Myra's P.O.V.
"Damen," I gasped out loud, jumping to my feet. Aspen focused his eyes on me, assessing me. Damen, I responded. What's going on?
I have bad news, Myra, He said.
I held my breath. What happened?
I they needed my help, our pack. Sam is badly injured, but he should live. He didn't continue.
I'm relieved to hear he's okay.
But your mom... she's not. She's... dead.
I frowned. I knew that one of them had died but I didn't want to believe it. I slowly sat back down to the floor. No. It can't be. I was in denial. I would deny it til the end of time if I could.
I'm sorry. Damens soothing voice broke through me.
I put my head in my hands and willed tears out of my eyes. They wouldn't come. I wanted to cry but my body wouldn't let me. I had cried my eyes dry.
"Myra? What is it?" Aspen asked.
"Mom," My voice cracked. I started to hit myself hard on my forehead. "Why!" Hit. "Can't!" Hit. "I!" Hit. "Cry!" Aspen grabbed my hands before I could deliver the next blow to my forehead. His green eyes bore into mine, a sea of emotion shining through.
"Stop, Myra," He demanded softly. He pulled me into a strong hug. I instinctively wrapped my arms around him. Tearless sobs racked through my body in waves. He comforted and rubbed my back like I had done to Evan earlier.
I slowly calmed down and pushed him away. I looked at my hands sadly.
Damen spoke again. You can come back home in a week. Bring the rest of the family as well. Start packing. Tell them that furniture will not be neccesary. They only need to bring clothes, sheets, and maybe a few keepsakes. Bring everything that their kids need other than furniture. Sam had me contact Rick and tell him to rent a minivan and a U-Haul trailer. He should have arrived by now.
I smiled sadly. Okay, Damen. And yes he is here. He is upstairs with Sophia and the babies.
I love you, Myra. And your father is doing better too.
My chest constricted. Damen, mates die with each other. He doesn't have more than a couple of days left.
Your father is different. Please, have a little faith. He pleaded.
I'll try.
~~~~~
Sophia and Rick plopped down the stairs holding the children carefully.
Rick laughed. "By the look on your face, I'm sure Damen told you everything!"
I didn't smile at his comment. I was not happy and he acted like he was trying to make a joke out of my pain. "Yeah," I said. "Now, we need to pack up neccesities and everything for the children other than furniture. We need to be done by tomorrow night because the drive back is going to be far." I paused. "Clothes, sheets, hygeine products and only a few keepsakes can come with us." I swallowed back my sadness because we needed to get this done. "I have an idea on how to get this done faster, too. I will pack up my stuff and my triplets stuff. Evan and Aspen with take care of the twins stuff and Evan's stuff. Sophia, you take care of your guys room. And Rick, just pack up the bathrooms." I sighed with exasperation.
They all nodded slowly in agreement. Evan rubbed his eyes. "Can I go to sleep? I'm tired."
"Go ahead," Sophia answered. "I'll make dinner. My room shouldn't take that long."
We all split up and grabbed some boxes out of the trailer.
~~~~~~~
An hour later, we all sat around the table, enjoying some home-made vegetable stew. We didn't talk at all. In fact, the only noises you would hear would come from the babbling children and the slurping of the stew. The silence was comfortable and we all had a lot on our minds. I was afraid that Aspen would decide that they shouldn't come back to my pack. Even after all of this bullshit, I knew they wouldn't back out. They wanted to be a permanant member of my family and I wanted it too.
However, now my family is broken. I lost my mom and will probably lose my dad. Friends and family have been lost to this idiotic fight fight between human-like species. Now that the fight is over and we are victorious, we can go on living normally. Maybe the hunters will begin to live more normally now that the cauncil has been eliminated. I hoped that hunters would start to live among the humans again, learn what love is and what sadness is, like Damen.
Many boxes were filled before we all gathered for dinner. Rick had packed up both bathrooms and moved on to help Sophia with dinner. Aspen had almost completely pack up Evan's stuff and I had everything I own in his house packed up. I put away as many of the babies things as I could and left out only what I would use to get them through the next day. We stacked them neatly by the front door and made sure that they were taped closed securely.
