Mate Mysteries

Chapter 15

I'm not sure how much of the subjects in this chapter are triggering, but I'll just put a warning to be prepared, just in case!

- Sian

Pip didn't want to believe that he was looking at the deceased face of Sid. He expected him to open his eyes and flail about in pain. Even after the Omega wolves pulled his body from the tree, Pip waited for Sid to splutter a breath or groan in agony, or make a snarky comment about him having great pain tolerance.

He didn't.

Sid was dead. Someone had murdered him.

"Poor lad," Makena mumbled, covering Sid's face with large round dock leaves. "He was barely even thirty. He didn't deserve this."

Pip crouched by his side. Now that Sid's lifeless eyes no longer stared into his soul, Pip was able to touch his icy hand and hold it as though Sid could feel him. "He was going to let me dye his hair pink next month because I beat him in a race around the field." Pip soon smelt his discomposing body. His stomach churned. The taste of vomit still burnt in the back of his throat. "Did the rogues do this to him?"

"No, they were too weak, and there were too few of them to have the chance." Makena stared into the distance like her eyes saw a different place. "This must have been a trap. The Rogues must have led them to more wolves."

Pip wanted to ask if she thought that southern wolves were behind this, but Omega's returned from the bushes, breathing hard. "We found more dead wolves. They're ours."

Pip shivered and asked, "Who are they?"

"Omegas. There's no sign of Krey of Francis."

Pip felt awful that an ounce of him was relieved. People who he lived with for the past year and eight months were dead. People who had been a part of Krey's pack for years were dead. Their family were dead, and someone had to pay.

Pip looked back to Sid's body that looked less and less like his. Death altered him, changing him, returning him to the earth. "It doesn't matter how strong you are," he mumbled, "death always wins."

Makena looked him strangely. Pip's face drooped with sorrow, and his words sounded like defeat. "At least he's not in pain anymore," she said with a comforting hand on Pip's shoulder. Her son was out there, running, or fighting against either wolves or his troubles. The last thing Krey needed was to feel Pip giving up too.

* * * * *

Galloping blindly through the woods was the only thing Krey and Francis could do. One moment, they had been tearing after Rogues, the next, they were attacked by what felt like an army of Rogues, waiting on the outskirts of their territory.

Krey would be dead if Sid hadn't thrown himself in front of him. He dug his claws into the mud and ran faster. The memory was as painful as the wound down his back leg. The Rogue who he had spoken to at the gate clawed him when he nipped at her heels to taunt her.

Krey used the pain to fuel him. He would have run to the ends of the earth if Francis didn't slow him down. She shifted first, and the trauma of what happened to their wolves twisted her face to anguish. Her lips quivered, but she pulled herself together with a deep inhale. "They killed him," she said quietly in the silent woods, not able to get the noise of when Sid shifted back and screamed out of her head.

"That doesn't matter, we need to get those fucking rogues." Krey stormed through the trees.

Francis was hot on his heels. "What do you mean that doesn't matter?" she hissed.

"Where did these cowards go?" Krey muttered, ignoring her.

"Alpha, stop for a moment. Sid-"

"And where the fuck are my Omega's?" He shook her from his arm.