The Lone Wolf

~~FIFTEEN~~

He doesn't...and just I feel the wolf loom over me, his harsh growl right in my ear, something flies over me and hits him hard, his startled whine followed by the sound of wolves fighting. I keep my eyes squeezed shut as flying snow hits me, not daring to peek even after it goes quiet after a cut off whine fills the forest.

After what feels like hours, something comes towards me...and I curl into a tighter trembling ball as they stop in front of me.

"Little one? Are you okay?" A woman's voice calls as the scent of rogue fills my nose, and I open my eyes to look up at the blurred silhouette hopefully.

"Ma-mama?" I whisper hoarsely, and the woman sighs.

"I'm so sorry little one...but I couldn't...I was too late..." She murmurs as she kneels down, and my sobs echo painfully loud as the reality hits me. She reaches towards me, and I instinctively flinch away from her hand.

"It's okay sweetie, I promise I won't hurt you..." She murmurs, and between the grief, the cold, and the pain...I don't have it in me to fight against her offered comfort.

She turns my head towards her, her brown eyes filled with horror as she looks at my face. She immediately rips off a piece of her shirt and presses it against the hurt area gently, and I shiver as some of the snow begins to melt inside my coat.

"Come here little one." She carefully picks me up, and I go limp as she cradles me in her arms, the she wolfs warmth cocooning me like mama's used too...for a moment I pretend it's her as I close my eyes, the last thing I hear before the darkness pulls me in is the strangers voice.

"I promise to protect you little one, no matter what."

.......

"Fleura? Fleura baby? Can you hear me sweetheart?"

Dakota's voice cuts through the empty silence, as well as the cries of my little boy calling for me as he tugs on my shirt. I blink my eyes as my vision returns again, looking up to see my mate in front of me, his panicked expression relaxing a bit as I meet his brown eyes. Noah stretches his little hands up to my tear soaked face, his own cheeks wet from crying.

"Baby?" Dakota murmurs, and I hiccup as the memories hit me all over again, the sobs that rack my body spur my mate into action.

"D-Dakota..." I hiccup as he pulls my face into his chest, his hand cupping the back of my head as Noah clings to me and sobs into my shoulder.

"It's okay Flower, it's okay...I'm right here, everything is going to be okay." He murmurs soothingly as he rubs my back and strokes my hair at the same time, and I let all my sadness dampen his shirt as he holds me close.

Dakota

I sigh in relief as both my mate and my son finally cry themselves out, tucking both of them under the covers of our bed as Noah clings to her tightly in his sleep.

Brushing a strand of her hair behind her ear, I kiss her temple before standing up to leave the room, shutting the door gently behind me and then leaning my back against it. I run my hands over my face as the images that played through my mates head replay in mine once again, turning into an invisible bystander as I watched the happy life she had be shattered in a heartbreaking moment...

No four year old should have to go through that...to see that kind of horror. It's more than likely the reason her memories were so fuzzy, her minds defense against that hurting her again was to have her forget...who wouldn't want to?

Pulling myself together, I head downstairs to the room full of people. The young Alpha Liam sits on the couch in silence, his blank expression hiding a great deal of shock and confusion while his father Alpha Ian stands in the window with his head hung low as the woman I assume is his second chance mate attempts to comfort him.

I'm currently in the presence of my mates father, stepmother, and half brother...all of which are processing things very differently at the moment. I'm not sure exactly what to say right now, but I have to say something...at least someone has to. Looking down at the floor, I see the stuffed turtle that was in my lap, and I pick it up before taking a deep breath.

"Alpha Ian?"

He turns to me slowly, his face filled with both grief and anguish. Both Luna Kelly and Alpha Liam look at me too, and I go to sit down in the chair my mate was sitting in earlier, the rest of them following suit.

"To be truthful...I honestly don't know what to say to any of you right now. Considering the things I saw in Fleura's head...and her current emotional state, I'm not sure I'm going to know for a while..." I start, and it stays silent.

"All I do know right now is that you're her family, and you need some answers...and right now I can only give you three."

Ian looks at me, anxious for my answers.

"One...Fleura remembers you...she knows you're her father...and that your first mate was her mother."

Kelly squeezes his hand as he nods, telling me to keep going.

"Two, she remembers the attack...but she didn't see what happened to her mother." I leave out the part that she heard her mothers dying scream...he doesn't need to know that, me and Fleura having that ingrained in our memory is more than enough.

"Thank the Goddess..." He murmurs.

"And three...the rogue she wolf that saved her life...Maya, if I remember correctly, was the one who raised her. I can only assume that she didn't know you were alive...and that she believed moving Fleura would keep her safe."

As they process that I sigh, knowing the next thing I'm going to say is going to be difficult to hear.

"What I don't know is how she is going to handle all of this later...or how long it's going to be before she even wants to. She just got the biggest bombshell of a lifetime dropped on her, and after twenty one years of not remembering...she has a mother to grieve for. And I know from experience that she needs to have this time...even if it means she does it alone..."

Fleura's dad sinks his head into his hands, and remind myself to keep it together. Fleura needs me...as does Noah.

"I'm not saying you have to leave the territory, just...she needs time, and space to process everything. We can't rush her through this...no matter how much we want her to feel better."

Everyone nods after a moment, still silent. I may not know everything Fleura is experiencing, but I do understand the loss of a parent. I was fifteen years old when my father was killed in a rogue attack...and even though I had to keep it together for my distraught mother and my infant sisters, I still mourned him.

"I wish we could have met under different circumstances...but it is good to meet my mates family. Perhaps once things settle down we can talk and get to know each other." I say as I stand up, and the rest follow.

"Of course...we'll stay close by...and thank you Dakota, I'm glad my daughter has you in her life...she needs you now more than ever." Ian murmurs as he shakes my hand, all of them filing out the door slowly as I watch. Once the door shuts behind them I collapse back into the chair, closing my eyes as I allow myself process all the emotions swirling in my head...allowing myself a brief moment of instability and uncertainty.

Because once I get out of this chair, I'm going to be the one who holds it together for all of us.