HIS MATE, MY DOOM

Ten Years Ago ATLAS I cradled Iris’s face in my palms, blinking through the moisture that clouded my vision. Her face was cold, just like her hands. I pulled her closer to myself, trying to share my warmth with her. They had torn her clothes apart and stabbed her in the heart with silver. Over and over. She had died in the woods, on the ground, covered in dirt and dead leaves. Iris couldn't be dead. She couldn't leave me alone. I sniffed her golden hair. It still smelled like roses. The lips I had kissed just this morning were cold and pale. I didn’t want to look at the gaping wound on her chest. “Iris,” I whispered in her ear. “Don't leave me. You always—” I take a deep, steadying breath. “You said you’d outlive me because I was always putting myself in trouble. Don't you remember?” I could tell that the people around me had turned their pitying gazes on me. On their beta who had gone mad with grief. I didn’t care. I knew she had died, but I couldn’t quite come to terms with that fact. I couldn't believe that she could die like that. Iris had never hurt anything. She couldn't even if she tried. She couldn't squash bugs, so she made me catch them in a craft bowl and release them to the woods. I was the violent one. Why hadn’t they killed me instead? “Atlas,” I felt my father's hand on my shoulder. “let her go. She's gone.” “No, she's not. She can't leave.” I muttered, holding her even closer. My grief set in, dark and raw, reminding me that she was dead and there was nothing I could do to change that. That what I was holding wasn’t Iris, but her dead, lifeless body. Along with my grief came rage, setting in my bones and running in my veins. “Who did this?” I asked quietly, my calmness surprising me more than it surprised anyone else in the room. I knew they were reluctant to tell me, scared of what I would do. Maybe they thought I’d go on a rampage or a killing spree, wiping out the families of those who had made my mate suffer in her last moments. I would. “Who? Did. This?” I repeat, my voice hardening. My wolf, Alec, scratches the surface, itching for a fight. In the corner of my eye, I saw my father shake his head, probably a signal to the others not to give me an answer. I place Iris on the bed, carefully this time, and turn to the rest of the pack members standing in the room. “Who killed my mate?” “The Shadow Pack. Some members of the Shadow Pack snuck onto pack grounds while you were away.” That was the voice of Vince, the pack’s Gamma. I knew about the Shadow Pack. A bunch of disreputable drifters who had no substance among the other packs. They were weak and seemed to spend all their time waiting on some mystical weapon that could make them more powerful. Good. I could wipe the whole pack out in a night. I began to walk towards the entrance of the pack house with only one goal. To destroy those who had hurt Iris. Of course, I wasn’t so deluded that I thought killing them would ease the pain I felt, but I knew it would avenge Iris. That would be enough. “Stop him.” I heard Father's command. For whatever reason, he wanted to stop me from going there. I wasn’t in the mood to obey orders. “I would like to see who values his life so little as to try.” I ground out, not bothering to look behind me. Father himself comes at me, shoving me down to the floor. I rose to my feet, dazed. He is standing at the entrance, blocking the way. “Move aside,” I growl. I would have hated to shift, but if that was what it took to get them out of my way, I would do it. My nostrils flared. “We have spent years of peace with the Shadow Pack,” Father said. “I won’t let you go in there on a killing spree. Not for her.” Father had never made any secret of the fact that he didn't like Iris. Everyone came at me, all determined to stop me from leaving. I shook off those I could, sending them sliding across the room. I was far outnumbered and I knew it. The logical thing would have been to stop then. I was going to be confined to my room and drugged with wolfsbane if I kept this up. Wolfsbane didn't affect me, but I hated being confined to my room. I wasn’t rational. I couldn't be rational. All I could see was Iris’s bloodied, lifeless body and her cold, pale lips. I didn't mind dying as long as I could take Iris’s killers to hell along with me. Guttural sounds tore from my throat as I was wrestled to the ground by five-pack warriors. Tears of helplessness and frustration streamed down my face as I continued to resist. “You want to go after the Shadow Pack? Fine!” Father said, addressing me. “But do it over my dead body.” Present day I stand underneath the pouring rain, unbothered as to the way it soaked my clothes and plastered my hair to my forehead. My black heavy cloak is heavy from the rain but I feel nothing. Just numbness. I’ve felt little more than numbness for ten years now. I look at the gravestone at my feet, a humorless smile coming to my lips. Theodore Laker Reed, it reads. Alpha of Moon Ridge Pack. Suddenly, the raindrops pelting me ceased. I look up to see that an umbrella has been placed above me. Bryce, my beta, is standing beside me, the rain soaking his coat. He was a friend I made during training that stuck ever since. He has rough edges and a bit of spontaneity, but he's someone I can trust with my life. “Why bother?” I ask. “I’m already soaked.” “I have to live up to my duties as the beta, in case Alpha Atlas has forgotten about him.” I snicker. “Fair enough.” He curses and takes a cigarette pack out of his pocket, planning one in between my lips. “Is that any good?” I ask as he pulls out a lighter and lights the cigarette hanging out of my mouth. “So what are you going to do? You know, now that your old man is six feet under?” I take a drag of my cigarette. “Do you remember the day Iris died?” I ask. I know he feels uncomfortable because I never speak about Iris. “Y…yes. You damn near killed all for trying to hold you back.” “Father promised I could destroy the Shadow Park over his dead body,” I say conversationally. Bryce’s eyes meet mine, sharp with realization. “Atlas…” I turn away from the grave. “I’ll be paying a visit to the Shadow Park,” I say over my shoulder. “They've been in my debt for ten years and payment is long overdue.”