To Grandma's House

Mother of Destruction*

**Trigger Warning**

"Where's 'Cain & Abel'?"

"Who?" Ms. Emma looked at Chris with furrowed brows.

"Sorry, Eli and Xael."

"Why d'you call them Cain & Abel?"  Skylar was once again curious. The Elder's had 'fresh meat' at the table and had no problem grilling him for information. Skylar and Emma knew how hard it was to get anything personal out of Xael.

"Xael and Eli actually hated each other when they first met at basic training. Talk about two Alphas going at it. They even spent time in the 'brig' for attacking each other one day, man, it was brutal.  It took every wolfen around to pull those two apart.   But after that, they were like they are now.  Guess they just needed to get whatever it was out of their system."

"Holy crap!" Houser was surprised.

"So how long have you known my granddaughter Chris?"

"Since basic. The four, well three of us have been together since then. That's why we're so close. She took it pretty hard when we lost Josh, well, she took losing her Mate pretty hard also."

"Josh?" Skylar had never heard him mentioned before.

"Yeah, losing him kicked all of our asses. Oh! Sorry Ms. Emma." The older lady smiled at him. "He killed himself after we made it back stateside.  Eli found him."  Chris made a gun sign with his hand and held it to his temple.

"So has Xael always been a medic?"   Houser didn't want to feel left out of the unintentional intentional interrogation.

"Noooo. The three of us got switched with a quickness halfway through our first tour. Things got B.A.D."

"Care to explain young Alpha?" Skylar and the others had given him their full attention now.

"Uhh...She didn't tell you? I mean you two are her family?"  Chris was hesitant but the Elders wanted to know.

"All she told me was that she lost her first Mate when he saved her and that she was a medic."  Ms. Emma was practically glaring at the young Alpha.

"Hmm...could explain the episode she had at the pow wow." Skylar downed the last of his tea.

"Episode? Crap...we thought she was over those."  Chris held his head in his hands, fingers combing through his hair in frustration.

"Oh, so you know about them?"

"Yes ma'am. I can't tell you how many nights me and Eli have had to spend with her because of them.  Her episodes used to be bad. Like bad, bad. Like hide the knifes and sharps, suicide watch bad. We were actually surprised she survived losing her Mate, but when Josh..." Chris looked away and cleared his throat, pushing the rising emotions back down.

"Oh my God."

"Yeah...the little boy is the one who set it all off for her in the beginning."

Ms. Emma turned to him. She had no idea what he was referring to.

"What little boy?"

"Crap..." Chris cursed himself under his breath. He knew he had told too much but it was too late, he had opened the flood gates. "I tell you this, promise never to say anything to Xael. None of us talk about our first tours. Especially Eli and Xael."

"We're listening."  Skylar and Houser leaned in closer to hear him.

"Our first tour, the four of us were picked because we were Wolfen. I understand them taking me, Josh and Eli, but Xael was a female. No one had ever seen a female chosen.  One of the men thought he'd be Mr. Tough Guy and started giving her shit and harassing her, sexually.  But he made the mistake of touching her one day.  One solid right hook and a broken jaw and he kept his distance after that.  We were part of a special sniper unit.  Xael could outshoot all of us and rose up in rank to Sergeant First Class.   She was good. Damned good. They gave her a nickname. Everyone on the base knew it and it fit her unfortunately."  Chris trailed off, the memories were painful for him to, but not so much that he couldn't share them.

"What was it dear." Worry had started to creep onto Ms. Emma's face.

"'Kali-ma, Goddess of Destruction'.  It took months for her to warm up to anyone, but for some reason she did to our C.O*."  Chris got up for another glass of lemonade.

"Scent. Track. Kill. That was our motto. There were eight of us all together. Four Wolfen, four humans. That first tour, Xael never smiled or laughed. Never.  One day we were out doing recon on an area that had already been cleared; supposedly.  Once we got there, Xael immediately felt uneasy and headed out to take up point on the rooftop of an abandoned home.  She told everyone to stay savvy before she left.  She was like a ninja, there one minute, gone the next."

"Wait..how could a female be appointed to such a specialized unit? A combat unit at that?" Houser was having a hard time believing it.

"She's an Alpha. Her skills were top. There's no way they would stick her behind a desk or in some field job."

"I'm still having a hard time believing it."

Chris just looked at Houser and smiled. "We relaxed a bit, seeing nothing as a threat. But Xael never missed anything.  She knew something was off and she was right. The insurgents were using kids as suicide bombers. Bad thing is, some of their parents allowed it.  A group of kids saw us and came running out for candy and to talk to us.  We didn't see anything wrong with it, but Xael... From the rooftop, she'd seen a boy about 10yo. with a group of men when we first pulled into the village.  He came running towards us. I saw him but didn't think anything of it.  20 yards out, he just dropped to the ground, motionless. Followed by the 3 men.  We barely heard the sound of gunfire.  We grabbed kids by the arm full and ran for cover. Two minutes later Xael was walking towards the boy on the ground, rifle down at her side. She'd dropped him and the 3 men he was with. We had the kids stay back with a couple of the guys as the rest of us walked towards her. She had no expression on her face at all as she stood over him.   She took off most of her gear and knelt down beside him, his eyes were still open.  She gently closed them and called Stevens our bomb guy over.  He wasn't running over for candy, the men had strapped a vest full of explosives to him.  She had Stevens take the vest off of him, the rest of us stood a safe distance away but Xael refused to leave his side.  Once the vest was off, a few of the adults came out of their homes.  That child's mom starting wailing something terrible.  Xael picked the little boy up like it was her own pup and carried him to his parents house. She handed him to his dad. I tell you, If looks could have killed, he'd been dead. I'd never seen eyes so red and full of hate before in my life. I'm sure it took all she had not to rip him apart for allowing his child to be used as a bomb."

Chris had to take a breather. "Xael saved all of us that day, but it tore her up. Us too. To have to kill a child like that... She walked back, picked up her gear and went to the vehicle and got in. On the way back she didn't say anything.  None of us did,  but Eli kept a close eye on her.  She didn't cry, she didn't look at any of us, nothing. Word got back to base about what she had done.  When we got there, one of the higher ups came up to her to congratulate her before our C.O. could stop them. It took 6 other Alphas to pull her off of him, the only way they were able to is that she finally broke down. Eli carried her back to her tent and we stayed with her for the next 2 days.  No one fucked with her after that. Three days later our unit was disbanded.  Xael, me, Josh and Eli were sent to the unit where she switched to Combat Medic. That's the one that she lost her Mate in."

"Oh my God. Oh my God..."  Ms. Emma had to leave the table for some fresh air.

"Sorry Chris. That you guys had to go through that."   Skylar was sincere and it was appreciated. The three males sat in silence, the two older ones digesting what they had just heard.   Ms. Emma came back in 20 minutes later.  She placed a gentle hand on Chris's arm.

"Thank you hun, for telling us. Thank you."  

**C.O > Commanding Officer