I will be your reaper...

Why won't he wake up...?

Aradia's POV

Floating. Just floating in the darkness. It was actually quite calming. It felt familiar...It felt like...My brother. My brother? Who is that? Who am I? Where am I? A voice whispered "Aradia. You are Aradia. Protect Erebus...It's okay...You're home." Home. That sounded nice. My name is Aradia and I must protect my brother, Erebus. Okay. I'll do that forever.

Suddenly, a bright yellow light stung my eyes. It was so painful. I blinked over and over, squinting to get used to this light. Groggily, I sat up, blurry colours filling my field of vision. I continued to blink until they started to clear up. A woman? She was wearing light blue clothing, a matching hat that held her hair up and a mask around her face. What was she doing? The room was spinning slightly. I watched as she raised her gloved hands, still blinking to get a clear picture of whatever she was holding. What the hell was that? The room stabilised and whatever was in her hands looked dangerous. She was about to stick it into the arm of the boy who was holding my hand on the bed next to me. My heart told me that this boy was Erebus and I must protect him. Seeing this woman with whatever that instrument was set me on edge.

"Get away from him.." I groaned out and the woman looked at me "Ah, my Aradia, you're awake. It's okay, I'm just giving him some medication" I growled, swiping my claws at her. She quickly moved out of the way, confused and when I stopped swiping, she went to try again "I said get away from him!" I lifted my hands, anger boiling in the pit of my body as her feet raised off the floor and her back slammed into the wall beside the door. The dangerous instrument in her hands now lying broken on the floor. The woman whimpered as an invisible force pressed her tightly against the wall.

It was then that an entire group of people rushed into the room. At first, they were all smiles, until they saw me hissing and the scene before them. A man stepped forward with a smile on his face. Approaching cautiously "Aradia, my girl. What happened? You tell your Uncle Felix and he will seek justice for you". He was polite and kind, his smile reaching his eyes. A pang in my heart told me I could trust him and I let the woman down, watching as she slammed onto the ground. "I told her to get away from Erebus with that thing! She wouldn't listen!" I pointed to the smashed instrument on the ground and the man calling himself Uncle Felix went over to investigate it. He took a smell and sighed in relief before facing me "Dia. It's okay. Let Uncle Felix tell you about it, okay?" I nodded, scootching closer to the end of the bed to listen and he gently stroked my head "This is called a needle. It looks super scary, huh? But I promise you, what's inside is something called a 'pain killer'. When people are in pain and in the hospital like you and Erebus, the staff - like this woman who is called a nurse - give the patients in pain this pain killer so that they're not in pain anymore. Do you understand?"

I paused for a moment, taking the information in "So she is a nurse trying to get rid of Erebus' pain?" Felix nodded with a smile. It was then that he turned to a woman with flaming red hair and looked at her in confusion while she shook her head. Then to a man with honey blonde hair who also shook his head. Felix opened his mouth "So if they're not your powers she's using, who's are they?" They were in deep thought before the woman with red hair rushed forward "Goddess! What if it is literal? The name Aradia is a name used by witches. What if she's..." The man with honey blonde hair frowned at her "Are you saying those powers are her own? She's part witch?" The red head nodded, "Jaxon, it's a possibility. But if we go based on that theory, then she's not just wolf and witch either..." They all looked at me while I remained confused. A black-haired woman with exposed arms that held tattoos and scars stepped forward "We can discuss that later. I need to see if my daughter is alright". Daughter? Was that me? Well, she was approaching me.

The woman checked me over with a frown before sighing in relief "You're okay. I told you, mummy was waiting for you. What took you so long?" She smiled happily and the rest of the group sighed in relief when they knew I was okay. "So...You are my mother and then my father is..." A man with kind green eyes stepped forward and rubbed my head "That would be me". I could feel the sparkle in my eyes. Parents! These are my parents! I threw myself at them and breathed in, taking in their scent. My mother smelled of Lillies and vanilla. My father smelled like Mangoes and Apricots. It was so nice to be wrapped up in their arms but...Over their shoulder, I could see that Erebus had yet to awaken. I whined, reaching for him. My mother put me on his bed and I gently shook my brother with a pout "Erebus, wake up. Big sister is here and so is our family, so you need to wake up now". Nothing. Not even a single twitch. I whined again, this time a large middle-aged man with stormy grey eyes picked me up and placed me on his shoulders "Listen to grandfather, Dia. Erebus isn't as strong as you so you need to let him sleep some more, okay?" Three more middle-aged people approached me, two women and a man. More grandparents? "That's right, dear. Grandpa Elias is right. We'll take you and Erebus home and you can stay with him until he wakes up, okay?"

I nodded obediently and the man who just spoke to me who looked like my mother scooped up Erebus. We all had a leisurely walk back to the pack house...But I couldn't take my eyes off of Erebus. It felt like if I did, he'd disappear. My mother reached up to touch my arm with a smile and I gave her a grin in return as she pointed to the pack house. It was beautiful, a huge building more than big enough to accommodate us all. Grandpa Elias pulled me off his shoulders and handed me to a woman beside him. His wife? Meaning my grandma! I snuggled into her as we all walked through the door and were greeted by the staff of the pack house.

Quickly, the room was filled with children - five all looked the same and one boy stood out and looked like the couple I could see over my grandma's shoulder. They were so rowdy, clamouring for their parents. Upon seeing Erebus and I, they stopped and looked at us with curiosity. The boy that was different quickly rushed over to me and I looked down at him from my grandmother's arms, tilting my head to the side in confusion. "So pretty! He yelled and my face immediately heated. Everyone laughed and his mother came to scoop him up so he could see me better. She nuzzled his head as he looked at me as if he'd seen a star "Isn't she? This is Auntie Lily's daughter!" the woman said and the boy looked between my mother and eyes happily "Wow! That's great! So the boy is Auntie Lily's son too?" my mother nodded, her chest puffed with pride.

Meanwhile, I looked over to Erebus and whined because he still wasn't awake. Any time now, right? He'd wake up any minute now...Right?