Sous turned the corner in her office, just before she was to close the door to become a virtual meeting with some cohorts, her boss placed his wing into the door to stop it from closing.
"Tsk, don't do that," Sous said. "That door could chop your wing off one-day."
The fairy just huffed and smirked as he made his way inside. He handed Sous a folded letter, an invitation. "An email is going to be sent soon. A cancer conference sprung up. That potion you and your team have been working on about cancer in humans, is gaining a lot of traction."
Sous looked at the date on the letter. "Wait a minute, I'm suppose to go see my daughter this day, you know this!" She said, her voice getting loud at her boss.
"Listen, you can see your daughter any day but this is cancer we're talking about, and the ability to cure it," he emphasized to the Alpha before him.
Sous sighed and went to her computer. She drafted up a parchment to send to Pameon on why she wasn't able to make it and they will have to reschedule. She looked up to see her boss no longer there and as she slammed herself in her desk chair, he was right. This potion they've been working on for the past four years was a big deal for humans.
Still, all the way in Canas, Pamoen sat on the edge of her bed reading the letter. Zhiliary had come down to the training center to see how things were improving, extremely impressed by Pamoen who had been recently promoted into a scout.
Xeno and Zhiliary stood to the side until Zhiliary appoarched Pamoen. She knelt down to the young Omega. "See..." the Alpha said. "She doesn't love you."
Pamoen tightened her grip around the paper, not looking up, but Xeno could see her jaw flexing. "She-she lov-loves me," her stutter resurfacing.
Zhiliary took the letter slowly from Pamoen's hands. "No. No, she doesn't. That's why she sent you here. She was dying to get rid of you." Pamoen looked at Xeno, a man she thrusted, nodding his head.
The Omega did her best to not allow the tears to form while Zhiliary spoke.
"Your sire has a dark, dark past," Zhiliary whispered. "Look," she pointed to Xeno. "Did you know Sous killed Xeno's sire?" Pamoen's eyes got wide, looking Xeno. "Hmm hmm, she sure did." Zhiliary grabbed Pamoen's chin so the young girl could face her. "Sous is very evil."
The worn parchment crinkled under Pamoen's trembling fingers, the scent of ink and old paper filling her nostrils as Zhiliary's words carved a jagged path through her mind.
Outside, the distant clash of training weapons echoed, metal on metal, a brutal symphony that felt suddenly suffocating. Xeno's silent nod hung heavy in the air, a verdict delivered without sound.
Pamoen felt the cool roughness of the wool blanket beneath her, the rhythmic thud of her own heartbeat drowning out the barracks' ambient noise. Tears blurred her vision, hot and insistent, but she swallowed hard, pressing her palms flat against her thighs until her fingers ached.
Zhiliary released her chin, leaving behind a phantom pressure where cruel fingers had been. The Alpha's triumphant silence coiled around Pamoen like smoke as she retreated, Xeno a shadow at her heels.
The training yard's clamor faded into a muffled roar, punctuated only by the sharp intake of Pamoen's own uneven breaths. The accusation against Sous, her sire, echoed louder than any shout, twisting her gut into knots.
Sous stood in her shed scaling the large size fish she and her Alpha children caught that afternoon. She flipped it on the table and began to scale the other side before cutting it up via a slit in the abdomen, and pulling out all the organs.
She sighed and stood there for a moment. It had been months since she heard from Pamoen. Ever since she had to write the young Omega that she wouldn't be able to visit because of a big conference at work regarding alchemy and how it can assist cancer in human patients.
The Alpha rubbed the blood off her jeans and proceeded to hang the fish from a hook. It would be their dinner in the up coming days.
When she walked into the house, she opened her mouth to speak to Kara who was in the kitchen, but found herself closing it. The kids weren't home yet so Sous cleaned herself up, and went to Puimo's room. A room that used to belong to Pamoen as well.
She sat on the edge of the vacant bed and said to herself, "I lost her...didn't I?"
Sous' eyes traced the carvings on the wooden bedframe, whorls and knots Pamoen had scratched during restless nights, faint but still palpable under her calloused fingertips.
The scent of dried paint Pamoen used to paint her small model cars lingered beneath the sharper tang of dust, a ghost of the sachets her daughter used to tuck beneath her pillow.
The lowing of the coastal waves that slammed against the coastal rocks entered the half-open window, a mournful counterpoint to the hollowness filling the room.
Then what about Xeno? Her son, she still had yet to meet him but...but there was a good chance he too was gone.
"SIREEE!" Puimo slammed herself into the doorframe looking at her sire. "The wolf pack is ready for the hunt," she said throwing her backpack aside.
"Yeah, yeah," Sous laughed getting up from the bed. She placed her hand on Puimo's head and together they left the room.
Sous needed that hunt, running with the wolves that made her feel at peace. She had gotten used to not be able to transform like the other wolves. She was accepted though, her and her children who were able to transform.
HAAAAOOOOOOO!
The small pack howled at the moon above on the coast cliffs through the dense foliage of the trees and bushes. She hoped...Pamoen and Xeno wouldn't fall victim to Apex pack.