In The Beginning, Chapter 6 - Broken

Charlie POV

I’m not sure how long we sat in the kitchen, I was numb from crying and exhausted from the extremely long day I had experienced. I must have been awake for around 20 hours at this point and it was draining me. Maria had just refreshed our ice, and poured us both a fourth or fifth drink, and I was swaying slightly when the front door opened and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“What exactly is happening in my pack?” An irate Miranda demanded as she entered the house, her husband behind her. I heard Maria groan in frustration before she slipped from her seat to intercept the couple.
“You both need to stay calm.” She warned, blocking their path to the kitchen. “Charlie has been traumatised; she is barely holding on.” She dropped her voice, trying to protect me from her words, but I could hear everything. “Daniel’s wolf... it’s a mess, when I got here, she was bleeding, and in a state, I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Not even you, Miranda. Also, Daniel is unconscious, we don’t know why. I linked Ben but I didn’t give him details, and I haven’t called a doctor yet, with the panic already spreading I didn’t think finding out the Alpha is asleep at the wheel would help. I’ve checked him over and he seems fine, if it weren’t for the fact we can’t wake him, I would assume he was asleep.” I couldn’t look at Miranda or Richard, I knew as parents they would be terrified for their son, and I didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to deal with their pain. Mine had already drained me of energy and tears. I felt Maria come up behind me, her hand on my back in comfort as the couple rushed to their son’s side. I heard them call him, like I had, shake him, like I had, and plead with him, like I had, to wake up.
“We can’t just leave him here; we should move him to the couch.” Miranda demanded after they had exhausted all means of waking him.
“I wouldn’t do that before we know what’s going on, we wouldn’t want to do him any permanent damage.” Maria suggested, while her words were like someone had poured cold water down my spine, Miranda seemed intent to ignore her.
“It’s not far-” She began, but thankfully Richard interrupted her before I could.
“I’m not moving him anywhere, and you can’t do it alone.” He warned, and I heard her mouth snap shut. I felt his warmth behind me, it reminded me of Daniel, except Richard smelled like coffee and didn’t put his arms around me the way Daniel would have. “Charlie?” He asked softly, turning me so he could see into my dull lifeless eyes. “Can you tell me what happened? What did this to Daniel?” He asked gently, treating me with care, just like Daniel.
“It was me. I happened.” I replied in a monotone, too exhausted to explain, I turned around and drained my glass. Before putting my head on the counter and closing my eyes.


