by Hana Blue
Giggling behind her hand, she muttered. “I think so. You know what’s next, right?”
I shook my head no, cocking it to the side in curiosity.
“Wedding Bells.” She responded with a laugh.
I gasped. “He asked you?!” I almost screamed but contained myself as to not draw too much attention.
Caireen shook her head no with a cocky grin. Looking at me like I needed to guess again, but I wasn’t so sure of what I would even guess.
“Yours. I see the way you guys look at each other now. Looks like it’s about time for you to become an Echo.”
Rolling my eyes, I scoffed at her. “Not happening.”
She began to playfully pout. “Come on, you are stuck together forever, anyway. Might as well take on his name and become the official Luna of his pack.”
I rolled my eyes again, and she giggled. Shaking her head at me like she knew something I didn’t.
* * *
It didn’t take long for me to start feeling accepting of the situation. Fulling immersing myself into the festivities. Getting over my pity party quickly. Enjoying the moment with everyone together. With Dominic sitting on the sidelines, watching me as I danced around and joked with my sister, with Allea and Ciri, and with Damien.
Damien grabbed me by the hand, spinning me around as we danced, and I watched as Dominic laughed. He looked so genuinely happy. He had his father back; he had a new outlook on life, and he seemed to enjoy it. I did too. Before I knew it, Damien became like a father to me too. Since I had been without mine for so long, Damien was the only thing I had that was close.
Pulling myself away from Damien, I turned to face Dominic, giving him a wide smile. Motioning with my finger for him to come here, but he only shook his head. A beautiful grin on his face.
Pushing myself over to where he sat, I grabbed his hand, pulling him back up. Begrudgingly, he let me guide him to his feet. Then immediately he swooped me into his arms and off of the ground, giving me a spin before setting me back down.
Everyone danced around the fire as Josh played the guitar. Caireen sat next to him, singing along with the music. A beautiful duet that was filled with so much love.
Grabbing my waist, Dominic danced with me. His eyes never leaving mine, and the only thing I could think of was her statement. Wedding bells. Looking deep into those icy pools that always looked so cold, looking back at me with the heat of an inferno. I believed it.
Maybe this was it. Maybe this was how it was supposed to be all alone, and I just needed to open my eyes. My future was here. Right here in those bright blue eyes that looked at me with such love and admiration.
“You would marry me?” I muttered, hoping he couldn’t hear me over the sound of the guitar. But he did.
He laughed with a nod. “In a heartbeat.” He replied. His voice so full of conviction it almost made me feel like crying.
“You’d have children with me?” I asked again, only louder this time.
“And I’d enjoy making them with you too.” He answered with a smirk.
I laughed a little, rolling my eyes. “This is it, isn’t it? This is who we are, this is the future we hold?”
Pulling me in tighter, Dominic wrapped his arms around me, holding me to his chest as our once more cheerful dancing turned into a swaying embrace. Nuzzling into my hair, I could hear Dominic sigh.
“It’s the future I want. If you are willing to give it to me.”
Closing my eyes, I placed a soft kiss on his neck. “Then, let’s do it.”
Pulling back with a laugh, Dominic shook his head. “Right here? Are you sure? Everyone is watching…” He trailed off, and I hit his shoulder, causing him to guffaw.
“Sorry,” He chuckled, and I shook my head at him.
Pulling me back in, Dominic placed his lips to mine, and I drifted off into the feeling of being on cloud nine. Even the smallest kiss from him was enough to light my world on fire, and I knew that would never go away.
* * *
Suddenly the music stopped around us, and everyone held still. Breaking away from Dominic, I turned around to face the direction that everyone else was. Each one of us facing the tree line.
Damien turned around, placing his finger over his lips, signaling for us to remain quiet. Without a word, all of us took a stance, preparing to handle whatever would emerge from the trees.
I felt Dominic’s arm wrap around me from behind protectively. Both of us knew that I didn’t need his protection, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t help settle my nerves just a little. Giving me a little extra strength that I might not have had otherwise.
