Three months had passed since the death of Eros. Lupin and I had picked a date for our wedding, and our families had decided to stay in town. We were all waiting for something to happen. Picking a date that took place after this, far after this. For we still had a Deal to uphold, and we didn't know how that would end. But even so, three months passed and nothing truly exciting had happened. We lived our lives, Lupin and I learned each other further.
Rayen and Tristan had their ceremony a few weeks after the opera house battle. So I got to see first hand how the wolves promised each other, and my monster approved. When Autumn and August Turned for the first time, over a fight for a toy doll, there were many pictures taken and smiling faces. It had been a good day, the grey little wolf cub, taking after her mother, and black pup, a coat like his father, the cutest things ever to exist. The toddlers had started to call me Aunt Fable, due to Embers urging, though it was pronounced more like, Un Able. I had taken to the title well, even held a painting session for the little rascals, which basically consisted of them trying to eat my paint. The cutest thing being the twins awe at Izze's existence.
It had been a good day, a family gathering. Stories shared and laughs ringing, food eaten and drinks drunk. A good day. Followed by this.
We walked into the room. It was a large cave, darkness curling at all sides. A long narrow bridge stretched the expanse. At the end sat Him. It was all exactly as I remembered. The darkness, the stench, the screams in the distance. So many people had been pushed off this bridge, my siblings and I referred to it as Ineffective, Carter had found it quite amusing, so amusing that he had made us all push a person off. I still remembered her face, resigned, didn't even ask for mercy, she knew it wouldn't come.
Lupin's hand brushes my back pulling me out of the memory. I look back down the expanse of Ineffective. Carter smiling atop his throne. Half his face as beautiful as it always was, green eye haunting, like pale glass, long black hair cascading down his shoulder. Skin like white marble, perfect and disarmingly beautiful. The other side of his face is just a skull, grey bone, unfeeling and impassive. He dressed in his usually black robes, floating and layered. A crown of metal thorns resting comfortably on his brow. I hated this man. Hated Him with every fiber of my being.
"Carter." I greeted from where I stood, the bridge still separating us.
"My little monster." He intoned, the smile pulling on his lips. "Won't you come closer, so we won't have to yell." Neither of us was yelling, knowing we could hear just fine, but I moved forward at his request, Lupin at my side. We stopped a few feet from his throne, constructed of bones, a few I had aided in putting there.
"How are you, little monster? It has been far too long." I keep my mask on, the one He had taught me to build. Staring at Him impassively, uncaring. He smiled in recognition, knowing my monster better than anyone.
"I was better when I was farther away from you." His smile falls away instantly.
"This game is growing tiresome, little monster." He raises His head, looking down His nose at me. "You've had your little rebellion, I gave you nine years of freedom, it's time you come back to me. Where you rightfully belong." The wolf beside me growls at His confidence.
"It's not a game, Carter. It was a Deal, a Deal you broke." I remind Him, meeting his degrading look.
"I never broke our Deal, little monster."
"You went after me."
"No." He says the smile slipping back. "Eros went after you." I freeze, realizing it all too late.
"But-" I try to rationalize. "But you released her." He nods, ever the wise man.
"I did let her out, but I never instructed her to go after you, she did that all on her own." My mind spins trying to grasp what He plans.
"But you knew she'd come after me, you had to." He nods again as I meet his green eye, pride and wickedness living in it's depths.
"Very good, little monster. You've learned my ways." I release a shaking breath.
"She was only the messenger, the spark." His smile grows. "All to get me here." Carter laughs at the hatred in my voice, my wolf snarling beside me.
"But we made a Deal, I can leave." He bows His head.
"Yes," He smiles. "You can both leave whenever you'd like." Dread builds in my gut.
"Why?" He tilts his head regarding me for a long moment.
"You ask the wrong question, little monster." I grit my teeth, hating His belittling, treating me like a stupid child.
"You can't take me back, you can't keep me here. We made a Deal, you can't go after me, and I will not come willingly. So why start it all, why release Eros?" He keeps the same face, judging and belittling.
"Again, little monster." I grit my teeth hating this man.
"What are you after?" His smile grows, amused and wicked.
"The Deal guarantees that I can't go after you, or your siblings. I give you this chance to willingly offer yourself to me, let us rule the Infernal Realm together, as I always intended. I shall swear to the Fates to leave your family alone, I only want you." I stare at Him, sick to my stomach. I'd always known it. I knew that my siblings were only brought to this hell to control me, but still I had refused to believe it. I couldn't live with that guilt. Now He solidifies it, like it means nothing. I was the reason for their suffering. Hate rises in me, boiling and ugly, the monster raging with me.
"I will never go with you." He cocks his head.
"Not even to save your family?"
"We can hold our own, and they would hate me if I chose this." He squints His eyes at me, regarding my decision. After a moment His eyes flick to Lupin.
"Your mate, I assume?" I don't say anything, neither does Lupin. "I've heard whispers of you, they call you Fenrir." When a moment of complete silence passes He turns back to me.
"Such a match would definitely breed well." A split moment of confusion. I skip and a hop and a click of a clock, where I don't understand what he's saying. And then it all clicks and its hard to breathe but that's all I can do. Breath in, breathe out, breathe in.
My hand presses to my stomach, inherently protecting. My eyes are wide and He laughs at the terror on my face. He wants my baby. The wolf beside me catches on and roars at the ruler of the Underworld, eyes glowing silver.
