"I'll always be with you, Christie." She barely pronounces the words. "We'll definitely meet again."
I understand that Elizabeth wants calm me down, but it doesn't help.
He took the fragile hand in his palm and brought it to his lips.
"See you later, my love!" she said goodbye.
The eyelids dropped, hiding the beautiful eyes. The last beat of the heart, and with it, everything around seemed to freeze. He pressed the lifeless body to himself. He screamed until he was exhausted. He didn't care at all whether anyone would hear. Hunters were still scurrying around in the forest, let them find and kill him.
He felt dizzy, his eyes swam. The loss of blood and the bullet in his chest weakened him. He collapsed on the grass next to his wife. He looked at his beloved face. The fiery hair emphasized the lifeless pallor. What am I feeling now? Only all-consuming pain, and then emptiness, Elizabeth is not in me. Now my soul is alone.
With my last strength I moved closer to my wife. I hugged the still warm body of my beloved. I closed my eyes in the hope of meeting death. This will save me from the torment that torments, tears me apart. A torn heart cannot be sewn up or returned to its previous state.
Here it is, the saving darkness. I fall into a bottomless distance, dreaming that the emptiness would swallow me whole. My red-haired beast is no more. Eccentric, bright, fearless, kind and loving. Even in this emptiness of my own soul, I feel not relief, but destructive pain. Because the emptiness once again proves the absence of a wife. The only salvation is death, I refuse to fight for myself.
***
I wander in the darkness, unable to find a way out, realizing that it is not the end yet. Something stubbornly does not allow me to disappear completely. No matter how much I want to, someone does not let go.
My eyes saw the light, which is approaching me very quickly and furiously. The first desire is to run, because I know that on the other side there is life, and, therefore, eternity, filled with suffering. But it mercilessly covered me, shamelessly tearing me out of the saving abyss.
I opened my eyes. The first person I saw was the doctor. A close friend of our family. Richard is a man, but he helps creatures like me. Somehow I saved him, after that incident he helped the whole pack.
"I thought I couldn't save you, Lord Salisbury." He holds a compress with herbal infusion on the wound in his chest.
After many years of communicating with werewolves, Richard studied many herbs and their effect on us. From an ordinary doctor, he turned into a supernatural doctor. His knowledge has saved the lives of wolves more than once.
"Hunters have improved bullets." He said.
He frowned.
"They are made of obsidian. A rock, a type of volcanic glass."
"What is the power of the stone?" The words came with difficulty, his throat was dry.
"People have used it as a talisman against evil spirits since ancient times. But I think the thing is that a bullet made of such hard glass shatters into fragments when it hits the target, and they tear tissue from the inside. It can't be removed, which means you won't recover."
The question stuck on my tongue, but Richard shrewdly told me himself.
"Your bullet partially exited, and I removed the large fragments. Elizabeth was shot in the heart, pierced a vital organ, leaving her no chance for salvation."
The pain of loss crashed down in a giant wave, swallowing and affecting every part of my body. My limbs seemed numb from the cold. A roar escaped from my throat, tears began to flow down my cheeks. It hurt, too much!
The doctor did not hesitate, he immediately jumped aside. He knows that neither the beast in me nor I myself are capable of surviving the death of a true beloved.
"Why did you bring me back? Why didn't you let me die?"
"Because you are my friend. And because you are obliged to avenge the murder of my wife."
He growled.
"I returned to your house by pure chance, I forgot my bag with medical instruments. After all, I came to you straight from the hospital so as not to be late for the holiday. So the open doors and your absence alerted me. None of the servants knew where you had gone. I went looking and found it."
He fell silent, not daring to tell what happened next. Having gathered his courage, he continued. "Almost the entire pack was exterminated, maybe all of them, just three disappeared. Ethan, among them. I think the traitor is one of the missing wolves."
The pain did not subside, but my mind became clear.
"You probably guessed it yourself." The doctor approached me carefully. "Dear Elizabeth became a victim of betrayal. You were always in full view of all of England. Hunters would not have suspected such a noble person. Someone gave them information."
"So Ethan's body was not found?" There was a glimmer of hope in my heart that my friend was alive.
"I couldn't find him."
I tried to get up, but Richard wouldn't let me.
"Take care of yourself, gain strength."
"I have to find Ethan."
"You won't be able to save your friend if you don't recover properly."
He's right, what use am I, I feel so terrible that I feel nauseous from moving. My head started spinning, I sank onto the pillows.
I spent several days practically unconscious. The doctor gave me herbs to drink so I would sleep almost all the time and heal peacefully. And I didn't want to wake up; I was only in my dreams with my beloved wife, as if in reality. Richard didn't so much heal as help me cope with the loss. They say time heals, but that's not true. I'll only survive the loss if my heart turns to stone.
The desire for revenge got me out of bed. The oppressive feeling of revenge is slowly changing me, making me colder, harsher, and ruder.
The thought of finding the traitor is so ingrained in my head that other thoughts have disappeared in vain. Having lost my soul, I've become truly cruel, and the heart has only one function, to pump blood around the body. I don't recognize myself. The beast has taken over the other half, the man has faded against the background of the embittered wolf.
There was an opportunity to lead another pack that was left without an alpha, they came with a request, but I refused, I preferred to remain alone. I don't need anyone. My lifelong friend is now revenge. The fire rising from within gives meaning to existence.
Until I get the culprit, I will not calm down. No matter how much time it takes, I will not turn away from the intended goal. Sooner or later I will attack the trail and then the traitor himself will ask for death. All the torment that I endure day after day will turn into wounds on his body.