The Haunted Memories [4]

[AWUOR]

"Goodbye Luna Eniola Sicario," Awuor said as the wolves gently laid her mother in the damn grave. She hated what she was seeing. Her mother was warped in damned white sheets. She looked like a mummy from the seventies, but did that even matter now?

Awuor was alone. Completely and utterly alone. The wolves wanted her out of there, but none of them could say or do anything to her.

Awuor watched the wolves she had been ruling and the anger in their eyes, the fire, and the disappointment in them was a reminder that no matter what happened to her, she had to find whoever did this to her mother.

She had to make sure that the culprit didn't go free. Her mother had deserved better than having her daughter framed for her murder. It was embarrassing and annoying and it made Awuor want to punch everyone here but she couldn't.

"Goodbye mother," Dom said, and as he picked a chunk of soil from the graveside to throw at their mother, as tradition demanded, Awuor noticed something.

Her brother was shaking.

Dominic Sicario was nervous about something her brother who never got nervous was nervous today. He had patches of red on him, but Awuor dismissed it because she figured he may have gotten it on him when he went to see their mother.

There was only one thing that could confirm if her brother was the murderer.

His scent.

"I'm sorry, Dom," Awuor said, when she walked to her brother. She couldn't hug him, because her hands were still cuffed, but she leaned her head on his shoulder. It was the last time she would do this and she knew it.

So she took that time to breathe her brother in. Granted, it seemed creepy as hell, but it was something she needed to do, besides, they were siblings, nothing was wrong with them leaning on each other anyway. And she did get what she wanted.

Her brother's usual woody scent was masked. Why would he mask his scent when she was home? Why would he do that and yet they were not even in enemy territory? The fact that he had masked it with the damned liquid in the gym, confirmed Awuor's suspicions.

Her scared brother right now, was the reason for all this madness she was experiencing. It was all his fault. There was no remorse in his eyes, just disappointment. And that made the young alpha want to push her brother into the damn grave.

However, she controlled herself, even when her brother rudely pointed out that he wasn't going to hold the shoulder that his murderer of a sister relied on. Oh, the audacity Dom had.

"It should be you in there, go on! Be with her, you sick woman! You took our mother away," Dom said and Awuor held back a scoff.

He wasn't as emotional as he thought he sounded. Instead, it was like he was trying to be a dog, a hopeless one for a fact in a place where the butcher was the dog himself.

Awuor walked to her mate, the man the fates had provided for her, the man who should have stood up for her even when everyone was against her. The man who should have been there for her.

However, as she closed in, he walked away, and she could sense that his caramel scent was masked too. In the same manner as her brother's. She tried to talk to her mate in the mindlink. But he had blocked her.

How could so much change in just one morning?

How could she have turned into a murderer that fast?

Her brother and mate were fighting her, and that much was obvious.

When the burial was over, Awuor could see her people come at her officially, now that her last role as alpha was done. She didn't want to care, she was too busy thinking about her mate and her brother.

They had obviously been the culprits and she was still going to take the fall for them. She knew it, but she was going to be the rebel that did whatever she liked. So breathing in a deep sigh, Awuor let the wolves do whatever they wanted with her.

She didn't have to fight, because she would never win. Not this one, not this time. But she would make them pay. She would teach them a lesson once they are done with her. They had killed her mother, and she would teach them lessons that even karma would lose her mind.

****

[TODAY]

"Dammit, I shouldn't have let them be free," Awuor cursed herself as the mosquitoes feasting on her woke her up from her usual nightmare. She should have changed into her wolf but she was tired of it all.

This evening, Awuor dejectedly walked out and sat on the stone in front of her shelter. It was a beautiful one that could only fit one person.

The shelter had just her regal clothes. Everything else was either grass or leaves. She usually slept in her wolf form at night and always spent the day in her human form, that way, she was able to survive the cold.

As for her clothing during the day, the reject had learned to create herself clothes from the banana leaves. It made her look like a whole new person especially with her messy hair, but no one around her would care, not that there had bene any sightings of human life around her anyway.

The weather was nice today and the alpha loved it.

She wondered how she was supposed to spend the rest of her unfortunate day, and so in her curiosity and boredom, she opened the mind links to her home. Being the alpha and considering she hadn't cut ties with her people Awuor was still able to link with them.

The moment she opened the links, she could hear so many people talk at the same time, and instinctively, she looked for the familiar voices.

The first one she looked for was her father's. She wanted to know whether the alpha was doing okay. She wanted to know if the alpha had turned on his people. Maybe she was hoping for the worst, but then that was an alpha who had lost his mate.

Surely there had to be consequences.

"Prepare the warriors," she could hear her father say and for a moment, Awuor wondered whether there was a war coming, But then again, she knew it was just the usual training.

She knew what was coming next, so instead of listening to her father discuss the issues about the warriors, she looked for another voice to focus on.

"How are you my darling? I see you look prettier than yesterday," Awuor heard her mate say, probably to another woman. Oh, how she wanted to bash his head on the wall for betraying her, but she couldn't. At least not yet anyway.

Angrily, she skipped her mate's voice and focused on her brother's.

It had been so long since she had heard from Dom. Her brother sure was angry with her. She had, after all, taken the one person who kept the whole family together. Awor wondered whether her brother would ever forgive her.

She wondered whether he would look at her any differently or if he would want her gone and gone like their mother. The universe was cruel, but such was the life Awuor was supposed to adapt to.

Before she could filter her brother's voice out, she heard rusting of leaves around her. Someone was here, and from the look of it, it wasn't just one person.

'Well, it's been a peaceful eight months anyway,' Awuor said to herself as the footsteps got closer. They were heavy, which could mean that the people coming for her were men, probably rogues, but the rejected alpha was ready for them.