Chapter 1 Loss

“The Alpha is dead!!!” Masha yelled, looking straight into the crowd right at me. She blinked, trying to hold herself together as she addressed the crowd.

I swallowed. I felt my mother stagger. Shaking her head on how it could not be possible and me?

I felt cold, feeling the ground shift beneath me as I looked at my sister announcing the news. To anyone else, she sounded cold, unbothered. But to me? I could see the cracks.

The tightening of her fists on her pants as she addressed the pack.

The trembling of her legs as she stood which she tried to disguise as her tapping her feet.

“Alpha Annim, second Alpha of the dark water park, has passed” she announced again as was the right of passage. My mother who had been in denial all these while passed away upon hearing it the second time, I rushed to her, holding her in my hands as I tried to act strong myself but it was pointless. The tears were running down my face faster than I could blink.

I tried to swallow but the tears burned my throat. Pack members gathered, whispering amongst themselves and not sparing us the cruelty of their words.

“We urged him to get another mate. Now not a single heir to bare the throne”

“Is this the end of our pack?”

“Pathetic, not even having the guts to take l the news, what a weak Luna” I clenched my fist, not even for a second paying them any attention. My mother was unconscious, I was going to get to them in a minute.

“What happened!!!” Masha said as soon as she reached us, the panic in her voice evident as her body shook.

“Get the pack doctor!” I barked! “Clear the entrance, make the finest beds for her” I continued, carrying my mother in my arms as I rushed to go.

“Who does she think she is?”

“Acting like an alpha

“she might carry the Alpha blood but she is still female”

And a Vampire nonetheless” their voices kept on sneering in my head till I could not take it anymore. I tried not to let the words get to me

“if you have an issue with my orders you better tell me straight to my face” I spat, looking at the elder who had dared to even utter such words to me.

He was lucky that I had been holding my mother or I would have ripped his stupid heart out of his body and fed it to him.

He was smart enough not to say anything, looking at me as he looked around nervously, hoping that someone, his fellow gossipers would save him.

None had the balls to of course.

“Adrelle, the place is ready” my sister called out, her voice still shaking as she took our mother from my hands.

I took in a deep breath, following her into the clinic before I lost my temper.

I followed as much as they would let me, pacing outside her room as the doctors did their thing.

“what if she does not make it to-“

I shot my sister a look, daring her to complete that statement and she shut up, making me sigh.

I could not. There was no way I was going to lose two parents in one day, I just could not.

“I am-“ the door burst open, cutting off whatever it was that she was going to say.

“Adrelle!!!” my head snapped towards the familiar voice, making the knots in my stomach to loosen a bit.

“Aldrich!” I cried, rushing into the arms of my mate

“I came as soon as I heard the news, I am sorry” he whispered in my ear, but I could not hear the rest of what he was saying.

All that mattered was one thing.

He was here, my mate was here. I could finally let myself not be as strong anymore.

“have you seen Maelis?” he asked, pulling himself away from me.

I felt the familiar twitch of my eyebrow as I let him pull away.

He had come to find me, to comfort me in my time of distress, but somehow, he still was asking of my best friend.

“you know where she is” I said, not even bothering to look at him anymore as I aggressively wiped the tears from my face.

“come on don’t be like that.” He started, putting his hands on my cheek to wipe away something from it.

“look, I think you should go freshen up, you are all sweaty anyways” I said, trying to get away from him and hide the fact that I really was upset.

He looked at me like he was going to say something before he let out a nod. “fine then, I doubt you’ve had something to eat, I make you something and come back okay?” I felt my chest melt a bit as I looked at him.

“I am sorry for overreacting, I just…”

“hey…” he touched my cheeks slightly, “I understand” he kissed my cheeks, before leaving me alone with my thoughts.

“are you good?” Masha called, her voice little but somehow, it still managed to pull me from my thoughts.

“I…”

“you should go check on your mate, you forgot to give him the keys to your apartment.” She said, looking away from me and back to the ground she had been looking at for the past few minutes now.

“ah..” I said, moving on autopilot to him.

My mind was clouded, the possibility of a lot of things happening at once made me want to throw myself out the window, “Aldrich is here” I said to myself, somehow, that made everything better.

I paused, realizing that his scent was coming from a different direction instead of where my apartment was.

“I am just overthinking it” I said to myself even though my feet were already taking me to where his scent was coming from.

I felt my chest beating louder by the second, approaching the one place my brain was screaming at me not to go to.

I stopped at her door ‘I mean he asked of her, what if he wanted to see her before going to cook for’

“and what of Adrelle?” a voice peaked up from inside, cutting off my thoughts as my ears perked off.

“and what about her?” Aldrich’s voice called. The door was not completely closed, with a few cracks for me to see through but barely.

“you should be by her right now” it was Maelis. She spoke with this mockery in her voice that I could not quite place.

“well we’ve got time” he said, removing her dress in one swift move while he pulled her closer to him…