Broken

Chapter 1

"Stop the car," my voice was hushed, so quiet that I wasn't sure if Wyatt would hear it. Our forward motion gradually slowed until we were no longer moving. Almost like background noise, I could tell that he was saying something to me, but I couldn't focus on anything but the sight in front of me.

Leila stood a dozen yards away from where the vehicle was stopped. She was hunched over, one hand resting on her stomach and the other clutching the material covering her chest. Her screams of agony filled my ears as soon as my car door was open.

She made eye contact with me when my feet touched solid ground, "Harley, where is he? Tell me that he's okay."

Tears filled my eyes and I swallowed back the lump forming in my throat before gently shaking my head from side to side. There was a flicker of emotion that crossed her face, one that said that she thought Rowan was dead but had been holding onto hope regardless. With that hope now torn away from her, Leila fell to the ground and sobs wracked through her body. I ran to her and cradled her in my arms. The ground was cold, and the nighttime air around us caused a chill to roll through my body.

"Who did this to him?" Her voice was full of anguish, and I felt bile making it's way up my throat as I tried to figure out how to explain that Lincoln had played a part in this. Before I could tell her, she began pounding her fists against my chest, "I knew something was going to happen, but he insisted on going with you because he was always there when you need him!"

Her voice was accusatory, but I didn't fight her statement. There was no arguing that fact that Rowan had only joined me because I had said that I needed him there for support. I hushed her, repeating over and over into her ear that I was sorry, and that I tried everything I could to save him.

"I shared him with you because you were such a huge part of his life, but now our child will grow up never knowing their father." Leila was no longer ramming her fist into me. Instead, her body had gone weak and I was the only thing keeping her in an upright position.

"How are we going to make it without him?" Her voice came out as an uncertain whisper, reminding me of a child who was asking their parents what their punishment would be for breaking the rules.

Resting my chin on the top of her head, I quickly wiped away the tears falling down my face, "The two of you will have the support of this entire pack, you won't have-"

"Harley," she raised herself up and placed one of her hands on one of my arms, "I meant you and me. How are the both of us going to get through this? He meant as much to you as he did me."

Shock ran throughout my body. The woman before me had just lost her mate, yet she was looking at me in a way that said that we were in this fight together. Tears sprang from my eyes for a new reason, because I had found comradeship that I had not been expecting.

"All that I'm certain of is that until my dying breath I will protect you and this baby," I promised her with a serious expression on my face, and I meant it wholeheartedly. These two would be my family from this point forward, along with Jonathan.

Looking around I was surprised to see that none of the other pack members had made their way outside yet, "Earlier I sensed the grief running through the pack, where is everyone now?"

"Jonathan sent them to their rooms for the night, he didn't want everyone to panic until we knew what had really happened," her words were rushed. With one hand she pushed her blonde hair out of her face, the other still rested upon her small bump. She looked at me and desperation coated her words once again, "Did you bring his body with you? I need to see him."

Looking behind me I saw that Jackson had arrived, "He's with Jackson."

Standing up so that I could give her a hand, I captured my bottom lips between my teeth. I was losing the battle to keep my emotions under control, and seeing the look of loss on Leila's face was only compounding the misery that I was feeling. She read me like a book though and pulled me in for a tight hug.

"Even if I wanted to blame this on you, I couldn't. He wouldn't have wanted it any other way, we both know that. I understand that it isn't fair for me to say this because I'm going to be mourning this loss until the day that I die, but you don't have the luxury of mourning him right now or feeling sorry for yourself," she reminded me in a soothing tone before pulling away with a sad smile on her face, "He loved you so much, Harley, I think more than either of you two realized."

As she walked away from me towards Jackson's vehicle I caught my ally's gaze. When we started to make his way over, I noticed that Wyatt was right behind him. I felt exhaustion threatening to take over my body, but fought it back because there were too many things that we needed to discuss- primarily our plan for stabilizing our border. After all, I had declared war and that was not something that Malcolm or Thomas would take lightly.

Jackson stopped a few feet before he reached me, making it impossible for us to make even accidental contact, exactly what I needed at the moment. I think that if someone even accidentally touched me right now, it would be the last straw and I would physically and emotionally break down. He looked at me with an apologetic expression on his face, "I know that this is an awful time to recommend this, but it would really be best if you appointed another Beta. There's going to be a quick turn around now that you've told the other Alphas what your intentions are, and it would be best if both of our packs were functioning as well as possible."

I turned my head away from both men and squeezed me eyes tightly to keep new tears from pouring down my face. It had completely slipped my mind that I would have to pick someone to take Rowan's place. A choked sob escaped from my body, and I clasped a hand over my mouth to try to muffle the sound of it.

"Harley," the voice of my savior called from the front steps of the pack house. I watched as Jonathan jogged over to me, and noticed that his eyes were bloodshot. For a moment I wondered if it was from crying or drinking, but realizing that it was probably a mixture of the two.

He gave the men before me a stern look, "Whatever decisions that you think need to be made can wait a couple hours. For a few seconds just try to put yourselves in our shoes, and imagine what this pack is going through right now. Go and find an empty room to sleep in for the night, we'll discuss whatever is so important in the morning."

His tone held no room for negotiation, and both Wyatt and Jackson made their way into the pack house. During his short speech, Jonathan had placed a comforting hand on my back. It was the only thing keeping me from spiraling out of control. I felt the depression that had followed my father's death starting to creep into my entire body, each of my limbs feeling as though they weighed a ton.

"I need to go check on Leila," my voice was quiet and distracted.

Jonathan got a firm hold of one of my shoulders before I could get away and forced me to look into his eyes, "She's a strong person, and will find reassurance in the arms of this pack. Right now you've got to focus on yourself Harley because if you don't deal with these emotions that you're feeling right now they're only going to get worse."

"Everyone that I love dies," I searched his eyes for a trace of understanding while crossing my arms over my chest and pinching the skin of my upper arms, a way of reminding myself that this was actually all real.

He pulled me into his chest and I finally allowed myself to break down. I felt Jonathan lower his head down to my ear before reassuring me, "I'm here, Leila is here, and someday that baby will be here. We all love you, and we're all planning on being around for a long time."

"Everyone plans on being around, it just never seems to work out that way."

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The first chapter is up, what do you think about it?

It's definitely interesting for me to figure out how everyone is dealing with the loss of Rowan because it is something that is going to effect pretty much every character is varying ways.

Who do you think Harley will make Beta? The first person to guess correctly gets the next chapter dedicated to them!