Smoke and Mirrors

Damien Black

I sprinted down the hallway as I felt her body go limp in my arms, I did not know what I was doing, my body just reacted instinctively when I went in to check on Sapphire and saw Chloe crouching over her body, I just picked her up and started to run. Chloe ran just as fast as I was beside me, she looked more worried than I have ever seen her in a long time.

We barged into the operating room where my pack’s Chief Healer was treating a member. With one hand supporting Sapphire I used the other to throw out the member before placing her on the table and dragging the Chief Healer to her.

"Heal her now!"

Him and his team swarmed around her with various members doing various tests. They kept her head in an elevated position after they saw the extent of her head injury. My eyes narrowed as the Chief Healer left his place at her side and came up to me, hands wringing around each other.

"Sir, I don't even know where to start with her, moreover save her."

I growled as I lifted him with one hand before slamming him against the wall, his feet dangling dangerously above the ground. His team used that as encouragement to quicken their pace, frantically trying to stop the bleeding from her head injury.

"Do as I say! Remember, she dies, your whole family does as well."

With that, I threw him to the ground as he hastily picked himself up to start his work.

I had no idea why I was acting like this, I was not supposed to care if she died or not, it was not as if I was going to accept her as my mate and ride off into the sunset, and yet here I was, worrying myself to death. I had just woken up from where a woman told me to go to Sapphire and it was as if someone had attached strings to me like I was a puppet, forcing me to walk to where Sapphire was.

Chloe had made no move to talk to me even though she would never shut up when she had the chance to speak to me. She just slumped against the wall, before I had the chance to question her, the healer rushed out.

"Sir, that girl has a dented skull and is bleeding internally as well, we have tried to break her bones to jumpstart the healing process but so far, she is in an extremely critical situation."

"Do what you have to do or else!"

The healer gave a small whimper before rushing to return to the room, I turned to my sister whose eyes were bloodshot and swollen from crying.

"Chloe, save your tears for something that actually matters, she is..."

I was interrupted by her laughing as if I just told her a joke.

"Something that actually matters… something that actually matters!”

She scoffed as she repeated the sentence.

"Damien, that girl in there is supposed to be the thing that matters the most to you and now she is dying in there because of you! She could have been someone who would have seen past your flaws and loved you for who you are and now, you have sent her gift wrapped with a bow to death's door!"

Her chest heaved as she shouted at me, eyes wild as she searched for any possible emotion from me.

"Chloe, how long is it going to take for you to get it into your head, mates are nothing but a weakness!"

"And who is talking right now, you, or our father?"

My jaw clenched as she made the comparison, she knew more than anyone about how much I hated that man.

"He might have done many things that were not right."

Her eyes softened for a moment and a small smile graced her features but that smile soon turned into a frown as I said the next sentence.

"In our eyes as we were children but now, all I see is that he spoke nothing but the truth."

She snarled as was about to retort when a sudden commotion in the room caught our attention, I strained my ears, my mouth opened, and tears somehow found their way to my eyes as I heard Sapphire’s heartbeat, one that I had trained myself to be attuned to should she ever lie to me, silence.

Chloe and I charged in to see a group of healers frantically trying to close her wounds that had for some reason started to bleed again. The rest were rushing to try and restart Sapphire’s heart. I looked over to Sapphire to see that her body was covered with various types of cuts and bruises that were not there when I first brought her here, they left almost no skin on Sapphire’s body clean which left her looking as though she had rolled around in several thorn bushed.

I walked up to her side and as I stood by her my legs suddenly gave way as I fell to my knees, tears streaming down my face, I could hear Chloe openly sobbing as well.

A small cough broke the solemn silence as I saw the Chief Healer standing behind me, I saw red as I grabbed him and slammed him against the wall, beads of red formed as my claws elongating nicking his skin.

"What have you done to her!"

I was about to break his pathetic neck when I heard an unfamiliar feminine voice behind me.

"Put him down, Child."

I turned to see a woman with porcelain skin, that was almost as white as snow, and silver hair had been adorned with many tiny star-like diamonds that reflected light in the room with each movement she made. I realised that world around me had somehow stopped, no one was moving, even the ants on the ground had stopped their work, I watched as the woman in front of me walked towards Sapphire, bending down to stroke her hair.

"Who are you?"

She turned around and smiled at me despite my abrasive tone.

"I am surprised you don't recognise me, I am your mother after all, well not your actual mother of course, but I did create your entire kind."

The Moon Goddess, the Mother of Wolves was standing right in front of me.

"The wounds you see right now on Sapphire Nightshade are the wounds that you have inflicted on her throughout your entire time with her."

She gestured towards Sapphire's battered body, eyes filled with reproach as she looked back at me. I knew I had to tread with caution.

"By no means of disrespect, but wolves die every day, why does her death catch your personal attention?"

She gave me look as if I were a child who knew nothing.

"I think it will be best if I show you."

I blinked and found myself surrounded by trees, their branches heavy with red flowers and in front of us was a couple lying down under them without a care in the world. The man stared at the lady with so much love as she fixed flowers into his shoulder-length hair, looking at her as if she was the centre of his world.

"That's you and Sapphire."

I looked at her in disbelief, maybe the Moon Goddess had a few screws loose.

She smiled at me before carrying on.

"Long time ago in the proud kingdom of Avarelia, there lived a King. He was feared by his people as well as his enemies, his prowess in battle was the key in many stories told in and out of the kingdom. However, he had a heart of stone, it was so cold and hard that none of the women he took to bed could even put a crack in it, even he thought that he would live a miserable lonely life till he met a beautiful maiden who was as beautiful as she was on the outside as on the inside. He saw her tending to a wounded wolf that he shot and fell in love with her.

She changed him for the better, she taught him how to be good and kind, she taught him that a good king should only be truly feared by his enemies, not his people. She was the reason his heart of stone become one of gold. The kingdom prospered under their dual leadership and they lived happily for years. Sadly, there must be a time where the scales tip."

I blinked and looked at my surroundings, we were now in the middle of a blazing inferno, the two lovers laid in the centre of it, their arms still clutching on to each other. The man sobbing as he held his already dead lover, her hair fanned out below her.

"The King was betrayed by someone who he thought was loyal to him, that monster barged into the King's chambers while he thought the King was away, he had always desired the Queen and so he saw the King’s absence as an opportunity to fulfil his desire for her, he raped the defenceless Queen but what he did not expect was for the King to come home early from battle and when the King finally came, he killed the Queen and their unborn child right before his eyes, the King managed to kill most of that man's accomplices before succumbing to his wounds, he died holding his Queen.

The Goddess of Love, my sister, begged me to do something, she was and still overseeing the pairing up of my children, she said that they had a love so great that even rivalled the bond only my children could have with each other and so begged me to give them another chance and, I did. I gave them new life as my children, as werewolves, the love that they had for each other in their past life would have caused them to find the other no matter what. You, Damien Black, were King Xander of Hermosa while Sapphire was your Queen, Rose. I gave you the second chance to find each other and it is now up to you to choose what to do with that chance."

I blinked again but this time, I was standing in the Healer’s room watching as the healers tried to save Sapphire, tears continuously streamed down my face and I suddenly felt something different, a certain longing for her, a want for her.