After what seemed like an eternity, the glow of eyes appeared in the trees. Many sets of them. Almost lighting up the darkness in front of us. The figures seemed to drift menacingly. No doubt looking to frighten us first.
Quickly I tried to count the sets of eyes, leaving me with no doubt to the fact that we were greatly outnumbered. Guilt and fear washed over me as we waited like statues for the figures to come into view.
I put us in danger, and I knew it. I put us in this position, and there was minor question in my mind, who this was. It had to be Evangeline. It had to be Dominic’s old pack. Meaning that well before we were properly prepared and trained, we would be forced to face her.
We would have to fight her off with the best we had. This was the end, and I knew it. We weren’t ready, none of us. We weren’t prepared to take her on in the slightest, and there was a sick gut feeling that we were all going to die.
I hadn’t felt this scared when facing danger since I was a little girl, fighting my way to safety with Caireen. This hopeless, weak feeling. Placing my hand on Dominic’s I swallowed hard, and Evangeline’s face came from the trees.
A burst of hollow mocking laughter emanated from her and filled all of our ears.
“Would you look at that? My traitor of a husband and his son, standing alongside those children that should have died a long time ago.”
Laughing again, she came completely out of the trees. “Like father, like son, I see. What is it about this damn blood-born you two can’t seem to get enough of?”
Thirty Two
The Wage of War
AINE~
“What is it about her? Is she made of gold?” Evangeline spat out, making her way up to me and Dominic. Her face riddled with spite and malice.
The rest of Dominic’s old pack, coming in behind her slowly. Surrounding us in a half-circle. Leaving us nowhere to run if we so chose.
“She looks like some damaged piece of trash to me. My son could do so much better than some ragged-looking beast.” She spat directly at me. Eyeing me over like I was the most disgusting thing she had ever seen.
“That’s enough Evangeline.” Damien barked out, walking over to her with such conviction and hatred.
Spinning her head to the side quickly, Evangeline turned to face him, laughing violently.
“Damien. How I’ve missed you.” She cooed, taking a step closer to him.
Damien raised his chin, glaring down to her like she was nothing more than some insignificant bug on the ground, and Eva didn’t seem all too pleased by it. Taking another step closer, Eva circled Damien slowly.
“After all these years, you still look the same. Rough, tired. Angry.” She giggled viciously. “I can’t believe you’d be so dumb as to save this girl. More than once, even. You threw away your family for some little demon girl. What? Were you looking for a pet?”
I snarled in her direction but was stopped as Dominic squeezed my arm. His face looked as hard as stone as he watched every move his mother made, ready to attack at any moment. Damien shared the same expression, eyeing her over menacingly.
“You watch your tongue Eva, that’s your son’s mate and your Luna.”
“Oh no Damien, not for long.” Evangeline cooed. “That wretched little beast will burn. I will slaughter her, just like I did her parents. It’s what she deserves.”
* * *
&nb
sp; Everything moved so quickly around me. One second, Dominic was a man standing behind me, and then the next he was his beast. Lunging through the air, capturing the neck of his mother in his jaws before she shifted. Gnashing teeth crushed into her skull and I watched as she looked shell-shocked.
Having never seen her own son looking that way. Seeing him for what he really was. The spitting image of the demon that his father was. A monster. One that she had no ability to control or even imagine. She looked mortified by the sight, like she could have never guessed that he would take in on like his father had.
Baring the curse she forced upon them from her own selfishness and greed. The pure and unadulterated proof that her own wickedness destroyed them. Changed them. Created them into horrific creatures beyond their own control.
Damien changed as the rest of us did. Taking on the all too familiar form of my savior as a child. The massive creature that made all of us look dwarfed in comparison. Drool and blood dripped from his jowls at he rips flesh from bone. A massive force of carnage and gore surrounding him as he tore Evangeline’s pack to shreds.
