Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“I want to have someone that can help me. Someone to tell me what I need to do now.”
“Talia talk to Alexio?” She mentioned the one name that I had avoided. He had been hurt too. And I didn’t even know how he was doing right now. I was afraid to check on him. I was afraid that he would blame me for being hurt.
“I am afraid that he won’t want to see me.” I told her. “He was hurt earlier because of me.”
“Angel ask him then. Angel see if Alexio want talk to Talia too.” Before I could stop her, the little dragixie had disappeared. Dammit! She was going to make him come over here. And that meant that I needed to get out of the hot water.
I shut off the water, dried a little with the towel, but then decided that I was going to just use magic as I walked to my closet. I was fully dried by the time that I got to the clothes that I was intending on wearing. A set of pajamas that had long dark purple fleece pants and a short sleeve shirt that was lilac colored. I hadn’t even thought about the irony of these clothes until just now. How the colors were slowly starting to match everything about me.
On top of the pajamas I added a dark gray jacket, a pair of black socks, and fuzzy pink slippers. I was a jumble of colors, but I didn’t care. I wanted to be warm, and this made me feel warm.
I was walking out of the closet, pulling my hair back into a high ponytail, when there was a knock in my door.
“Talia?” It was Lex’s voice. “Are you alright?”
“Come in.” I told him calmly as I walked toward the sitting area in the corner. He would see me and join me over there.
I was in the reclining armchair when Lex walked over and sat on the loveseat facing me. He took up pretty much the entire thing since he was so much bigger than I was.
“Are you alright?” He asked the question again. “Angel said you were sad.”
“How are you, Lex?” I asked him, avoiding the question and turning it back on him.
“I will live. There is little pain left and I am feeling as strong as ever. But you did not answer my question.” He answered, but he didn’t let me escape doing the same thing.
“I am confused, Lex. I..I don’t really understand what it was that happened tonight.” I looked up and met his eyes now. He was looking the same as he always had. Nothing at all had changed about his appearance, so I guess he really was OK.
“I wasn’t awake until the end of the battle, Talia. Can you fill me in?” He looked a little off as he asked that. Perhaps he was angry about not being awake for the battle. Angry at me.
I told Lex everything. I told him about the scythe, but he had seen that. I told him about how I was feeling when my dad was hurt, and then when he was hurt. I was losing people close to me, and I didn’t want to let that happen. I told him what I did. How I called Angel to me and together we flew at Olorud. I told him how I pulled the Ancient One’s soul from its body and destroyed it. How that had caused them all to die.
All through the explanation, Lex just watched me and listened. He didn’t interrupt me. He didn’t look angry. He just listened. And that made me feel even more nervous. It wasn’t until I lapsed into silence and looked at him with worried eyes that he finally spoke.
“I think that the Gods were right, Talia. You are worthy to run the underworld. But I am guessing that you didn’t want to hear that.”
“No. I didn’t.” I shook my head. That wasn’t what I was confused about.
“I don’t know what you want to hear, Talia, but I know what I want to tell you. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, is thankful for you, whether they know it was you or not. They are thankful to the person that saved them. You think that the powers that you used were dark or evil. I can see that in your eyes. I don’t see it that way though. You helped people. You made sure that I was safe and alive. You sent your own familiar to look for and to save your father. You are not bad or evil or anything along those lines. The powers that you have might seem dark and sinister because they deal with things like souls and death, but that is just one way to view it. Life involves souls as well. Not to mention, Talia, that you need to remember something else, something important. It’s not the powers that you possess that makes you good or evil, it is what you choose to do with those powers that defines you. You are a good person, Talia. You care for people, you want to protect people, and that makes you a good person. You take on the roles that you do, dealing with departed souls, training to run the underworld, and protecting the lives of the people around you, and in my eyes all of that makes you a hero. You’re a wonderful person, Talia. And you need to remember that.”
“Lex…” I was feeling a little overwhelmed again, but in a different way. He had, whether he knew it or not, conquered all of my doubts and fears. And in the end, he had done what I needed. He had made me see what had happened in a positive way. No one died tonight. And that was because of me. “Thank you.” I finally managed to say more. I finally managed to get the words out of my mouth.
