Blood Lust and Love
Chapter 8

DarkBeauty357

It's been three days since Kai's death, and it's been three days since Jade has been kidnapped.

Things in the pack felt like they were moving so slowly, and there hasn't been a single noise yet. It seems like no one has laughed in days. The cheerfulness of the pack has vanished into the dark atmosphere.

The parks remained empty, completely void of playing children and scolding mothers. Most of the pack members stayed in their houses morning the son of the Alpha in their own way.

Kai could never see it, but his presence made a huge difference in the pack. Just the aura that radiated from him made everyone happy. Kai never saw past his own personal suffering the effects of his presence. He never saw the endless smiles and joy of the pack members when he encountered them. He made everything a better place in the pack. One thing Kai would never know was that he was truly loved in the pack. He would always mistake the way others would look at him. He thought the pack members hated him, despised him, but he was wrong. They cared for him and wanted him to feel loved. Even now that he was in a better place, he would still never know how much his people loved him. Until one day, when he sees them again.

Leah, for the past three days, hid in her room. She hasn't eaten or slept much. The only thing that she was effective at doing was screaming and yelling at Alec for even stepping into the room. It got to the point where he was sleeping on the couch for the past couple of days with two bottles of vodka at his side. He was drowning his sorrows, and she was dousing her sorrows with gasoline and hatred. Leah kept yelling at Alec for any slightest thing he did, and quite frankly Blaire was getting sick and tired of it. Blaire was getting sick and tired of listening to her father getting bitched at for no reason.

Blaire watched her father cooking on the stove. Her eyes were glazed over and she took a sip out of the vodka bottle that her father laid next to the couch. Alec heard it and looked at her. "Don't drink that," He scolded.

"You do it all the time." She remarks.

Alec looks at her daughter and she glares at him back. She studied him. The dark bags under his eyes, his messy hair, and the way he massaged his neck from soreness. She was mad at him. Not at his drinking, but at the fact that he was still trying to please her mother after she still treated him like crap.

"Say what you really have to say, Blaire." Alec pressed.

"Okay fine," She slammed the vodka bottle down. "I don't get why you're still trying to cook her food and help her when she is honestly being a bitch to you."

"Don't call her a bitch." He warned. His voice was on the edge lately because of all the stress he was under.

"Seriously dad, how can you still defend her when she still hasn't even lifted a finger to help you. I've helped with training others more than she has done, and that was her son!" Blaire yells.

"You don't even understand her as I do. She'll get through this, I know she will. She is strong. She just needs me to help her, like she once helped me."

"You don't owe her anything," Blaire says. "I love mom to death, but why do you always think you owe her something." Blaire pressed on. She too, like the rest of her siblings, did not know the real truth of her parents. She never knew about the way that her father once treated her mother, and they surely never knew the fact that he was once blind. No one had ever mentioned any of that, Alec and Leah made sure of it. All the children know is that Leah use to be a werewolf once. However, anytime their children had questions about their past, they would always avoid giving them answers.

"I do owe her everything I have. She saved me and she sacrificed everything."

"Then how come I've never heard about any of that."

"Because I wasn't always nice to your mother. I use to be a monster to her," He looked down at his feet with guilt. More guilt stacked on top of being the fault of his son's death. "My own mate. I use to be cruel to her. Never again. This is the least I can do." Alec whispered but Blaire heard him. She perked up with curiosity, but Alec quickly walked upstairs to give Leah the food he made for her.

Blaire sighed in disappointment and took a big swig of the vodka bottle. She hopped down from the barstool and laid on the couch. It was morning time and she had around an hour to relax before the hard work came. Although, she really couldn't relax because all she could think about was the display case in front of her on the wall that is filled with Disney movies. The Disney movies that she and Kai used to watch together.

Alec walked into his room that now felt strange to him. "Hey, honey. I made you breakfast."

"Fuck off."

Alec gritted his teeth and swallowed hard. It physically hurt him that she was being mean to him, but he felt that he deserved it. So this is how it was when he was cruel to her. He felt that it was karma at its finest.

"Okay, I'll sit this here then." He sat the tray of her nightstand and grabbed the empty tray of food that she barely touched. She probably ate like fifteen percent of the food.

"Why don't you go make yourself useful and kill someone else's child, okay? Because you are nothing but a child killer and a low life loser." Leah's hateful words once again got the better of her.

"I'll see you later. I love you. I always will love you no matter what. I promise." Alec promised. His words were so sincere, you could tell by the sound of his voice. He looked at her longingly. He just wanted to hug and hold her but now every time he would touch her, Leah would pull away in disguise. He yearned for her touch and her acceptance. It got to the point where he wanted to beg for her forgiveness. He wanted to beg for the forgiveness of killing his son because she had engraved it in his mind that it was his fault. He hoped that she would forgive him and stop this soon because every time she would say these things to him about Kai, he felt like giving up.

