1. Claude Phoebe(ManxMan)

•Chapter 24

We didn't go to homecoming and we weren't sad for it. My mate needed me more now than ever and I needed him.

With the loss of our child every day seemed a little grey. I tried for him, I smiled and laughed and joked just for him and when he wasn't around smiling was harder than could ever be imagined.

Graduation came around faster than one could have hoped for, and with it Alaric had run away, the news of our loss is assumed to have reached him and the sense to leave was probably brought on by the fact that there would be no talking anything out, if he ever hoped to.

Ace didn't want to go, nor did I, however seeing him laying in bed, droopy and almost non responsive I figured it would be good for the both of us.

Grief, like my sister once said never really ends.

We showered together, he held me while he cried and I washed his back and his hair and I held back my own tears at seeing him this way. We managed to finish despite and I dressed him.

The scar on his stomach always seemed to be a reminder and every time I saw it I couldn't help but pause.

"How did this happen?"

"Well, it seems there was some tearing around the implantation," the doctor explained while Ace slept. "My guess is that the process has been ongoing slowly since..." He looked sadly at me and swallowed. "I'm truly sorr-"

"So those cramps he kept having..."

"Probably felt as the foetus kept detaching." My nostrils flared and I couldn't held it, smoke scented in the air but no source of fire. I hit the wall, a dent left in my wake.

I buttoned his shirt with blurry eyes before I knelt before him. Ace took my hand.

"I'm sorry, I just," I looked away.

"I know," he whispered to me, running his hand over my neck and pulling me into him, I sobbed then.

"I'll find him, I'll find him, and I'll kill him."

"Only if you let me spill his blood too." He offered a soft broken smile as his eyes watered and I just nodded furiously.

The ceremony was beautiful I guess but all I could do was focus on getting through the separation of my mate and I because of our last names. The cheering from the pack who had made it was undeniable and overwhelming in its own way and looking back, I wished I'd have enjoyed it more.

Ace and I were silent as we held hands, people around us going on about their future and what was in store for them while I just wanted to see the rest of this day through without punching anything.

A small hand slid through mine and I looked down to see Xavier looking up at me, his beautiful violet eyes held so much understand and love that I gripped him hoping he wouldn't go away.

There were pictures and a dinner and soon we were at the pack where we stripped and shifted in our own way of celebrating this milestone with my pack peers.

The run, I could tell had cheered Ace up a lot more than the before. He ran ahead as though challenging a race and we all took it. We Bowles and played and ran till we couldn't anymore, we howled to the moon, each of us with our own personal wishes, or own hopes and dreams.

I was thankful for the life I had, the loved ones who existed and even those we knew not where they could be.

Ace and I lay beneath the stars, naked and basking.

"I know this feeling won't go away completely," he began. "But I hope one day, one day soon we get to do it again."

We turned onto our sides and stared at one another.