Lacrimosa

Chapter 2

Sitting quietly, Anna played with the bracelet on her wrist as she felt Wolfie’s wet nose push against her thigh. Like his owner, she knew he was anxious and wanted to get out of the large mansion that her Aunt Linnea and Uncle Evander called home. Yet, the two knew full well that they were stuck there for at least another hour. It was another family business meeting that Anna was forced to attend whenever she wasn’t touring. Linnea and Evander ran some sort of business that held no interest to Anna, but she was required to be present when possible. As the only other member of the family, she was the default successor.

Yet, despite being bonded by family, Anna often felt different when compared to Linnea and Evander McCade. They took her in when she was a baby after a terrible airplane crash ended her parents’ lives. The couple provided for her and kept a roof over her head, but they never once treated Anna as their own child. If anything, she was more of an underaged roommate that they had living with them. There was no family relationship between them, but they did make sure she was taken care of and provided for her basic needs. Even when another tragedy struck in the form of a car accident that stole Anna’s vision when she twelve came, Linnea and Evander still took care of her and got her a service dog to help with her daily activities.

“Annabelle, are you listening?” Linnea’s sharp voice rang, pulling Anna back into reality.

That was another thing: they never called her “Anna.” Even though she preferred the shortened version, Linnea and Evander insisted on using her full name.

“Sorry, Aunt Linnea,” Anna mumbled as she continued fidgeting with her bracelet, “I still am dealing with jet lag.”

“Well, you need to get over that,” Linnea replied sharply before letting out a sigh, “I guess you have been here long enough. I’ll have a driver take you back to Denver.”

Keeping her emotions in check, Anna muttered a quick thanks before getting up from her chair. Instantly, her hand reached the leather handle on Wolfie’s collar before he led her out of the room. Even though she couldn’t see any of them, Anna could feel the stares of her Aunt’s business partners focusing on her. It was those business partners that contributed to her unease. A few had asked her several times when she was turning eighteen and a few had commented on her body. The worst was her own Uncle Evander. His remarks always made her grip Wolfie’s leash a little tighter. Anna had gone to her Aunt Linnea, telling her about all that she heard but unfortunately Linnea didn’t believe a word and did nothing.

A low growl sounded, and Anna knew that someone was following behind her. She could feel her heart starting to race as she took a deep breath, forcing her to control her emotions. Throughout the years, Anna quickly learned that being in the home of Linnea and Evander McCade was like being in a shark tank and she had to be in control of everything little aspect of her being or else she’d be eaten alive. Still, she couldn’t help it if she felt her hair raise as a hand reached out for her wrist. Before she could react, Anna felt at ease as two little taps were felt against her skin.

“Keegan,” Anna whispered in relief as she heard Wolfie nuzzle into his hand.

As the only one who would do the little taps on her wrist, Keegan James was the son of one of her Aunt’s business partners and the only other person, aside from Markus and Mrs. Wells, that she felt safe with. He was twenty years old, and he often treated her like a little sister, looking out for her whenever he could. Unlike Linnea, Keegan was well aware of the jeers that came from the older men, including his own father, and often stayed close to her in an attempt to keep her safe.

“Hey hey,” Keegan’s comforting voice replied close to her ear, “I heard Linnea say she was allowing you to go back to Denver and figured I could be the one to drive you.”

“You have no idea how grateful I am. I was getting worried it would be Evander or one of the others.”

He didn’t say anything but held out his arm so she could grab onto it before he led her to the garage. His family was close to the McCade family so there was no issue in him “borrowing” one of the cars. In fact, he did it all the time and sometimes, he returned the car in a less pristine condition.

Instead, Anna listened as he grabbed a set of keys from the locker in the garage. A beep sounded and instantly, a snort came from her. “Did you seriously grab the Mercedes keys?”

“Well of course,” Keegan scoffed as he led her to the passenger side and helped her in before loading Wolfie into the back, “I would be a fool to pass up driving that one and, honey, I ain’t no fool.”

“No but you’re a doofus,” Anna snarked back as she felt her phone vibrate.

Finding the button for the text-to-voice app, she pressed it and listened to the message. Linnea preferred phone calls and found text messages “incredibly inappropriate and unprofessional” so Anna knew it wasn’t her Aunt. Mrs. Wells wasn’t a big fan of technology and barely could figure out the printer, let alone texting. So that left the only two people that did text her: Keegan and Markus. With the former climbing into the driver’s seat, it had to be the one that was constantly on her mind.

“How was your aunt and uncle’s? Hopefully not too terrible. I might visit sometime this weekend. Miss you, Bells,” read the app.

