22
I smell it. Stay here. Keep Carmen back. Colton doesn’t turn to look at me but acts like nothing is wrong and wades further forward increasing his speed, so he flips out of sight in a blink. I pause, grabbing at her arm and finding her palm with my own to bring us back together to lasso her to me. I yank her back to my side a little aggressively in a bid to shield her form what she’s about to find.
“Colton told us to stay.” I fix my gaze on her, tone commanding so she knows not to argue, aware of the movement around us and my body bristling with tension as I keep searching for hints of vamps in the forest. My senses are tuned in but I feel nothing of close presence, which is weird for them. Given what smell lingers around us, I can’t understand why there’s no lingering scent of our enemy with it.
We’re really far from the stead, out in the densest area before it starts going uphill towards the mountain and yet not a single vampire has stuck around. They obviously did this to her recently, so why are they not still here?
“No!…. He would only tell us to …. What’s that smell?” Carmen breaks into my thoughts with her return of bitchy tone, she’s emotionally all over the place and seems to be back in abrasive, don’t touch me mode. Her fear and angst intermingled, hysteria curbing the horizon and it’s obvious she’s never smelled dead wolf before. It’s not common I guess, given our ability to stay alive, and few who never went to battle have smelled it. Once you do though, you never forget.
Carmen starts tugging at my hand impatiently to get free, sensing something off with his sudden departure, as Colton disappears from view completely into the thicket with surrounding sentinels. I note that several wolves along our line have halted too, to guard us, staying close enough to fill the gaps that have been left by Colton taking pack with him.
Colton leaving us safe. Always thinking of protecting his mate even if he knows I have abilities to protect myself.
“He knows something, he’s found something, hasn’t he? …” Carmen spins on me, her eyes red rimmed with tears, her appearance haggard, yet her tone is fierce and daunting, and her eyes are glowing bright orange. Without warning she yanks her hand hard out of mine and takes off in the blink of an eye in the direction Colton went before I can react. Instinctively I lift my hands and try and grasp her with my power, to stop her leaving me, but she dodges between trees and instead I manage to yank the tree backwards with a little too much force so it’s almost uprooted.
“Shit!” I curse out into the eerie quiet and throw my hair back as decision overtakes me. I take off after her
Colton, carmen got free, she’s heading to you. I link him in warning and curse under my breath as I speed to catch up, panic overtaking me. Not only for her, but what I might see. I have never shaken the memory of that night from my memory bank and despite being on the battlefield and killing vamps these past months, I’m not exactly okay with death and bloodshed.
I follow the scent of my mate and run smack bang into the back of Carmen’s halted form only twenty yards into the bush and have to sidestep her at the very last second to avoid hitting her full pelt to see why she’s stopped. The sight brings me to a frozen halt and my brain blanks out as my eyes widen in silent horror.
Colton is kneeling by what looks like the ripped up remains of an animal, the ground drenched in dark red, thick fluid, and pieces of unidentifiable gristle, meat and bones are shredded across a ten foot area like someone blew up a cow. The smell is at an all-time high here and the scraps of fabric and hair among the debris, caught up on bushes and leaves send my stomach into an instant upchuck motion. I have to swallow down hard to curb the urge to vomit as realization hits me hard in the chest and I struggle to breathe. Colton turns, catching sight of us and jumps to his feet before Carmen reacts. It all happens so fast, only second of time but to me it feels like endless minutes.
It takes Carmen a second to release the torn up animal is wearing shreds of her mother’s dress and she erupts in an almighty scream that shakes the trees and drops every wolf around us to their knees. Even me, as blinding pain assaults my every sense and nerve and I crumble under the sheer power of a high-pitched, blazing, searing agony, shooting through my head and limbs. Covering our ears as Carmen assaults us with her powerful ability and her sheer heartbreak makes it more potent than I knew she was capable of. I cover my head, shuddering in terror that my brain may self-implode and sag with relief when Colton’s sharp alpha tone hushes her assault.
“Carmen, stop screaming!” he commands harshly, and the instant relief leaves my ears ringing, my brain stuttering, and my body shivering as though I have been electrocuted with high voltage right on the temples. Carmen moves fast, heading straight for the devastation, screaming out ‘Mom’ as she runs at the mess around the ground before him. Her hysteria breaking loose and she’s no longer that mask wearing girl, but a blubbing mess of despair.
Colton counteracts her fast. Dashing in front of her and catching her, hauling her backwards with a few strides to keep her away from the worst of what I can see. He pulls her to him fluidly, cradling her in his arms to keep her tight and pushes her face into his chest so she can’t see the devastation of what’s eft of her mother. What those creatures did to her.
“Mom… MOM! … MOM!!!” Carmen breaks completely, wailing, sobbing, screeching with a broken voice which turns to howls as both her human and wolf battle for dominance in their anguish. Fighting him, wriggling wildly to break free and go to her, even though there’s nothing their to hold anymore. It’s the most distressing thing I have ever witnessed as I watch her fall apart in my mate’s arms.
He struggles to keep her, gripping her in a way that should make me jealous because of how intimately he’s trying to control her, but it doesn’t. My own overwhelming sadness and despair rationalizes why he has to and why it’s the only thing he can do in this moment. My Luna heart kicking in to bleed for the loss of one of our own, and the deep sympathy for the heartbreak of another.
Despite his strength, he’s struggling to keep her tied to him and has to force her down to her knees with him so he can gain better control of holding her in a hug. He locks eyes on me, his own shining with unshed tears that literally rips my heart to shreds and I cough as I choke with sudden sobs that escape of their own accord. Wracked with heartbreak of my own.
I know he feels like somehow, he did this, it’s his fault, that he failed as Alpha to protect Tawna, but I can only shake my head at him as my own warm tears roll chaotically over my cold cheeks and the air around us falls deathly still. I only feel an ounce of the pain I know Carmen is spewing out in the air around me and it’s enough to almost suffocate me. It’s unbearable and I can only stand here and stare at them, frozen still where I stand and unable to move because I don’t know what else to do.
Carmen claws at Colton’s chest and arms weakly, to let her free, without any real fight anymore, and ends up crumbling in his arms hopelessly as her body gives up. Finally, on her knees as Colton sinks over her, from restraint to cuddling as her body slumps into a disheveled heap and seems to slide through his hold like water as her limbs dissolve. Refusing to relent and let her go and leave her in the heap on the forest floor where she comes to be quieter and broken. He moves over her protectively, holding her shoulders and upper body as her face lands in his lap and she curls into a tiny ball like a small child would after a traumatic nightmare.
“Why?.... Why would she…….? She left me….” Her broken tiny whimpers barely graze the air, but I hear them, and they cut me like a knife to the heart and stomach. I cover my face to wipe away the onslaught of wet waves overtaking my skin and blink at the pitiful sight of her, avoiding looking beyond at the carnage and pushing the scent out of my nostrils. Wolves around us move in and lower their heads as many begin to shed tears for their fallen kin, and the air is filled with a sadness that destroys what’s left of my sanity. A low howl begins nearby and extends to join a mournful chorus that echoes in the air around us, spreading far beyond into the forest and back towards the stead as the wolves let out their own sorrow at being too late. The sound is enough to make me crumble to my own knees and cry painfully, hugging my own body with my arms.
“Carmen, I’m sorry…. I’m so sorry.” Colton tries to hush her, his voice breaking as his own tears fall freely and drop over her lowered head like gentle raindrops. He’s stroking her hair and squeezing her tight as I stare in numb disbelief at what we failed to stop from happening, carrying the heavy weight of guilt in my heart that my mate is already bearing.
I don’t know how to fix this.
