Broken Hearts Mend

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Carly tried to ignore the splitting pain baring down against her skull.  It wasn’t an ideal time to have a heart-to-heart with Arianna, but what other chance would they get alone? Carly had the nagging feeling Marc would be home soon and he wouldn’t let anyone out of his sight. The man was very protective when he put his mind to it.

With a tight breath, Carly opened her mouth and let the truth finally spill out. A truth that she held close to her heart for more than twenty years, a truth she didn’t even confess to the love of her life. Ian was killed never knowing everything about his mate, something she regretted deeply.

“Like I said, we lived only a few doors from each other. My parents kept an eye on every family on the street and they knew hunters were lurking in town. We all thought we were protected because of the security measures in place for threats like them. We even had an underground tunnel ready if we needed to get out of town quick. The hunters outsmarted us.” Carly absentmindedly ran her hand down her face only for her fingertips to connect with silent tears. “I was at your house when we first realized something was wrong.” Her grey eyes stared in the distance of a memory close enough to touch.

“The hunters were closing in.” Ariana spoke matter of fact, it was all she could afford to spare. Carly quickly realized there was a lot of suffering behind her cousin’s eyes.

“They snuck up on us and I remember your father telling me to hide. Before the words were really out of his mouth the door was kicked in. I ran to the kitchen and hide under the sink. I heard everything.” Her voice died off as the scent of blood filled her nose, the blood of her beloved uncle. He didn’t stand a chance against the ruthlessness hunters carried, they somehow knew he was a wolf and saw no use for him. “The gunshots woke you up and Aunt Olivia tried to console you. She pled with him to spare you as the others searched the house for anyone else.”

“Did they find you?”

“No, I was lucky. The one in control rounded up all his men after he made the choice to take you. I stayed under the sink for hours to come because I was scared and because I knew there was no one left.” She thought about the lies she told Marc, nothing she told him about her past was very true. There was been a whole pack of panthers in her home town once upon a time, they and the wolves shared a unity that was ruined that night too. Wolves would become her enemy for a long time.

“Your mom?”

“She was a causality of that night. My dad was out of town but he died too in a way because that night always haunted him. He regretted not being there to protect my mom or at the very least being there to die with his mate. We were the only ones left of our family and the few members of the pack lost hope. Dad drank and eventually a younger guy challenged him for power, swearing he could put the panthers back into a place out of the shadow of the wolves. My dad didn’t stand a chance.” By the time Carly reached that point of the story, she felt numb. For so many years she hated her father for giving up, in the end she pitied him and made a promise to avenge their family. It was the last thing she said to him. “Marc mentioned that hunter that took you is dead.”

“Yeah.” Ariana’s mask was starting to crack as harsh truths she only wondered about were answered. “Marc killed him.” She confessed with the memory aching to be addressed. “I wanted to be there but he wouldn’t allow it. I think it was better that way.”

“Murder can be a heavy thing when it’s personal.”

Ariana’s ears literally perked up. “What do you know about it?”

“I’ve always wondered about what happened to you, I tried to find you the best I could from home, but when my dad died three years ago I didn’t have a reason to stay in Arizona. I started obsessively looking into what happened that night and it turned out we didn’t hear the hunters coming because they had inside help. It someone I grew up.” Carly held onto that numbness, she didn’t want to remember what such betrayal felt like.