Kira turned her head toward the bathroom door, wondering who could be knocking.
“Who could that be?” She thought and sniffed, quickly wiping her eyes with wet hands. “I am not expecting anyon- oh, the tailor.”
Then the knock came again, more insistent this time.
“I’m coming!” she called out, her voice slightly hoarse from the emotions she had just been lost in.
“I didn’t think he would be here so fast,” Kira muttered to herself. “Or is it…me?”
“How long have I been in here?” She asked herself as she realized the water was already cold.
Hurriedly, she reached for the soap and washed herself.
“Just a minute, please!” she added, splashing water over her face and rinsing her body, before standing up. “I’ll be right there.”
With rushed movements, Kira stepped out of the tub, grabbed a towel, dried her body, and wrapped it around herself.
She had gotten her hair wet but didn’t mind it as she padded to the bedroom, and started getting dressed.
The undergarment was not too fitted. It was in between her size and a bit big, and as for the gown, it was big, but she didn’t care. She just laughed it off, grabbed her damp hair, ruffled it a bit, and quickly tied it up into a messy bun that barely even held together as she hurried to the door.
Reaching the door, she slowed down for a moment and rubbed her wet hands against her gown to dry them. Afterward, she unlocked the door, twisted the handle, and pulled it open.
“Ryker,” Aiden said flatly as he opened the door, only for it to be Ryker standing on the other side.
“Wow,” Ryker wowed, stepping inside with an easy grin. “Don’t you think you are being too visibly disappointed that it’s me? What an ass.”
Instead of responding to him like he normally does, Aiden closed the door and turned to face him. “What are you doing here? You know we locked the door wanting to be alone to work, but you kept knocking.”
“I do not see how that is any of my business,” Ryker said and strolled further into the office.
“I am here as your friend, not your Beta,” he said to both of them and grabbed a bottle from the corner bar.
“Let’s drink,” he announced and walked to each of them, forcing a glass into each of their hands.
Sighing heavily, Bryan’s fingers tightened around the glass, almost shattering it.
“Ryker, please. Not now,” he said coldly. “Not. Now.”
“You better fuuucking drink,” Ryker more like ordered. “I made a promise to Kira, and I will keep it. So fucking have a fucking drink. If you need to scream, shout, want to battle? Fight? You don’t need to be ashamed to do it. You want to release some stress? Anger? Sadness? Heck, there are lots of places we can do that in the pack.”
“So, both of you… drink. I won’t force any of you to feel better because I can understand how hard it is, but that doesn’t mean I want you both to get lost in this sadness and pain. So… let’s drink, and after that, we can all go for a walk and do anything else. I have already given a lot of options; it’s now left for both of you to choose, and you will choose even though it means me fighting the both of you at once.”
Then he paused for a second before continuing. “And as for work, I will handle it.”
The speech or whatever almost brought tears to Bryan and Aiden’s eyes, but they smirked tiredly-those one-sided smiles that barely reached the eyes as they now raised their glasses.
“That’s the spirit,” Ryker grinned and poured the drink. “To getting through this, however we can.”
“To getting through this, however we can,” Bryan and Aiden repeated, clinking glasses before taking a drink.
One bottle went down. Then another. Then a third.
At some point, Ryker stopped drinking and watched them instead.
He hated seeing how miserable they looked, and how fast everything had fallen apart in just a short time, but what could he do? He could only try his best to keep his best friends sane for as long as he could.
After a while, he put down his glass and said, “Come on. We are going for a walk.”
Agreeing with him, they all left the office.
The pack was quiet, memories of seeing and watching Kira move through the pack flowing through their minds.
Eventually, they reached a training area-one that was completely private.
It was quiet too, and they could see Kira training, and giving her best.
She wasn’t there, but that didn’t stop them from seeing it.
Here, they didn’t have to talk; they didn’t have to think, but the thoughts wouldn’t leave them.
They fought and fought and fought, releasing every ounce of frustration, anger, pain, and sadness; they released everything, the force shaking the training area. And as for Ryker, he just stood back and watched, not stopping them.
“This is going to be a very long ride,” he thought as he saw the pain in their eyes as well as their bodies.
A long ride indeed.
When they were finally done and ready to leave, they all walked back to the mansion in silence.
As they stopped inside, Ryker turned to them.
“Go shower and get some sleep,” he told them even though he knew sleeping might be hard and probably won’t happen. “I will finish up whatever work is left.”
Not wanting to argue with him, they simply nodded and made their way to their room.
They still stayed in the same room, although they were making plans to have separate rooms. But… for now, they stayed together, wanting it to be like how it used to be when Kira was still there.
It was comforting for them to stay close and to remain that way as so many changes seemed to be happening so fast.
They wanted this, they wanted to just hold onto something… Cherished.
And as they entered the room together, they shut the door behind them.