Following suit, I did the same. The same blood lust and uncontrollable craze rushing through me, just like it had all those years ago as a child. The feeling of claws and teeth shredding my skin as I powered through the battle unwavering only strengthened me.
Looking from the corner of my eye, I watched as my baby sister ripped the head off of one of the other wolves, spitting it to the side with a hell bend smile. Fighting with a furious nature I had never seen in her. Every movement she made, mimicking all that I had taught her.
One by one she cleared the wake in front of her. Josh fighting at her side. As a team they crushed skulls and broke bones, fighting like this was their last chance. Blood and guts drenching their fur, coating them in the remains of those who tried to overpower.
Wrestling Evangeline to the ground, Dominic had the pure white wolf, stained a deep red as he overpowered her. Ripping at every limb that he could get his mouth around. His viciously long claws ripping into her flesh, exposing bone and muscle. Leaving gaping wounds along her body.
As we continued to battle to death, it felt like they just kept coming. An end to the war nowhere in sight. The snow under our feet quickly turning in an ocean of blood. A mixture of ours and theirs.
Everything blurred around me as I snapped the neck of yet another attacker, dropping him to the ground with a sickening splat. My eyes struggled to clear, and my mind was growing foggy. My control on the brink of crashing. The more blood I shed, the harder it was for me to focus. Until finally all went black around me.
The control of my body solely controlled by my beast, pushing my human consciousness into the background. Forcing the killer fourth. My last and only defense. Leaving me unaware of all that went on around me, all except for the driving urge to slaughter.
This was it. This was the end. We would either live or die, and I wouldn’t know until my consciousness returned. I was now only the spirit of the evil I had endured. Pushing on for the sake of my family, for Dominic, for the future. For my parents that died for no reason other than some name and red eyes. This fight was for so much more than was ever to have been on the surface. This was a fight for a kind that was hated beyond all measure, for no reason at all. This was a war to show, once and for all, that the hunters were not monsters who deserved slaughter. We were the protectors. We always were.
The hours of battle went on, and it appeared the end of it was near. Evangeline’s pack dwindled, and they riddled the yard of the place I called home with the remanence. Stained with the blood of our enemies, our friends.
Forever tarnishing that beautiful place. My safe place, now a war zone. My home now a tomb.
Things would never be the same. Nothing in this world would ever let me forget this day, and I knew the others felt the same. As family hurt family. As friends tore each other to pieces. As soldiers we waged war, and as soldiers, we died.
* * *
An air of silence plagued over the land. The blood of the lost pooling on the ground. The war settled, leaving nothing left behind but the wreckage. My eyes finally grew clear as I dropped to the ground. My human form bleeding and broken. My legs unable to hold me. Frightened and scared, I looked around at the bodies that laid, and amongst them, I saw her.
My baby sister.
Pulling myself along the ground, crawling over the dead and gone, I came to her side. Crying out into the air as blood pooled from her lips, her breathing soft. Deep gashes on her chest bubbling with the thick red liquid.
“Caireen!” I screamed out as loud as my voice could.
Grabbing her hand, I placed it to the side of my face. “I love you Caireen. Please. Please don’t go. I need you!” I pleaded desperately through the fog of tears in my eyes. The ones that escaped, falling down onto her nose.
Watching as the beautiful face of my baby sister, my daughter by all rights, lost all of its color, I screamed out for her. A smile appeared faintly on her lips, her fingers twitching gently against my cheek.
“Aine. I love you.” She gurgled out. The fire in those bright red eyes diminishing as she looked at me. Her face gradually becoming more peaceful.
“You promised to survive. Never break that promise. Not because of me. Keep going Aine. Always keep going. Have a family, grow old. You deserve a happy ending.”
As the words left her lips, the smile stuck. The last fall of her chest stayed, and she laid there in my arms breathless. Looking just like our mother. Beautiful beyond measure. Peaceful.
