"I've been fighting to be who I am all my life. What's the point of being who I am, if I can't have the person who was worth all the fighting for?"
― Stephanie Lennox, I Don't Remember You
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Callahan aka Cal's P.O.V:
"Mom, have you seen Tina? She is not in her room.", I went to the kitchen to see mom standing near the stove cooking something. No sign of Tina, I have been looking for her for a while.
"She might be in the garden. She was planning to do some weeding.", Mom replied without looking at me.
"Is she alone? You know she is not supposed to go out alone, right?", Ever since the accident we never let her out of the house alone, even if it's just to the backyard. We are 100% sure that the accident was not just an accident but a planned attack and in that case, she is still in danger.
"I think Tom is with her, I told her to take someone with her but she refused. I can't force her into something she doesn't want to do right, and also I don't want her to feel like a weakling. By the way, why are you looking for her??"
"Mmm.. nothing... I was planning to go out. Wanted to know whether she wanna come with me. You know, a little brother-sister bonding. I will go check the garden then. Bye mom", I headed to the garden. I walked out to see Tom running, or rather hopping towards the back door.
"Hey, buddy!! Have you seen Tina?", I called out to him.
"Yup. She is still in the garden. She told me to go and wash up for lunch, she will be here in a few." He shouted as he ran to the room.
"Looks like someone is very hungry", My wolf Rock said and I chuckled, "He is like a funny bunny".
I walked out of the house and made my way to the garden. As I rounded the corner our beautiful garden came to my view, I could see Tina there now. Thank god!! she is not alone, a pack member is there with her. That girl seems vaguely familiar but couldn't put my finger on how I know her.
"That girl is yelling at our little sister" Rock, my wolf, growled then I noticed that they are not having a friendly conversation. I picked up my pace as I saw the girl started to shake as if her wolf is taking control, and Tina is already a crying mess she looks like she is going into a shock, seems like another panic attack.
As I got close I could pick up some of their conversations, I heard the girl screaming,
"...I am going to take your life for his life."
And she transformed into her mud brown wolf and pounced to my sister, Tina is not moving, she stood there as if she is embracing this death. My heart broke seeing my little sister like that. Without thinking I shifted to my dark brown wolf and pushed forward, Rock took over complete control and he wanted blood.
I vaguely remember knocking the girl off before she hit my sister, she is a weak one but her anger is driving her. She tried to snap at my wolf. But Rock is beyond angry about what she was about to do to our sister. We were going to snap to her neck when I was suddenly knocked off from her. My wolf growled and ready to pounce at to the intruder when we saw Marcus,my elder brother's dark brown wolf standing tall and mighty above her and he orders her to submit to his Alpha command, even though he is not the Alpha yet, Alpha in him is really powerful, as powerful as our father.. I could see the fury and anger in his eyes but unlike me, he had full control over his wolf. He had some enforcers with him and ordered them to take her to the cells in the basement. Then he orders Rock to calm down and shift back. Once I shifted and put on shorts that one of the enforcers passed me, he also shifted and got dressed.
We rushed to our sister's side to see Dr.Bryan working on her with mom and dad on her both sides. Doc already managed to calm her down but she is unconscious.
"We need to move her to the infirmary", Dr.Bryan said looking at me and Abel, I just nodded and picked her up in my arms. I held her close, she let out a whimper and a lone teardrop escaped from her eyes and made its way down through her cheeks.
"She deserves much better than this", Rock whimpered at the back of my mind, "Is there nothing we could do for our little sister?"
"I know Rock, it's breaking my heart to see her like this. We will find a way to stop this suffering. We will search and find her the happiness she deserves", I assured him.
"I promise you little one, your brother will find you the happiness you deserve", I whispered to the girl in my hands.
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Tina's P.O.V:
"Purpose"
"Purpose of life".
"Purpose of my life".
"What is the purpose of my life?"
"Argghhhh, this is so frustrating", I was pulling at my hair when I heard Bella giggling next to me, today it's her turn to babysit me, I threw my pen at her and crumbled the paper I was using and threw it into the dustbin.
After the last panic attack a week ago, I am having some speech session and my therapist gave me homework to find the purpose of my life. And for the last 3 hours, I was sitting in my room trying to figure out the 'Purpose' of my life and I only managed to write the heading of the essay and doodle all over it.
"Seriously Bella. That man is the psychotic one not me", I was seriously losing it, "What's wrong with you all? I never tried to do anything stupid. Whatever Chelsea did is not my fault."
"Come on Tinzz, just put up with it. Your family is just scared and worried. And the fact that you didn't try to fight or run from Chelsea is still freaking us out. Give them some time and do like they say, it will calm them down", Bella tried to soothe me.
"But Bells, they are practically asking me to forget Mike and move on. How can I do that? He is my mate for crying out loud. The only one for me, only one I ever wanted. I don't exist without him." I started to cry by the time I finished my sentence. Bella just held me tight and let me pour out my pain.
After my episode, we decided to stop working on my assignment for a while and take a break. We were in the tv room watching "Finding Nemo" for the umpteenth time when we heard growls and paw thudding outside.
