raiden

The sound of Maia's heartbeat monitor beeping was the only thing that could be heard in the silent room. There were six of us in the small room, excluding Maia, and yet nobody dared to speak. Mom and Dad's attention was focused solely on Maia's pale form. Judging from their clouded eyes, they were talking through their link. Mars sat on my side, waiting for someone to speak up. He had done what I requested and found Cloud who was on the opposite side of me. Our hands were tangled together with my head resting against his shoulder and yet we still felt so far apart.

I want to ask him about the bruise on his face — to talk about our fight and work on fixing our relationship, but as much as I want to do all those things, there are more important matters at the moment.

That being Beta Reo.

In the corner of the room is Alpha Tatum. His eyes stare at Maia's unmoving form, but he doesn't seem to be all the way there. Cloud's eyes keep glancing over at him worriedly.

"Raiden," Dad's voice fills the quiet room. "What happened?"

All eyes turn to me, waiting for an answer. Mom looks at me, her eyes are red and swollen from crying. It starkly contrasted her normal false-happiness expression that masked her true intentions behind a smile. Dad appeared more put together than Mom. At least, on the outside he did, but a key feature that Dad and Maia shared was their ability to overthink. Their brains never stopped working, even if they didn't directly show you that something was wrong with them, there was a high chance that they were thinking about it.

Alpha Tatum's green eyes were full of anger and even though I knew it wasn't directed at me, I couldn't help but tense at the sight of it. I was used to his normally stoic expression, not the intense dark one. His hands were clenched tightly into fists and his body was tense. It made me wonder just what was happening inside his head.

Mars watches me patiently. He stares at me as if saying to calm down and not get overwhelmed. I'm used to seeing the smiling and playful Mars, but he's completely serious right now.

A hand squeezes my own and I glance over at Cloud. Whatever happened between us seems to have been pushed to the side and even though we aren't the same as we were before everything, he stares at me with a soft expression. As if saying that everything will be okay. Even though it was just a small touch, it shows me that he cares and reminds me of the times I comforted him in the past. Now it was the opposite.

"Raiden," Mars calls out softly, bringing my attention back to the group.

I swallow. "Right, sorry," I glance at them all. "I...I had gone out to the woods and came across Beta Reo who appeared to be in pain of some sort. He refused my help and left. Not long after, Alpha Demos showed up. He was trying to convince me to marry Nara when Maia came and ordered him to leave."

My eyes trail to Alpha Tatum. His jaw clenches when I say Alpha Demos' name. He turns away from us before taking a deep breath and looking at me once again.

"Continue," he says, his voice dangerously calm.

Nobody in the room says anything so I do so. "Alpha Demos refused to leave and that's when the beta showed up. Despite how many times we tried to get him to go, Alpha Demos wouldn't. He and I got into an argument and he attempted to attack me when Maia intervened, that's how she got injured," my eyes move to Maia before I take a deep breath and continue. "When we saw the scale of Maia's injuries, Beta Reo ordered me to leave. I didn't want to, but Maia was..."

The word didn't have to be said. We all knew what I meant; Maia was dying.

As much as I wanted to stay and help the beta, we both knew that if we waited too long, Maia wouldn't survive. Even now, she wasn't out of the woods just yet, but I couldn't help but feel guilty. This whole situation was caused because of me — not just Maia and Beta Reo, but Cloud being threatened and the wolf from Gray's pack as well. In the center of it all, there I stood.

The light brush against my shoulder causes me to turn my attention to Mars. Though he doesn't say anything, his eyes do all the talking. Don't blame yourself for this.

"So what's our next move?" Dad asked, his hands clenched into fists. "Are we just going to sit on our asses while that man does whatever the hell he wants? While my daughter is fighting for her life?!"

Dad's angry eyes meet the alpha's who shakes his head.

"Rushing straight into war with Alpha Demos' pack would be suicide," he tells Dad. "They outnumber us by a hundred warriors at the very least and with Maia down and Reo gone, we're at an even bigger disadvantage," Dad's mouth opens, likely to argue but Alpha Tatum raises his hand in a silencing motion. "But, that doesn't mean that he's going to get away with this."

His eyes light up and even though he doesn't say anything, I can tell his words are sincere. Alpha Demos won't be getting away with this. We'll be coming after him.

"So what are we doing right now to prepare?" It's Mars who asks this. "We don't have all the time in the world. The longer we wait, the more our chances of bringing the beta back lower. We need to move quickly, but smartly."

Alpha Tatum's mouth opens, but the sound of a quiet knock on the door causes him to stop. Mom and Dad look at each other curiously.

"Come in!" Mom calls out.

When the door opens, standing there is Nara. Her hands fiddle around and her eyes are directed to the floor.

"I-I heard about what happened," she says timidly. "I want to help you—"

Her words are cut off, by Dad's scoff. Mom looks at her with a newfound hatred shining in her eyes. Before, whenever she looked at Nara, she put on her fake smile but now the mask had dropped.

"Your father was the one who caused this and now you want to help?" Mom scoffs. "It seems too coincidental."

Nara flinches at Mom's tone, but I can't deny that her words don't hold some truth to them. There was a possibility that Nara could be working with Alpha Demos and having her here could cause more harm to come.

"I-I..." Nara stutters over her words.

"What you need to do is lea—" Mom begins to say, but she's stopped by the sound of Cloud letting out a cough.

For the first time, he seems to actually be focusing on the conversation and he looks at Mom.

"Let her speak."