The Twisted Mind of the Alpha Thomas
As I knelt beside her, my hands soaked in her blood, the world felt like it was falling apart. Katia lay there, broken and bleeding, her tiny body torn to shreds by the very Alpha who was supposed to protect her. The sight of her, gasping for breath, barely hanging on, made my stomach twist with rage and helplessness. Her throat was a mangled mess, blood seeping through my fingers as I pressed down, trying in vain to keep it from spilling out anymore. I could hear the pack doctor shouting orders, gauze, and tunicates piling up around us as he worked furiously, but it felt like trying to plug a dam with tissue paper. There was just too much damage.
“Come on, Katia... don’t give up on us,” I whispered, my voice cracking. Tears blurred my vision, but I forced them back. I couldn’t lose her—not like this. Mark’s voice echoed my desperation, pleading with her to fight, his words breaking with each syllable. “Katia, please, stay with us. Just hold on a little longer. Please.”
But even as he said it, we both knew. Deep down, we knew there was no pulling her back from the brink.
Her skin was pale, her eyes half-closed, fluttering as if even keeping them open was too much effort. And her voice... Goddess, her voice. I could barely hear it over the pounding of my own heart. “Fishy... Xey... it’s not your fault,” she rasped, her words so soft they barely reached my ears. “You made these last two years... bearable. I couldn’t ask for better... beta or gamma.”
Hearing her say that and hearing her call us by those little names she gave us made something inside me shatter. I clutched her hand tighter, the warmth already fading from her skin. I wanted to scream, beg the Goddess to give her more time, and do anything, but there was nothing. There was nothing I could do. Aza, her wolf, had fought with everything she had, but now even she was gone. The fierce, wild energy that had always surrounded Katia was flickering out. I could feel it.
“She was beautiful... and fierce,” Katia’s voice was fading, so faint I had to lean in to hear. “Aza’s... calling me... the darkness is hard to resist.”
My heart clenched. “No, Katia, don’t go! Please!” I was barely holding it together, my chest heaving with sobs I couldn’t let out. “We can figure something out, I swear! Just stay with us, don’t leave. You can’t... not like this.”
Her breaths were becoming shallow, ragged gasps that rattled in her chest. The rise and fall of her body under my hands slowed, and I could see it in her eyes—the resignation, the peace. She was ready. Goddess, she was prepared to go.
“I think... this life is over for me,” she whispered, each word coming slower than the last. “Don’t let him... decide what happens to my body. Please... bury me somewhere beautiful... somewhere green... far from here.” Her eyes flickered to Mark and me, the last bit of strength fading from them. “You two... you need to get away.”
I broke. I couldn’t hold back the sobs anymore. Mark and I were both crying openly, our tears falling onto her cold skin, mixing with the blood that coated everything. I couldn’t imagine a life without her, strength, stubbornness, and fire. She was more than our Alpha. She was our Luna, even if it wasn’t official. We’d held our own ceremony, shared our blood with her to make her one of us, and now she was leaving us behind.
“We’ll stay by your side,” I choked out, gripping her hand like it was the only thing keeping me from falling apart completely. “We’ll tell anyone who asks about the brave, beautiful Alpha Luna we served.”
For a moment, she squeezed back, weak but still there. But then, her fingers slipped from mine, and her hand fell limp. Her chest stilled. The silence that followed was suffocating.
Katia was gone.
I couldn’t breathe. My heart was pounding, my lungs screaming for air, but I couldn’t do anything except stare at her lifeless body, the cold already creeping in where warmth had once been. Mark’s sobs mixed with mine, a raw, broken sound that echoed in the empty training grounds. I felt hollow. Empty. Like a piece of me had been ripped out and thrown into the dirt alongside her blood.
Suddenly, the doctor’s voice cut through the haze of grief like a blade. “Get her to the hospital now!” he shouted, his hands still working furiously to stop the bleeding, even though I knew it was too late. It was all too late.
Mark didn’t hesitate. He scooped her broken body into his arms, her blood soaking into his shirt, her weight far too light in his firm grip. And then he ran. His feet pounded against the earth as he sprinted toward the hospital, carrying the ghost of the girl who had once been so fierce, so alive.
I watched him go, my legs were too weak to follow. The world blurred around me as I collapsed to my knees, hands stained with her blood, and my heart shattered into pieces too small to ever put back together.