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“It should have been,” Marco replies, turning his head slightly and resting his cheek on the back of her head while rocking her back and forth. Tears stream down his face as he closes his eyes, his lips quivering as he rocks her.
“In another life,” he tells her and she tries to speak but it comes out in a wheeze, blood spewing from her lips. Her death draws on and I feel like walking off. Yet she asked me to stay so I remain. Each second that passes I wish her next breath is her last, just so I don’t have to listen, just so she isn’t suffering anymore.
“It’s time to go old girl, what are you hanging around for, it better not be for me?” Marco asks her, his voice shaky as he gets the words out. Her hand twitches and she grabs him, her body convulsing as she tries to suck in a breath. Each wheeze grows louder than the last, her panic screaming back at me when she opens her watery eyes. Marco breaks down, and nods his head.
“I’m here, I’m here,” he tells her and I look away, unable to watch her suffer. I press my face into Axton’s chest, and he grips my hair, his hands covering both my ears just in time before I witness Marco break her neck. But I still hear the faint crack, closing my eyes, I suck in a deep breath as silence falls and Axton moves his hands, and kisses the top of my head.
Besides my own breathing and the sound of Axton’s heart against my ear, I hear nothing for ten beats. Then I hear Marco wail, the sound so heartbreaking I never want to hear the sound again. It screamed how much he loved her, how much it hurt to lose her. It screamed his torment, a few seconds later the howls of my pack ring through the air as they screamed theirs.
Screamed for a woman that didn’t realize she saved all of us, instead, she believed she failed us, but she never did, no she taught us who we are. I was never the Alpha of this pack, Sondra was, she created it and handed it down to me. Sondra was the true Alpha of ‘Elysian Fortuna Moonlight Pack’ She had created our piece of paradise, and Fortuna is a second chance, and she gave that to all of us. Only now do I realize we were also hers, a second chance at finding herself.
Chapter Sixty-One
The next week passes in a daze, one I wish stayed forgotten. Marco hasn’t spoken, just sat in her room for the entire time, only leaving for her funeral. Axton and I have tried to get him to leave, knowing he needs blood but nothing we do seems to work. Yet as each day passes he slips further into psychosis, induced by his insatiable hunger. After the second day when we realized he hadn’t fed since four days before Sondra’s death, Axton having counted the blood bags in the basement, he forbid me going into the room by myself.
Which is hard because one thing I know is Sondra wouldn’t want us moping, life goes on, and things need to be taken care of. So, for the past two days, I have done nothing but organize housing and work details for our move to the city. Axton today is dealing with never ending strigoi attacks, his absence from the city really amped up the attacks, so much so Osiris having taken over for a mere week, called him begging him to come back to help since the city has been in a panic state since the first one, on the night of Sondra’s death.
We couldn’t seem to catch a break and even the boys are teething so it's been a never-ending clusterfluck. Having finished packing up the kitchen I walk to the closet to start that task next. Most of the pack was already in the city, the trucks having picked up the women's belongings yesterday, so there is only the main packhouse left to move. My mother and Luke are moving into the penthouse apartment Axton owns. So today we are planning to pack what's left of the pack house for the truck arriving tomorrow.
Reaching the top shelf, Axton’s arms wrap around me from behind as I pull down the box from the top cupboard in the huge linen closet. “I need to head into the city,” he whispers, dropping his head onto my shoulder.
“How long? I can meet you at the packhouse tonight, mom and I should be done here by this afternoon hopefully,” I tell him and he nods and then sighs.
“Has he come out?” Axton asks me, and I shake my head peering down the hall toward Sondra’s room. None of us have touched her room. Most of Sondra’s belongings we have put in storage for Marco to go through when he’s ready, despite him claiming he wants nothing.
Axton exhales, kissing my cheek then wandering down the hall toward her room. “I put the boys in their bouncers downstairs. Luke is watching them while your mother brings some boxes up from the basement,” he tells me as I follow him. Axton stops at the door and knocks, but like usual Marco doesn’t answer so he pushes the door open. Marco is still sitting in her rocking chair, staring at her bed, his fingers steepled under his chin, with a dark expression on his face.
“Marco?” Axton calls out while stepping into the room. Axton moves cautiously, stepping in front of him.
“Get up, Marco.” Marco says nothing, but leans back in the chair, watching Axton.
“I could have changed her,” he mumbles. His voice was rather raspy after so long of barely speaking.
“Sondra didn’t want that,” Axton reminds him.
Marco rocks back and forth in her chair and nods. “No, she didn’t. Maybe if I convinced her when she was younger she may have taken the offer, but I was too late. We were always too late. Fighting against time, looking for the perfect opportunity which never came and when it did, she was too old to take it. She believed she was a burden to me.” Marco says, looking over at me.
“Always too late. I was too late to stop Floyd from marking her, too late to stop their wedding, too late at telling her I love her. Always so focused on work, waiting for an opportunity that never came. I missed my opportunity to save her. Instead, I willingly gave her up to him thinking that is what she wanted when all she wanted was for me to save her from him.” Marco whispers, Marco rubs a hand down his face, looking rather tired, it makes me wonder if he has slept at all, or if he has just been lost in his own head.
“And now that is the burden I carry, the burden of time. Time I thought I never had and will never get again.”
“So why are you wasting more of it by sitting here?” Axton asks him.
“Time is irrelevant without her now. I was always fighting to get back to her, and now I have no reason to keep fighting; I already lost any time I perceived as valuable,” he chuckles.
“I wasted it, and because I did, it killed her.” Marco states.
“I don’t know, but your crazy is starting to show and if Sondra was here, she would be beating it back into its box. So instead of wasting more of this never-ending time you have, why don’t you come do something productive with me, like save the pack that Sondra worked so hard to build from being eaten by a strigoi?” Axton suggests.
Marco pauses and seems to think for a second. Yet Axton is right, so long in here and he is starting to show sides of him he usually kept hidden. He wasn’t even trying to hide his fangs, usually he did, mostly he tried to keep what he is hidden. However, now he dropped the mask and doesn’t seem to care.
“I can’t go into the city. I am not even sure I can leave this room right now, Axton. Your scent is enticing enough. If I step out there, I may just kill somebody. Sondra would be furious if I killed somebody, especially one of her own.” Marco tells him, only as he speaks the words do I realize why he is in here. Lost in his own thoughts, he ignored instinct for far too long, leaving him trapped and making him ravenous. The only safety was in this room, away from temptation.
“Are you trying to make me look bad? Damn, Marco, I swear you just like the damn taste of me. Blood bags not doing enough for you these days, you have a freezer full downstairs?” Axton snaps at him while unbuttoning his jacket. I stare at him, wondering what he is doing before looking at Marco. Axton shrugs off his jacket, tossing it on Sondra’s bed, and shakes his head.
“I just fucking ironed this shirt too,” Axton huffs, unbuttoning his white button down shirt. He hands it to me and I hesitantly step into the room, only for Marco to move with speed I miss. Axton’s threatening growl sends shivers down my spine when Marco moves with a blood crazed gleam in his eyes. Axton cutting off his path toward me as if he expected it. Marco shakes his head, staggering back and blinking rapidly.
“Mark my mate and I mark your chest with a stake,” Axton growls, while Marco shakes his head, his body twitching and he swallows.