"I'm a patient man, I know how to wait. I don't care what the gender is either. I can raise a boy as my heir, the strongest prince the Infernal Realm has ever seen. Now for the girl," He shrugs. "I need only wait a few years until she's able to give me children of her own." The anger and hatred and fear builds inside of me, until I almost hurl. Carter smiles, pale green eye watching me. "I offer again that you give yourself to me, be my queen and get the chance to raise your child." He paused for a moment. "Fucking your daughter just wouldn't be the same as you, my little monster." The wolf roared, louder, my mind screaming, my fingernails extended, digging into palms, blood dripping to the floor. Carter only smiles.
"We could kill you right here." Lupin says, breaking the promise that only I would speak to Him.
"We can't," I say, voice brittle and stranded. "The Deal, no one gets hurt." I meet His proud eye, feeling all too defeated. "We can't hurt Him. Not until we leave." Lupin snarls at His cocky grin.
"Then we leave. And we kill Him later." My monster agrees with our mate's declaration and my eyes glow red. Carter looks back at us, monsters in our eyes, and doesn't flinch.
"You are wrong, Carter. So very very wrong." I shake my head. "You have messed with the wrong family. If you think you will survive this, then you are stupider than I thought." He smiled at me, impassive and emotionless. I turned, Lupin at my side, and we made our way back across the Ineffective. As soon as we cross the threshold the world blinks and opens back up as our Sitting Room, our family worriedly spread out across the room. He had magically transported us. How kind, I thought with a sneer.
Echo sees us first, her blue eyes roaming over all of me. Making everything that just happened crash into my soul. The realization that the worst was happening, and I couldn't do anything. All this power and still my unborn child was a target waiting to be used, just like me. I was useless, worse than useless I was the reason for this all.
Lupin turns to me, love and concern shining in his eyes. I shake my head, backing away from him. Tears in my eyes and hands on either side of my head, I deny him. Yet still he moves forward, arms reaching for me.
"No." My voice breaks. My butt hits the island and he comes closer. "No, no, no." I pull my hair back, head still shaking, tears falling down my face, but he pulls me close whispering soothing words. "It's my fault." I whisper through my sobs, fully melting into him, no longer able to hold myself up. "It's all my fault."
"You were seventeen, Fable. You weren't thinking about any children you might have had. This is not your fault." He whispers the words in my ear as I cry, his voice fierce. "We'll wait, we don't need a baby, especially not now. We'll kill him first." I cry harder at his words, filled with guilt and grief.
"What about the baby?" My sister asks, voice urgent. Rayen comes closer to help anyway she can, eyes imploring. I shake my head and turn into Lupin's chest.
"We need some context clues, Fable." Rayen asks, voice gentle but urging. Lupin stands straighter, holding all of me.
"The Deal the Walker siblings made with Carter did not save their children from His reach. He revealed that His intent is to obtain Fable and my child." Everyone gasps looking between themselves, the spark of war glowing in their eyes. Addie collects Izze from the ground and holds her baby close, Salem steps closer to the two of them. I feel twice as bad realizing I completely forgot about Izze and the target now on her as well. I groan into Lupin's shirt and he holds me closer.
Ember steps forward, separating from her mate's side. The understanding in her eyes makes my heart contrast, she holds her arms out and I pull away from Lupin, falling into his sister's arms. She holds me close, fingers brushing through my hair, cooing little sounds into my ear. The new mother grasping my fear and holding me up.
"So we're killing the bastard." Rowen, Lupin's father, shrugs.
"It's not that simple." My father, Maddox, snaps, brown eyes aflame in rage.
"We ask for help." Arrow says to the hate filled room. "Surely some of our allies will offer assistance." Salem nods.
"I will ask, but they have no reason to fight, this does not concern them."
"They will," Echo supplies. "If He does get their child He will be unstoppable."
"But they don't have a child, Echo." My mother chastises. My sister meets my eye and I squeeze my eyes tight, nodding. I step away from Ember and turn to my mate. He meets my eyes, beautiful beautiful green. I reach my hand up and grasp the talisman I had been wearing for the last three months around my neck. I pull it hard and fast, the string breaking.
Everyone in the room stops breathing as their sensitive ears pick up the thump thump thump of a second heartbeat inside of me. My mate's nostrils flaring as he picks up the change in my smell, a hint of strawberries and sweet milk. His green eyes flash silver, teeth bared and snarling.
"You kept this from me?" His wolf asks, enraged.
"I knew you never would have let me go to the Infernal-"
"Damn right, I wouldn't let you near that-"
"Exactly." I interrupt. "But we needed to go, Lupin. We needed to know His plan. And now we do, and we can prepare to protect this child until our dying breath." I took a breath. "I was safe. Ember, Rayen, and Echo all knew I was pregnant. If anything were to happen they would know what to do. I did the right thing, Lupin. I hated it. But I will not let you make me feel bad for making the right decision." Lupin nods once, silver fading from his eyes. He looks at the ground for a moment, thinking. His eyes snap back to me, trailing down to my stomach. The look in his eyes turns my stomach inside out. I reach out a hand as he moves forward, taking it and pulling me flush against his side. We face our family. My mother sighs, slumping back on the couch.
"This is why we drill into you children about protection, unsafe sex leads to situtuation just like this one." There's a beat of silence while we all absorb my mothers comment. My father leans over patting my mothers knee, she turns to him smiling.
"Despite my mothers helpful comment," Salem begans, glaring at my mother who shrugs. "With the baby we might be able to get more help in this fight."
With his encouraging words we all plan, coming up with potential allies in this war. Fighting for a way, a hope, to win. The magic of our families rising and curling in the air. Coming together as we always have, to protect one another. For a quick moment I feel relief. Surrounded by our family, all of them ready for blood, ready to protect our child as much as we would. Carter had picked the wrong family.
After all, we were a family of monsters.
THE END