Healed by the Alpha (Hunted Book Two)

Chapter Seventy Three

Dominick

This couldn't be it. This couldn't be everything...

All that time that we had spent trying to help the moon goddess only for everything to be broken anyway? I had lost everything. I'd given my heart to everyone and helped out absolutely anyone that needed it, and this is what I get for it?

I don't know how long I had been sitting with my mate cradled in my arms, her lifeless body now completely cold. There was no sign that Emily was there anymore, no sign that she had been a living, breathing person with dreams and drive.  The bright spark that I'd first seen in her the night I'd travelled to her bedroom was gone, her eyes closed, her mouth still. The thought of never hearing her beautiful laugh or making her a hot chocolate after our run in the morning... it was enough to bring a whole new round of tears to my eyes.

Hours seemed to pass, I felt useless. My back felt stiff and my legs ached from not being used, I gently pulled myself away from Emily, taking off my jacket and placing it under her head so that she wasn't just laying on the cold ground. I knew she wasn't there anymore. But my brain and my heart wouldn't let me register that yet. It was too painful. I stretched my legs and turned to the brightening sky, the colours mixing together like oil paint on a canvas. I used to love dawn, but now with all of the history that came with it, with the future that was empty... I couldn't stomach it.

Night had already been and gone while I sat with her, if it had been cold I wouldn't know. She wouldn't see this sunrise, she wouldn't see any other sunrise ever again. Did she even know what was happening right now, or was it just darkness and emptiness for her? I just felt numb. The biggest part of my heart was broken, it was ruined and blackened and sour. My reason for being anything other than the Alpha was her. Without her, who was I?

A small sound behind me alerted me to something watching. I didn't care. If it was an animal, let it kill me so that it might live in this wasteland. If it was a person... well I'd beg for an end to this suffering regardless. "Dominick-" a hoarse voice choked out "-Dominick it's me, Ferdinand..."

Ferdinand

The whole reason the moon goddess had wanted to come back here in the first place. I looked down at Emily, "I thought you were dead." His voice was unsteady, "Not dead, but not far from it..." he coughed again. I slowly turned my body to face him, my feet shuffling at half their normal speed. Everything seemed like so much more effort now. What I saw in front of me wasn't the man that we had grown to know, it was a pitiful creature that looked like Ferdinand, but lacked any basic traits. His eyes were red and swollen, "look at her." I ordered him. "Look at what happened here. You were meant to protect her!"

His eyes started leaking again, but they couldn't possibly be tears, not when he had caused all of this by coming into our lives. "If you had just stayed away, I could've been happy." I seethed at him. He was clutching at his chest, I hadn't bothered to really look him over until this point, but peeking out from his breast pocket I noticed something glimmering there. He held onto it, "of course you would've ended up here. You are here Dominick, as heartbreaking as it is, this is your reality."

My hands balled into fists ready to attack him, ready to give him what I had wanted since the moment he first looked at Emily. My wolf would usually howl his approval but he had been silent ever since we had lost Emily. Ferdinand held up his hands, "but this isn't your reality."

So he was making no sense, maybe his head had been knocked in some kind of way?

"This was his reality..." is said pointing to a broken body not far from us. I almost threw up on my mouth as I slowly realised that it was me. That was my body. The same outfit, the same build. Only my heart had been ripped from my chest. "How... How am I still here? Am I a ghost? Did I die?" Ferdinand shook his head, "I don't know what you are doing here, but this doesn't seem to be where you're meant to be and that..." he said pointing to my mate, "that isn't your Emily."

I was hurt and confused and I had no idea what was going on. I just wanted it all over. I didn't want to have to put up with any of this anymore. I just wanted Emily. "I don't understand what has happened either, but I know that unless Dominick didn't tell us that he had a twin... you shouldn't be here and I have no idea how you got here." That was the only thing I could answer... "she told me that something was happening, that she couldn't get in contact with you..." I looked around me at the disaster, "she said that the dark witches had managed to destroy everything and that they were coming for her..."

"That is because the moon goddess is an evil entity that only cares about her selfish wants." A shark voice snapped behind me. My head snapped around and a young woman dressed in black was standing with a large group glaring at me. "And you gave it to her." I had never seen this woman before in my life, how did she know me?

"My name is Yarah. These are my Nordic Coven," she said pointing to each of the women around her, "your realm is in bigger trouble than you think if she managed to get you here." My realm? "Like the dream realm?" I asked her, puzzled. She weighed her head from left to right before answering, "yes and no." Well that was useful, I could already tell this was going to be a thrilling conversation. "We can't do what we need to alone, we need to go to whatever is left of your pack... and you need to pray that the old crone is still around." She started to gather her witches into a strange shape, but she wasn't done talking. "You can't stay in Sweden, there's no reason for you to be here and if we have any hope of fixing this, we need you back home."

What did she know about my pack? Of my life? Of my witches? "Who exactly do you think you are? I have never met you in my life and you think that you know everything about me? You think you can just give me a scolding like I'm a child?" Ferdinand had grown completely still behind me, the woman in front of me held her shoulders back and her head tall, she looked as fearless as I wanted to feel. A ghost of a sentence came from Ferdinand's lips, so quiet and shaky I almost missed it. "They're the dark witches."