Becoming a Leader

Chapter Eight - Saying Goodbye

 Skyllas POV

We stayed up for another hour just talking until we couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore. I’m starting to fall for this man, I think after my eyes open for the first time this morning. I look over to find my mate still sleeping and I can’t help but to look at his handsome face. I gently caress his face, causing him to shift beneath my touch. His eyes slowly open and a smile crosses his face when he sees me. He pulls me close to him and kisses my forehead. 

“May I mark you soon?” I hear his sleepy voice ask.

“After we inform our people, yes you may.” I answer with my face in his chest. My stomach growls, letting us know it’s time to get up and get breakfast. Merrick lets me go and heads to the bathroom. I stretch out my body and head to the bathroom as well. I brush my hair while Merrick is brushing his teeth next to me. 

“Do you have another tooth brush?” I ask after finishing with my hair.

Merrick leans down and opens a drawer under his sink and brings out a new pack of toothbrushes. He opens it and hands me one, returning the freshly open pack to the drawer. We stay in the comfortable silence while getting ready for the day. Merrick puts on a dark gray suit with a fresh white button up shirt, a black tie, and black shiny black shoes. He looks so handsome all cleaned up.

“What type of work do you do?” I ask him while he walks over to me. He takes my hand and leads me out of his room and into my room so I can get dressed. Merrick starts sorting through the clothes that Emma gave me.

“A little bit of everything.” He says while taking out a grey dress that’ll come down to my knees. “My grandfather started a business that contracts out construction workers so most of my time is spent there. But we do have a restaurant that my father bought my mom and a few other businesses here and there.” 

I start getting undressed in front of him and he leans against one of the posts on my bed watching me change clothes. The dress that Merrick picked out is a simple short sleeve, high neckline dress that hugs my curves. I get a growl of approval from my mate as he pulls me against his body. I put my face in the crook of his neck and take a big breath. Today is going to be a rough day, I’m glad I have Merrick. 

“You ready to head down for breakfast?” He asks me.

“Yes I am. What time are we heading back to my land?” 

We walk out of my room and head down the hall to the stairs. “After we finish eating.” We walk the rest of the way downstairs in silence. When we reach the dining hall people are eating quietly, all you hear is utensils against plates and chewing. Merrick walks with his head held high to the head of the head of the table. He pulls my seat for me and after I take my seat he sits in his chair. I see the Omegas made quite a few things this morning; eggs, bacon, toast, oatmeal, grits, biscuits and gravy, coffee, orange juice and they even brought cereal out for the kids. My stomach growls again and I hear Merrick lightly chuckle beside me. I start putting food on my plate and my mouth begins to water. I fill my cup up with coffee and take a sip, I moan lightly and I see Merricks eyes grow a little dark.I start eating and everything tastes amazing. Before I can finish I see a man around the same age as Merrick with red hair and brown eyes enter the dining hall. He’s a few inches shorter than Merrick, with a strong jaw and lots of muscles. He sees his Alpha and starts to approach us, I watch as he  leans down and whispers something in Merricks ear. Merrick stiffens at the words being spoken into his ear. His eyes shift to me and I see a sorrowful look on his face. 

“Let’s head to my office Griffin.” He tells the red headed man. Merricks gets up and steps over to me, he leans down to my ear and whispers, “I have a problem I have to take care of, but as soon as I’m done we will leave for your land.” 

I nod my head as he brushes his hand against my shoulder while he walks away. I stand, not being able to eat anymore. I grab the dishes that Merrick and I used and take them into the kitchen. I see a woman in her forties with blonde hair and the same dazzling blue eyes as my mates’. When she looks up from the papers in front of her she gives me a beautiful smile that reaches her eyes.

“Hello dear,” I hear her sweet voice say. “I’m Lucy, Merricks mother.” 

“Hello, I’m Skylla Layton.” I reply and put the dishes in the sink. I extend my hand but she hugs me instead. 

“Oh I know who you are. Merrick informed me and his father last night. He told me to keep quiet about it until you return later today.” She says quietly so no one else can overhear if they walk into the room. 

“Thank you for not telling anyone, I wish to give my people time to process all the changes in our lives.” I tell her, taking a step back. I realize I don’t have any shoes on and make a mental note to find Emma after I’m done talking to Lucy.

“I understand. You’re going to make a great Luna to this pack and a great mate to my boy.” She smiles once more at me and gives me another hug. “If you’ll excuse me I must attend to the kitchen staff and their schedules for the week. It was lovely to meet you and if you need anything at all please let me know.” 

