In Love Through War - Book 3

Part 110

"Not the best time for jokes."

"I'm trying to slap your senses back into you with humor. Is it working?"

"If you wanted to antagonize me, yes, it is. Maybe if we surrendered, we would have had no loses. Surely better than losing 417 lives executing my stupid plan."

"Let's see: 2240 lives lost fighting the old way if I don't count the non-combatants or surrendering said 2240 lives plus non-combatants to an enemy we are not convinced still wanted our surrender. The general verdict is 417 meant minimal losses and the plan was brilliant! I dare you to go to the camp and find anyone who disagrees with me!"

"Too bad we can't ask any of the 417. I bet I could find some supporters there!"

The slap that follows leaves a clear, red handprint in its wake, though the owner of the face is not the one sporting the teary eyes.

"You think they didn't know what they were getting themselves into? They died defending what they loved most! You are dishonoring all of them by calling the first plan that actually brought hope to everyone in the East as stupid!"

Al'Aeen can feel his face pulsing, but the wetness trickling down Jena's face brings more heartache than a physical hit ever could.

"A brilliant plan would have had no losses, no fighting at all actually! Everything I know about tactics and war comes from books, movies, and games!" he says after a pause.

"Then your Earth must be obsessed with waging war because all your sources were so fcuking good that you were able to do what you did with no actual experience!"

"Did it cross your mind how lucky I actually was? We won this battle with, admittedly, minimal losses, but the enemy did everything I predicted they would. Only after did it even occur to me that I never had a plan B or C. Would I even have been able to adapt if the enemy didn't react according to my predictions?"

"Well, you definitely learned something."

"How the hell can you stay so positive after all that's happened?"

"Oh, I really feel the urge to slap you again!

The fcuk is your problem, Al'Aeen?

Why can't you accept that you did well?

That everyone knows it and appreciates your efforts?

That your presence made and makes a positive difference in so many lives?"

"Because I don't want to get used to this! To any of it!

Because I don't want to start feeling like I deserve it!

That I can be that valuable and contribute to something bigger than myself!

That I could have a such a powerful sense of purpose and belonging here with these people, with our pack, my friends, with you, when I never even came close to this feeling back on Earth!"

"Why? Don't you want to be happy?" she asks quietly, almost defeated. Dread fills her heart as he's about to answer.

"Because if there is even a small chance to get back, somehow, I need to keep that option open.

No, the wording is bad.

I need to hold on to the will to want to go back.

Where E belongs; where someone is probably still waiting for me; where I think I belong.

See? Oh, God! I'm not even sure anymore!

Can't you see that the happier I am here, the harder it will be for me to do the right thing and go back to Earth if and when that chance comes along?

Unless... do you happen to know if...

Just look me in the eyes and tell me that it's impossible to go back!

Maybe you knew all along but wanted to spare my feelings.

And if that's so... Then it's time to remove that fake option and move on."

"So if you could choose right now between going back and staying, your decision is basically premade?"

"Yes."

"But would your choice make you happy?"

"It would be the right choice."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I don't like the answer I'd give you. But if you just tell me that there is no way I can go back, then..."

"You know what? I'm done! So fcuk you and your fcuking righteousness! SANDRA!"

"Yes, dear?" The witch comes out from the shadows as if she'd been there all along.

"Take this idiot to that world where he thinks he 'rightly' belongs! And I'm no longer interested in going."

The shock at the appearance of the witch is overwritten quickly by the apparent command his Alpha gives to the newly appeared woman.

"You're making fun of me!" he says, but the look on Jena's face has him quickly reconsider.

"I assume you want the one you call E with you? Good, I brought her," the witch says without waiting for an answer and E steps out from behind Sandra but says nothing.

"Are you telling me this is actually happening? That all along you only had to say 'take him back' into thin air and this woman would come and do it just like that?"

"I see no point in explaining myself to you any longer. Take him out of my sight, witch!"

"As you wish!"

With the signature snap of the fingers, Sandra, Al'Aeen, and E disappear in a puff of smoke.

"May the Moons have mercy on our souls!" the Alpha of the Multi-Unity Pack whispers before starting the long walk back to the camp.

A place full of merry, victorious people for whom she will have to pretend and look just as happy, while slowly breaking into pieces on the inside.