Marked & Rejected

My Heart & Your Tears

It's time to move, we won't come back the way we came. The wind has made our smells fade and the flowers freshen up the air.

Jim and I get back in the Hummer and drive on the outside of town, only to park it behind an old bakery thats closed down. We pull out hats to cover our heads, rub dirt on our wrists and necks to make our smells, smell earthy.

We walk side by side, coming out on the sidewalk. Our home doesn't look as we left it. A ghost town has formed, we can hear people whisper back and forth some where, but no one is walking around, like they use to. This place doesn't feel like home anymore. Jim tells me and all I do is shake my head.

We walk to town square, the fountain dried up, the trees wilted and dying. This was one of my favorite places. I tell Jim, looking sadly at the area around us.

Jim brushes his hand against mine. A small comfort. We don't out and touch one another, even if we don't see anyone, we know we are being watched. We can hear heart beats all around us. They don't smell who we really are and if they knew, who knew what they would do.

Let's keep moving. We will scope out more of the area and see if the house still stands and then go to the Alpha house. Knowing that old man, he's still alive, for a bag of bones. I tell Jim.

We move on, aware that five warriors are following us. Sniffing the air, I recognize three of them, but two of them I don't know who they are.

Our walk feels short when we see my old house. The house, that I had lived with Malcolm now looks dingy. The paint faded, the grass dead, everything looks dirty. This house had once been lovely. Modern like many homes here.

I look up at it, my heart feels cracked, but my stomach feels empty. As if I'm hallow, but my heart. I want to go inside and see what is the same and what is different.

Jim looks at the house as well, touches my hand lightly, urging me on. He was right, we looked at the house for to long.

We walk on and of course still are followed.

We walk in silence, the numbers of followers have grown. Sniffing the air, three more have joined and they are strangers to my nose.

I look at Jim from the corner of my eye and he shakes his head. We are only a block from the Alpha house. But the air feels wrong.

We round the corner and all I want to do is throw up. Our old Alpha is....dead. A coffin lays open, propped up, with his body decaying. The smell horrific. How could they leave him like that? Why would Malcolm come to my land, to say he was going to bring me back, so he could become Alpha? You have to fight the Alpha, and win, to become the next Alpha.

Jim taps my shoulder, looking away, I see Malcolm standing on the porch, as our followers stand behind us, like bodyguards at the ready to take down an enemy.

"I'm glad you came on your own. My Queen." Malcolm says and we can hear him perfectly thanks to our hearing.

Taking off my hat, my hair spills out around my shoulders. "So did you actually kill the old Alpha or did someone else, and in their drunken glory, you killed them?" I ask, as Jim takes off his hat.

Malcolm frowns at me. "It hurts, that you would ask such things."

Jim rolls his eyes. "It's not a far fetch guess. You've always been a jackal." He looks to me. "He was my friend yes, but he always looked that way to me. I'm sorry he was your mate and I held my tongue because you two were-"

"That's enough Jim! Raven and I will be mates again. I've never stopped loving her." He says.

"Yes you have, the only reason you sought me out after all these years, is because they would only see you as a true Alpha, is if you had a woman on your arm." The group behind us, shift.