Moving out of the city was not her idea. Moving to the middle of nowhere in a foreign country was definitely not her idea, and leaving everything she knows and loves behind is the farthest thing from what she wants; since living with a Father, who h...
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She ran through the forest, carefully scenting for any humans who were not supposed to be there. She'd been warned by the elder females that this was a bad idea and that it would cost her dearly, but she didn't see how she had any other choices. She changed to human form, not caring about how naked she was and pounded on Amara's door.
Amara answered, her eyes wide.
"What are you thinking, Damien, needs silence to heal."
She couldn't bring herself to look at him, lying on the bed which had been moved into the living room. She couldn't bear the site. Turns out it takes more than a bullet to the head and heart to take out an Ancient. He'd recovered hours later. Except he didn't remember her and there was no guarantee he ever would.
She knew she'd piqued his interest through the pack bonds standing in plain view with not a stitch on and clearly desperate for some reason.
"I've come to ask for your help as interim Alpha of this pack." Amara's eyes widened.
"What is it you want girl?"
"Once I take care of the hunters that are here, can you make it so that no hunter ever comes here again?" Amara whistled low.
"I can, but that would cost quite a bit."
"What is the cost?"
"Only death can pay for life, and only great sacrifice and death can pay for many lives."
"What great sacrifice?"
"Since you are the one asking, either you must sacrifice your own life or the life of a direct family member, and it must be you who gives the life. No one may help you."
"Is there any other way?"
"Another of the pack may volunteer to do this instead of you." Lily was shaking her head no as soon as the words were out of Amara's head. Klaus came from Damien's bedside.
"You don't have to do this, Lily. He wouldn't want you to."
"But if I don't do this more and more hunters will just keep coming and we will lose more females and more pups. What if they kill Damien next time instead of taking his memory away? What then, Klaus? This is all my fault."
"How do you figure that?"
"It was my Father who started all of this. I'm responsible for ending this with him." She knew what she had to do. "I've already sent the warriors to my cabin to clear out the rest of the hunters. It's time I saw my Father again. Have him brought to the Cabin? This needs to end where it started." Klaus nodded and went to do exactly as she ordered. Another warrior took Klaus's place at Damien's bedside.
She met Amara's steady gaze.
"It will be done before midnight."
"If you can go through with it, you will have bought security for your pack." She nodded and she knew that while Amara was her friend she was a True Witch first before all else, and they operated by rules that were mysterious and unknowable to Lily.
As she made her way through the forest towards her cabin, she understood now what being a Luna meant. She had to make the hard decisions. She was going to have to darken her own soul so the souls depending on her for their future had a chance, so Damien could recover, so they didn't all have to live in fear all the time. It was going to kill her to do it. But it was the pack or her Father or her. She was selfish enough to admit to not wanting to die, and she would always protect the pack. She hoped dearly that patricide would not damn her to hell.
She came to the cabin just as Klaus walked up to the dirt road with her Father struggling in tow. Lily's eyes widened. He was skin and bones, filthy, his hair wild, his beard full and long. This was not the man she remembered. He looked like a good wind would blow him over any minute. He was pathetic.
His fellow hunters were dead and piled up in a heap near the tree line, the warrior of the pack flanked her as she walked forward to meet her Father.
"Father."
"Lily." He muttered, staring in disbelief at the pile of what had once been his brethren. She saw confusion and hatred and sadness warring one another for dominance in his expression. As it so often had in the past, hate won and he turned his baleful gaze on her. Funny, it didn't even make her blink. In the past, that expression would have had her heart racing.
"It's time that this pack knew some security. I've made a deal with a witch, Father. In exchange for my sacrifice, this pack will never know a hunter's blade or bullet ever again." Abel spat on the ground, as close to her as he could manage.
"You don't have the balls. You're a scared, insecure little girl and you always were. Go ahead and come at me so I can laugh when you fail." One of the warriors handed her the rifle and she aimed it at him. She paused.
He was a hateful creature and he didn't deserve to live after all the death he'd caused. He would have killed her had Damien not interfered. It wasn't like she wasn't making the world a little better by taking him out of it. But he was still her Father and some remaining biological or psychological imperative was holding back her trigger finger. Her hands were beginning to shake and she knew right then, that there was no way. No way she could kill her own father. It would have to be her life sacrificed then. How could she have thought she could kill her own Father.
Lily began to lower the rifle and Abel laughed.
"Weak just like your Mother was when I killed her!" Lily and Abel's eyes widened at the same time. Lily's because she hadn't known that, and Abel's because he realized that in his glee he'd said something he shouldn't have. He watched as his daughter's eyes and face registered shock, then pain, then a steely resolve he'd never seen in her before.
This time Lily didn't hesitate. She pulled the trigger and Abel dropped like a sack of potatoes. Revulsion filled her at what she'd just done and she turned around and went into the cabin, closing the door behind her, shutting the pack out. Once she was sure she was alone, she ran to the bathroom and vomited until there was nothing left to vomit. Then she went for the liquor cabinet. She'd ensured the pack's safety, Damien didn't even know who she was anymore, and she'd just murdered her own Father in cold blood. The cabinet was full and she planned to drink until it was empty. Part of her hoped it killed her, as the guilt of her actions slammed into her full force. Now she understood what they meant when they said that you do things in a war to win for the greater good that seems awful during times of peace.
Lily didn't want to face the pack, see the disgust in their eyes and the lack of recognition in Damien's. She didn't even want to see herself in the mirror. All she wanted, was oblivion.