“You know, Linnea would absolutely murder you if she knew that you were flirting with some guy six years older than you,” Keegan’s voice said as he started driving off the property, “She may not believe you about Evander and the rest, but she would absolutely lose her s**t if she heard about Markus.”

Despite Keegan and Markus being her closest friends, the two had never met and for some reason, Anna wanted to keep it that way. Keegan was a brother to her but, like with her Aunt’s business partners, he was protective of her and didn’t like the idea of some man getting close to his little sister. Then there was Markus was the one person she always wanted to be with. He was the calm in the storm known as her life and he was constantly on her mind. Yet, he never hinted that he had even an ounce of the feelings he had for her, and Anna was always too scared to ask.

Markus was the one she truly wanted.

“I rather keep it that way, Keegs,” Anna said with a sad sigh following, “Aside from you and Mrs. Wells, he’s the only other friend I have, and I don’t want to lose that. I just can’t lose that.”

After Keegan dropped her off at her apartment, Anna spent some time playing a few games of chess with Mrs. Wells while the two waited for the oven to finish cooking their dinner. It was ritual that they played at least one game each night and it was something that Anna missed while she was on tour. There were a few occasions when she asked one of her escorts to play a game with her but was always turned down. Even when she was home, Anna would ask either Markus or Keegan to play a game with her but neither of them had the patience to learn. That and she preferred playing with Mrs. Wells. Typically, the elderly woman won but she was the person that taught Anna how to play all those years ago. They even had a tactile chess board that she could feel her way around. It was a small gift from Mrs. Wells all those years ago, but Anna considered it to be one of her most treasured possessions.

“How was your visit with your Aunt and Uncle,” Mrs. Wells asked as she reached over to Anna’s hand to help her touch the bishop that was moved.

“Same old, same old,” replied Anna as she moved her own rook towards a new spot, “You know how they are.”

Mrs. Wells didn’t say anything, but Anna knew it was because she didn’t want to be vocal on her opinion of her family. She wasn’t particularly fond of Linnea and Evander and was very critical when it came to their treatment of the girl in front of her, but she knew there was nothing she could do. The McCade family was incredibly wealthy and rumor had it that they had quite a few members of the police on their side.

“I just wish they would be a little kinder to you,” Mrs. Wells said as she placed her knight into position, “And check.”

“Damn,” Anna muttered as her fingertips felt the location of the knight that now trapped her king, “This is what I get for having no one to play against for months.”

Instead of saying anything, Mrs. Wells let out a soft chuckle as Anna began chewing her lower lip as she contemplated which piece she would play. Usually, it would only be a few more moves before the elder woman put her king in checkmate but that still didn’t stop Anna from trying to come up with a plan. Unfortunately, every possible move she could think of still ended with Mrs. Wells saying “checkmate.”

“I’m going to call it now,” Anna snarked as she flicked her own king, allowing it to fall onto the board, “You win.”

“Apparently you’ve gotten rusty, Anna,” Mrs. Wells said with a small laugh, “Well, good thing you’re back now and we can go back to our nightly routine.”

Anna smiled as she heard the timer go off on the oven, signaling that their dinner was done. It would be a few more minutes before Mrs. Wells finished setting the counter for the two of them so instead of following the older woman to the kitchen, Anna pulled out her phone. She remembered Markus’ text from a few hours ago but she never responded which made her feel bad. He never expected her to respond right away but that never satisfied the gnawing feeling in her gut when she’d forget to text him back. Clicking the button to get to her useful app, she began dictating her response back.

“Same old, same old. They are still the same but that’s nothing new. I would love it if you’d visited. Even though we hung out last week, I still miss you. Take care and good night.”

Markus sat behind his desk as he read the text that Anna sent him a few hours ago. There was a little conflict that happened earlier with some rogues trespassing onto his territory and harassing some of his female pack members and their children. With his history and extreme hatred of the rogues, Markus immediately set out to deal with them himself but luckily, his beta and closest friend, Travis Brooks, was closest and quickly handled the situation. By the time the Alpha got there, the rogues had retreated with their tails tucked between their legs. Travis knew that if Markus had gotten there first, there would be blood staining the meadow and bodies in the dungeons.

After making sure that the women and children were fine, the two made their way back to the pack house for a quick run down of what had happened. Travis knew that Markus was satisfied with how everything was managed and left him to do work in his office. There were emails from other Alphas across the country, asking for various things from trades to assistance in training their own warriors. The trades were pushed back to bottom of his list of concerns, but the training requests made Markus chuckle.

