Maiken was recovering slowly. It was a painful process for him, especially after losing his whole pack minus one. Edith remembers everything after the encounter painfully and vividly.
After Maiken had woken up and said those words, Edith laughed and hugged him. She hadn’t hugged anyone in years. He seemed surprised but before he could hug her back, she had let go of him. She helped him to his feet when the disastrous news hits him.
Fenrir has walked over to them tentatively, seeming a bit nervous. “Uhm, alpha?” He asks.
Maiken nods, a sign for him to speak. He waits intently for what the other werewolf was about to say.
Tears prick Fenrir’s eyes as he manages to get out the painful, oh-so-painful words. “Everyone else is dead.”
Everything from the moment was like a movie in slow motion. The alpha’s eyes widen and his teeth grow and turn pointy. And then his eyes turn red, a bright red. And it’s like Edith’s soul was pulled from her body at that moment and forced to watch from afar.
Maiken had gone bezerk. He transformed into something in between a human and a wolf. Something ugly and destructive. Hair grew from his face and his legs and arms turned into one of a wolf’s but he was standing on his hind legs. His shirt tore instead of turning into fur like it usually did. His face grew a snout and he looked like people usually thought werewolves looked like.
Hideous, monstrous, and murderous.
He growls and bounces on the tree, the closest thing to him, and rips it to shreds. A whole tree. She stares in disbelief but then he turns to her and charges forward. Fenrir’s eyes widen too and he turns to help. Maiken doesn’t stop, he’s on all fours and running toward her.
Fenrir is too late but it doesn’t matter. The second Maiken reaches her, he shifts back into his human form and collapses onto her. She staggers a little but holds up the weight, surprisingly. He sobs into her shoulder and she strokes his hair. His fit was understandable, she didn’t blame him. He had just about lost everything.
He sinks to his knees slowly and she goes down too, holding him close. Fenrir looks like he may cry again and looks away, seemingly fighting the tears.
After that, they had all gone back to the cave with Maiken holding onto Edith’s hand like they had done when they were kids. His hand was squeezing her’s to the point where it may have hurt but she didn’t care or notice.
Finding the three wolf’s bodies, they bury them. It took them hours and by the time they were done, it was midday. During the process, Fenrir explains how they were ambushed by the Savage and how he survived because Lupa had saved him. He chokes up at her name and she realizes that the two must have been siblings. This just adds to her sorrow.
At midday, the graves were finally done. Edith neals by each of them and places a single white rose on each. Maiken watches her with misty eyes and his eyes were red and swollen from crying. She watches as, for the first time she notices, he limps and puts a pink rose next to the white one. Fenrir adds a red rose to the roses.
“We leave next morning.” Is all the leader says and then limps back into the cave. Edith stands to follow and both she and Fenrir go in to get some sleep. Edith hadn’t slept at all and she was surprised at how tired she was.
The second her head hit’s her makeshift pillow, she’s asleep. Everything in her head is silent like her thoughts and dreams were mourning the people she had never gotten to know, and never will
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