Both of the girls look at Hunter. They don't want to look but they are unwilling to sit this out. Both Jade and Ava have the exact same thoughts, momentary break down before it is business as usual, this just needs to be looked at with indifferent eyes.
Jade takes another big lung full of Axel's calming scent and composes herself. She pushes herself off Axel and stabilizes herself. She brushes her clothes off, any trace of crippling emotion no longer present on her beautiful face.
Ava pulls Hunter's large head around to face her, she gazes into his beautiful golden eyes, she is always able to see all the beautiful things in life when she looks into those eyes. She takes a deep breath in, wraps her arms around Hunter's large neck.
With a small lift of Hunter's large head, Ava is pulled to her feet, she holds him for a tiny bit longer, breathing some of his scent before kissing Hunter's snout, taking one more look at the impossible golden color before stepping around him and looking at the scene like an outsider.
"Okay…..well"
The four of them look from the sight back to each other.
"Call them in"
Ava turns her back on it, no matter how unfeeling she tries to be, she can not look at it any longer than completely necessary.
'You guys all come to us'
'But…….'
'It is no longer necessary'
Alina looks at Phoenix. Phoenix is a talented tacker but they have come up with absolutely nothing at all. But they really were not expecting this, they had an expectation that they would be helpful, they thought that they would find something.
Lucas' large blonde wolf nearly bends in half as he changes direction so fast, he was taking the wider path as he is faster. Alexis joins him side by side.
'This can't be good'
Lucas nods, the whole thing is blown, the whole reason for traveling separately is disregarded as soon as they show up. So they are aware that if they are being called in that something big has happened.
Ava looks over her shoulder again and links.
'Prepare yourselves'
She knows that isn't strong enough, but she is unsure what to say to actually get the point across. There are no words.
It is just something that one has to experience and then move past, in the same way that they have done it, the others will have to do the same.
Hunter's hand wraps around Ava's shoulder, offering comfort. He knows that as much as his mate is strong, she is overly sensitive. Ava places her hand over Hunter's and gives his fingers a squeeze before turning around.
Jade and Axel still haven't moved far, still just staring, maybe waiting for the others, but more likely just stunned.
It is not long before the other four arrive, bursting in on the scene. All four wolves stop completely still as they look over the scene.
The four arrivals shift in the stunned silence. The nudity is completely forgotten about as they all gather together, linking arms around shoulders, their heads all in the middle in a group hug, huddle style in a show of support.
Alexis breathes deeply, her eyes flick to Lucas so that she can drink in some of those beautiful features. Sometimes she really has to look at something beautiful to remember that there is still beauty in this terrible, terrible world. For her she really wasn’t sure that there was beauty in life until Lucas came into it. She may have been raised as a human, but it doesn’t mean that she hasn’t seen the terrible side of human nature. Humans are just as vicious as the wolves that she lives with now. The wolves are just a bit more direct about it.
Alexis peels herself away from the group and looks at the scene again, before she only had a brief glimpse at it before Lucas’ large wolf covered her vision and herded her to the others.
As expected, the alpha and luna are hanging by their ankles tied crudely and roughly with rope, not special rope, just standard everyday rope, rope that any werewolf should be able to rip apart easily, let alone wolves of high rank.
Their hazy eyes just look out as they dangle lifelessly, the wind is a bit stronger today, so the bodies move slightly and bump into each other, resembling wet clothes hanging on the clothesline, slapping together n a morbid way. The lack of blood has made their originally tanned and healthy youthful looking skin look ghostly and slightly withered, like all the moisture has been sapped from them.
The youthful skin drained to the point of aging.
Alexis' eyes finally move from the sight she was expecting to the sight that none of them saw coming. Even a person without a heart couldn't stand to look at it, let alone these eight living, breathing, caring wolves.
It is just hard to look at.
With the fingers of his parents nearly touching him, they are so close but now together again, the tear stained face, stares at the eight with lifeless eyes, his pale little body wrapped in a ball.
All his blood drained, but this time it isn’t as cleanly as his parents. This time the blood remains. The blood is used to decorate the area. Like Brodie’s life was nothing more than a joke, for him to be taken so quickly and so brutally.
The sense of regret and responsibility so large and crushing, if they had been just a little quicker, if they were more aware, if they thought this was a possibility, all the things that they could have done differently just compound to a massive sense of regret and the crushing feeling of inadequacy.
Out of the eight of them, there is not a single one that believes in this moment that they are worthy of the moon goddesses trust, that feel like they live up to the task they were assigned.
A stuffy silence hangs over the small clearing, the air seems denser and harder to breathe. All their prior preparations amount to nothing, all their tactics a joke, any advantage that they thought they had is gone in the wind.
They are not even back at square one, they feel like they are behind square one, they can’t even see square one.
It hurts, it hurts so much.
Ava reaches up and quietly wipes her eyes. She can’t seem to even be able to step forward, she was just holding this small boy yesterday, trying to talk him through his grief talking to him about the future, yet today, everyone gets to grieve his death as well. The alpha blood line of the blood moon is gone with that little boy, it is the most terrible outcome and one that they never thought would happen right under their noses.
Ava can’t stand to look at it any longer, the others are still gathered together while Alexis stands alone staring at Brodie’s body.
Of course, it isn’t just Brodie’s body that shows that the group of guardians is nothing more than a joke. It is what Brodie’s blood has been used to do that hits the hardest. Spelled out on the ground in large crude words, is something that will be burned in their minds for the rest of their lives.
A cold shiver runs up Alexis’ back as she looks at the violent looking lettering, it is beyond a cold shiver, her whole body has been dumped in the antarctic and left there to freeze for all eternity. Lucas’ big warm arm wraps around her waist, offering that warmth that her body is severely lacking in this moment, but no matter how much comfort a mate can offer, in this moment, it will never be enough. If she was put in a furnace it wouldn't be enough to thaw her.
Lucas isn’t feeling much better, he is offering Alexis comfort but also giving himself comfort. For a confident and successful man like himself, this is his single biggest failing. He can not look at it without his heart constricting and his breathing slightly laboured.
Scrawled on the ground in large and rough lettering, the blood is dried and chunky, Brodie’s life taken to send them a message. The message burned on the ground as well as in their hearts.
8 LITTLE GUARDIANS HANGING IN A TREE