Goodbye Little Wolf

*Dean POV*

My Alpha wolf took over. Eight swung his knife at me. I swung back and cut the blade off its handle.
“You’re not the only one with power,” Eight sneered.
It felt like someone cut the rope between Layla and me. I struggled to gain the rope again but it kept slipping through my fingers. Eight thought he could try his vampire speed with me. He zipped out of the tent but I had his puny neck around my paw in seconds.
Wolves lay on the ground. Green grass was stained red. Arrows with my mate’s blood lay discarded on the ground.
“Dean!” Gabe yelled.
Eight bore his baby vampire fangs. I slammed his head into the ground.
I wish I could tell him to fuck off one last time. My teeth sunk into his neck. My wolf wanted revenge for our mate.
“Dean, something’s happening!” Gabe yelled.
Eight stared at the sky motionlessly.
I shifted back to human form and watched as hybrids dropped and shifted back to humans. Others retreated but didn’t get far before caught by a beta solider.
“It’s coming from the gym,” I whispered.
Purple smoke seeped out of the open door, flying into the open field. The moon stone’s power. It was reversing the hybrid process.
“Betas, pull back!” I ordered.
No more causalities. No more blood.
I watched as the purple smoke ran out and the rest of the hybrids passed out on the field.
“Alpha…” Lyle trailed.
“Your chest,” Dec finished.
I looked down. A black stain covered half of my abs.
“Not again. Layla!”
I ran into the gym. I picked up her limb body.
“I need help!”
I knelt in a pool of her blood. Her eyes closed and her body stilled. I refused to accept it.
“What happened?” My brother barged inside.
“I need help! Now!” I barked my eyes filled with tears.
The stain on my body wasn’t a lie. It wasn’t like the first time I got it. I knew her now. I loved her.
“Get help! Layla’s hurt!” Gabe yelled.
Despite the denial I showed I knew in my heart that my Little Wolf was dead.
I picked her limb body and held her to my chest. Why would she jump in front of me?
“Why Layla? Why?”
***
I knew the verdict despite the healer going in to check on her. I stormed out of the gym and grabbed my brother’s shoulders.
“Where the hell is it?” I demanded.
“Whoa, relax, Dean, Gabe wasn’t responsible for this,” Kenzie yelled.
The betas watched helplessly as I gripped my brother.
Gabe knew what I was talking about. He didn’t know I knew about his ventures with demi-gods but he understood now.
“It won’t work Dean. It’s far and she’s been gone long enough.”
“Don’t say that! She can’t leave me!” I barked.
“Alpha, Dean,” Owen, Layla’s last relative spoke.
I threw Gabe luckily for him he didn’t fall.
Owen hung his head. He was defeated too. I couldn’t lose. Not to a silver blade meant for me.
“We have to prepare for her funeral,” Owen said. “As your Luna her funeral must be special and this area with become sacred.”
Tears stung my eyes. I didn’t care about looking weak. My mate was gone and there wasn’t a deal in the world I could make to save her. Layla’s gone for real this time and she took a part of me with her.
Hours later I was forced to change. I was made to listen to the cries of her friends when they were told she was gone. Sections of my castle were in ruins but I couldn’t care less. She gave up a lot of her strength so my pack could be safe and I hadn’t even given her a dignified mating ceremony just an exchange of words in a dark room.
“I’m such an idiot,” I sniffled.
I confined myself to our bedroom. It still smelt like her. She beat my ass in this room days ago and destroyed my curse. Now what reason do I have to live?
“Fuck?” I groaned.
A knock came at the door and Gabe walked in.
“She’s in your garden. The funeral’s in an hour Dean.”
I nodded.
Gabe sighed heavily. “Dean, I’m sorry. I’d give anything not to have you go through with this. Not even the goddess’ pool would save her. It was too late.”
“I understand Gabe. It doesn’t do anything to help me.”
“You need me to go with you?”
“No… I need to say goodbye alone.”
Even on the walk to my private garden I held out hope that this was a horrible nightmare. The worst a man should ever be subjected to and I would wake up to her body curled up beside me and her purple eyes staring at me. That all shattered when I found her resting in a bed of hay and roses. Someone was kind enough to add lilacs around her bed. My mate had been cleaned and changed into a white gown. Her hands rested on her chest with her eyes closed.
“You saved my pack, Little Wolf.”
I touched her cold hands.
“I don’t understand why you didn’t heal. You’re a damn powerful wolf!”
I couldn’t bring myself to watch her burn. I know it was tradition but I’d rather have a place I could visit her.
“Why give me a mate if you’re just going to take her away?” I asked a goddess who couldn’t respond.
The wind wiped her pale face. My wolf mourned and retreated deep into a place I couldn’t reach. I only knew love when she came into my life.
“Goodbye Little Wolf.”
I turned around to leave the garden and ruffle feathers when I told everyone there wouldn’t be a traditional pack funeral that I’d rather have her buried.
“Dean.” The wind whipped my ear it almost sounded like my name. I shook my head and walked.
“Dean! Where are you going?”
My heart slammed forward and I span.
Layla sat up staring at the bed she was in.
“Little Wolf? Layla?”
She looked up and I stopped short.
“Fuck,” I said.
“What? What’s wrong?”
I closed the gap between us and pulled her off the hay bed. I kicked it aside.
“Please tell me this isn’t a joke. You’re alive right? You can breathe?”
“Maybe not if you keep squeezing me.”
I set her down and pulled back. I stroked her cheeks and cupped her face. I looked into her eyes. I was stunned by the change but I knew the goddess’ power was gone.
“Your eyes, Layla,” I said.
“What’s wrong with them?”
“They’re brown!”
She gasped. “What do you mean brown?”
I laughed. I missed her voice. I wrapped her up again when I pulled back I closed my mouth on hers, savouring her sweet taste.
“Baby, I lost you. Everyone thought you were gone.”
Silence fell on us for a minute.
“I was gone, Dean.”
“Why would you jump in front of me? Why the fuck would you do that?”
“You know it’s not fair to want me to live without you. I didn’t think Eight would hurt me.”
“He killed you and I destroyed him.”
“Dean, this is my last chance and my last life. I want to live it with you.”
“I wouldn’t want to live my life with anyone else. You’re all I’ll ever need.”
I captured her lips again and again. With the hybrids gone we were free to start our own family to live in peace.
“Come on let’s go freak people out.”
I took her hand and walked out of the garden with my mate, Maybe the goddess could answer after all.