VEUX

Forty Two

March 22

Until that moment, Saoirse had never seen anybody react so quickly to the word "hurt" before. It was as though Osric had sputtered "murdered" or "kidnapped".

A spot in time had aligned itself so that two different sides of the universe could collide that day. Miles away, on the other side of the mountain that identified Swansea Territory, the Mate Killers had planned an attack on Oak's pack. It had happened hours prior to Saoirse's crime, but no one had known.

"They took down the communication towers," Osias frantically tried to explain himself in the infirmary. "I tried- I tried to stop them- t-to save them," The genuine tears of a grown man made Saoirse turn her head as she couldn't watch. "I had to leave. It was h-happening again, I couldn't-"

Osias's brothers attempted a sort of dance between comfort and barking orders. When one tried to calm down Osias's panic attack of sobbing and hypreventilating, the other would march out of the room and begin shouting nothing useful.

Saoirse watched their fears emerge as she sat cuffed to a chair near Osias's bed. It went on for hours, long into the night, thankfully taking the attention off of Saoirse. Osias was bloodier than a freshly butchered cow. He had trekked the miles to Obsidian's pack in wolf form, collecting dirt, twigs, and leaves from the forest into his claw wounds and spear punctures. Due to his wild hide, the head only broke off in his shoulder and was easy to remove. The brothers of the pack made sure to clean, clothe, and feed him.

"I'm sorry," Osias sounded as though he was begging for mercy. "I'm sorry, I-I didn't want to," He was still coming in and out of manic episodes. "Oh, Mom, she'll be so disappointed."

"Hey, Ozzy, no," Obsidian grabbed his brothers hand, wiping the beads of sweat from his forehead as he was left to rest. "Mom wouldn't be disappointed, alright. You know she'd want you to get out of there if you had to."

The cuff around Saoirse's wrist clunked against the chair rail as she adjusted her chin into her palm. She was blatantly ignored. In the fear and uproar of the brothers, there had been no time to tell him that his youngest brother was dead. It seemed hardly like the time to mention it anyways, since Osias needed to recover from being attacked. Especially mentally. Osias had been a young teenager when his mother was murdered by the Mate-Killers, and in his early-twenties when his Killer mate ambushed his pack.

"Where's Osric?" Osias called out for his twin.

"He's out running the perimeter base," Obsidian told him. "We've expanded our ratio of patrols tonight to catch the Killers early if they come this way." Obsidian continued to reassure his brother everything was alright, encouraging him to get some rest.

In and out came the brothers all night long, Osric included. Saoirse barely slept meanwhile Osias fell victim to his long journey. No one said a word to her, and she said none back. Saoirse feared not the Mate-Killers attacking Obsidian's pack so shortly after Oak's. She was however shocked that the timing had aligned so coincidentally. Saoirse could not regret her decision to kill Oak. She had been under the assumption Oak was taking her away, forcing her to leave. How was she to know that on that same day, the Mate-Killers were giving Oak no pack to come home to?

Saoirse watched the sunrise on the east side, beyond a small window of flimsy eggshell curtains and a dewy blew sky. It was early, and the night had been long after Saoirse slowly blinked it away. The hallway had been quiet other than the pack doctor checking Osias momentarily, and no one had come by for hours. Saoirse figured they must have been asleep, otherwise the mens loud voices would have filled the room once again. The doctor said nothing about Saoirse's presence, hardly noticing the cuff around her wrist if he noticed at all. Saoirse gazed at the sunrise, eyelids heavy but ears welcoming the sweet call of spring from the morning birds. The sanction of a fresh day kept her spirits alive, rather than turning herself neurotic.