A Nightstand With An Alpha

“Celeste, your parents are dead.”

I stilled, slowly turning my head, tilting it sideways as if I hadn’t heard him right, as if my ears had betrayed me or it was just one of these expensive jokes.

"Today's my birthday, uncle, that's too much even if you want to surprise me," I said, turning towards him.

"It's not a joke Celeste, they were attacked," he said again.

“That’s not possible,” I whispered, a shaky laugh breaking from my lips. “No. They went to the neighboring pack. It’s just… it’s just a trip, they’ll be back. You’re wrong.”

But his face his expression didn’t move. No twitch of humor, no hint of teasing,that made my smile falter and vanish altogether.

“Please,” my voice cracked, my throat suddenly too dry to breathe. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“I’m not, Celeste.” Adrian’s tone was smooth, carefully even, but there was no warmth. “Their bodies are outside and”

I didn’t wait, my chest seized, my legs moved on their own. I pushed past him, the hallway spinning as I ran down them muttering to myself frantically.

“No,no, no, no! It's not possible, t-they cannot die," I mumbled, letting tears flow endlessly from my eyes.

I pushed the front door open to the heavy rain fall, the rain sank into me, but I didn’t feel it. All I saw was the gathering of wolves in the clearing in front of our house, their heads were bowed, and a suffocating silence.

And in the center my knees gave out.

Two bodies lay side by side, wrapped in white linen now heavy with rain. The cloth clung to familiar outlines my mother’s slender frame, my father’s broad shoulders. Their stillness was unnatural, wrong, unbearable.

My world tilted, a ringing filled my ears as if the universe had caved in, muting everything except the thundering of my heartbeat.

“No…” My voice tore from me, hoarse, shaking. I crawled forward, the mud sucking at my palms, my nightgown dragging through the dirt. “No, get up! Please”

"Mom...no, you cannot die, I mean all this has to be a joke, mom please..."

My fingers clawed at the wet fabric, desperate to peel it away, to see their faces, to prove it wasn’t them. But strong hands caught my wrists, holding me back.

“Don’t,” someone murmured. A warrior. I couldn’t see who it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.

“Let me go!” I screamed, thrashing, sobbing so hard my chest burned. “They’re not gone, they can’t be gone!”

But the truth was carved in the silence around me, in the way no one lifted their head, no one dared meet my eyes.

I collapsed against the mud, my tears mixing with the rain, my nails digging into the earth as if I could anchor myself to something, anything. My vision blurred, and for a split second, my cursed gift betrayed me.

A flash blood glistening on steel, my father’s wolf staggering in the woods, my mother’s scream cut short.

The vision ripped away, leaving me gasping, my body trembling so violently I thought I’d shatter.

“No,” I whispered again, though the word meant nothing now.

"They need to be buried now Celeste, this is not the time..."

"Don't you fuckin tell me this is not the time, what other time would there be if not now, they're not supposed to be dead, there has to be a mistake somewhere!" I yelled, terror clawing at my throat.

"They're dead Celeste, and you need to come to terms with it, you know the consequences of leaving their bodies unburied for a long time," He said, pulling me away.

"We'll get on digging their graves, go find your sister, she must not have heard about this,"

Adrian said, voice already folding back into duty, as if he were arranging chairs at a burial instead of breaking the world in two.

I wiped mud and rain from my face with the back of my shaking hand and pushed to my feet. The cold had gone inside me; my limbs felt distant, as if someone else was moving them.

I dragged myself down the corridor, too anguished to call out for Lila, until I heard a sharp moan cut through the haze in my mind.

“God…” A low laugh followed. “Harder… I’ve been waiting for this…”

My heart stopped. That voice was Lila’s.

Another sound joined it. A deeper voice, familiar, masculine, murmuring between ragged breaths, “Are you sure? I can take you all night long…”

The walls blurred. Hot tears burned my eyes even before my mind caught up to the words. I staggered to the door from where the sounds came, my hand trembling so hard I could barely grasp the knob.

No. Please no.

I turned it slowly, the door cold against my palm. The door swung inward.

For a heartbeat, the world went silent.

Thorne was fully in Lila, whose head was thrown back, her mouth open in a gasp, her nails raking down Thorne’s chest. Thorne’s hands were on her hips, his face twisted in something between desire and guilt.

The sight punched the air out of me. My knees buckled, catching against the doorframe.

“Lila…” The name fell from my lips like a wound. “Thorne…”

They both froze. Lila twisted toward me, hair sticking to her damp forehead, eyes wide and shining. Thorne jerked upright, hands still on her hips, his mouth opening but no words coming out.

For a moment none of us moved. Rain beat against the windows. My heartbeat thundered louder than the storm.

I tasted salt and betrayal in my mouth.

My parents were dead in the rain outside. And inside, my sister and my mate were tearing apart the last thing I had left.