The Night Hunters produced some the finest warriors anyone has ever seen, and they were often requested to help train other packs. Even the Wolf King had request some of them in training his own forces. Being a warrior was a great honor and there was never a shortage of volunteers. To become a warrior for the Night Hunters, a current or previous warrior had to give their recommendation. Trials would be conducted but it would eventually be up to the Alpha to grant the title. Even if one failed, they were able to try again later, and no one gave up that chance.

By the time he answered his emails and wrote down his list of things to do for the following day, Markus realized that the sun had set long ago and that he was still sitting in his dark office. After reading the text, he was tempted to make his way to Denver to see her, but it was getting late. Unless she was performing, she didn’t like being up pass 10 PM and the clock on phone said it was 9:15 PM.

‘You know we would be there before 10 if I was in control,’ Fell teased as he stretched out.

‘Then we would have to explain how we got there so fast, Fell, and you and I both would have to figure out how to explain that to Bells. We’ve told her it takes two hours to get from here to Denver.’

‘I know but something tells me we are going to have to tell her eventually, Markus. Whether or not she is our mate, she deserves to know. We can’t keep hiding what we are from her.’

He said nothing as he glanced over to the picture just to the right of his computer. It was taken last year on Anna’s seventeenth birthday, and she was laughing at the fact that Wolfie had jumped up and was licking the frosting that Markus smeared on her face. He had his head on hers and his arms wrapped around her shoulders as he too was filled with laughter. Mrs. Wells was the one who caught the picture and he greatly appreciated it when she gave him a framed copy to keep. It was one of his favorite pictures of Anna simply because she was happy.

Markus knew that Fell was right, but he still felt dread at the thought of telling her that he was not human but a werewolf. How was he supposed to explain that despite humans believing that his kind was some sort of made-up fairy tale, werewolves were very much real.

“When I’m ready,” Markus said aloud as he got up from his desk, running a hand down his tired face, “Right now, the only thing I want to think about is a sandwich. We forgot to eat dinner.”

‘Changing the subject won’t stop me from reminding you that we need to tell Anna eventually, Markus,” Fell growled, knowing full well what his human counterpart was doing, “But I will agree. We need to eat.”

The next morning, Markus found himself running through the forest in Fell’s wolf form. Every morning, he gave control to his wolf, and they spent an hour just running through the wooded area on his territory. It gave him time to just let his mind run blank and enjoy the peace and quiet before he found himself consumed by his Alpha duties.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Markus noticed a form weaving through the trees. A normal human eye would just see a reddish-brown figure, but a werewolf’s saw every detail from the black nose to the white line that was on his right shoulder. Dark green eyes were trained on his and Fell let out a low growl. It was not a warning growl but a welcoming one as the wolf made his way closer to him.

The two wolves stopped near the banks of the creek. The reddish-brown one was slightly smaller than Fell but still had an impressive size and build. It turned his head to the side, exposing its neck as a sign of respect and submission to the Alpha.

‘Jalgan,’ Fell growled, greeting the Beta wolf, “What brings you up early this morning?’

‘You’re not the only one who needed a run. Besides, Martine got irritated at Travis and told us to not come back until lunch.’

Markus and Fell both laughed at that comment. Martine was Travis’ mate who was currently pregnant with their first child. His Beta found her when he was visiting another pack up in Canada and quickly fell for her. She loved him back but currently, she was incredibly irritable due to how uncomfortable her pregnancy made her which usually resulted in Martine or her wolf telling Travis and Jalgan to leave her alone for a few hours.

Shifting back into their human forms, both Markus and Travis opened the hidden lockbox that was in an opening of a nearby tree. Not wanting to have to be seen back in town naked, there were various lockboxes all over the territory that held clothes of all sizes to help with that but obviously there were some that only the leadership could access.

“How much longer before she gives birth?” Markus asked as he buttoned his jeans, “It feels like she’s been pregnant for years.”

“With the blessing of the Moon Goddess, hopefully just one more month,” Travis answered, “I love her to death but, f**k, I feel like I do one small thing and Marti is about to kill me.”

“Pregnant,” Markus snarked back.

“Just wait till you find your mate and she gets pregnant. When that happens, I’m going to be the first one to give you shit.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Trav.-”

At that very second, both Markus and Travis felt something tugging at their minds and they closed their eyes. It was the mind-link and it sounded like one of the wolves on patrol. As the Alpha, Markus was in tune with his pack members and he could feel their emotions, especially if it were urgent. Fear had slid down his back as he listened to the message. He heard the rumors that this was happening to other packs, but it just didn’t dawn on him that it could happen to his own.

‘Atruskians are attacking the south side. We need help, Alpha. Please help us.’