I slurped down the last of my stew and excused myself from the table to continue packing. I started on the twins room alone before Aspen joined me.
"This is so unreal," He gasped as he taped a box closed. "I don't remember Mom very well. What was she like?"
The question caught me off guard. I eyed him carefully. "My whole life, she's been very emotional. I don't know how she kept from telling me about you. She told me everything. She was very sweet to me and was terrified when I shifted because the pain I had experienced was so... bad."
Aspen busied himself with putting another box together and packing it carefully. "When I knew Mom, she was pretty much still a kid." He laughed. "She always asked older pack members what she should do whenever I acted up, which was a lot. Mom always got so frustrated with me. Like one time, when I was like eleven, I took the car out and brought it back unharmed, but I left the car door open and forgot to put the keys back! I left them on my dresser in my room!" Aspen chuckled loudly.
"I never did anything wrong except the occasional white lie! Mom said that when she had me, she expected me to be a little devil! No wonder!" I gestured to Aspen. I taped a box full of toys shut and started to fill another. "God! This is taking forever!"
"No it isn't. We are almost half way done and it hasn't even been six hours since Damen told you that we can go home."
"Home." I said.
"What?"
"You called the pack home."
"Myra. It has and always will be my home," Aspen explained. "From the moment I was born."
I had tears in my eyes. I was just so happy. "Thank you."
"Why are you thanking me?"
"I don't know!" I cried. I hugged Aspen tightly. "I just... I'm so glad you're coming home!"
He chuckled. "Me too, Myra."
Damen's P.O.V.
"So how's this gonna work without a council?" I asked.
Sam ran shaky fingers through his hair. "We're supposed to take over but I think that we should let the hunter's choose what they want to do."
"What if they decide to form a new council?"
"They won't. The rest of the hunter's are weak in comparison. The council did not breed because they were supposed to be eternal beings selected by the moon goddess. They all ceased aging by the time they were twenty-five. They were given ten times the strength of the average hunter."
Diane walked over to us. "Sorry to interupt but how are you feeling, Sam?"
"Like my heart got ripped out of my chest and torn apart." He said dryly.
"I mean physically," She sighed.
Sam shook his head. "My physical pain is nothing compared to my emotional pain. If you want me to rate it, I'd say six. Yes! It hurts! But Diane, it is tolerable."
"Do you want some ibuprofen?"
"No."
"But we need you to-"
"I said no, Diane, and I'm sticking to it."
She sighed and walked away.
I cleared my throat. "So-uh- back to the hunter issue. Are you saying that they won't even try to set up a new council?"
"If they do, we could easily take them down. It isn't any of my concern."
"Okay." I replied. "You need to eat, bathe and rest so that you can be somewhat better by the time Myra and Aspen's family show up."
"Can you get me something?"
"Sure." I walked out of the bunker. We haven't moved Sam out of the bunker because we wanted to make sure he had some more time to heal. The main pack doctor had brought a hospital bed down to us and we moved him onto it. She also brought down a large basin for water that we would fill after he ate. We were just going to wash the blood off of him with a sponge and some wash cloths.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I came back about ten minutes later with a small meal. I placed it in front of him and started to fill the basin. As Sam finished his meal, I finished filling up the basin.
Diane and I pulled back the blankets and peeled off whatever was left of his clothes. The smaller wounds on Sam's chest were starting to scab over so Diane gently scrubbed the dried blood from his skin while I washed Sam's feet and legs. Sam winced everytime Diane neared the stitches, but he didn't complain.
Once we had finished his front, we carefully helped him roll onto his side so that we could wash his back. His back was much easier to wash because there weren't as many cuts and they weren't very deep.
"How are you feeling?" Diane asked as she started to work her hands through his bloody hair.
"I'm fine. Just shave my head! It'll be easier for the both of us!"
I found scissors and a razor and hopped to work. I made quick work of it, trimming it really short and then running the razor through the last bit of hair that was left.
"Myra and the rest will be home in about a week. I need you to be at least semi-healthy by then," I told Sam.
His eyes filled with worry, happiness, and sadness. "She's so much like her mother."