Half Faced Alpha
Chapter 27

Alpha Axton felt his heart break into a thousand, small pieces.

"You witnessed all of it? Every thing?"

Her lips quivered as she looked at him. "Why do you look more devastated than I?"

He looked up, and swallowed, but it felt like it scratching at his throat. He turned to the grave, then to her again.

"Well.....I am sorry, Natalia. You, um.. Hold it so well, I would never have guessed."

She nodded and turned away as alpha Axton managed to stand, his body feeling fluid under him. What has he done? What is this?

Flashes of the night he had raided the witch village came back to him in small, sharp fragments.

'Till she replaces you, you will never be happy. And......I won't ever let that happen.

He closed his eyes, remembering how confident she had looked even though she was dying. How much she knew she meant every word she said.

"My mother...before she died..." Natalia started to say.

"She did not die immediately?"

Natalia shook her head. It seemed like every single thing in the world was working against him. He has never left someone half-dead. Not even once. Selina has to be the first.

"I can not remember a lot of it, just the part where that man hugged her and the knife protruded out of her back, Axton. Without mercy."

"It had to be, Natalia." He said unconsciously. What else would justify that?

"For some time, my mother was alive. I heard him walk towards the small hut, I heard his footsteps..."

Axton watched as she clasped her hands over her ears, her breathing becoming loud.

He remembered it too. A little too vividly for someone she was trying to replace her comfort in.

After he had tucked his knife back, he had heard a small movement from the hut. He always wondered why instead of hiding in the desolate hut, Selina had come out in front of him.

She knew he would replace both her and Natalia if he had set his mind to it, and in order not to, she had brought herself instead.

"Alpha, we have hunted down the last of them." That was the only reason he had not entered the hut.

If he had, the story would have been a lot different. He would have picked her up and taken her with him, and she would grow into Natalia that would forever hate him and remember him as her mother's killer. "Natalia.." He walked closer to her, then squatted again. "Let me help you up."

He pulled her up gently, then dusted the edge of her dress.

"Do you not think it is time to let go now?" He asked her, feeling a little shameless.

"I want to see his face at least once. Would he have killed me too, if he had come in?"

Axton shook his head. "He would not kill a child."

"How do you know that?"

Axton blinked. "I...well, I...even in war, I do not kill children. So, I thought everyone might be like that."

"He is not as kind as you are." She said and in all his life, he has never felt as guilty.

"Let me take you home to rest," He said, unwilling to hear anymore. He needed some time to think.

She silently nodded as the tears came back to fill up her eyes again, and he slowly, but very willingly pulled her to him and started to walk away from the grave site.

The walk back home was short and quiet, each holding his own thoughts.

Natalia felt wronged with everyone she has ever lost, especially her mother whose death she had witnessed. Even though she and her mother were not exactly close, she was still her mother.

On that night, she remembered how she had ran out of the hut, toward her limp mother.

"You do not have the craft in you, but who knew you would be useful?" Selina has said to her, spurting out the words weakly. "Let him replace you, Natalia. Do not ever run. You have been useless all your life, put your life on the line if you have to in order to get revenge for me. I will not die this way."

Natalia closed her eyes as Axton held her closer.

Nicholas had come later, from an errand. He used to be the messenger between the werefolk and the witches, and when he came, he had taken Natalia with him. Her mother had, with her dying breath opposed the idea. She wanted him to replace her. At all costs.

Axton brought her to her room, then sent an omega up with food to her.

He left the room once she was settled, so he would be free to feel the turbulence the revelation had caused in him.

"What have I done?" He asked himself once he was safe behind locked doors. "Why is this happening now?"

He found himself on the floor, his fingers laced painfully into his hair.

He couldn't afford the truth right now. It would cost him Natalia and half of his body and it would only make him really hate the person he was.

It was too expensive. Way too expensive.

He gulped as Natalia's eyes flashed in his mind. He can't. He can't tell her. She is in love with him, she said so herself.

