Haunted Memories
If only…
If only…
If o n l y…
“I’m sorry, Mama,” he cried, voice hoarse—-b r o k e n. “I’m sorry. It’s—‘s my fau—” He hiccoughed. “My fault that they got Daddy.”
Talia shushed him and ran a hand down the side of his face before pulling him in to a tight hug, pressing her cheek on top of the boy’s head and gently rubbing her scent on him, comforting him in ways that only ‘wolves would understand.
“Shhh…baby, no,” she told him. “No, it’s not your fault. Why would you think that?”
He flinched before burying his face in her neck, sniffling. He didn’t want to admit to his mom that he’d been talking to another boy about the family, about how they were better because they weren’t human like he was.
“It—” He clamped his mouth shut and forced himself to take a deep breath of his alpha’s scent, letting it linger and center him, clearing his mind and giving him enough courage to continue.
“I told someone,” he whispered, shrinking away from her, afraid that she would no longer love him. He’d just lost his dad, and now he was about to lose his mom, too. All because he was too proud. “I told him about—about us. And…and I know that I’m not supposed to. That it’s supposed to be a secret in case Hunters find us. And they did. They found Dad and they killed him.”
His voice cracked over the word ‘killed,’ and he bit down on his lip, steeling himself for what he was sure would be the worst punishment imaginable—banishment. From his home, from his family, from his pack.
Talia took one look at her son’s heartbroken and stricken face and sighed softly, only picked up due to his ‘wolf hearing, and tugged him into her embrace once more.
“Listen to me, pup.” Her voice took on the authoritative tone that she used only when needing to display her alpha status. “Your father’s death wasn’t your fault.”
Derek just nodded mechanically. It was expected of him. But a part of him, a part that would soon be a major part of who he was, couldn’t get over the fact that his dad was dead.
And it was his fault.
