Word Count:1877

~Evoni

"Ev...Evoni..."

I groan, slapping my hand over my face.

"Mm, what?" I grumble.

"Wakey wakey." It's Rhenn, her syrupy sweet voice drawing me from my slumber.

Blinking my eyes open, I see her looming over me. Bright morning light has flooded the tent, burnishing her golden hair.

"What time is it?" I ask, sitting up.

She leans back, smiling. "It's almost the afternoon."

My eyes widen. I slept that long? My body and mind don't even feel remotely refreshed, although I'm sure that has something to do with what happened last night.

"Are you serious?"

"I think you drank quite a bit of blackberry wine last night," Rhenn tells me, smothering a giggle behind her hand.

Last night returns to me in patches. Flashes of a broody, shirtless Alpha and the pleasure he afforded me. But also, of Rowan and our fighting, of my conversation with Archie.

I was a complete and utter mess.

"Clearly." I rub my temple tenderly. "When did I get back to tent?"

"Well, you came back from the hunt and immediately got into the wine. At one point I saw you stumble, so I helped you back here," Rhenn explains dutifully. "You went to sleep immediately."

I vaguely remember feeling crippling guilt after I returned back to the settlement. Despite how Rowan treated me, I immediately felt how wrong it was to indulge with Maric.

Even if it was a mind-shatteringly incredible experience.

"Guess I'll be paying for that for the rest of the day." It's the least I deserve.

Rhenn leans behind her, grabbing something near her bed. It's a long stemmed plant that I've never seen before, still attached to its spindly roots.

"Here, chew this." She rests it on my lap.

"What is it?"

"It will help with the headache." She smiles a little.

"Thanks." I take a bite out of the top part, wincing at the bitterness that fills my mouth. Regardless, I chew, pleased that Rhenn went out of her way to get me relief for my hangover out here.

I'm halfway through swallowing when a burst of shouting sounds from across the camp.

Rhenn stiffens, turning her head to listen. The yelling doesn't sound jovial or collective. It sounds terrified, like people exchanging tense words between each other.

"What is that?" I ask warily.

"I'm not sure." The blood is slowly draining from Rhenn's face, like she senses something wrong purely from the nature of the yelling. Something only werewolves can decipher.

I pull myself off my bed of furs, tossing the blankets to the side. "Should we check?"

"Maybe not." Rhenn poises herself awkwardly between me and the tent exit. "The Alpha will tend to it if it's serious."

I frown at her. "Aren't you curious?"

She grimaces, shaking her head.

While she might be used to deferring to Maric's authority all of the time, I'm not. Something is clearly going on, and I'm not going to sit here and listen to frantic shouting without seeing what it's all about.

Even if my brain feels like it's about to pound right out of my head.

Weaving around Rhenn, I leave the tent and head toward the commotion. She follows at my heels, muttering something about how dangerous it is to approach chaos, and how we could be walking right into a trap created by rogues.

The noise carries us closer to Rowan's tent, which raises the hairs on the back of my neck. When we're within a few feet of it, Oryn appears out of nowhere, stepping in front of us.

"Don't come any closer. Both of you," he warns, giving us a strong look.

Rhenn winds her arm around mine, clinging close to me. She's feeding off Oryn's anxious energy.

"Why, what's going on?" I question, trying to peer around him.

"Never mind that. Return to your tents." He waves his hand, gesturing for us to walk back the way we came. Rhenn tugs on my arm, but I ignore it.

"Did someone get hurt?" I ask, watching a werewolf I vaguely recognise move past us with towels in their arms.

I swear I can smell the metallic tang of blood in the air.
 
"It's not..." Oryn rubs the back of his neck. "Trust me, neither of you want to see this. Especially not you, Evoni."

I frown, sharing a look with Rhenn, who looks a little terrified.

"Why?"

This has to be about Rowan. We're close to his tent, and Oryn is being incredibly cagey. It has my heart beating in my throat, wondering if he's done something stupid, if he goaded the wrong werewolf and got himself seriously hurt.

Maric suddenly appears around one of the tents, head bowed, hair falling down over his forehead. His hands and arms and splattered with blood.

Upon seeing us, he winces. There's a pallid tint to his skin, and he's clearly in shock.

"Maric, what's happening," I demand, stepping past Oryn. My throat is already tightening—I have a dark and terrible feeling that I know what he's going to say...

He looks down at me, eyes soft, expression pained. Blood drips from his fingertips onto the pack earth below us.

"Evoni...I—"

"Tell me. Whatever is going on clearly involves me." My words come out strangled and uncertain, because the blood on him is freaking me out, and I get the feeling he's going to tell me something life altering.