For the first time in his life, Richard felt lost. It had been difficult when his father died, sure, but he knew what was expected of him, and for the most part what to say and do. He had been learning what it meant to be an Alpha from his father for as long as he could remember, so he was at least partly prepared. But this, his one son’s mate looked broken and damaged, her clothes, her hair, but most importantly, her soul, was recovering from something he couldn’t comprehend. Her mate had terrorised her, his other son’s mate looked just as lost as him as she tried to comfort the poor child, and his oldest son, the strongest wolf he had ever met, was unconscious and impossible to wake. He turned to his own mate, desperate for her strength, only to find his warrior woman, bent over her child, her stomach flush with his back, one hand on his head, the other wrapped around his neck. Unable to do anything for him, she had fallen apart for the first time ever, he watched as she silently allowed tears to flow down her face, another first. Miranda didn’t believe in public displays of emotion, especially tears, they were a private weakness that should never be displayed in front of anyone from the pack, except him and their moon goddess. Yet here she was, cradling her son, without a care or worry about who saw her, and it broke his heart. The front door opened and Maria left a now napping Charlie to intercept her own mate, and break the news of what had happened to his brother. The weight of what it meant landing squarely on his youngest son’s shoulders, and all Richard could do was watch as his son walked silently to his mother. He gently lifted her off Daniel’s still form, holding her with such care, allowing her to soak his shirt with his tears. As if a spell had been broken, Richard could see a path ahead, he carefully extracted his mate from his son, holding her to him, he could be strong for her, he knew how to do that. Ben moved to his brother’s side, and did something none of the rest of the family had tried yet. He lifted Daniel’s head, with the same care he had shown his mother, before dropping it and letting it hit the table with a dull thud. Maria watched as a sleeping Charlie flinched at the sound, she was about to object when Richard beat her to it.
“SON! We haven’t moved him for fear of doing damage, and yet you would intentionally hurt you brother? YOUR ALPHA?” He roared outraged. Ben held his hands up defensively.
“I have my reasons father.” He said slowly, assessing whether he would have to subdue his father or not. While it is true that his father was Alpha and still incredibly strong, Ben knew he was stronger, he still regularly trained with the warriors, and in the decade since his warrior training had truly began, he had only ever been defeated by Daniel. “Before he was Alpha, or he met Charlie... I would find him in this state most mornings.” Ben sighed, his eyes darting between his father, his mate and Charlie’s dozing back. “He was depressed, he kept hearing he had to find his Luna to take over the pack, and he was visiting all the packs, and attending their mating ceremonies. He even went to that ridiculous chase that pack in Nova Scotia have every year, but he couldn’t find her. So, he started drinking, heavily. He found a pack in Cincinnati who brew their own extra strength booze, started having them delivered so he could get trashed in private. Before that he was going into Biker Bars getting hammered and usually started fights by coming onto the wrong woman there. More than once when I found him I thought he had actually killed himself, but a short drop onto the table usually woke him, not sure why it didn’t work this time. But he needs to get up and help me keep this pack together.” Ben bellowed the last part in Daniel’s ear, after he explained, looking at his brother wearily.
“He didn’t pass out from drink.” Maria snapped, frustrated that he had not listened carefully to her words, again. “It looks like extreme fatigue, or I don’t know, maybe something else, a spell, or something?” She watched the realisation dawn on her husband’s face, rolling her eyes at how such a smart man could be so dim witted on times.
“Are you sure he didn’t have a fight with Charlie and get trashed? Have you tried pouring a glass of cold water on him? That usually works if the head thing doesn’t.” He replied, like he was being deliberately obtuse, earning himself a low growl from his mother.
“You’re brother could be in a coma, lost to us for goddess knows how long, and all you do is joke?” She snarled; her tears gone in her outrage.
“No mother, of course I am worried, and I care about my brother, my Alpha.” He said calmly to his parents. “But it’s Daniel, he is fine, he always is. He’s lived through far worse than this.”
“Tonight, was Charlie’s birthday, her 25th.” Maria suddenly changed the subject, earning her more than one confused look from the men in the room, Miranda had turned away from her son in disgust, choosing to bury her face in the calming scent of her mate, rather than attack her pup. “She said, that when they got home, they went up to bed, and she received her powers. Then something happened to Daniel, and then he turned into his wolf, and she said he was bigger than the last time she saw him...” Maria stopped herself, suddenly afraid of the picture the pieces she had so far gathered were creating.
“What is it?” Ben asked her softly, moving beside her, and slipping his fingers into hers.
“What if when Charlie got her powers it was the first domino? And everything that’s happened since is because of that?” Maria asked him quietly, her anxiety exposed to him.
“You think this could all be Charlie’s fault?” Ben asked her, confused, his eyes darting to the sleeping girl next to his mate, with his doubt obvious on his face.
“She thinks it. She said so herself, when you asked her what happened to Daniel, remember?” She asked Richard, he nodded slowly, also looking at the sleeping girl. Miranda had taken all she could, and mate or no mate, if that girl hurt her son, she was going to make her pay in blood. She turned, ready to let her claws slip down her nails, and took a determined step towards Charlie, ready to torture her if needs be for answers, her wolf’s instincts fuelling her. When Daniel groaned, Charlie’s head shot up, and she span around, but with so much whisky and no food in her stomach she nearly slid off the chair and it was obvious to everyone, she was more than a little drunk. Feeling guilty for being so heavy handed with her pouring Maria edged back towards the coffee machine. Miranda returned to the arms of her mate, after realising to hurt Charlie, would be the same as hurting Daniel.
“Charlie? Are you alright?” Ben asked softly, but she couldn’t focus on him in the state she was in. Seeing the bottle, Ben shot a look of frustration at Maria. “Charlie? We are going to drink a nice tall glass of water, while Maria makes you some coffee, alright? Because the last thing we need when Daniel wakes up is him losing his shit over his drunk off her ass mate.” He hissed at his own, causing her to bristle angrily.
“You didn’t see the state she was in; it was that or call the doctor to sedate her! And I didn’t think your brother, our Alpha, would appreciate it if I knocked her out! And then the entire pack found out that he passed out after destroying their bedroom with her in it, and she had to be medicated to deal with it all.” She hissed back her voice barely above a whisper, but that made it more frightening to Ben. Without another word, she handed him a glass of water for Charlie, he placed it into her hand, steadying it on the countertop.
“I really need you to drink this okay?” He asked her softly.
“Okay.” She meekly replied, taking a small sip.
“That’s the way, I have to go check on something, and when I come back, I want at least half of that water to be drunk, alright?” She nodded, unable to look him in the eyes, and he realised for the first time just how terrible she looked. Her eyes were red, her face puffy, but the brightness that he had noticed in her when he first met her was gone, and the confidence, she truly looked broken. “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes alright?” He asked her again, as Maria busied herself making Charlie her signature quadruple espresso.
“Where are you going?” Miranda demanded, hurt her son would leave his brother’s side.
“To look at what exactly Daniel did that put Charlie in that state.” He said in a very blunt manner, before turning back to the stairs.