The Hunters

Chapter Thirty-Five

Catching Stars

The worst state I have seen the village in was when we had hunters protesting the war and asking for a peaceful alliance with the werewolves. They burned building and destroyed our weapons, but Payne stopped them before it got out of hand. But now, seeing my home in ruins and the dead bodies sprawled across the ashes like polka-dots I fall to my knees. Tears rise inside of me, rushing currents of the oceans, splashing against my eyelids until they tumble out and waterfall down my cheeks.

    "Cyprian-" I bite my lip, "Almost everyone is dead. How-how- I knew those people- where are the survivors?"

    But it's not Cyprian who answers, it's Sullivan, "They're all in the bomb shelter. They're safe."

    "Take me there," I whisper. I have to make sure my mother is alive.

➵

    The bomb shelter was created for awful problems like these. It's not specifically for bombs, but if there ever was a bomb we do have the shelter for it. I scan the closed in space. I hate the feeling of underground spaces like this, it makes me claustrophobic.

    "Everyone is still here, correct?" Cyprian stands on one of the crates to scan the crowd.

    "Yes," a chorus of the people's' voices echo.

    "I have an announcement to make and need everyone to listen," Cyprian, my Cyprian. I feel like I'm punched in the gut by his strong, demanding, leader-like voice. I never saw the potential like my father must've, "I, Cyprian Lotharius, was declared leader by Thomas Kingsley yesterday caught in battle. There was no time to make a public declaration for he was murdered by one of the alpha werewolves also known as Kane. He also made Kane swear to not harm the three of us: me, Aramis Knight, and Amaia Kingsley. As your new leader, I propose for us to fight back. They killed our people so we will kill theirs!"

    A roar of cheers erupted from the crowd, but I single out one despair voice of sobs. Mom. I jerk my head over to where she stands, departed from the mass of everyone, using the wall as a support. I push my way through people and rush over to her. The cheering is muffled and I'm focusing on making it to my mother. My mother is still alive. I am not alone.

    "Mom!" I shriek and she hears me. Her pinned back hair is falling out in soft curls and they bob as she moves her head up in my direction. Her gray eyes are swollen red.

    "Amaia?" I barely hear her broken up voice in the voices of everyone.

    "It's me, mom, I'm here. I'm alive. I-I- I am so sorry I couldn't save dad," I hiccup and shut my eyes close so she can't see the shame, "I am a horrible daughter."

    "A-Amaia, you are not," she holds my wrists, "you tried, baby girl, and that's what matters. Your father is extremely proud of all you have done and I know he would always be. He died a-a h-hero," my delicate, frail mother being brave for me. She'll never let me in in the time of her darkness, but she looks for mine.

    "Did you l-love dad?" I mumble the words.

    She pulls me into a hug and breaks into more sobs, "Yes."

And I know even with all my father did and even when he wasn't the best father out there, he was still my dad and still my mother's husband. He was our family.

    My mother wasn't at home that night. I stayed in our house for quite a bit, staring at the blood stain in our rug. Finally when I realized she wasn't coming home that night I left for Cyprian's. I can't be alone tonight, I can't stand the emptiness of feeling alone. And I can't be in the house where he was murdered.

    Three knocks on Cyprian's door and it swings open and I'm faced with a sleepy Cyprian, "Amaia, you okay?"

    "I- can I stay with you tonight?" I play with the bottom of my shirt out of nerves.

    "Of course," he moves to let me in and I sigh looking around the familiar house I always seem to end up in.

    "This has always felt more of a home to me," I smile to him as he pulls me close to him.

    "Why is that, darling?" his lips brush against my neck and I swear I've died.

    "I think because you're the closest thing I've got to an actual home," the words fall off my tongue before I think about them.

    He pulls away just enough so I can see his charcoal eyes sparkle at mine. His smile is as wide as the moon and beautiful, "God, Amaia, I love you."

    He pulls me in as his lips meet mine and I am struck by the move. Every time he kisses me it feels like I am being kissed for the first time and every time he says my name it's like the moon has met the stars after ages of being apart. I love him, I love him to the moon and back. I have fallen so hard for Cyprian. I have fallen straight off the earth and have floated so far that I've landed on the moon and I catch every star that passes by and I save it for him.

    "Cyprian," I choke his name through his kisses.

    Gently, he pulls back, only space for me to talk, "Yes, Amaia?"

    "I love you too," I laugh the water off the ocean and the grass off the earth, "I-I just needed to make sure you knew that because— what if something happens to you too?"

    I actually begin to feel a couple of tears escape me and roll down my cheeks, Cyprian kisses the tears with his warm lips. I smile again and manage a laugh, then he says, "Amaia, Amaia, you beautiful girl. Nothing is going to happen to me when I'm with you and nothing will ever happen to you when you're with me. I promise you that."

    "I hope I have you forever then," I rest my head against him and sigh of happiness. Even in my sadness he finds a way to make me feel better.

    He leans back in and hovers right before my lips. My heart pounds through my whole body. I want him, so desperately. He holds me against his feverish body and I am shaking to the core, heat rises to my cheeks and I am thankful for the darkness of night.

His hands are now in my brown hair, unraveling the casual braid I tied together, it comes down in waves of brown and he runs his hands through it and then presses his forehead to mine and I can just see the smile in his eyes, "How did I ever become as lucky as I am now to have fallen in love with my best friend?"

"I'm just as lucky to have fallen in love with mine too," I hold a small smile on my lips.

    He laughs once and then presses his lips against mine again and I can feel him smiling through the warmth of his kiss. He then moves his lips to dance along my jawline and I fall backwards on his bed. He follows and holds me down by my waist to his bed.

    I realize how much easier it is to love him, my best friend, then I could a stranger. I knew him as a friend and I now know him as a lover. It feels easier to love him in a way, because a part of my heart already belonged to him.

He holds me in his strong arms, protecting me from the dangers of the world, and kisses me as gently as possible. Each kiss leaving me feeling like it was my first.