Leah's eyes became glossy and they froze over with anger. A single tear ran down her face, "I hate you. I absolutely hate you. Just die already. I hate your very existence. The world, no actually, I would be better off if you just fell over and died. No wonder why Victoria betrayed you." She hatefully yelled at him.

He looked down at his feet. A deep burning pain swelled in his chest. It became harder to breathe and his throat grew red. He managed to push out, "I'm sorry..." Then he left the room in a hurry. Using Victoria against him hurt a lot. The first girl he ever loved was Victoria. Alec was so deeply invested in her that he didn't even realize that she was going behind his back and sleeping with Crow. She was the reason why Crow has blueprints of the pack. She was a traitor. The only one that Alec opened up with fully about her was Leah, and now she was using that against him.

He shook his thoughts off. This isn't Leah. It's not her fault. She just wasn't in the right state of mind right now.

Alec decided to start tracking early. He was only running on three hours of sleep for the past three days. He could hardly rest when he thought of how Jade was suffering now.

He shifted outside and continued his search.

Meanwhile, at Rem's house, Grace was packing away boxes. Frustrating tears fell from her face. She wrapped the boxes up with tape angrily and stopped the whole way to the attic stairs.

"Hey. Hey, stop." Rem stepped in front of Grace. "Let me get that." Rem took the box from her.

"Why!" She exclaimed throwing his hands up in the air frustrated. More tears feel down her face and Rem's heart broke. "It's not like I'm pregnant anymore." Grace's voice broke.

"It's okay. Baby, we will get through this." Rem sat the box down and wiped away her tears. Three weeks ago Grace took a pregnancy test and it was positive. They decided not to tell anyone because it always ended the same. In a miscarriage.

"It's not okay," Grace yelled. "I'm useless. We've been trying for years against what the doctor told us. Two years ago I actually get pregnant. But then two weeks later I miscarriage. Since then we've gotten pregnant seven times and they've all ended in a miscarriage. Why is this happening?" Grace was finally defeated and utterly exhausted. She gave up. She just could handle the heartbreak of going through this pain again.

"As long as we have each other we will be okay. Grace nothing can happen that will make me love you any less." Rem said.

"Promise?" Grace looked up at him. The look in her eyes made him want to cry.

He hugged her tightly, "I promise. For now, let's keep these out. Next time will be better. We just have to have faith." They stayed in that embrace for a minute. When Grace pulled away, Rem's shirt was wet but he didn't care.

"At least I still have Ava. I love that girl like my own child." Grace said about Rem's little sister that she spent years encaged with.

"That's true."

They moved the boxes of beautiful baby clothes back into the empty room that they planned to be a nursery room. Rem had faith that one day they could have children, Grace, on the other hand, was slowly losing faith.

Peyton had stopped by to visit Rem and Grace because he didn't want to stay at his house today. He heard his mom yelling at his dad this morning, and that made him upset so he headed to Rem's after Alec left. Peyton knocked on Rem's door and when Grace opened the door, Peyton looked behind him at the two guards, "You can leave now." He told them.

Rem walked behind Grace and hugged her from behind. "Can I come in and stay for today?" Peyton asked Rem.

"Yeah, sure buddy. Come on in." Rem offered him cookies and milk. Rem could look at Peyton and tell that the death of Kai was messing with him. It messed with everyone.

"Are you okay?" Rem asked.

"Yeah, just mom yelling at dad. A lot." He answered.

"I'm proud of Alec for keeping his composure this long," Grace commented.

"Me too." Rem spoke. "Peyton. Are you personally okay?"

Peyton shook his head.

"Do you not want to speak about it?" Rem asked.

Peyton shook his head.

Grace was in the kitchen, but then she smelled blood all a sudden. Rem could smell it too but he wasn't good at thinking fast like Grace was. Immediately, she walked out of the kitchen and analyzed everything on Peyton's face. She recognized that look because she once had the same look years ago.

"I'm sorry Peyton, but you smell like..." In that time Grace quickly walked up to Peyton and jerked his arm forward to pull his long sleeves up, revealing his wrist. She gulped and looked him in the eyes. "I'm sorry..." She trailed off. "You're not okay are you." Grace realized that this was more serious than he thought.

Rem's eyes widened and he went to go grab a first aid kit.

Peyton shook his head. "I'm really not." He started to cry. He hid his face by his hand in embarrassment. He shouldn't be feeling like this, but he was.

