Roses Wither: Into the Darkness
Twenty-two

Aiden

We had been attacked and this hadn’t been a normal attack.

Yuma had breached our boarders to get to Nitala, having sensed her return.

She had come to help with our hunt, but ended up causing us more grief when she weakened from overuse of her powers during the fray. How was Rosa supposed to be so strong if the powers did this to the person holding them?

Marcus had been protecting her against Yuma and his black shifters, but when he was thrown and Yuma cornered Nitala, my father jumped in, ordering us to stay back.

I was forced, by Alpha order, to stand back and watch on as my father, my Alpha, gave his life to protect a weak Goddess.

My father and Alpha who had raised me, died and there was nothing I could do about it, because I had been ordered to stand down and protect the Queen.

Once my father’s soul and power left his body, he returned to his human form and I was no longer under his order, as his memories and powers rocketed into me.

He thought he had prepared me for the moment I became Alpha, but he hadn’t. Nothing could prepare me or the pack for this. For the passing of a shifter that had been our Alpha for centuries.

No, and he couldn't prepare me for the loss of my father, a man who I looked up to. A man who I admired and a man who had a whole other life before the guard was created.

Howls sounded through the night, as the shifters felt and mourned his passing, but no one mourned him as much as my mother.

She may have stayed behind tonight, but as the new Alpha I could feel her grief, over all of the other shifters who were now under my rule.

I could feel her heartbreak and despair. She was being ripped in two by the death of her mate, and it broke my heart to feel my mother's pain as I watched the Queen shift to hover over my father’s bloody corpse while she sobbed.

Yuma’s wolf gave a snort and zeroed in on the Queen. I was vaguely aware of Marcus moving to his feet again and diving after the russet wolf.

I had just watched my father get slaughtered protecting Nitala. I knew I should go after Yuma, but Nita's sobs and mourning tore me in two, as my father's memories came to me.

I was now seeing everything my father had. In the mere seconds of his passing, my entire life had flipped. It was as though my father’s soul had been pushed into me and connected with my own, bringing a whole new grief, a whole new pain.

I saw his love with Nitala, before their becoming. I saw their son's birth and how proud he was. I saw the becoming, and his pain when she met Nicolae. There was his love for Marcus as though the boy were his own, and the pain he felt for his son's defiance.

I had also received the memories that he held with my mother, his fears and strengths, and his love for his children and the shifters.

The love he felt with my mother was overwhelming, but I felt betrayed by him and my Queen. I felt it in my every being.

It was his secrets with Nitala, Nicolae and even Marcus. secrets that he took to his grave. Those pissed me off and left me feeling betrayed by not only my Alpha, but my Queen and my mate, because if Marcus knew, Rosa had to have known.

Close in on him! I ordered my guard and they followed my command, cornering Yuma.

As he and Marcus rolled on the ground, it was a flash of silver and brown, but seeing us close in on him, Yuma backed down, not submitting, but running like the fucking coward he was.

I shifted and shouted my orders, not removing my eyes from Nitala.

“Take my father’s body to the Alpha house,” My voice was weighted as I sneered at a sobbing Nitala, “My mother needs to say her goodbyes to her mate.”

Nitala continued to sob as her eyes met mine and I knew that she understood. I now knew Yuma's true identity.

“Aiden, I need to explain.” Nitala followed me when I moved in human form in the direction of the pack house.

“No.” I growled.

“Aiden.” She harked my name like an order and I stopped, turning to face her.

“Nitala.” I glared at her.

“I loved your father.” Tears poured from her eyes as I felt them stream down my own, “We were married by our tribal laws, but we were so young that-."

"I don't need to hear this!" I snarled.

"Once we became, we realized that we were not mated. We both understood why, but it never stopped us from loving each other. From loving him. We don't know what happened.”

"You know exactly what happened!" I snapped, "You met Nico and replaced him! All of this... It could have been avoided! But no! The pack wasn't good enough for you!"

"No," She cried, "I never replaced him. In my heart... I still loved your father! I still love Yuma! Taima and I thought we could bring him back. Together!"

"And now he's dead!" I shouted, "He was killed by his own son! Because of you!"

"No!" She sobbed.

"Didn't I deserve to know that I'm a secondary Alpha?!" I rounded on her as she fell to her knees.

"You are a true Alpha," She whispered through hiccups, "Yuma was never given a title."

"Does my mother know?!" I shouted.

"Yes."

“And Nico?"

"Of course."

"My Rosa?" I bit out.

“No.” She cried, "You only know your father’s side, but-.”

“I don't believe you!" I snapped, shouting again, "I know exactly Dad didn’t like Nicolae Tepes! He and Yuma hated him from the very beginning!” I shifted, ignoring her nudging to get into my mind. I was Alpha now, it wasn't happening.

When I arrived at the pack house, I shifted back, walking past the mourning shifters. Some were in wolf form, others in human, as they cried and bowed their heads in respect for their new Alpha.

Tears threatened escape me as I thought about Rosa. She had to have known. That's why she hadn't returned. She thought us to be the weaker race, just as her father had when he met us.

I climbed the steps, ready to take my place in the hierarchy that was our shifters, still covered in the blood of the men we’d lost tonight, including my father.

The wolves began to howl. Their cries echoed through the silence of the night that would forever be engrained in my mind.

Nitala was weak. Had she not been, my father wouldn’t have died protecting her from their son. I wasn't being harsh, I was being real.

I knew I couldn’t go home and face my family. I didn’t know what to do now, but I did know one thing, Rosa wasn’t returning. Not even for the funeral of the Alpha who'd once loved her as a father. She was too much a Tepes for that.

Would Nita and Marcus even tell her about what happened out there tonight? Would she even care?

As I walked through the doors, I was greeted by more of my fellow shifters, tears streaking their faces. Some sobbed into their mates, while the warriors stood stoically, ready to pledge to the new Alpha of the Guard.

They should have been out there tonight, but weren’t, because my father didn’t know exactly how weak Nitala had become. He'd overestimated her and underestimated his son.

“Alpha,” Samantha, one of the newly aged females came to my side, “Do you need help getting cleaned up?”

She gave me a once over and I paused to glare at her. I was a mated wolf, an Alpha now. Even if my mate wasn't one of us, she had no right.

This girl didn’t know I was mated though. The only one who knew, aside from the Royal Family, was now dead. Even my mother didn’t know.

If I broke the mating bond with Rosa, I wouldn't be King. I wouldn't be thrust into a world of vampires, feeling that the wolves were inferior and savage. I would be free, only having to deal with the Queen on occasion. The Queen who would one day be Rosa.

Rosa who had to have known. She once told me that she felt her brother all the time, but which brother? Marcus or Yuma? Or both?

I didn't know where to go from here, but I knew one thing. I was done with the fucking vampires. Rosa included.

“Yeah.” I gave a nod, "I could use that."