Wolf City

Healing

           Alexander and his mother stopped by to take Max’s body to his family and for a proper burial. I didn’t see the woman, or even catch her name, but her voice was soft and quiet. I could see how she was the alpha’s mate. It was all happening so fast and before I knew it they were leaving. A few people had come out asking what had happened, and by that time Zane had pulled out the arrow, and hid the blood. He blamed alcohol and said that his friends were there to pick him up and take him home. The police even made and appearance, but luckily they were on our side.  

          The front door was shut and I was sitting on the couch. Alice had gone to bed shortly after Alexander’s mother had gotten there. The room was quiet, the only sound from the ceiling fan working its way to make the air already chillier than it was. I couldn’t stop thinking about the arrows and the sound they made when hitting their targets. How it looked just so effortlessly going through his skin and killing him. My eyes were shut tightly as Zane positioned himself next to me, his breathing heavy and audible.

          The leather was sticky beneath me even though I was freezing. I felt every pump in my heart shoot blood through my veins, and couldn’t help but let a shiver ripple and make me feel even colder. I let in the vision on Zane putting a blanket over me, his troubled eyes scanning and moving. “Are you okay?” he asked and parked a chair directly in front of me.  Sitting down he placed his hands on my covered legs awaiting a reply of any kind.

          “I’m okay…I just can’t believe he is gone. He was so young. He was family too, even if I’m not aligned to the pack yet, he was still family. He was just…Max.” I couldn’t quite show the way I was feeling. I didn’t know how. “Why would someone do this to him? He was a human at the time. How could the wielder have known?” I felt my heart working harder still and felt my throat closing up with fear.

          Zane leaned forward and held my hands close to him. He rubbed them slightly with his thumbs, and I could feel the skin to skin contact was already making me feel better. Zane always had a way of making me feel okay again. “Listen, I will not let anything happen to you. I give my word that I will protect you.”

          I nodded at him, trying to let his warmth reach my heart, but nothing was working. “You should get some rest.” He stood up and held out a hand. I took it, and he pulled slightly to help me stand. As we were about to part at our doors he opened his mouth slightly and then closed them again. I wanted to say something too, but the door was already closing him from sight. I was alone in a quiet room, the sound of silence playing tricks on my ears. It had to be almost morning by now.

          I listened to the outside world. The rain had subsided to a slight dribble, and I couldn’t help but feel cold though I was fairly hot beneath the cotton cover. I tossed and turned and just couldn’t sleep. The room was dark, but my eye’s easily adjusted to outlines and blurred objects. There were few pictures on the walls. One on the far side of the beach, next to it a forest, and beside that a dessert. There was a tall lamp in the corner of the room, and a single horizontal clothing drawer with nothing on top of it but a mirror. With a sign I looked away from the emptiness.

          Then night came and left in the blink of an eye. It was Sunday morning, and I could smell eggs being cooked in the kitchen. Given the circumstances it didn’t surprise me that no sleep had come to me, but my daydreams had been clouded with arrows and blood, and the vast nothing that surrounded me. I got up and took a shower that was full of steam and stress-free water that washed away my worries. Dressing in stay-at-home leggings and a simple tank, I walked out with wet hair that was pulled back into a ponytail.

          Alice was up, and for the first time moving without any feeling. She looked like a zombie with the way she was walking back and forth from the stove, to the sink, to a draw, to the stove, and then she would do it all over again. I was leaning against the corner in the small hallway watched her when I let out a very knowing breath to give away my station, but even that didn’t grab her attention.