"It's okay Peyton. I'm here for you. It's okay not to be okay." Grace's voice soothed him as a mother's voice should. "I'll patch this up and we'll get you the help you need. We'll fix this together."

Peyton sobbed uncontrollably. He finally broke out into tears that he's been holding back all this time. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I just feel like no one cares about how we feel. My mom just stays in her room and no one has even noticed. Dad is too busy and I want my sissy back." The fifteen-year-old sobbed into the arms of Grace. The blood on his wrist smeared onto Grace, but she didn't care. "And I want Kai back!"

"I know. I know." She realized him and petted his hair. Peyton clung onto her like a mother, and the comfort was just what he needed.

Rem returned with the first aid kit and Grace helped make the cuts on his wrist stop bleeding. "Don't worry Peyton. I know how you feel. I'm here for you. We got this."

"Thank you, Grace." Peyton's face was all red and puffy. "I'm sorry about earlier." He had to admit, he felt a little embarrassed about crying.

"It's okay. Just remember tough times don't last. Tough people do. Everyone wants to be a diamond. The more a diamond is broken, the brighter it sparkles. Remember diamonds are created under pressure from dirty coal. Just stay strong and everything will work out." Grace finished bandaging his arm.

Peyton nodded without saying a word and just absorbed everything she said.

"As for Kai, he was just a caterpillar, and when his world was over he turned into a beautiful butterfly. Everything happens for a reason, Peyton. We don't know those reasons why the moon goddess does what she does. Maybe she wanted to end Kai's suffering, or maybe she wanted another extraordinary angel by her side. Kai went home, and one day we all will. But your time isn't now. We love you, Peyton."

He nodded, "You'd be a good mother. I wish you and Rem luck." He said kindly.

"Awe, thanks, buddy. I personally look at you and your siblings as one of my kids. I remember all the times when I got to babysit you guys. I was so happy." Grace said.

"What about the one time you let me ride down the hill on my bike and I fell."

She laughed, "I didn't know you were going to get hurt."

Peyton laughed. His voice sounded really nasally because he just got done crying. "Thanks for everything. That made me feel better to let it out."

"Anytime." Grace smiles.

Rem comes in with popcorn, movies, milk, and cookies. "I got movies!" He smiles awkwardly. Grace shook her head at him as she laughed. She was way better at handling situations like that than he was.

Liam stopped by Blaire's house, with a picnic basket. He hasn't seen her lately with all the work he has been doing to help, and he wanted to make it up to her before he had to work soon. He knocked on the door and Blaire answered.

"Would you like to have lunch with me?" Liam asked as it was twelve now.

She agreed to it and they went out in the back yard. Liam laid out the small blanket and they both sat down. He put the basket in the middle and got out the sandwiches. They sat in silence eating. It was a little awkward at first, but Liam was the first one to break the silence.

"How was your day?" He immediately scolded himself for asking such a thing.

"Shitty," Blaire says.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked." He apologized.

"No, I like it that you asked. It's refreshing to hear that." She says.

Liam put his arm around Blaire and pulled her closer. Blaire's head rested on Liam's shoulder. "Thank you. I really appreciate this."

Liam kissed her forehead, "No problem." He replied.

The sun shined over the forest and for a moment Blaire felt normal. She felt like nothing bad was happening. Everything was surreal.

"You're really beautiful," Liam said to Blaire.

Blaire actually laughed. It was a dry short laugh; but nonetheless, it was a laugh. It was the first laugh in the pack. Something to break the aura of darkness that suddenly surrounded the lands and the pack members.

•••••

Seth looked at his watch and tapped his foot anxiously against the dirt. He waited two hours for Jade to show at their spot. Yet, she hasn't been here. It's like she just vanished into thin air. It's been three days in a row that she missed. This isn't like her. With every hour his concern for the girl he fell in love with so quickly grew.

He was paranoid that something really bad had happened. He felt it in his bones and to his very core. Every fiber in his bones was telling him to rush to her, to run to her and make sure she was okay. He had a very bad feeling about this.

He stood there pondering the situation.

That was it. He couldn't stand around anymore. He had to do something. Even if it meant that he would get caught. He had to make sure she was okay. Tomorrow he would gather up a small group and they spy on the Knine pack. He had to get answers on the whereabouts of Jade.

For the first time, he hoped that he was wrong. He hoped that she was snuggled up in her bed right now watching Netflix.

Somewhere deep inside, he knew that he was wrong because Jade wouldn't just disappear from him. If anyone had to do with the disappearance of his mate, then he would personally tear their head of himself. He didn't care who it was.

~🖤~