Wolf #2: The Beast Within [COMPLETED]

Chapter 10

Media Credit: Can't Help Falling In Love With You (Piano Version) by Kina Grannis, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COFgTynydQE

Chapter 10

Stephanie Katie Kenzington.
March 15th, 1998— October 20th, 2016

Emily Julia Goméz Kenzington
November 4th, 1966— June 11th, 2017

Samuel Joseph Kenzington
February 22nd, 1961—June 11th, 2017

It's not right. It's wrong to be the only one still standing. Like me being the only one alive is a betrayal.

It doesn't feel right because out of us all, I'm the least useful. I couldn't stop any of them from dying. Or perhaps it's because this is all my fault. I'm the reason they are all decomposing in the ground beneath my feet. I'm the one who Orion wants to get to.

I'm just as responsible for their murders as he is.

Darkness clings to me like a cloak. If people could see auras, then I'd be shrouded in black. Like the mist that surrounds Hekate.

"Amelia," Richard's eyes are bloodshot and glass. He waves me to stand next to him and his father, the minister of my parents' funeral.

I can't move from my spot. I'm frozen just like they are. There's a large lump in my throat that I can't swallow down—it only grows the more I try to speak.

Finally...the final words I'll say to them comes out... "My mom—she was born in Las Marías, Puerto Rico. She and her brother moved to the U.S. after their family was killed and home was destroyed in a hurricane. My dad was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They were so different. My mom loved to dance and art. My dad was more interested in sports and business."

I choke on my own grief. I can't stop thinking about them together—never apart. Holding hands or leaning up against one another. I didn't need to be a Wolf to believe that soulmates existed...my parents were made for one another even without something intangible like a Bond or Nexus.

"My dad was a brilliant sailor—and he sailed everywhere he could. And when he landed in a small beach town in Florida...he met my—" Richard sobs loudly and I shut my eyes. My jaw trembles and my lungs can barely hold back my own sadness. But I can't...if I cry now then I won't stop—I need to finish saying my goodbyes. "He met my mom. And from that moment on...they never left one another's side."

There was a picture of them in our hallway. My dad had just sold his first major sale on a yacht. My mom was a quarter away from graduating community college. Both in their twenties—both so young and naïve. Neither of them had any idea of the life they would build for themselves, or about Steph and I. Both so blissfully oblivious to the grief and the happiness to come.

That same photo is now smeared in their blood. Orion's fingerprints smudge on the glass and frame...

"So I guess it's only fitting that they're still together," I don't think I can get through this. Losing Steph had been hard...but Mom and Dad too. I bow my head and hug myself tightly, "Thank you...for letting me chase after my dreams. Thank you for driving me to rehearsal when I was little. And for fixing my car when it broke down."

"For being our Mom and Dad," Steph sucks in her lip. She gets down on her knees just before the graves, "I'll see you soon...Te quiero."

"Te quiero," I repeat my sister. I cry breathlessly into my hands and say goodbye to them one more time...one final time, "I—I'm so sorry."