𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞 ⸙

2.15༊*·˚

Liam didn't want to believe that he was looking at the deceased face of Niall. He expected him to open his eyes and flail about in pain. Even after the Omega wolves pulled his body from the tree, Liam waited for Niall to splutter a breath or groan in agony, or make a snarky comment about him having great pain tolerance.

He didn't.

Niall was dead. Someone had murdered him.

"Poor lad," Solana mumbled, covering Niall's face with large round dock leaves. "He was barely even thirty. He didn't deserve this."

Liam crouched by his side. Now that Niall's lifeless eyes no longer stared into his soul, Liam was able to touch his icy hand and hold it as though Niall could feel him.

"He was going to let me dye his hair pink next month because I beat him in a race around the field!" Liam soon smelt his discomposing body.

His stomach churned. The taste of vomit still burnt in the back of his throat. "Did the rogues do this to him?"

"No, they were too weak, and there were too few of them to have the chance." Solana stared into the distance like her eyes saw a different place. "This must have been a trap. The Rogues must have led them to more wolves."

Liam wanted to ask if she thought that southern wolves were behind this, but Omega's returned from the bushes, breathing hard. "We found more dead wolves. They're ours."

Liam shivered and asked, "Who are they?"

"Omegas. There's no sign of Zayn or Baela."

Liam felt awful that an ounce of him was relieved. People who he lived with for the past year and eight months were dead. People who had been a part of Zayn's pack for years were dead. Their family were dead, and someone had to pay.

Liam looked back to Niall's body that looked less and less like his. Death altered him, changing him, returning him to the earth.

"It doesn't matter how strong you are," he mumbled, "death always wins.!"

Solana looked him strangely. Liam's face drooped with sorrow, and his words sounded like defeat.

"At least he's not in pain anymore," she said with a comforting hand on Liam's shoulder. Her son was out there, running, or fighting against either wolves or his troubles. The last thing Zayn needed was to feel Liam giving up too.

*******

Galloping blindly through the woods was the only thing Zayn and Baela could do. One moment, they had been tearing after Rogues, the next, they were attacked by what felt like an army of Rogues, waiting on the outskirts of their territory.

Zayn would be dead if Niall hadn't thrown himself in front of him. He dug his claws into the mud and ran faster. The memory was as painful as the wound down his back leg. The Rogue who he had spoken to at the gate clawed him when he nipped at her heels to taunt her.

Zayn used the pain to fuel him. He would have run to the ends of the earth if Baela didn't slow him down. She shifted first, and the trauma of what happened to their wolves twisted her face to anguish. Her lips quivered, but she pulled herself together with a deep inhale.

"They killed him," she said quietly in the silent woods, not able to get the noise of when Niall shifted back and screamed out of her head.

"That doesn't matter, we need to get those fucking rogues." Zayn stormed through the trees.

Baela was hot on his heels, she looked at Zayn with raging red eyes "What do you mean that doesn't matter?" she yelled.

"Where did these cowards go?" Zayn muttered, ignoring her.