Would she be able to forfeit her mother's quest for that love? It wasn't a question he needed an answer for. He didn't want to risk it. He couldn't afford to risk it.

He stood up from the floor, pacing around the length of the room. His head felt cramped, his heart in his throat.

What kind of love...would make Natalia forget her mother's death? Did she feel that kind of love for him right now?

He walked to the door briskly and opened it, just as Beta Scott made to knock.

"What do you want?" Axton asked, replaceing himself running low on patience.

"You look pale, Alpha. Are you alright?"

Aloha Axton looked at him, then suddenly pulled him into the room and locked the door.

"What is wrong?" Beta Scott asked, his eyes wide in surprise.

"I need to talk to you, beta. I need you, I need your advice, suggestion, anything. Please help me out."

Beta Scott blinked himself out of his trance. "You have never used the word, please before."

"I beg of you, please just overlook all of that and talk to me, please."

"What went so wrong?" Beta Scott asked, as he took in alpha Axton's expression.

He had never thought of Alpha Axton as someone who kept his heart on his sleeve or his emotions on his face like an armor. He always saw him as steel, the highest you could do was a small dent.

But as he watched him on the verge of a nervous break down in front of him, it felt unreal.

"Everything, Beta. From the very beginning. Nothing was ever right and I did not see it. I did it with my own hands. Me." He sat on the floor, his back resting on the bed post. "What do I do?"

"I do not understand you, Alpha. Is something wrong with miss?"

"I am...I was the one who killed her mother. With my own hands. Her body fell on my shoulder...I did that, Beta. How do I come clean? She does not know. She knows it was a werewolf, but she does not know it was me. I did it." Beta Scott's eyes widened, and his hands involuntarily went to cover his mouth. "Is it the witch village? It is the only non-werewolf community that you have raided."

Alpha Axton nodded. "Her mother was the head witch there, Selina. And I...I killed her myself."

"Did miss witness it?"

"She did. She even remembers how I hugged her and put the knife between us. She remembers everything, Scott. Do you think....the love she has for me will ever overpower that? Do you think it will?"

Beta Scott was mute for some time. He found it hard to say the truth. He didn't think any amount of love would clear that away.

"I am sorry, Alpha. I will think of something, but...."

A knock on the door cut him off, and alpha Axton stood, his hand trembling.

"Who is there?"

"It is me, Natalia."

He turned to Beta Scott who looked just as scared.

"Is there something you want?" He asked her as he moved slowly to the door. He was trying hard not to let his voice tell of the tension he felt.

"Can you please come to my room and spend the night with me? I am a little scared right now."

"I will." He said to her then turned to beta Scott.

"Thank you. I will be waiting."

They both listened to her light footsteps as she walked away.

"You know, Alpha...it will be even harder to forgive you because of how much she loves you right now." Beta Scott said, rather truthfully.

"What do I do?"

"Guard the secret with your life. No one will know and no one will tell her, except you."

"And after that?"

"Make it up to her, alpha. You know how to, best."

He did. When he looked at her, he saw how much she wanted him, and even as twisted as things were right now, he would be with her as his way of making it up to her.

He wouldn't even be able to apologize, but he had to do something to ease his own guilt.

"By the way, Alpha. A letter addressed to you was found in the hut where we removed her father's body from. I forgot to bring it then, but here it is."

"Keep it some place where I will be able to see it, and I will check it later. For now, I will go to Natalia."

Beta Scott nodded, then started to walk away, before he turned. "It would help a lot for you to accept your own feelings too. You can not make someone fall harder for you when you feel nothing for them. I just hope you know." Alpha Axton didn't say a thing, and he watched him slowly leave the room.

He took a quick shower, and changed, then went to Natalia's room. She was on the bed, her head lowered to her fingers.

He felt scared of her now, scared of her wrath and scared of her replaceing him out. He tried to be natural though, and walked to her.

"Natalia?"

"Please stay with me. The images will hurt less that way." She tapped on the bed right next to her.

He nodded and said beside her, his heart breaking at the irony of her statement.