Wolves of Haven : Lone

Come Home

For hours and over the course of hundreds of miles, Akia was assaulted with memories of home. It wasn't a place she wanted to go back to, it was a place she had purposely left a decade ago without giving it a second thought, but with only a few words she was on her way back, alone, and flooded with guilt. It wasn't guilt for leaving, no, it was guilt over not being there for Father when he obviously needed her.

The last time HOME showed up on her caller id, it was Father telling her that Conway was dead. It hurt to lose a cousin, but in all fairness she'd only met Conway twice in the fifteen years she had called Verulfr Manor home, and he was an idiot and glutton for punishment, so she hadn't gone back for his final rites. Father was disappointed in her, but he didn't press it; he never did when Akia was involved.

Damian asked her once, and only once, why she left. It only took one look from her for him to know the answer, and it wasn't one that he would press.

She really did love that about him.

Without having to say anything, she packed her bag, and Damian quickly got dressed. By the time she was dressed and ready to go, he had her passport ready, cash in both currencies, medications, keys to the Jeep, and had arranged for her leave of absence from work for a family emergency. She opened her mouth more than once, but nothing came out. She wanted him to come with her; his protection she didn't need though her heart did, but she couldn't bring herself to ask him to risk it so she popped one of her pills since it was time.

"If you need me, call and I'll be there. I promise," Damian said before caressing her lips with his.

That promise, his reassurance, gave her the strength to hit the road without question and to face her demons. Perhaps it was exactly what she needed, this was the inadvertent push that would finally bury her demons and dysfunctions, and that would allow the three words biting at her tongue to finally leave her lips.

"This is what I need to do," Akia whispered aloud. "In order to move forward, I have to let go of the past." She picked up the pendant hanging from around her neck and her fingers traced over the delicate art deco filigree scrolling encompassing the two inch long rectangular pendant.

Damian had given it to her as a gift for her promotion; she hadn't gotten a chance to open it last night because they went straight to the bedroom the moment she got home. Before she climbed in the Jeep, he handed the velvet box to her; a token to remember him by, he had called it. The platinum snake y-chain nearly went to her sternum, and the pendant hung between her breasts, as close to her heart as possible. It was beautiful, from the art deco era of design, which Damian knew was her favorite period, and it was exactly what she didn't know she needed at that moment. The body of the pendant shimmered from the tiny diamonds covering its surface, and in the center was a framed blue diamond the same shade of her eyes. It was beautiful, more than she could accept, but Damian wouldn't hear of taking it back.

"It cost me nothing," he assured her, sensing her argument before it could leave her lips. "It was my mother's, and she gave it to me to give to my heart... Hint, hint," he had teased, and she gave him a look. "Shut up and accept that it now belongs to you. At the moment you need to go to your family, thus we'll argue about the pendant later when you're home where it's safe."

"Home?" Akia whispered, coming to a stop on the one lane road and looked at the aged sign that simply read Welcome to Haven: Population 451. "Home is eleven hours and nearly seven hundred miles behind me," she reminded herself. "Home is Boston, not Haven. Never again will it be Haven."

****

The repeated thud of the heavy axe connecting with a log round was followed by the split crack made when the blade sheered through the round, splitting it in two. With effortless ease, corded muscles pulled the axe high in the air before slamming it into the next round, narrowly missing the young man switching out the split logs for the next round.