The Pack Girl's Retribution (Sequel to The Pack's Girl)

Gone

I knew his posture. I'd seen him take it when he was doing things which he felt like were his duty.

Don't go. It was all I could think. Whimpering as I watched them. Catching BailaLae's wrist and hanging on with planted feet until she had to tug me loose.

Aviari caught her shoulders and turned her away from me, even though I could hear her sobbing.

"She'll be okay." He told her.

But it seemed like Aviari's larger than life personality waned in that moment, and we all knew he wasn't wholly certain.

He'd sounded scared.

Then mom and dad had gotten home. Both of them cut and badly beaten. It was long after the little boys had already gone to bed.

They'd told our older siblings goodbye upstairs. While they followed them around. Tossing out their clothes as they tried to pack them. Begging them to stay.

For the first time, I wondered at how hard it must've been for them to go.

Why did they have to go? I remembered asking dad weeks later.

"We had to send them off, Vanna Rae. We're being hunted by the NightHunters, so I needed to scatter everyone to keep them safe."

"But we're not scattered." I'd argued belligerently.

"No." He agreed. Reaching up to rub the top of my shoulder reassuringly. "You little ones are too tiny to fend for yourself anywhere else. I need to keep you with me so I can protect you. But I do need your help now."

"Mine?" I'd blinked huge blue eyes at him.

The same ones he and Killian had. I recalled dad telling me that often.

"Yes. You're the biggest now. I need you to look after your little brothers like Killian and Aviari always looked after you."

"And BailaLae?"

"The most like BailaLae." He frowned thoughtfully. Scrunching his unwrinkled brow and running a hand through thick dark hair. "I think perhaps she was nicer than the boys."

"She was!" I announced. Nodding emphatically.

He'd chuckled in that deep low timbre. I'd looked at him and immediately missed Killian. Thinking how much they looked alike. Dad was just a slightly older version of him.

But no one smiled like Killian. His huge grin would brighten a room and have she-wolves whining in their seats to be closer to him.

Take care of your little brothers... Dad had told me.

Then I had watched the scarred alpha of the

NightHunters slit my little brother's throats in-

front of me, then tell me he'd have me.

I ran away and left all their bodies in that house.

I was sure that at some point, other wolves of my pack had returned and buried them as was the honor bestowed on an Alpha.

But I'd seen them dead. Blood on the floor. So much blood.

Just then Hunter pushed open the house door and we walked in and there on the foyer amidst mud and loose leaves which had blown in was still the dark brown stain on the wood floor. A stain which had blended with other dampened spots before, but I now recognized as the evidence of my failure.

"I let my whole family die..." I stopped in the doorway and murmured to myself.

Vanquish caught my hands and rounded to face me. "You're having more memories?"