I watched him swallow the liquid with no sense of urgency. He finished and put the cup down.

"She what?" I asked anxiously, despite myself.

"Who what?" He replied looking generally confused.

"My mother. You just said 'too bad she what...' but you didn't finish your sentence. My mother, what?"

"We were talking about your mother? Hmm I don't seem to recall..." He paused again, "Let's go get ice cream."

"But..." I stopped ready to protest.

"No buts, let's go get ice cream." He pulled me to my feet and dragged me out the door.

"We were talking about my Mother." I protested.

My father hushed me, "I will get you whatever flavor you want, I promise."

He muttered something to himself, incoherently.

I pushed against him, wanting to go back to the house.

"Hush little Raven, let's go get you some ice cream." He patted my head and dragged me along and I realized I had no choice but to follow him.

Alex's Point of View-

I didn't believe in love.

I never did, I thought it was some fairy tale cliche that people told themselves so they could justify their actions. Oh I did for it love. I thought that love was just hormones churning in your brain and when all those hormones built up and needed a release they exploded, a silent bomb, and it happened to land on your co-worker, or best friend, or neighbor, or that classmate you had been in school with all your life but hadn't managed to notice their existence until now. I thought it was something our minds did so we wouldn't end up alone and without offspring. A subconscious trick we play on ourselves so we can reproduce and continue the specie. That no one was really ever in love, because love doesn't exist, and even if it does exist how could some get over someone very quickly while others love the same person all their life. If love is so strong, so bold, so fearless, then is it so easy to break. Oh we argued about this and broke up and I thought I loved her then I met ... and I realized how wrong I was all along.

Then, I met my first soul mate and I thought I was in love but I realized it was just the mate bond, the primal instinct inside me. I didn't even know her name yet I was ready to die for her? Is that love or lust?

Lastly I met Violet. I'm in love with her. This love hasn't been forced upon me by some mate bond, or hormones. This love has surfaced slowly by crawling it's way into my heart patiently, like a poison that makes it's way to your heart. It starts at the smallest of veins giving symptoms you ignore. Erratic heartbeat, struggle to breathe, slurred speech, loss of controlled mobility. Violet was the best poison there was. She had become my everything.

Flashback:

 "I just want to run Alex, get away from it all. Wake up in a new place, with a new name, and a new life. Where the monsters under your bed aren't real. Where the stories told around campfires were just stories. Nothing more. Where all people live in peace." Violet said looking out the window. There had been bloodshed last night when two werewolf packs had went to war and massacred each other. Humans had been caught in the crossfire.

 "You don't get to run Violet. You're a survivor, a warrior, a gladiator. And gladiators don't get to run. They fight. They slay dragons. They wipe off their blood and stitch up their wounds and live to fight another day."

Isn't odd how the person who was once a complete stranger to you, has now become your everything? I shook my head, I am so in love. Violet. A smile made its way to my face. Then I frowned, how could I sit here falling more and more in love with her each passing second. My love for her would be one sided, I knew that. I hated the fact, but I had accepted it. No matter how many moments we ever had, Violet would always be Jace's mate. Do you have any idea what it is like to be in with someone who can never love you back? You're a statue waiting for something that's never going to happen. Holding your breath as long as you can underwater trying not to drown, but the thing is you want to drown. You want those cold icy waves to fill your lungs and make you numb because sometimes it's better to feel nothing at all. You're holding onto stolen moments that should never belong to you, that you should never even want to take. You let yourself believe that her smile will only be for you, and that the glance see gave you means she is interested in more than just a friendly way. You hope that when she smiles to herself she isn't thinking of him. You tell yourself she doesn't miss him. You say he will never deserve her, when the truth is you don't either. You tell yourself that all these moments you may or may not have imagined add up to something, something real, something worth holding unto to, because in your mind they have to. Then you'll ride the high for a while. That little lie you like to tell yourself that you have a chance with her. You tell yourself that so many times that it becomes real, you have a chance, you can have your happy ending. And lastly, it takes is one fact to make you come crashing down.

Stolen moments aren't a life.

So you have nothing.

You have no one.