Chapter 2: His Guardian
1351 Words
-Valerio-
“Valerio!”
I heard someone whisper-yell my name, while I was being nudged gently awake … or maybe not so gently. The first push hadn’t been hard, but the second was more like a slap against my leg. I pushed up from the bed, looking at my mate in front of me, who was now holding a child in her arms.
“Did we make a kid?” I asked, confused by the sleep.
“No! It’s Ethan!” she said.
I shook my head, rubbing my eyes and focusing on the child in her arms, who was having a really great time playing with her long braid. It looked rather funny because it was clear Octavia didn’t know what to do with him.
“Stop smiling and help me!” she said.
“What do you want me to do?” I asked, as the cat jumped into our bed and walked over to me, so I could pet her, and I did. “Why do you even have him?”
Octavia looked at the ground, and I could see something was very wrong.
“O?”
“Kate’s gone,” she whispered.
“What?!” I asked.
“Kate’s gone,” she said a little louder this time.
“Say that again,” I said and got out of bed, grabbing some pants off the floor, and putting them on.
Octavia couldn’t even look at me and I walked closer to her, gently placing my hand on her arm.
“O …”
“Some friend I am …” she said, and I could hear the pain in her voice. “Chris made me promise I would take care of them, and now Kate is gone, and Ethan is without both his parents.”
“Little one, you are not blaming yourself for this,” I told her.
“But it is my fault!” she said and looked at me.
I shook my head.
“No, you did not ask Chris to follow you. You did not ask him to jump in front of you.”
“But I went … I went on my own,” she said. “And he knew I had something planned.”
“That doesn’t mean you are at fault for his choices. He did it to save you, and he trusted that you could help take care of his family afterwards.”
“But why me?!” she asked. “I’m … I’m no hero.”
“You don’t have to be a hero. You just have to be there,” I said.
She sighed and looked at the ground again.
“I wish I could take it all back … Chris warned me …”
“There was a good chance someone was going to die that night,” I said. “Most likely me.”
Octavia looked up at me scared, but we both knew it was true. She and I had both made some choices that night that brought us and others into danger, but war always claimed lives, and it was often the good ones.
“I’m at as much fault for his death as you.”
“How?” she asked.
“I saw he wasn’t with us. I could have sent someone after him,” I said.
She looked at me surprised, and I gave her a small smile, before I ran my hand down her hair, and rested it on her neck.
“Chris is gone, and now Kate. Ethan will need someone to be there for him,” I said.
Octavia looked at the little kid, who was just barely one year old, in her arms, and he had no idea what was even going on.
“I’m not a parent.”
“No, you’re his guardian. Chris made you,” I said.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
I smiled a little.
“Let us figure that out tomorrow. Tonight, he sleeps with us,” I said.
Octavia sighed again, clearly burdened by everything that had happened, and I got that. Chris sacrificed himself for her, and she blamed herself. I would have blamed myself too, but we couldn’t focus on that. We needed to focus on taking down Connor. Once and for all. We even had Lauren back with us, and she was now protected. Angela had decided to stay for a while and so had Elijah and Hunter. Phoenix, Kenzo, Andrew, and Rick were out looking for Hope, and Archer and Raiden stayed back to lead Hunter’s pack. We were still very much divided, but the thing was, we were much angrier than we had ever been. Connor had cost us too much already. He was going to die, and we were going to make sure of it.
“Did Kate say anything?” I asked.
“She said … She said she wanted to bring Chris back.”
“Sorry?”
Octavia just shrugged a little.
“Bring him back?!” I asked.
She nodded.
“That’s not possible.”
“I was brought back. Hunter and Lily were cured.”
“Yes, but that was all because of the marking. We knew that held power,” I said.
“Kate has hopes she can find some kind of help,” Octavia said.
“She is going on a pointless mission,” I said.
“I know … but she just needs something to hold onto,” she said.
“But what if she doesn’t succeed?” I asked.
“She won’t come back then.”
“What?!”
I stared at Octavia, shocked, and she nodded slowly.
“She said she won’t come back if she can’t bring Chris back. She just took a bag and Koda with her and then left … We might never get her back.”
I took a deep breath, trying to absorb all of this information, but it was damn hard.
“I can’t believe this …”
“We have already lost so much,” Octavia said. “And now this?!”
“Connor is going to die a slow death,” I promised.
Octavia didn’t look very pleased to hear this though, and it confused me.
“What?” I asked.
“I would be happy if he was just dead. I don’t care if it is quick or slow anymore or who does it. I just want him gone.”
I nodded and pulled her closer, and Ethan turned his eyes to me, looking up at me almost a little mesmerized, but despite him being born an alpha, I was still king. I smiled at him though and placed my hand on his back. This was weird. I was still very happy with our choice. Octavia’s and mine about not having kids, but this was not that bad. Maybe taking care of Ethan was something we could do? I didn’t want to decide that now though. It was late after all.
“I will make sure of it,” I said.
Octavia gave me a small smile.
“I didn’t tell you this, but … when I was fighting Connor, I felt her.”
“Who?”
“My wolf,” she said.
“But that is a good thing, isn’t it?”
Octavia shrugged.
“I haven’t really felt her since. What do you think it means?”
“Maybe your wolf wants to be the one to kill him,” I suggested.
“Maybe … or what if she needs to be scared out of her hiding?” Octavia asked.
“You think Connor is the key to getting her back?”
Octavia shrugged again.
“Maybe,” she just said.
“Can we talk about all of this tomorrow? Let us get some sleep,” I said.
Octavia nodded, and so we all three went to sleep … or more like four, because a certain cat thought it was a good thing to join us as well. Good thing our bed was so big, or it would have been rather crowded.
- Writer
