"You have a brother?" I look over at him from my laying position to see he's still looking up at the sky. Our voices were in a soft whisper.
"I had a brother. Today's the anniversary of his death."
"How old was he," I ask him. I didn't go with the common "I'm sorry for your lost". I didn't want to upset him.
"He was eleven when he died. I was only nine. We didn't have the same mom, so we weren't close. They mostly separated us. We were complete opposites. Everyone loved his auburn, red hair and green eyes."
"Should I ask my questions now or wait for you to explain?" He laughs at my question.
"Wait." I nod in understanding.
"Have you ever watched shows like Reign? With kingdoms and royalty," he asks me.
"Of course." I may not be human, but Netflix is my main source of entertainment.
"Arsenio was basically the king and my brother, Zedem, his mother was queen. She was the packs Luna, Arsenio's mate. I don't know how it was possible, but he was with my mom while he was with Dieula, Zedem's mom. I've never heard of an alpha ignoring the mate bond and cheating."
"How is that even possible? I thought once you found your mate, there was no way you'd even look at another person." Alaric just shrugged his shoulders.
"Dieula didn't know about the affair Arsenio was having with my mom. She only thought my mom was a maid. When he got Dieula pregnant with Zedem, my mom tried to break it off with Arsenio, but they still couldn't stay away from each other for some reason. After a couple years of hiding their affair, Arsenio got my mom pregnant."
"He tried to ship her off when she told him she was pregnant, but she went to Dieula and told her that she was pregnant. My mom wasn't going to let Arsenio just send her off. She didn't want to raise me alone. Dieula wanted my mom to get an abortion because she was embarrassed and didn't want the pack to know that her mate was having an affair."
"My mom said no and demanded to be treated as high of a statues as her, even though she was an omega. She also didn't want the title of mistress. She got what she wanted. They gave her a house for herself and she was allowed on the council for making decisions for the pack."
"Zedem was two by the time I was born, but we never got the same treatment. I was basically seen as the bastard of the family because I was the mistresses son. As we grew up, Zedem was groomed for being alpha and I was groomed for nothing."
"I have never met an eleven year old that could be as much of an asshole as him. He got most of the kids in the pack to stop being my friend and everyone thought he was so cool. The only person I had at my side was Don when we were younger, even though he was supposed to be Zedem's beta. Hanna came in from a different pack with her parents and that's how we became friends."
"Now that I'm older, I've realized that my mother was a every jealous person. She didn't like that I wasn't being trained to be the next alpha and killed Dieula in her sleep. She killed Zedem in front of the whole pack the next morning. Arsenio didn't stop her in time."
"I remember it like it was yesterday. she had a witch by her side. The witch created a shield so that no one could get through and save him. It was a public execution. All anyone could do is try to break through and watch as she suffocated him with her bare hands. I could see the fear on his face, but hers had no emotion."
"When the shield finally dropped, my mom stood there like nothing happened. That same night, they burned her alive. I screamed for them not to do it, but they didn't care. They were out for blood. Yes, I was upset that my mom had ended two lives, but she was still my mom and I still loved her."
"After they were done, they still weren't satisfied. They wanted me dead too, but Arsenio said no. That I was to be the next alpha. It didn't stop some of them from trying to kill me in my sleep. Some almost succeeded. I remember trying to breathe through the pillow they placed over my face and wondered if that's what Dieula felt when my mom did the same to her."
"Arsenio killed the ones that came after me, but they never accepted me and they never will, so I figured I might as well finish the job for them."
After a long comfortable silence, I figured his story was over.
"That's all? Your stories pretty boring," I tell him and he laughs, having the reaction I was hoping to get.
That's what we do.
Laugh away our pain.
I play with his hair and he has his thinking face on.
"Is it bad that I miss her?" I don't have to ask who he means.
"No and I think people wanting you dead is more of a reason to fight back. Do you really want to be dead? There are still people here who care about you and hope you care enough to live for them too." He looks up into my eyes.
"Don't think I forgot about your side of the deal." I breath out a sigh and get into a sitting position.
"A deal is a deal, I guess. So, where do you want me to start?"
"The beginning, obviously, you dork." He sits in an upright position too and nudges my shoulder.
"It'll be fast. My story isn't as interesting, so I'll just flat out say it. I'm schizophrenic."
I don't know what reaction I was hoping for, but no surprise on his face was not it.
Maybe that wolfsbane had more effect on him than I thought.
"How did it start?" This was definitely the first time the conversation of my condition sounded so normal.
"It was after my mom died. It's kind of a blank to me, but my dad said I stopped having any emotional response to anything and I'd just sit there. Sometimes I wouldn't eat or talk. I was just silent. Are you sure you want me to keep going?"
"Are you scared, Anne," He asks me. He takes my shaky hands.
"No," I shake my head. "I'll continue the story. I was asking for your benefit. Didn't want to ruin your mood even more."
I was lying so bad.
"I was angry. Very angry, but not really with my mother's killers, but with myself. I was mad at myself because I couldn't save her and I just tried to find anyway to blame her killers, when really, it was an accident."
"Kids tried to be my friend in school and the only reaction I had was strangling a kid half to death. What eight year old does that? I was kicked out of probably three schools before my dad decided to homeschool me."
"Instead of the regular curriculum, he trained me in magic and weapons. It helped me release my anger better, but once that happened, I started to hear things. I started seeing my dead mother everywhere I went. I'd hear her talking about how I was a failure and I knew it wasn't really her because she would have never talked to me that way. I'd start screaming and my dad didn't know at what. He'd just see me screaming at empty walls," I say the last part laughing, tears in my eyes, but they don't spill out.
"When I started going on missions with him, I'd always pick to go after the wolf. I liked to go into their minds. It was something about their uncontrollable anger that made me feel good. I was addicted to the feeling. I got high off of it. I think that's what my therapist was trying to tell me."
"I've tried everything and nothing has worked. No matter how happy I am now. I still get blackouts like that time I almost killed that wolf in the alley and when I shot the hell out of that other wolf's legs. I've tried pills when I was younger and they just make me feel depressed and lonely. I've tried staying busy, but once I'm alone it all comes rushing back and I feel like I'm choking."
I was hysterically crying and Alaric pulls me in for comfort.
"It's just becoming too much and I feel like giving up."
"Why do you hide all of this," Alaric asks.
"The same way you hide your pain through quietness, I hide mines with strength and stubbornness. We both have our reasons. What I want you to know is that you guys have made a difference and this is the happiest I've been since my mom died. That's a fact."
"Can we promise each other something?" I pull away from Alaric to be able to see his face. I nod my head.
"Promise that we'll live for each other because I wouldn't know what to do if you died."