Gone

74.

"Do you always leave in the middle of the night to smoke?" I turn and I see a half naked Heminsworth walking up to me. "Only when I can't sleep." I continue smoking, ignoring the fact that I've been sleeping less and less. He sits on the ground across from me.

This man never stops looking good. "When did you start smoking?" "A few years ago," I say to him. "Why?" "To keep things at bay," I say to him as I look up at the sky. "Amoura-" "please don't tell me they're bad for me. I've had enough people tell me that, and ironically I'm the only one still living, so I think I'm good." I say "I was going to say, you can't use a cigarette to keep things from falling apart inside." "But I can and you don't have to say anything. I'm not the same fragile little girl you used to look after." I say to him, so we sit there in silence. "I've noticed you're no little girl, but everyone needs company every now and then," after a while I look at him.

"Why does this feel so natural?" I ask him and he gets up and he walks over to me. "Because you and I, we're that kind of soul binding love." He says and he kisses my forehead. "Come back when you're ready." He says as he walks away. "I hate your bed." "My sofa turns into a bed, we can sleep there." He replies as I watch his back walk away, "you have an answer for everything, don't you?" "Yes." I get up and I follow him back to his room. He grabs his pillows and tosses them to me and I put them on the pulled down bed. I lay down and I face out the window, he reaches for me. I look at him "I don't that." I say "you do with me." He says as he holds me against him. I roll my eyes even though being in his arms feels right. "Shouldn't you be old by now?" I mutter.

"What brought up my age?" He asks and I ignore him, "nothing." I mutter, and I feel his chest vibrate. "Isn't me not aging a good thing?" He asks as his nose traces my neck. "You're thirty-" he cuts me off by grabbing my chin and kissing me. He growls and I chuckle. "Someone's sensitive about their age," I say as I rest my head on his bicep. "I'm almost ten years older than you." He says to me. "You don't look it," I mutter and he kisses my temple. "I know." He says and I roll my eyes. "Go to sleep."

Morning comes and I walk out the balcony and stare at the rising sun. Heminsworth makes me miss the warm feeling inside, something I haven't felt in a long time. As to Clive who always accepted and loved me with the coldness inside and would do what he could to pull emotions out of me.

The door opens, "Alpha." A woman walks in, seductive wrapped in her tone of voice and body. I walk in back in, "I don't think I'm the Alpha you're looking for." "What are you doing here?" "Spending time with my mate, what are you doing here." "Visiting my fiancé" I smile humorously, "your fiancé is in the study." I get dressed before returning to the balcony. "Amoura." I smile at Heminsworth who walks in.

"Have fun. I have to go, today's the day, my daughters start school." I walk out, "I want to meet them." "My daughters?" "No, your parents. Of course your daughters." I glare at him from the bottom of the stairs. "I'll think about it." I head to my pack house and I make my way upstairs and I see my babies are fast asleep, so I get their clothes ready before heading downstairs to make breakfast for them. It takes an hour for them to wake up and get dressed. "Come on pups time to eat." I say as I set the plates down on the dining table, "teeth brushed?" They nod, I fix their hair while they eat. After breakfast, I take the girls to school myself and watch them from the window in their classroom for a while before leaving.

Heminsworth walks into the study and sits on the sofa and looks at me. "Can I help you?" "She's not my fiancé. My father set us up years ago and I never agreed. She comes around when her father does." "Heminsworth I'm not mad. Humored, but not mad." I say as I get back to work. "Why?" He asks suspiciously. "Why would I get jealous of something that's always been mine?" He growls at me as I smile at him. "Am I wrong?"