“You too Lucy.” I say and head back to the dining hall to find Emma but with no luck. I exit into the livingroom and see Sydney being kissed by a tall young man with brown hair. I’m happy she’s found her mate, she deserves some happiness in this time of grief. I walk over to them just as they are done kissing and lightly clear my throat. Sydney looks at me and bows her head, “Alpha, good morning.” 

“Good morning Syd, this must be your mate.” I say turning my attention to the young man beside her. 

“Yes ma’am, I’m Shane. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Shane says and bows as well. 

I smile at them, “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well Shane. Syd will you make sure our pack is ready to go soon? We will be leaving once Merrick is done with some business he is attending to.”

“Yes of course.” Sydney replies.

“Thank you. I will see you guys later.” I leave the two lovebirds alone and continue my search for Emma. I walk up to the third level and find my way to her room. I gently knock on her door and after a moment Emma answers the door  with a smile on her face.

“Hey Sky, come on in.” She greets me.

“Hey, I hate to ask but I don’t have any shoes to go with this dress. Do you mind if I borrow some until we go on our shopping trip?” I ask while entering her room.

“Oh of course! What’s your size?” She starts walking to her closet. 

“I wear an eight.” I tell her.

Emma stops before she reaches the closet, “None of my shoes will fit, I’m a seven, but Valencia wears an eight so let's go to her room.” She takes my hand and pulls me with her out into the hallway. 

“Who’s Valencia?” I ask.

“She is Griffin's mate, he’s the Delta. They're very nice, a bit quirky but once you get to know them you’ll love ‘em.” 

“Oh I briefly saw Griffin a little bit ago, he came and got Merrick for something.” We reach the other end of the hall and Emma knocks on the door in front of us. I hear a shuffling of feet and the door opens with a sleepy green eyed, blonde beauty standing behind it. 

“What?” The girl says sleepily.

“Hey Val can we look in your closet for some shoes? Mine won’t fit Sky here.” Emma asks.

“Yeah come on in.” She says and opens the door a little further. Emma and I step into Valencia’s room, “You know where the closet is Emma, Sky you can take whatever you need.” Valencia is only wearing a shirt and underwear so I turn my gaze away. She begins to walk back to her bed, getting in and covering herself with the blankets. 

“Thank you.” I say. I look over at Valencia as I follow Emma to the closet. The girl has already fallen back to sleep, I wish I could fall asleep that easily. Emma opens the closet and pulls me in behind her. She turns the light on and I see a wall of shoes, my jaw goes slack. I never thought anyone could own so many shoes before. “Holy cow!” 

“Yeah she loves shoes, and bags, and anything that is sparkly. She has great taste in fashion. Here try these ones.” Emma replies and hands me a pair of black flats. I slip them on and they fit perfectly. “Those look great on you. We will have to go shopping tomorrow, I’ll talk to the guys since they will be working from the city. That’ll give us something to do instead of waiting around for them to come home.”

“Thank you, that sounds great. I’ll have to tell a few girls in my pack so they come along and get what they need too.” 

“Sounds like a plan, lets go so we don’t wake sleeping beauty again.” Emma says, while she shuts the light off and closes the closet door behind us. We make our way back to the hallway and quietly shut the door behind us.

“How long does she normally sleep until?” I ask as we walk to the stairs.

“Normally she wakes up around nine in the morning, but last night she was helping with patrols so she probably didn’t get in until five this morning.” Emma tells me while we go downstairs.

“Is that normal? For her to help with patrols?” I inquire.

“Oh yeah, we try to rotate shifts so everyone gets nights off to spend with their mates and families. Plus it keeps us fresh so we don’t become complacent about security.” 

“That’s smart.” I’m amazed by my future pack. They are so strong and work so efficiently, schedules for the kitchen staff and rotating patrols. I have a lot to learn still and really don’t want to disappoint anyone, especially Merrick. As we reach the bottom step I start missing my mate, “I’m going to go find Merrick, thank you for helping me with finding shoes.” I tell Emma.

“Oh no problem! I’m gonna go get something to eat before they start cleaning up the food from breakfast.” Emma says and gives me a hug before she leaves for the dining hall.