“You’re welcome, Talia.” He nodded at me with his face still calm. “I am your guard, I am the one that likely knows you the best, so I am the one to ask about these things if you need reassurance. Now, if you’re feeling better, I think that you should get some sleep. You have had a rough time of things, and you need your sleep.” He rose to his feet. “I will see you later.” I could tell that he was wanting sleep as well. He might have been asleep actually, when Angel went to find him. I instantly felt bad for having woken him up.
“Goodnight, Lex.” I waved at him and watched him leave the room, turning only to return the sentiment.
“Goodnight, Talia.” He shut the door behind him and that was that.
I really was tired. He hadn’t been wrong about that. And now that he was gone, I was feeling a lot more tired than I had before. I needed sleep, and a lot of it too. I had a feeling that I was going to crawl into my bed and sleep like the dead until noon. Or I had hoped that was what was going to happen. I didn’t even want to think about being awake before then.
I climbed into my big bed, still wearing my jacket and slippers, I was still cold. I pulled the cover up to my chin, curled into a ball, and drifted off to sleep almost instantly. And thankfully, for what felt like the first time in all of my life, I had no dreams whatsoever. I just went to sleep and slept until a quarter to nine in the morning. That was when someone was pounding on my door to wake me up. I was just thankful that, despite being woken up before I wanted to, I felt thoroughly rested and relaxed when I woke up. And I was no longer cold either.
****
Riviana
****
When Joaquin and I woke the next morning, I felt a lot more relieved than I had when we went to sleep. Despite the fact that I had fallen asleep almost instantly, I had been very worried and stressed. I had just been so mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted that I couldn’t stay awake anymore. And when I woke up, seeing Joaquin next to me, holding me actually, I felt the relief wash over me. I had still been worried that he wasn’t here, that I had been hallucinating all of the events after the battle. I hadn’t though. He was here and that was what mattered.
We got up and dressed in semi casual clothing. I wanted to meet with everyone in the throne room again, and that meant that we needed to be presentable. Still, it wasn’t an official audience with the queen kind of thing, and we were relaxing after the end of the battle and the case, so I was allowed to be relaxed about it all. I mean, I was the queen after all, who was going to punish me for not being formal?
The entire family ate breakfast together the next morning. My parents, Grandfather, Lila, all the kids, my little sister, Joaquin’s little sister, all of us. Everyone was talking happily and telling us how relieved they all felt this morning.
It wasn’t just that Joaquin was alive that was making us feel this way. I think that it was that the case was over. There was no more threat. No one had to worry about a random group of murdering assholes taking the lives of anymore of my people. And whether they kids knew about the situation or not, they had felt the tension in all of us. Now that the tension was gone though, we all felt lighter, freer, and happier. It was perfect.
I sent word to those that might want to be at the meeting today. The ones that might not know yet if Joaquin had lived through the night. I told them that the meeting would start at ten in the morning and to be in the throne room before I arrived. I might have been a little secretive about the meeting. That was kind of cruel of me I guess, but I was going to show them all when Joaquin and I walked into the throne room, that he had lived and that all was right with the world.
Reagan, Rika and Talia asked if they could come to the meeting with us, which I thought about seriously before agreeing to let them be there. Zachary, Zander, Zayden and Zaley also asked if they could be there, but I denied their request. Obviously, they were upset about it, but I told them that it wasn’t the same as their older siblings going. They were much younger than them and they wouldn’t really understand what was going on. And despite the fact that they knew Joaquin had almost died, they didn’t know the true details of what had happened in our community lately. And I didn’t want to upset them with that information at the moment. They would learn of it, eventually, but not right now. Not while they were still so young and innocent. They didn’t need to rush into being grownups. They needed to be kids for a little while longer.
…..
Joaquin, Reagan, Rika, Talia and I gathered in the waiting room behind the throne room as we listened to the others filing in on the other side of the door. We hadn’t allowed anyone except for Vincent to come with us to this room. The others were to go into the hall and wait with the everyone else. Again, I was being a little cruel, but it was all to reveal to them at once that Joaquin was alive and well. He even seemed to be moving without pain now. It was like nothing had ever happened.
After the doors to the throne room had been closed, a sound loud enough to be heard on this side of the large hall, I told the others to get ready. We were going to head out there all at once. Me and Talia side by side first, then Reagan and Rika next to each other, and finally Joaquin in the back. He knew that I was trying to make a big reveal here. And he was playing along nicely. So much so in fact, that he was standing about eight feet behind Reagan and Rika as he waited to walk out. He was going to make his entry delayed.