Lisa knocks before he could reply, after giving us a strange look she shrugs it off and looks at me."There's a Mr. and Mrs. Williams asking to see you." Lisa's words drain me of my good mood, "tell them I'm busy. That I can't see them." She nods and walks out. "No! Tell her I need to talk to her! I need to know the truth. Stone I'm begging you! Please, the council says his death was a casualty of war. But the military says it was murder. Were my son and his mate murdered?! Please, I need to know! No Abraham, I won't stop, I need to know. She was his best friend and she didn't even show up to his funeral!" I squeeze my hands as I try to stop the trembles. "I'm begging you as a mother, tell me what happened to my son!" Those words break my paralyzed body and I get up and walk out. "Leave us," I tell Lisa and the pack members that were forcing them to leave. "I need to know how my son died." She pleads with me.

A man resembling Williams turns to face me with his mate in his arms. The four other men right behind them look at me in surprise. The youngest catches my eyes, "you look just like Williams, except for the eyes." I break the eye contact to look at Williams mother who was holding onto Williams tag for dear life. "Your son was killed in the explosions." I say to her "but he's a werewolf he should have healed." She says I look at her. "The bombs that went off triggered the weapons we had confiscated from the humans. Those weapons were made to kill all kinds of supernatural creatures. They were made to ensure no one survived." "But you did." " I wasn't there." "Why!"

"A few days before the plane that was returning me to Russia crashed and burned and I became a prisoner of war. I was on my way to the base when the base went up in flames. As to why didn't go to the funeral, I wanted to, I wanted to be the one who gave you his tags and handed you his body. But I couldn't, I decided to stay in Russia until all the bodies were dug out, I wanted all the families who lost their loved ones to have them returned to them before I left Russia." I look at them. "I am sorry for your loss, Mrs. Williams."

I ask Lisa to bring me a box of photos in the duffle bag under my bed. "Alpha," I thank Lisa and take the box from her. I walk up to Mrs. Williams who was crying and clenching onto Williams tags.

"What are these?" "Photos of our time in the military. I don't have any of us in the academy because he and I weren't friends then. But these are from everywhere he was deployed. The majority were taken in Australian and Tuscany; that's where our home bases were." "This is the two of you dancing. Why?" "That was my wedding day, the man standing by the door is the man I married." I point to Row, "him and Williams took most of the photos. Your son isn't in much of those and they're not the greatest of quality because they kept running around with the cameras, yelling 'say cheese.' most are from Japan." I say to her as I take off the band. 

"Where were these taken?" "Those I don't know, there was a term where we weren't together, I had a camera with more photos but I don't know what he did with it, it's probably among his things," I say to her and she looks through the photos as she wipes the tears. "Thank you." "You can have them. But before you take them, let me make copies so I can send them to Rows and Coons families too." I say and she nods. "My son was in love with you." "I know. He told me himself, I just wasn't able to respond, I was in love with Clive. Besides, it worked out for the best, he met his match in Russia." "Did you know her?" "She was a doctor. I got hurt a few times and she's the one who would patch me back up. I can't tell you any more about her. I was always busy in Russia I didn't have time for socializing, I'm sorry anyone who could tell you more about her is dead, you can try finding her parents, but I don't know if they'll respond." By dinner time I was done making photocopies and had them in envelopes, ready to send.

Sara walks into the study to tell me dinner is ready. "You know Amoura I would never join the military." Sara says "everyone has their own path to take, besides you lose pieces of yourself and even when you come back and you return to your daily activities those pieces don't return." I say as I look at the wedding pictures I didn't give to Mrs. Williams. "What did you lose?" "Many things, I try to tire myself out so I can sleep soundly but most times I'm just vividly aware of everything and it's exhausting and I can't seem to get proper rest," I say to her. "How many times did you come close to dying?" Sara asks as we walk into the kitchen, "too many for comfort." I say to her. "And you weren't afraid?" "There came a point where death would have been the good outcome," I say to her. "And now?" "Now I'm home and I'm trying to get used to that," I say to her. "Why did you stay away for long?" "There came a point where I became something else and I was afraid my parents wouldn't recognize. Or worse they'd see me the way I saw myself." "You didn't seem much different from when I last saw you three years ago." "That's because you haven't seen me," I say as I look at her. "Sara," "yeah?" "You can ask me that as many times as you want, the answer won't change."