The Haunted Memories (Forgotten Series, #4)

Chapter 2

I paced my office again and again, my mind was a blur of fear and darkness. I shuddered. So much darkness. Like the ground had swallowed me up whole and would never let me go again. The darkness had come with the feeling of falling. Terror wrapping around my throat as I plummeted down further and further. They had made her fall. It had been so vivid. Her falling and wishing she had wings. I wanted to hold her tight in my arms as I had done as a child back when I told her her wolves didn't need wings. How wrong I was.

I sniffled and wiped at my leaking eyes. The dream had been so vivid. I felt so much of her fear and her pain. So much terror when she realized they brought her to a place where the moon could not see her. A new wave of tears rushed my eyes.

They took Maggie from the moon. The thought was inconceivable. My earliest memories of her were her standing in the garden at night, staring up at the light in the sky, the glow of it illuminating her skin that never tanned. It made her look like bleached bone but it made her hair shine and her eyes glow.

I always believed that Maggie was a child of the moon. We all were in some way but I always felt as if she had been born of it. As if Mene had crafted her special, a child who was as close to her as she was to it. Maggie was timid and shy. She was but when she stood under the moon, her glowing teal eyes staring up at a power I knew she wished to be a part of, she looked stronger than any other creature I had ever seen. When Maggie was with the moon, she was a brilliant star that almost hurt to look at. The moon's power reflecting off of her like a mirror as her gentle teal eyes would shine with love.

And they took her from that. A lump appeared in my throat. I wanted to choke. Out of all the things to do. They took away her only comfort. I wanted to kill them all. I wanted to gut their pack and rip them to shreds for what they had done but I knew very little. All I knew was that wolves did not fly, they could shut out the moon, and that my sister had died at their hands. Bits and pieces swirling around in my head. Fire and rage, anger and gentleness. Confusion tearing at my skull, mine or Maggie's I couldn't tell anymore.

I tugged on my hair as I continued my pacing back and forth. It had been a bad night. A bad dream. I whimpered at that thought. I wanted it all to be a dream because the cruelty was too barbaric to be real. To do that to my little Maggie, my twin. The female I had spent every waking moment of my life with. The one person I had clung to in the womb and in life. Maggie always believed I did so to shield her from the world around her but she had no idea that I clung to her because she was my rock, my other half and if I let her go then she would float up to the moon and leave me.

She kept my feet on the ground as I did her because without Maggie I wasn't whole. I thumped at my chest. It was so fucking empty at times. The spaces where my family had been remained hollow in my chest. The emptiness never truly went away at their loss. It hurt to lose my parents, my uncle, and the pack but it nearly killed me when I lost Maggie. It had been a brutal tearing of her soul from mine, washing me in coldness and bleak despair. I couldn't eat or drink and so I wandered the streets, searching for something that would end me too because I couldn't fathom a world without my twin.

I sniffled and angrily wiped away my tears. I knew it was okay to hurt, to feel that pain but it didn't stop me from wanting it to go away. There was nothing wrong with me trying to avoid that pain. I stopped my pacing and slumped into my chair, thumping my head against the desk. I could say I was an Alpha and needed to buck up but I was still a person with emotions and if I wanted to curl up in my bed and cry for several hours I would.

"You feeling okay?" Linnette's voice was cautious and I lifted my head and sniffled lightly before wiped my face with my arm. Her red hair was pulled back in her standard french braid and her green eyes were heavy with concern. At least she was a decent friend and wasn't all 'Alphas need to be stoic and hardened to the world. Stop snivelling like a little girl.'. I had enough of that from growing up. Only Maggie had truly let me be myself. She didn't judge me for my tears or for being upset. She would just hug me tightly and tell me it was okay because she was there with me.