"ROGUES!! MOTHERS, CHILDREN AND ELDERLY PEOPLE MOVE TO THE SAFE HOUSE", my father's voice rang in our head through the Alpha's link.
The safe house is a specially designed room with one-way password access, once locked it can be opened only from the inside with the help of a password. Those who cannot shift, children, mothers of children below the age of 10 and elderly people are supposed to stay in the safe house during rouge attacks and wars. They are supposed to stay there till the attack is over and Alpha or Beta link with them to open the door.
I and Bella rushed out of the room when we heard the Alpha. Bella suddenly shifts into her light blond wolf and sprint to the front door, then only I remembered I cannot shift.
"Great!! I can't even help my pack now. Completely useless", I tried to reach out River but the effort was fruitless. I felt someone poking me and looked to see Bella's blonde wolf trying to push me towards the safe house, she might have come back when she felt my absence.
"Okay.okay. I will go. But mark my words, Missy. If you don't come back in one piece, I will follow you to the purgatory and create a personal hell for you okay." She licked my hands and nodded. I gave her one more pat on the head and ran to the safe house.
I rushed to the safe house, almost everyone is already there. A couple of mothers are making there way to the door with their children. Seeing a 5-year-old in his mother's arms reminded me of Tom.
"Oh, God!! That poor guy might be freaking out now, he doesn't have his mom to calm him", I thought to myself and went to look for him among the other orphans. But I couldn't find him.
"Where is Tom?"I asked a blonde kid near me.
"Didn't see him after breakfast. That freak might have wandered off to somewhere", kid responded.
"First thing. Don't call him a freak. Secondly, he is just like you, even better." I jumped down at his throat. I know I shouldn't have, he is just a kid but I am upset that I can't find Tom in the safe house. And they are about to close the door.
"Wait. One of the kids is missing. I am going to look for him. You can close the door and lock it. Keep everyone safe here. Don't open the door until you are told to." I ordered a theta woman and made my way out through the door.
As I was about to exit a hand grabbed me, I looked back to see one of the mothers watching me with concern,
"What are you going to do dear? Alpha and your brothers won't be happy about you leaving the safe house." She told me.
"Don't worry. I will be fine. I need to find Tom. If something happens to him I won't be able to live with the guilt of it weighing on me. Don't worry we will hide once I found him."I gave her a smile and pried my hands from her grip, which she reluctantly let go. I step back and watched as they closed the door.
After making sure that the door is secure, I ran to the garden, the only place that came to my mind where there is a chance to find him.
I saw my worst nightmare came alive in my garden. There, at the entrance to the garden stood Tom both his hands spread like eagles wing, as he is trying to guard the garden entrance and in front of him stood 4 fully grown wolves, definitely rouges, and just then I noticed one dirty blond wolf preparing to lung at Tom. I ran to him and jumped to knock off the wolf before he hit Tom.
In the mid-air, I felt an energy surge in me, the rage of my wolf, River, within me. I knocked the wolf away from Tom and landed on my white paws, without second thoughts I caught the wolf by his neck, tightening my hold my teeth penetrated into his flesh and with one strong move I broke his neck.
I looked up from my kill to see three more wolfs joining the remaining three wolf.
"Great!! now we are outnumbered, again.", I muttered to River. I took a protective stance in front of Tom.
Then I heard heavy thudding almost like an earthquake, I didn't take my eyes from my attackers and stood my stand. One of the wolves was ready to jump at me, suddenly he was tackled to the ground by a big dark brown wolf and the rogue is dead in seconds, without any remorse the brown wolf turned to his next prey. I took my eyes off of the brown wolf to see all our attackers are either dead or fighting others from my pack.
"Take Tom out of here", Abel's sound rang in my head. Without wasting a second I went to Tom, that kid was a scared mess. Its the first time he is seeing murder and blood, my heart pained at the terror I saw in the child's face. I licked him and he looked up at me with a terrified look, I lowered my head to show him at I mean no harm to him. He slowly raised his hands and pat my head. I pressed myself to the floor to signal him to climb on my back, and to my relief, he complied.
I ran inside fast and climb the stairs to my room. Once in my room, I sat the boy on my bed and went to my walk-in closet, shifted to my human and got dressed. I came back to the room to see Tom in a fetal position and sobbing his heart out. I locked the door and entered the passcode to be extra secure, Alpha's daughter's room will always have extra protection. I walked back to the bed and pulled Tom closer to me. He snuggled closer to me and continued crying, after a while his heartbeat became normal and I knew that he dozed off.
I stayed like that for a while holding his warm body close to me, satisfying my wolf's urge to protect him, to assure her that the child is safe and unharmed. That made me think about what caused my wolf to return to me, after a while, I got my answer. I got up from my bed and pulled some pillows around Tom so that he won't fall from the bed and remain warm.
I unlocked my door and listened for some time, I could hear movements downstairs after listening for a few seconds. When I am sure that the attack is over and daily activities are restored, I got out of my room and closed the door behind me, then made my way to Alpha's office.
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Hi friends,
Thank you so much for reading Fates Intertwined.
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love,
Niranjana