I turn and go the opposite direction so I can make my way to Merricks office. Hopefully he is done soon so my people and I can say our goodbyes to our loved ones. I need closure and to grieve for my parents. I feel tears form in my eyes from thinking about what this day will bring, I finally reach the office door and knock before opening the door and peeking in. I see Merrick, Zane, and Griffin standing around the desk looking down at some papers. I step in and smile at Merrick, happy to see his face when I need him the most. Merrick moves the papers and places them into a drawer in the desk and smiles at me. 

“Hey there.” Merrick greets me, “You ready?” 

“Yeah I was just seeing if you were done.” I answer. I notice Zane give Merrick a look and he clears his throat. “What is it?”

“There’s something I need to talk to you about before we leave. Gentleman, will you make sure everyone is ready to go in about twenty minutes please?” Merricks says and sits down at his desk. 

“Of course Alpha.” Griffin says, and both the guys leave.

I sit down at a chair in front of the desk and look into Merricks eyes. “So last night on patrols some of my people came across a rogue scoping the place and they captured him. After a few hours of questioning we have information on the scum that attacked your home” 

“Can I see this rogue?” I ask, “I want to know why they killed my people.”

“Sure, we can do that tonight after we tell our pack about you and I.” He hesitates for a moment but decides to continue. “Skylla, there’s something else I need to talk to you about.” He gets up from his desk and walks over to me, bending down on his knees and taking my hands in his.”A few months ago at my Alpha ceremony my cousin Alec and his father staged a coup. They wanted to be the ones to lead the pack. His father died during the attack and Alec was banished. He is the leader of the rogue faction that attacked your pack. He’s been gathering as many wolves as he can to take me down and I fear he may strike any day. I promise you when I get the chance I will kill him for all the suffering he’s caused you.”

“Is that why you showed up at my pack yesterday? How did you know?” I take my hands away from him.

Pain flashes in his eyes but it's quickly gone. “We have an informant in his pack who called, telling us where he was going to attack next. We tried to get there as soon as we could, but it was too late.I’m sorry.” 

A single tear falls and I quickly wipe it away.”Why didn't you tell me sooner?”

“Everythings happened so fast, I didn’t know when the right time to tell you was.” 

“You could have told me at any time Merrick, you had plenty of chances. Is there anything else you are not telling me?” I ask.

“No that’s all. I promise.”

“Okay, let's go then.” I say and stand up. I walk to the door and leave without looking back. 

“Syd it’s time to go, please make sure everyone is out front.” I say and cut the link off.

How could he not tell me? How am I supposed to feel? God I wish I had my mom to talk to about mate troubles. I stop and remember that I have to call my aunt to let her know that I’m on my way back to my home. I turn around and head back to Merricks office, I see him closing his door as I approach him.

“I need to use your phone to call my aunt. She wishes to be there to say her goodbyes to my mother.” I tell him. He takes his phone from his pocket and unlocks it before handing it to me. I quickly dial my aunts’ number and wait for her to answer.

“Skylla?” I hear Vivians voice.

“Hey Aunt Viv, we’re about to leave soon.” I say into the phone.

“Okay darling, we’ll meet you there. Be safe.”

“Will do, bye.” I end the call and hand the phone back to Merrick. He takes the phone and we walk in silence to the front of the house. 

---------------------------------------------------

Skyllas POV

After a quiet car ride back to my land we have finally made it and my people are ready to say their goodbyes. My aunt arrived with her mate and a few warriors from their pack. I run over to her and she pulls me into a hug, making me relieved that I have a family member here with me. I step away and look at my aunts face, she has tears streaming down her cheeks for the loss of her sister. 

“Thank you for coming.” I say to her.

“You’re welcome my darling, I’m here for anything you need.” Vivian tells me and smooths my hair back. 

We walk over to the line of graves that were put under the trees of the forest made by Merricks people , I see they’ve already put the bodies in them and made grave markers for them.I find my mom and dad right next to each and begin to cry.

“I told my people to treat them with respect as they laid them down.” I hear Merrick say as he walks to my side.

“I appreciate that.” I reply to him and wipe the tears from my eyes. I turn around and speak to my people, “Please find your loved ones and tell them your goodbyes, we will take as much time as we need, there is no rush.” I watch as people start walking to the graves in search of their dead family members. We didn’t bring any of the small children because I didn’t want them seeing their parents in this state. After we cover each of them and put their names on the markers we can bring them so they can say goodbye.. Some of the warriors bring permanent marks, flowers, and shovels out from the back of the SUVs to bring over to us. I take two flowers, a marker and a shovel from them and bend down in front of my parents. I put their names on the grave markers then stick them at the head of the graves. I get up and grab the shovel, before I start putting dirt into the holes I look down at my parents one last time. “I’m sorry this happened to you guys, you didn’t deserve this. I’m going to miss you so much, I love you.” I say as I start shoveling dirt into the grave where my father's body lays. Tears start running down my cheeks and Merrick walks up and takes the shovel from my hands. He starts filling the graves with dirt as I cry in my aunts arms. After he’s done I lay the flowers on top of the graves and clean my face of the tears. 

