Centuries Of Sin: Book II (Mature)

In the immediate aftermath of the night Tobias had come to confront them at the cabin, Selene had insisted on bringing Robin back to his old territory to bury him, and she was not willing to leave at all without him. The others cleaned up the cabin as well as was possible; they did not intend to go back, but there was no sense in leaving blood and broken glass on the floor. Robin’s was not the only body they had to deal with, and Sawyer picked up his father’s body and walked alone to his car with it, intending to dump it in the back of the old Cadillac. He resented the idea of it making a mess in his beloved car, and when he remembered his father had driven there in his own car, he decided it would be more fitting to turn up to talk to his old pack with the corpse in the back of that anyway. When he got back to the cabin, he found Francesca and Constance were outside, trying to decide what to do with Gabrielle. He didn’t say a word as he grabbed her body by the scruff of her neck and dragged it off the patio towards the edge of the forest. He didn’t care if scavengers got to her, and he had only moved her in case they ever did decide to come back again. Selene hadn’t moved from Robin’s side all night. It seemed like she was convinced he would come back to her if only she stayed there long enough. She still had his blood on her face, her hands, and soaking her clothes. Nobody tried to get her to move; the magnitude of emotions she must have been going through was too great for any of them to know how to comfort her, with the exception of Constance who was just not interested in getting involved. When Sawyer had finally tried as delicately as possible to tell her it was time to leave, she pushed him away from Robin’s body and hauled it up herself. She wasn’t going to let anyone else touch him. It was awful to watch her struggling to carry his body on her own through the snow, and she almost slipped a couple of times. Sawyer couldn’t let her fall, he moved up beside her to wordlessly offer her physical support if she needed it, but that strengthened her determination to do this alone. When they got to where the cars were parked her eyes welled up and she looked between the three vehicles with no idea what to do. Francesca made the decision for her, opening the back of her huge Cadillac Escalade ESV. When she closed the back again the huge black truck looked like some kind of grotesquely hyper-masculine hearse; perhaps fitting for the person Robin used to be, but not for the person he had become. She didn’t relish the idea of the body being in her car, but she didn’t see another option. “Come on, you’re riding with me. I know how to get there.” Selene reached for the handle of the door but froze when her hand touched the vehicle. “I think I’m going to throw up.” Francesca further regretted her selfless decision to take Selene to bury Robin, but it was too late to change her mind now. Selene managed to calm herself anyway; it had been a visceral reaction to the idea of climbing into the car with the body, rather than morning sickness. She sat silently in the passenger seat, and Francesca simply told her brother that she would find them when her and Selene were done. The pair of them left. Sawyer was left standing beside his father’s car with Elizabeth and Constance. He didn’t particularly want to deal with Constance, but he had to take his father’s car and it meant that Constance was the only one who could drive his own car away from here. He begrudgingly handed her the keys, and then swore when he realised he didn’t actually have the keys to his father’s car. He had to go back to the cabin, remembering the coat Tobias had hung so casually up beside the door which had been forgotten about as they packed up the things they needed that morning, and his keys were in the pocket. Elizabeth sat down in the front of the car, awkward around Constance. Francesca never had explained why she brought Constance back, or why Constance had actually agreed to come back. She had a feeling she wouldn’t like the explanation if she did ask. “You seem remarkably calm.” Elizabeth shrugged. If she wasn’t calm about this, she wouldn’t cope at all. “I just feel bad for Selene. After everything we went through, and everything that was at stake… she’s the only one who has to suffer because of this. And I think that’s largely my fault.” “Oh?” She sounded genuinely interested. “I’m the one who convinced Tobias that Nathan got Selene pregnant. It’s my fault he wanted her dead, he wouldn’t have cared about her or Robin at all if it wasn’t for me.” “He never liked that boy. He’d wanted to get to him for a long time; their fate was sealed before you said a word. And you should know by now that she probably won’t be the only one to suffer. What do you think will happen to you two now? Do you really expect to drop off this corpse and tell the entire pack the man they called Alpha for more than three decades is gone, and face no kind of repercussions?” Elizabeth looked down awkwardly at her hands to avoid continuing the conversation, playing with her engagement ring and admiring the way the stones caught the rays of winter sun so brilliantly. “I’m not big on human traditions, but I suppose I should congratulate you.” “It seems such a silly thing to congratulate me on now. I shouldn’t cling to human things like this when I’m never going to be a part of that world. I don’t think we’ll ever actually go through with this, it just meant something to him to give me this in the moment, and I got caught up in it.” “Why shouldn’t you follow through with it? You shouldn’t forget your roots just because you’re moving further away from them; perhaps that makes it even more important.” “I couldn’t bring myself to sit looking at dresses and flowers while a member of my pack is grieving for a mate she had wanted for a long time. She hadn’t felt happy that way before, and I don’t think she will feel as contented as she had been recently ever again.” “It will get easier with time. Believe me, I know. There’s a reason I didn’t let my daughter choose a mate she loved. I know what you think of me for that choice, but our world isn’t kind to people who find love; it tends to be very fleeting.” “That’s why you stopped her, isn’t it?”  “She wouldn’t have been a match for Tobias, and Francesca was already halfway to him before Selene had even registered what had happened. There was no sense in her losing everything over this. She may be hurting now but she’ll have to pull herself together soon.” They were silent for a little while, before Elizabeth finally asked Constance why she had come back. “How did Francesca persuade you?” “She told me about what was happening with you. She didn’t ask me to come back, she just wanted to look through some of my books and pick up the things she might need to help. I volunteered to come back with her.” “Because I interest you?” “I thought you may be in need of more help than Francesca knew.” “And now?” “Now… I don’t think you’re in any need of help at all. Nathan figured out how to help you without us. I don’t think you were suppressing any kind of vision, I think you needed to transform and he took a chance that your body would do what it needed to stop you getting too ill if he pushed you far enough.” Constance looked towards the forest before Elizabeth had even seen Sawyer approaching. “What on earth are you doing?” She yelled it, and he didn’t respond until he was close enough that he didn’t have to shout back. He was holding a large bundle of clothes which he set down carefully on the back seat of his car. “Selene left all of Robin’s things there. I thought she would regret it eventually. I’m sure we can keep them somewhere, so they don’t lose his scent completely by the time her baby is born. I think it would have meant a lot to him.” He had said it rather unemotionally, but it finally hit a nerve in Elizabeth that made it impossible for her to push aside her grief at the situation. She hadn’t let herself cry, because it seemed like a human reaction to what they had been through. But she was as human as she was wolf, and the fact Sawyer had thought to bring the clothes reminded her that they weren’t all cold and unfeeling like Tobias or her father. Their world was cruel and unforgiving, but they weren’t devoid of emotion and even though none of them had let themselves cry the way she was now, they felt the pain just as deeply.