Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“I feel the same about you, Little Bunny.” I kissed her forehead and tucked her wet hair behind her ear. “I would never leave you or the kids. Not if I had a choice in the matter.”
“That is good to know.” She settled her head back on my chest and sighed.
“How did you do it?” I asked her in a hushed tone. I don’t know why, but this topic almost felt taboo.
“Do what?” She lifted her head again and gave me a bemused look.
“Defeat the monsters? Kill the boss? End the battle? How did you do all of that?”
“Well, to be honest, it wasn’t me.”
“What?” I was the one that looked bemused now. “If it wasn’t you, then who was it?”
“It was Talia. She conjured her own weapon, a scythe if you can believe it. She saw you disappear and wanted to go after you, but then Alexio called out to her, he was protecting her from one of those monsters that she had wounded but not killed. He almost died tonight as well. He lived, but he was on the brink of death as well. With you and him gone, or so she thought, she went a little berserk. She flew on her dragixie, by the way, Angel is way more powerful than I ever thought she was. Anyway, she leapt at the leader of the Ancient Ones and tore his soul out of his back. She really is like a Goddess of Death.”
I was floored. How the hell had this all happened? And, dammit, why couldn’t I see it? That sounded badass as all fucking hell, and I missed it. FUCK!
“It sounds like our little girl is quite the powerhouse.” That was all that I had to say. I was still trying to process all of the details that Riviana had just given me.
“She really is.” Little Bunny nodded at me. “And I am interested to see just how much stronger she will get as time moves on. She is still young, and her powers are still growing. Oh, and another thing, Talia’s powers seem to have changed colors.” That seemed like it was a thought that popped into her head at the last second.
“Really? What color are they now?” I had an idea, but I wasn’t sure since I wasn’t there.
“Instead of pink, her magic is now purple, like her wolf.”
“Well, of course they are.” I grinned and shook my head. That was what I thought she was going to say. “She really is changing, and quickly too.”
“They all are.” My Little Bunny sounded so sad at that moment. It was like she was not happy about what was going on. I wouldn’t guess that she was. What mother wanted to think about her kids growing up so quickly?
We talked a little more about the battle and what had happened after I was gone. Riviana told me how she had spoken to most of the people that had been present at the battle, and how she wanted to hold another meeting tomorrow. She wanted to tell them all that I was safe and that I wasn’t going to die, but I stopped her. It was late and most of them were likely asleep already. It would be rude to wake them after the night that they had endured.
We dried off after the bath, which had helped with my pain quite a bit. After we dried off, we dressed for bed and climbed between the sheets and blanket. I wanted to hold my Little Bunny for the rest of the night. I wanted to feel her warmth, her presence, and her love. I felt like I needed to keep reaffirming to myself that she was there. I was really here. And I was truly still alive.
I didn’t sleep that much after we laid in the bed. I was lying there awake, holding my mate in my arms, and thinking about all that had happened. Not just about almost dying, but about everything. I thought about my family, my friends, my people, and the future that we all had before us. I thought about how scared I was to close my eyes and go to sleep, just in case all of this that had happened since I came back to life was just a dream, or a vision of sorts. I thought about how I might actually be dead, and this was all just an illusion that the Gods of the underworld were showing me as my form of heavenly bliss. I worried about all of that and so much more.
And just as I was falling asleep, I thought about how something was tickling my sense of smell. Something that I should recognize, but that I was too distracted to think about. What was it? What was that smell? I couldn’t figure it out though, sleep had finally come for me and pulled me under into a deep, dreamless sleep.
The dreamlessness of that sleep was almost enough to scare me, but it didn’t. I kept my Little Bunny in my arms the entire night. I held her close against my chest and felt her beating heart. It was her warmth, her life, her sheer presence that kept me calm all throughout the night. She was my rock, my lifeline, my beacon of hope. She was the one thing that kept me grounded, just like she had done for all these years now. And hopefully, many, many, many more to come. My Little Bunny, my reason for living, my fate.
****
Talia
****
When I left my dad in that clinic, I knew that I had too much on my mind to sleep. I knew that I needed to process all of it or I wouldn’t be able to move on. He had almost died. Lex had almost died. And I had done things that I had never thought were possible before.
All of these things had just hit me all at once, the good and the bad. And frankly, they had left me feeling more than a little overwhelmed and confused. I wanted to think. I wanted to process my thoughts and emotions. And I wanted to talk to someone that might help me with it all.
Who, though? Who could I talk to? Who would understand what I was feeling? Who would help me figure this all out?
Initially, I had thought that the Gods, the ones that I had learned so much from, would help me. But they weren’t a good choice for this. Based on their reactions after I had killed Olorud, they would just be in awe of me and tell me that it was all fate and blah blah blah. I didn’t want to hear that. I didn’t want to be revered. I wanted help working all of this out.
I didn’t have a lot of close friends either. I couldn’t just call one of them up and talk about this whole thing. Even if I did have friends like that, there were two reasons why I couldn’t call them at the moment. One was the fact that it was after midnight. And two, we hadn’t told most of the surrounding supernatural population about the battle and what was happening, so I couldn’t exactly spill the beans on that.
I guess I could talk to my siblings. Well, Reagan and Rika at least. But they might not get it. And they might not understand what it is that had happened. I am not saying that they would have blamed me for anything or that they would make fun of me, but they hadn’t experienced anything like this. No one had, at least not to my knowledge. So, who exactly did that leave for me to talk to? Who should I talk to?
…..
I was heading back to my room, taking the long way to clear my head as I went. I wanted a shower as well. I was covered in blood from my dad. And I hadn’t had the time to shower before seeing him either, so I had the other muck and grime on me from the battle. The clothes that I was wearing were going straight into the trash when they came off. I didn’t want to keep them.
Standing in the shower, letting the steaming and almost burning hot water cascade onto me, tuning my pale skin a bright pink, I thought about who my options were. I was already clean. I had scrubbed every inch of myself three times after getting into the shower, and after a few minutes, I did it again just to be sure that I wasn’t still dirty. Right now, I was just letting the water relax me and sooth me. And warm me up, because I was inexplicably cold.
While I stood there, Angel popped into the room. She had gone from being nearly invisible to her full colored and beautiful self. She had been amazing today. And, thankfully, she had already cleaned herself up. There was no blood, dirt, or gore on her at all.
“Talia looks sad.” She flew in a little figure eight pattern as she watched me.
“I am sad. And I am confused. I need to talk to someone, Angel, but I don’t know who to talk to.” I never lied to Angel. There was no reason to. She was like an extension of me, a part of my soul or something. A piece of me that had existed before I was born and had found her way back to me while guiding my mom home from the underworld.
“Talia always talks to parents?”
“Dad is recovering, and it’s late. I can’t talk to them right now.”
“Talia talk to Angel?” She suggested, and that wasn’t a bad idea, I did often talk to her to work out my thoughts, but I wanted a more sophisticated conversation about all of this.