Bawling into the sky, unable to pull myself away from her, I held her hand to my face until it grew cold. Time was nothing as it passed around us. The one thing in this world that forced me to keep going, to stay strong, now laid below me, as nothing but a body.
Her soul was now gone. Taken away to wherever we may go when we die.
“I’m so sorry.” I chanted through the creams, over and over until my voice grew hoarse.
Letting go of her hand, it dropped, and I laid my head next to hers on the ground. Pressing my forehead to her cheek.
“I love you, Caireen. I love you, I love you, I love you.” I sobbed.
Wrapping my arms around her. I just held her. I knew she was gone, but I held on anyway.
* * *
~DOMINIC
Entering the clearing again, the lifeless body of my mother’s wolf’s form dangling from my arms, I looked at the sea of bodies. My throat became dry. Scanning them all, looking frantically for Aine.
Coming up behind me, I heard my father’s voice. “Where is she?”
Sucking in a ragged breath, I dropped my mother’s corpse and searched harder. Stepping over the lifeless bodies that covered the ground, until I finally saw her, and my heart shattered.
Laying on the ground, wrapped around the lifeless body of her sister, Aine cried. Her sobs cracking and whining as they came out like a wounded animal. I felt my stomach grow sick as I watched her wither in pain next to Caireen. Holding onto her as though she would magically wake up.
Wetting my lips, fighting back the tears, I looked around again. It was only us three. We were the only ones left breathing. Michael, Josh, Ethan, Allea, all of them gone. Nothing but pieces on the ground.
Closing my eyes, I took a breath.
“Dominic, you need to get her up. We need to get her out of here.”
Swallowing hard, I nodded before opening my eyes.
Walking up to Aine, she seemed unphased by my presence. “Aine, come on. She’s not there anymore.”
After a moment of silence, I reached down to pull her off of Caireen. Screaming and kicking, she fought me as I drug her away. Hollering out into the sky, begging for someone to give her back. It took everything in me not to break down and cry with her. Watching the horrid pain that she was emanating.
With all my strength, I pulled her behind me. The entire time she screamed for me to let her go. To let her go back to Caireen, but I couldn’t. I woul
d not let her wallow there forever. She needed to be let go, and Aine wouldn’t let her unless I forced her away.
Dragging her by the arm, Damien and I pulled her away from the yard. Taking her away from the last thing in the world she could have ever stood to lose. She didn’t just lose her sister; she lost her child. She lost a part of herself that she would never get back. Her strength, her will to live. All of her love.
“Let me go!” She cried demonically into the sky, thrashing around in my grasp, and I finally cracked. The irrevocable steps back to the car being full of tears.
“I’m so sorry, Aine.”
I was sorry for so much. All of this was because of me. It was my pack, my mother. It was all because of me, and I put the last nail in the coffin. Because of me, the last of her family was gone. Aine was the last of the Dunnam pack. The last breathing hunter. The only one left.
Aine was the last of the Blood Born.
Thirty Three
Promises Kept
Aine~
(1 year later)
Staring down onto the tombstone, I bowed my head. Caireen Dunnam. My precious baby sister died at the age of 18. A brave youthful woman, who held her own, and died with honor, fighting for the safety of her family. Dying in the line of duty to protect the ones she loved.
As her last words were yet another promise I had to keep. And I have. Each day I moved forward a little more. Even when I felt like I just couldn’t anymore. Damien, Dominic and I returned to the pack house that Michael ran.
Leaving Sitka behind for good. With a roaring blaze, we lit my cabin on fire, ridding the world of the death that transpired there. Out of respect, we placed tombstones as a reminder of those lost that day, even if their bodies didn’t lay there.
A magnificent time of mourning came upon our return. The pack now looking to Dominic to be their alpha, since Michael and his only son were now dead. Dominic agreed, and the era of the Echo pack returned. Only this time, it was far from Sitka, and was ran by Dominic and me. The last of the blood born.