02 - The Beginning of the End

I was sitting pretty much glued to my dad and kept asking: "What's happening? Who is the lady? How did the babies come? What is going on?"

He just smiled at me and said:

"I will give you all the answers when I have them, but nothing bad happened. You helped me save three lives today, honey".

We spent three days with Maddie and her babies in the cabin, and I still think the blizzard had something to do with that. Once she woke up, she was pretty freaked out, and it took my dad some time to calm her and ensure she was safe; we only wanted to help. They spoke without me that night, and he decided to trust her whatever she told him, and he never regretted that decision.

During those three days, I spent lots of time just looking at Maddie holding her sons when she was feeding them or she calmed them. I also watched my dad; he had to be the one to clean and change them because she was so weak she couldn't leave the bed.

When it was possible to drive back to the city again, my dad took me back home, and he left me in the care of the neighbors, saying that he had an important business trip, but in reality, he spent two more weeks with Maddie in the cabin.

Of course, before he left, he had made sure I understood that I couldn't speak about what had happened with nobody, and I understood. I was good at keeping secrets, and the wolf who had changed into a lady was a big secret to be kept.

Maddie lived with her sons in our cabin for the next few months. We visited her very often. My dad liked talking with her, playing with her babies, and spending time together. I remember the first time she brushed my hair, the first time she sang to me, the first time she changed into her wolf and played with me and my dad in the snow.

And I remember that one day I caught them kissing in the kitchen and asked when they wanted to have sex. I remember the faces they made, both of them.

In summer, she was living with us in the city. Dad told everybody that she was the widow of some distant relative, and nobody asked any questions. My dad loved her, loved her so much, and she loved him even though it took them almost a year to inform me that since then, we were a family officially.

I remember my dad helping her sons Liam and Luca to learn to walk, use the toilet, learn their first words, and do all the things fathers should have done. He loved them as much as he loved me.

The same was with Maddie; she was my mother; she was there to hold me when I was sad, to read me stories in the evening, to help me, play with me, and teach me.

I remember the day she thoroughly explained to me who she was, told me about werewolves, packs, alphas, and rules that pack members should obey, and that she had escaped because that was the only way to give her children a better life.

I remember that my sister, Lyra, was born the same day I was born and that she was so tiny and sweet.

I remember all those years when we were family and...

...I remember that my parents died in a hit-and-run accident five days ago; that was the day my world crumbled.

So here I am, sitting on the porch, there is a letter in my hand from my dad's attorney, my dad's fucking letter, and the only reason I can't read it is that on the envelope there are words

"Maddie." My dad wrote it for Maddie in case something happened to him because he had never thought that he and Maddie could die together.

I feel so tired, I'm tired of all the funeral preparations and I'm tired of the funeral itself. I didn't cry, probably because everybody around me was crying, and perhaps because I have no strength to cry anymore because I don't sleep too much.

Lyra, who is now three years old, keeps crying every night, saying that she wants her mommy. I'm tired of explaining to her that her parents won't come back every time she asks about them, and she asks often.

I'm so tired because Liam and Luca keep saying they want pancakes every morning, and then they start sobbing because dad used to make the best pancakes ever, and they wanted dad's pancakes, not mine.

I'm tired because I've been cooking, I've been cleaning, I've been dealing with funerals, I've been holding them, I've been saying that everything would be alright, and I'm trying so hard to convince all three of them that one day we will feel normal again.

I'm only 20 years old, and I won't go to my chosen college because I have to stay here and raise three children, three werewolf's, to be specific. The boys are 11, so their first wolf shift is around the corner, and I will have to do it alone without Maddie, without my dad. I'm so tired of feeling so afraid of what the future holds for us.

"Leah, Lyra is crying cause she spilled the milk on the counter!" I hear Luca calling me, and I sigh and get up, thinking that I'm tired of being tired.

I calmed Lyra, cleaned the milk, did laundry, and I started preparing dinner.

Liam and Luca are sitting on the couch, staring at the TV screen like a pair of zombies. I'm so sure they do not pay attention to what is going on on a TV screen. Lyra is sitting next to me on the counter and is playing with some sugar cubes.

She looks like her mum: curly red hair, lots of freckles, and green eyes. She's three and usually very talkative, but not today. I think today she said 10 words in total. She keeps crying and watching us, me and the boys, as if she is afraid that if she stops, we will disappear like parents.

Liam and Luca have not argued since our parents died, which for them it's an absolute record of a lifetime because usually, they bark at each other at least 20 times per day, and now they are sad. It's honestly the only thing I can see when I look at them. I think they look like their biological father: brown eyes and dark hair.

Just when I think about their biological father, I hear a knock on the door. Luca goes to open it, and then our lives change forever again in the same week. And even though I thought that the funeral was hectic, what happens after the door is opened is hectic as hell.

(A/N Liam is the older twin while Luca is younger)