~~

Reece

~~

I sat there, with my world crumbling around me. Cradling my mate in my arms as the tears flowed freely down my cheeks. The room around us was somber and quiet. I didn't know what to do for my wife at that moment.

"I failed you." The words shook as my voice trembled.

"No, it was my fault." She was crying as well, I could feel her shaking in my arms as we held each other. "You told me to not risk it, to stay out of the fight-."

"You listened to me, the fight went to you, you didn't chase it."

While I did my best to get through this most personal of moments in a room full of people, there was another of those maniacal laughs. The laughter was followed by a cold, mirthless voice.

"Aww, did the poor bitch lose her whelp." The laughter that followed was sickeningly sinister. "Guess I accomplished something already.

"You son of a bitch." I snarled.

"No, that would have been your useless child. But I saved you from that disappointment. You really should be thanking me, boy. "

"I should be ripping your damn head from your body right now." I snapped at him, the growl in my voice growing more and more fierce.

"Perhaps I should just send another wave of my new army after you." He chuckled as his purple smoke started to swirl around once more.

"Not again." Eldrige's voice came from somewhere across the room.

Another swarm of those monsters could be seen swirling within that smoke. Wherever they were, it was clear that Edmond was bringing them to us. He wanted to continue his assault in hopes of overwhelming us.

Just as it looked like the monsters might actually step out of that swirling purple cloud, a swarm of black SUVs pulled into the driveway. The calvary had arrived, so to speak. I wasn't worried about handling those monsters personally, but I needed to get my Little Bunny out of here and somewhere safe. She had been through enough for today already.

"We shall finish this later." Edmond's voice sounded angry and full of rage. He had apparently judged the situation to not be in his favor. "Just know, you stand no chance against me." His icy cold words disappeared along with that swirling cloud of purple smoke.

Zeek, the man who got out of the vehicle first ran toward me where I knelt on the ground holding my wife in my arms.

"Alpha, what happened?" He was looking around the destroyed building and the bloody bodies lying scattered across the whole room. He turned to look at Griffin, who was healing the warlocks. Zeek's expression was one of shock, and disbelief.

"We've just been through an attack. The man who we're after sent these monstrosities after us." I was a little more sharp tongued with my response than I should have been. I knew that the others had arrived as soon as they could, but I still had to wonder if they had gotten here just a little sooner, would my baby still be alive? Would it still be growing strong in my mate's womb? I thought that it would.

"Is everyone alright?" A member of the Sentinelle came up next, looking apprehensively at the blood covered queen I was holding for him and all the others to see.

"We're all fine." My words held a hidden meaning. I hadn't announced to the pack yet that Trinity was pregnant, so there was no need for me to tell them all that my unborn child had just died inside of its mother. Or that I wasn't sure how my wife was going to take this tragedy.

"With all due respect, Sir, what should we do now?" The Sentinelle spoke again. There was nothing at all wrong with his tone of voice, but I was angry, so very angry right now. I didn't know that losing my baby was ever a possibility. And I had lost so many members of my family over the years, but this was the hardest thing that I had ever faced out of all the losses. To lose my child, my flesh and blood, a piece of me and my mate combined, to have it taken from us before we even got to meet them, it was like a knife in my heart twisting constantly.

"What do you mean? Why do you even ask me that right now?" My roaring voice scared the man and all those standing behind him.

"Reece." My Little Bunny put her hand against my cheek. "Calm down, it's not his fault." Her cool fingers calmed me instantly, and that was when I realized she was cool to the touch, was she in shock? Or was this from her anger that raged like mine?

"Trinity, are you alright sweetheart?" I asked her quietly.

"Me? You're the one I told to calm down." She gave a fake half smile. She was forcing herself to hold emotions in right now.

"You're cool to the touch. Are you ok?" I asked her again.

"I am? I didn't notice. Actually I'm kind of numb right now." At her words I pulled her in closer, hugging her to me and sharing my warmth with her.

"I think we should call it a day for now." Gabriel broke the tension that was building all around. "Clearly, My King, it has been quite the busy, and emotionally taxing day. We have another week we can spend on this case, right? So, let's retire for the evening and get ourselves settled down first."

"Where are we going to stay?" Juniper asked in a small, weak voice.

"I will call and make a reservation somewhere." Noah had shifted back and covered himself after the arrival of the group. "Please, just give me some time."

Ten minutes later, Noah had returned, fully dressed, with information regarding our accommodations. He had even booked rooms for the warlocks that had just had their home destroyed.

"How did you find all these rooms?" Carter asked him when he came back with the information.

"It's late March, peak travel season is over."

"Huh, I guess that works." Carter responded.

"What are we going to do about this place?" Vincent asked, concerned for those losing their home.

"I actually have an idea for that." Cedar walked forward. "It would be a team effort." He was looking at Noah as he spoke.

"What is it?" Noah asked him confused.

"Everything a house or building like this is made of essentially comes from the earth in a way. I have an ability to control plants and trees, and you rock. Between us we cover the primary elements of this place. If we work together, we may be able to reform it."

"Seriously?" Noah looked doubtful.

"It's just a hunch, and it might not work, but-."

"It's worth a shot." I finished for him. "I think you should try it at least."

"Yes, Sir." They both answered in unison.

The now very large group piled out of the building. With help from Shawn, all the corpses were removed from the inside. And finally, Noah and Cedar put their hand on the outside of the structure.

"Remember, just tell the elements that you want to reform and remake what was here before."

"Do you think it will listen?" Shane asked sarcastically.

"Shut up you moron." Shawn dropped a floating snowball on his brother's head.

"Shane, my boy, have you ever heard of water memory? Well, perhaps it works the same with earth elements as well."

"I never thought of it like that." He seemed embarrassed like he was the only one who got a question wrong on a big school test. I hadn't thought of that either, I was just thinking that my team was very talented.

I watched as the two of them closed their eyes and began to concentrate. They both started emanating an interesting aura. Cedar's aura was a light earthy green while Noah's was the color of sandstone. The two auras, first side by side, began to swirl with each other.

The auras didn't mix or blend together. Instead the colors moved among each other in a push and pull pattern, like they were working in tandem. And as I watched, awestruck, the building began to reform itself. The fallen debris was lifted by roots that grew from within the walls and floors themselves.

The stone materials from the outer walls blew together in a giant cloud of dust to reshape the bricks that had crumbled into nothing. Everything that was made of wood and stone reshaped itself and looked brand new.

"Huh, do you not recognize glass as coming from stone?" My Little Bunny asked her cousin as she looked at the building, missing several windows but otherwise looking whole again.

"They're glass." Noah told her.

"Glass is made from sand, which is made from rock." She laughed at him. "You're skipping a major element here."

"I'll work on it." He glared at her. "But still, we reformed the place, that's good enough for now."

"Indeed it is, and we appreciate it very much." Crawford told him with a smile on his face.

"Now, shall we go now?" Gabriel suggested as he looked at the still shell shocked mate in my arms.

"Yes, let's go."

We all got into the SUVs, the warlocks in their personal vehicles. I had instructed Ken, the pilot, to fly somewhere out of the way when we had arrived, so thankfully the helicopter was not damaged, but the resort we were going to was close enough to not warrant taking such a drastic transport there.

This was definitely not how I expected today to go. This outcome was nowhere near my thoughts when we left this morning. And then, to top it all off, there was the tragic outcome. Yeah, we won the fight, but Edmond got away and my child was taken from us before we even got to know them. I just wanted to get my mate somewhere quiet and private. Somewhere we could help each other through this hard time.