The air was heavy with the scent of blood and the faint tang of burnt wood. My senses stirred before my body did, pulling me out of a deep, dreamless sleep. I could feel the weight of exhaustion pressing down on me, every muscle in my body aching as if I had been through a battle myself. The familiar scent of Leo drifted close, wrapping around me like a protective shield. But something was wrong. There was an undercurrent of sorrow in the air, a tension that made my heart race even before I opened my eyes.
When I finally forced my eyes open, the first thing I saw was Leo. He was standing beside the bed, his tall frame casting a shadow over me. But it wasn’t the comforting presence I was used to. His expression was strained, and though he smiled when he saw me awake, it was a smile devoid of any real warmth. It was a forced, hollow gesture that barely masked the pain in his eyes.
Leo looked exhausted, his face drawn and pale, dark circles heavy under his eyes like bruises. He looked like he hadn’t slept all night, and he had alot of bruises over him, his eyes-normally so sharp and vibrant-were dull, like the life had been drained out of him. It was a look of someone who had fought a battle and lost something precious.
“Hey,” he said softly, his voice rough around the edges. “How are you feeling?”
The question was so ordinary, so out of place in the midst of this tense silence, that I didn’t know how to answer. My throat was dry, and it took a moment for me to find my voice.
“I’m… I’m okay, I think,” I replied, but even as I said the words, I knew they weren’t true. There was a dull ache in my stomach, a sense of something terrible having happened, but my mind was still too foggy to grasp it. “What happened, Leo?”
Leo glanced away, his gaze dropping to the floor as if he couldn’t bear to look at me. My eyes followed his, and that’s when I noticed Dickson standing on the other side of the bed. He was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression just as grim as Leo’s. Dickson was usually the one who could lighten any mood, the one with the easygoing smile and quick jokes. But now, he looked as though the weight of the world was pressing down on him.
His eyes were red, like he’d been crying, though I couldn’t imagine or ever seen Dickson ever shedding tears. It was the sight of his reddened eyes that made my stomach twist with unease. Something was horribly wrong.
“Leo?” I repeated, my voice trembling now. “What’s going on? Why do you both look like that?”
Leo swallowed hard, his jaw tightening as he struggled to find the right words. His hand reached out to mine, his touch gentle but cold. I could feel the tremor in his fingers, the barely contained emotion that threatened to spill over.
“There’s something you need to know,” he began, his voice thick with grief. “Something happened last night… something terrible.”
My heart pounded in my chest as I tried to make sense of his words. The memory of the night before was hazy, fragmented images of chaos and fear flashing through my mind. I remembered the sound of something crashing, the feeling of raw panic, but everything else was a blur.
“What happened?” I whispered, squeezing his hand as if that could ground me in reality. I quickly remember Racheal
Wait Leo where is my daughte?”, Hope she is fine”? I say looking so serious at his face.
“Racheal is fine”, he says, I felt relief hearing this, I kept calm to hear him talk.
Leo closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath before he spoke again. “William… William “,
My heart skipped as I heard “William ” I quickly remembered the scary howl I heard last night
What happened to William’s, Leo. I ask firmly.
“He wanted to take her,” Leo continued, his voice breaking. “He wasn’t himself. The wolf had taken over completely. He was… he was a monster. I tried to talk to him, tried to get through to him, but he wouldn’t listen.”
My breath hitched as the pieces fell into place. The fight. The chaos. The sounds of growls and crashes, of bodies colliding. And then… nothing. I couldn’t remember what happened after that. I couldn’t remember how it ended.
“What did you do?” I asked, though part of me didn’t want to know the answer.
Leo’s grip on my hand tightened, his knuckles white. “I had no choice,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “He came at me. He was going to kill me… he was going to kill you, and then take Racheal. I couldn’t let that happen.”
The realization hit me like a physical blow, knocking the breath out of my lungs. I stared at Leo, searching his eyes for some hint that this was all a horrible mistake, that he wasn’t saying what I thought he was saying. But there was no denial there, no hesitation. Only a deep, aching sorrow.
“I killed him,” Leo admitted, his voice cracking. “I killed my own brother.”
The room seemed to spin around me, the walls closing in as the weight of his words settled over me. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My mind refused to accept the reality of what he was telling me.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head as tears filled my eyes. “No, Leo, you didn’t… you couldn’t have.”
But the truth was there, written in the pain on his face, in the haunted look in his eyes. He had killed William. He had done it to protect us, to save Racheal . But the cost… the cost was unimaginable.
Dickson stepped forward, his hand resting on Leo’s shoulder as if trying to offer comfort. But there was no comfort to be found in this. The loss was too great, the grief too overwhelming.
“He didn’t give Leo any other choice,” Dickson said quietly, his voice filled with a sadness that matched the look in his eyes. “William was gone, lost to the wolf. There was no bringing him back.”.
I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. They spilled down my cheeks, hot and relentless, as I clung to Leo’s hand like a lifeline. He pulled me into his arms, holding me close as if trying to shield me from the pain, but there was no escaping it.
“I’m so sorry,” I murmured into Leo hair, my voice trembling with emotion. “I’m so, so sorry, it all my fault”..
Eventually, the tears slowed, though the pain didn’t lessen. I pulled back slightly, looking up at Leo, my heart breaking at the sight of his tear-streaked face.