Darkness (II)

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

"It was 1647." he began, eyeing me warily. I could understand why he was so cautious; I was gaping like a fish and had somehow lost the ability to breathe. 1647? I knew he was over three hundred years old but fuck, he was truly ancient.

"I was just ten years old. The hunters were beginning to mobilise, intent on destroying our race. My parents, the former Alpha and Luna, were so busy pouring all their military efforts and wolves into fighting them that they didn't realise the more immediate threat—a band of unruly rogues, honing in on our location."

An all too familiar fear made my heart skip a beat. I knew what was coming. I'd been trained to recognise what was coming.

"It was December, so the night was cold and dark. My parents had just returned from a pack meeting. My mother, Albina, sat me down on her lap and read to me, whilst my father, Igor, started cooking us dinner. I can't remember what he said we were having. I wish I could. I think it would make the night more...more..."

He trailed off, hurt and grief and pure, utter torment shadowing his eyes. I no longer cared that he was naked. I slid towards him and, as he wound an arm about my waist, pressed my hand against his cheek, just as I had done the night prior. He was hurting. His pain flooded the bond. It tugged at it harshly, ruthlessly, until tears swam in my own eyes.

"Human?" I finished for him.

He nodded.

"The rogues came just as mother was putting me to bed. My father, Alexander, rushed off to fight them and m-mother quietly hid me in the cupboard. 'Promise me.' she'd said, eyes watering with tears, 'promise me that you won't come out, not for anything.' Eager to please her, I'd nodded. She pressed a kiss to my forehead, held my face in her hands and, before I could react, she was flying out of the bedroom door."

No no no no no—

"I heard my father's screams first, then hers, then the awful sound of skin being ripped apart. I'd promised not to go down but I could hear her, I could hear her cries...so I left the wardrobe and ran downstairs."

"I couldn't see for the blood. It was everywhere and anywhere, splattered across the walls, across the tables, across the floor...and they were there, too, savagely ripped limb from limb, sprawled in numerous places a-across my childhood home..."

An awful, groaning sob tore from his lips. It seemed that he'd been desperately trying to keep it in. Nausea dropped like an anchor in my stomach and I barrelled even further into his arms, frantically trying to soothe him. His head settled in the crook of my neck.

"Four rogues prowled the kitchen. They saw me and charged. And then, I just...felt him. My wolf. Despite the fact that I wasn't supposed to shift for another six years he took over, roaring out of his dormancy, desperate to protect me. I shifted painlessly, easily, and killed them all. But no matter how ruthlessly I tore into them, no matter how much of their blood I spilled, my parents were still...they were still dead, Isa, and I couldn't understand it—"

"Shhh." I murmured, running my hands through his hair. A sob bundled in my throat but I swallowed it whole. I needed to be strong. Not for myself but for him.

"I know how it feels." I whispered.

And suddenly, despite every wall I'd thrown up, despite every precaution I'd taken to conceal my past from sight, I found myself telling him the stories I'd shoved in the back of my mind.

I began to speak quietly. "When my sister Mary turned sixteen, she was sent on her first mission. The objective was to scout a nearby pack. I think it was there that she met her mate...a man named Jake. The day before..." I closed my eyes, willing myself to go on. "The day before she died, she told me that she knew what was going to happen. I didn't understand then...but I did when my father returned the next day, covered in her blood.