“Thank you.” I say while standing up and walking over to Merrick. “For everything you’ve done, we wouldn’t have been able to do this without the help of you and your pack.”

“You’re welcome my angel.” He says and reaches up to cup my face. I notice he took off his suit jacket and has his sleeves rolled up and his tie tucked into his shirt. I look around and see the warriors helping my grieving people put the markers into place and filling the holes. 

“Will you help me with the rest? Some don’t have family here to say goodbye to them.” I ask, looking at Merrick. 

“Of course come on.” He says while he puts an arm around my waist and leads me to a grave with no one near it. 

“This was Joseph and his mate Isabella,” I say while I write their names on the crosses that will go on the head of their graves. “They had a little girl who’s about to turn two.” I finish and put the crosses into the ground. “I will make sure your daughter is taken care of, I promise.” 

Merrick starts shoveling the loose dirt back into the grave and a warrior comes over to help. When they’re done another warrior brings flowers over and places them on top. This continues until there is no one to say goodbye to. Everyone helped one another and held the children while they cried for their parents. By now it’s late afternoon and my people are gathering around the SUVs as I walk over to the burnt down pack house. I walk into the rubble with Merrick behind me and just look at the loss of my childhood home. I look around and as I am about to leave I see something under a charred table, something not ruined by the fire. I walk over and move the table aside. I look down and the object I see is a fireproof box, I pick it up and start  to walk back to Merrick.

“What’d you find?” He asks while looking at the box.

“It’s a fireproof box, will you help me open it when we get back?” I reply.

“I’d be happy to.” He says and takes the box from me and holds my hand, helping me out of the rubble. We walk back to our people and I keep a firm grip on Merricks hand. 

“People of Nightwalker, today we said our goodbyes. I want to thank you all for staying strong and taking care of one another. Yesterday will always be a day we will never forget but hopefully we can move forward and become stronger. When Alpha Merrick came we realized that we are mates. I am planning on staying and becoming Luna to The Evercrown Pack. Merrick will happily accept anyone who would like to join Evercrown, if not then you may do as you wish. My Aunt, Luna Vivianna of the Grimhide Pack will happily accept you as well.” I speak with authority in my voice as I address my people 

I see a man stepforward and look at a few people, “I think I can speak for the rest of us when I say that we would like to stay with you Skylla. Your father was an amazing leader and I have a feeling you will be as well.”

I release a sigh of relief. “Thank you, I still have a lot to learn but I will do everything in my power to make you proud of me.” My people bow their heads and my heart swells with pride. “Let's head to our new home and begin to heal, together.” 

I say my goodbyes to my Aunt, promising her I’ll stay in touch and Merrick opens the door to our SUV and helps me in, handing me the box and then closing the door. He walks around to the other side and sits next to me, holding my hand as our driver starts the car and drives us back to Evercrown territory. “You did a great job Sky, you’re going to make a fantastic Luna. Are you still upset with me?” 

I smile at Merrick and scooch over to him, I lean my head on his strong shoulder and hold him tight. “I’m not mad at you Merrick, just a little disappointed. It’s a lot to take in. Can I ask you something?”

“Of course, anything.”  

“I want to be the one to kill him, when the time comes and we fight Alec will you let me kill him?” I ask and look up at his face, which is somewhat strained. “He took everything from me.”

“I don’t want anything to happen to you but I know you need closure. So when the time comes, he’s yours.” Merrick tells me while looking into my eyes. He smiles at me and cups one of my cheeks with his large hand.  

“While you’re in the city working this week I would like to train with some of your warriors.” I say.

“How do you know I’m going into the city?” 

“Oh, Emma told me. She wants us to go shopping tomorrow while you guys are working.”

“Alright, but I would like for some warriors to go with. Just in case.”

“I’m sure I will be fine Merrick.”

“No, I want you to be protected if I am not with you.” By the tone in his voice I know not to argue with him so I nod my head and lay back against him.