His jaw tightens as he thinks through what to say.

"It's Rowan," he breathes.

My fingers curl into fists. "What about him?"

He swallows. It's as if he's in pain. Everything from last night that transpired between us is forgotten, in this moment.

"He's dead," he tells me quietly.

"What?" I frown, shaking my head. "No he's not."

Why would he joke about something like this? Rowan and I may have had a fight, but that doesn't mean I'm going to find a joke about him being dead funny.

Maric wipes his forehead with the back of his arm, smearing blood across his brow. He's breathing heavily, despair tearing his expression apart.

"I'm so sorry. I failed him."

My face falls. He's not joking...

"He's not dead, Maric. Tell me he's not dead," I plead, panic kicking up deep inside of me.

It's not possible for Rowan to be gone. How could something like that happen so suddenly? I mean, I only just saw him...

"We believe it's a rogue attack. It's not uncommon on full moon nights," he says carefully.

"But he was in his tent."

"He must have left again at some point." He looks over his shoulder, then back at me. "He told who Oryn ordered to stand guard that he was going to relieve himself late last night, but he didn't return."

Oryn was supposed to keep an eye on him, but he must have retired to bed at some point, putting someone else in charge. Someone who let Rowan slip away...

"This guard didn't report him missing?" I question.
 
"When he couldn't find him, he assumed he went to a females tent," he explains. "He made a mistake."

Clasping onto the details...it's helping me wrap my mind around this. Yet, I feel like I'm floating in an alternative reality, or perhaps I'm still submerged in a dream. Rhenn never woke me up...I'm still in the tent...

"So Rowan...he's really dead?" I wrap my arms around myself.

Maric takes me in pityingly. "I'm afraid so."

"How did they kill him?" I force out.

"Evoni..."

"Tell me," I demand.

I need to know. I need to know every detail of what happened to him. It makes it sink in quicker, so I can stop feeling so disorientated.

"The reason we know it was a rogue attack was due to the nature of his death," Maric explains carefully. "They remove the heart, and then the head."

I gasp, my shaky hand raising to cover my mouth.

"No..."

Maric takes a step closer to me. "I will have him buried and honoured."

This is real. This is real.

I loved Rowan, for so many years. He was all I had for a while, and now, I can't remember why I was ever angry at him. It seems so foolish now, when my ability to speak to him again has been taken.

"Why would they do this to him?"

"They would have smelt a human and targeted him." Maric reaches out to me, but I pull back. I can feel Rhenn and Oryn's gaze on us from behind, but they're smart enough not to approach me.

Werewolves killed Rowan. Maybe not these werewolves, but it still makes my stomach turn...

"They could have gone for me." I clutch myself tighter, vision going fuzzy.

I was out in that forest. For a time, I was running completely alone, in the opposite direction to Rhenn. I should have listened to Maric—I should have never left the tent that night.

"You were safe with me," he assures me gently, the blood beginning to dry into his skin. "I didn't know they would come so close to the settlement, though. They never have before. Clearly they were motivated by the scent of human."

I take a shuddering step away from him. "You can't keep me safe here."

If these rogues killed Rowan, how long is it until they find and dispose of me in an equally horrific and violent way?

"Of course I can. I will," Maric assures me, following my every step backward.

"Rowan is dead." I can't help but keep saying it.

"I failed him, I am sorry, Evoni." He gives me an anguished look. "I can protect you, and I will find these rogues and deal to them."

He hasn't found them before. What's to say he can find them now? Clearly they've been a threat for a time.

"I was foolish to think, even for a moment, that any of you could be trusted," I blurt out, stumbling back into a tree trunk. I manoeuvre around is, breathing harshly, drowning in my panic and grief.

Maybe what I'm saying is wrong, but I need someone to hurt as much as I am, and I'm angry at Maric for promising to look out for him, and failing to.

I'm angry at everyone, even myself.

Hurt blooms in his eyes. "Hey—"

"I want to go home!" I snap, brushing Rhenn off, who has come up to console me.

Maric shakes his head. "I can't allow that. I'm so—"

"Don't you dare tell me you're sorry." I swipe at a tear as I spills down my cheek. I can't look at him, covered in blood, a moment longer.

So I turn and I run. I don't know where to, but I run, wishing I could outrun my own grief.

🩶••🩶

If you want more, this story is available 10 chapters ahead on Inkit at all times! Just search for Midika Crane (Sophie) and you'll find this work under the stories tab.

I appreciate everyone who supports my work and continues to read my stories. I'm so grateful for you!

If you would like to read more of my work, check out my novel The Three Alpha King's!

~Midika 💜🐈‍⬛