From Chosen To Fated

Ruby sat on the couch trying to process what her Alpha father and his Beta, Baron, were telling her. She stared at Baron and her father for what felt like hours, willing both to reveal the sick joke they were playing on her. The words never came. Still, she could not convince herself to believe their words. A warm hand reached out and gently squeezed Ruby’s shoulder, bringing Ruby out of her stupor. She looked around to find the hand belonged to her mother, Melody. Her touch made Ruby slowly become aware of the searing pain racking through her entire body. It felt like everything inside of her was screaming, but she did not show any emotion.   “Honey? Did you hear what I said?” her father asked gently, his gray eyes full of concern.   Although Ruby was confident that she understood him perfectly well, she shook her head, hoping beyond hope that she had misheard him. Her mother squeezed her shoulder again and her father sighed deeply; neither being good signs to indicate what she was wishing for was going to come true.  “Rube.” Her father began and paused, using the nickname she adopted early from her childhood. Normally, her father using this name would bring her some semblance of comfort. Today she felt numb to it. “Sweetie,” he continued, appearing to still be searching for the words, “Torben...was among the casualties we lost today from the Mimic attack.” Her father finished in a somber voice.   She could no longer deny the words that her father had now told her twice. A third squeeze on her shoulder from her mother. This made Ruby look into her mom’s eyes, searching within their depths for an answer. Ruby tore away from her mother’s gaze and scanned the room. She forgot she had an audience. Apart from her mother, father, and Beta Baron, she also had her two younger siblings there. Her little brother Onyx, being only two years younger, put on a brave face for Ruby’s benefit when their eyes met. Ruby still noticed the sadness that filled his deep green eyes as he leaned on the wall opposite her, behind their father. Ruby remembered all the times Torben and Onyx played video games together. Her eyes moved to Pearl, the “baby,” sitting on the floor at their mother’s feet. She was much younger than both Ruby and Onyx and, like a typical 13-year-old, did not know how to hold it together, nor did Ruby expect her to. Pearl cried silently, staring at her shoes, her blonde hair covering her face. Ruby watched a couple of tears fall on the rug that she was sitting on. Like with Onyx, Ruby recalled all the times Torben played with her; hide and seek, tea party, and other make-believe games before she grew out of it.   Ruby found her mother’s kind gaze again. She usually found strength in these green eyes, the same as Onyx’s. This time she could not muster any.   “Mom?” Ruby’s voice broke, her own eyes immediately filling with tears.   As if that one syllable were the words of permission, Melody immediately came forward to hold her adult 19-year-old daughter, same as she did when Ruby was upset as a child. And Ruby wept. Ruby wept for her chosen mate. Ruby wept for the future she would no longer ever know. She wept for all the things they shared together and all the things they had not yet. She became acutely aware of the lack of feeling on the spot on her neck where he was supposed to mark her in a week’s time. She briefly wondered how much more this would have hurt if he had ended up marking her.   Soon, Ruby felt her father’s presence as he knelt by her and placed a comforting arm on her back. Ruby heard Baron excuse himself and for that she was grateful. She viewed Baron like an uncle, but she needed to allow herself to completely break down and she could not do that in front of anyone but Torben and her family and now one of those pieces was missing forever.   After several minutes, Ruby’s sobs turned into hiccups. Only now did she become aware that her wolf, Scout, was the quietest she had ever been. Ruby could still feel her in the back of her mind, but she could also feel her wolf's sadness and confusion. She could even feel Scout withdraw further and further with every passing second.   “Are you leaving me too?” Ruby asked inwardly to her wolf, frightened of the growing distance.   “Of course not.” Scout answered, “But I need some time. We both lost our mate today.”  And now silent tears fell as now Ruby was mourning for her wolf and Torben’s wolf, Aspen.