Leaving me rooted in place with shock.
“Because you’re the only one powerful enough to save us, Lovebug. You’re our pack’s last hope for survival.”
8
RAVEN
Save them? What in the hell did that mean? What was coming for the pack? And how in the world would I stop a force like that? A force that killed my father, a man that knew more about this world than I ever would?
“I-I-I—I don’t understand.”
Dad’s form grew translucent. “Trust the guys. Trust Dean, Levi, and Hudson. They’ll never lead you astray.”
“Wait, no!” I exclaimed.
I lunged for my father as he continued to fade away, but as I reached my hand out my knuckles jammed into something hard. Something hot. It seared my skin and caused me to pull my fist back, and as the spot where I had smacked started to undulate, I realized what was happening.
The world of the dead was in front of me.
And Dad was among them.
“No,” I whispered.
“Listen to them, Raven,” Dad’s voice echoed.
“No! Daddy! Come back!”
“I love you. I have always loved you.”
“No, now stop it!” I exclaimed as I started slamming my fists against the hot, invisible surface in front of me. “Come back! We still have so much to talk about!”
“Listen to the guys. They are your mates for a reason.”
“Daddyyyyyy!”
Then, it hit me.
“How do you know they’re my mates?! Dad!”
“Trust them,” his voice whispered.
And just like that, he was gone again. Fading into obscurity, just like always. I continued to beat down the wall in front of me until it disappeared altogether, and as I fell forward my nostrils landed directly into a pile of wildflowers that blanketed my fall.
While the ground soaked up the tears that endlessly fell for my broken heart.
“Come back,” I choked out, “please. I can’t do this alone.”
YOU’RE NOT ALONE. YOU HAVE ME.
I placed my face into the crook of my arm and sobbed. I cried for my life, and what I’d never have. I cried for my father, and how much pain he must’ve been in when he died. Alone, abandoned, and unable to call out for his family. I cried for my mother, who had probably been so overwhelmed with this world that she thought that running off with me was to protect me. And I cried for myself.
For the danger that I knew was coming, that I’d never be able to walk away from so long as I knew my mother was in the crossfire herself.
I wasn’t sure how long I stayed there, sobbing into my arm. I wasn’t sure how long I had been talking to my father, or where to even begin looking for the answers to push me in the direction he knew I needed to be traveling. But as I picked myself up off the ground and dusted myself off, I had so many more questions to ask Dad.
Questions that wouldn’t ever get answers so long as I stayed there, crying like a little bitch.
COME ON, WE GOTTA GET BACK.