Stripped at The Killing Moon
A/N: I own none of these characters.
Summary: Gabriel leaves Astrid.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was home. I just got finished cooking dinner for Rafael and Vivian. They were both seven and very hungry. Quickly scrapping the potatoes into a plastic container, I would let him warm up the food when he got home from his council meeting.
Gabriel said he had some important things to discuss with the council of elder loup-garoux. He seemed nervous and didn't say much. Or maybe he didn't want to.
I went into Rafe's and Vivian's room and tucked them into their warm, cotton beds. I sat in the rocking chair and read them "Little Red Riding Hood." It was a story about the wolf goddess, one of her wolf sons. He had become infatuated with a human girl. Little Red Riding Hood. But once he met her family and got closer to her, his lust for a mate, flesh and blood got in the way and destroyed the human's family. When the girl found out that the wolf was the one that killed her family, she was disgusted with him and killed him with silver. The moral of the story was for pups not to mingle with the humans. Or so everyone thought.
I finished and kissed both of them on their foreheads. It was amazing how angelic they both looked. As I walked out of the room, I heard the slam of a pan against the stove. The meeting must've not gone well. I walked down the hallway and into the kitchen.
Gabriel, shoulders hunched down, his hands pressed against the stove, glared down at the pan scattered to the side. My feet didn't seem to touch the ground; it was like I was gliding across the floor. I felt like this anytime I was around Gabe.
"Baby? What's wrong?" I reached towards him. My finger grazed his shoulder and I felt him freeze up. He turned around and tightly gripped my shoulders. I squirmed, "Gabe, let go."
His eyes were amber like his wolf's personality. "Astrid, I need you to know."
"Gabriel...you're hurting me."
He shook me. "Riddy, listen!"
He let me go and I shut up. Gabriel walked around the room, pacing. He ran a hand through his brown-black locks, ruffling them up, nervously.
"Astrid, you've known I've loved you all these years..." He started.
Something wasn't right.
"...since we were sixteen we've been having fun together..."
I sighed and reached for his cheek, stroking it with my thumb. "Gabe, what do you want to say?"
He took a deep breath and cleared his face of any emotion. Just like an alpha. "Every seven years a leader of the pack..."
"No..."
He shook his head. "I'm so very sorry. But I must. It's tradition and in our culture, our society...tradition reigns."
Tears spilt silently down my eyes and I fell to my knees. He gripped me from hurting myself. I sobbed. Drinking down dry air, slightly heaving into his chest. My eyes burned. Fisting his shirt, I screamed.
"Astrid, you'll wake up the children. Shh."
That snapped me out of my wild hallucination. Gritting my teeth I said, "It's Beatrice." I stood up, he looked at me.
He looked squirmy kneeling there before me. Not like an alpha male. "What?"
I glared at him through my watery eyes, "Beatrice." I murmured darkly. "It's Beatrice."
He stood up, shoulders straightened, glaring, "I don't understand you."
"It's Beatrice! Isn't it!" I screamed. Throwing myself at him, I changed in midair. I landed on his chest and he tried to throw me off. Yet my anger was too strong, too vivid. Savagely I tried to reach an artery. No cigar. He flipped me over and in that second he was a wolf too.
Baring down at me, I had to obey the pecking order. I was his ex-bitch. His ex-alpha female. His ex-wife. I tucked my tail between my legs and showed him my throat. He grunted in approval and stood up a man. I scampered away to the corner of the kitchen knocking over chairs in my path. And in the corner of my eye I saw Rafe and Vivian run back to their room.
Changing back, I felt cold. Inside and outside. My soul, heart and love torn away from me. I cried, balling up into the fetal position. I rocked back and forth.
"Yes it is. She's the new bitch."
At this I heaved out a huge sob. Beating my feet against the floor like a bratty human child. "Why??!!?"
He sat next to me in the corner of the kitchen and held me against himself. Petting my long blonde curls, "It's tradition."
"That's not what I meant." I dried my face. "Why her? Why not one of Jenny's friends? Why Beatr-" I was silenced by his lips pressed against mine.
I tried to push him away. He didn't love me, then why was he kissing me? Why would he do this to me? I was always faithful. I loved him. I love him. I took care of him when he was sick? When he got into a fight? When we were teenagers? I was there. Not Beatrice.
He pushed me down onto the linoleum floor, bruising my pale back and worked his way into me. I just wanted to let out a scream it hurt, although he was being gentle. This was our last time. He said, "I'll always love you." and I made him bleed.
The next day, all his stuff was gone. He said good-bye to Vivian and Rafael. But not me. So much for love. He moved in with Beatrice. So much for love. She cheated on him with Constani and Albu, his personal lieutenants, his betas. So much for love.
The pups where going over to Jenny's house to play with Gregor. So I had time to clean the house of all the 'residue-Gabriel'. I chopped off all my curls until it was jaw short. I picked up a picture from the coffee table. It was the four of us. Our first spring with Vivian in the Forest. Vivian sat in my lap; I was braiding her hair and looking at her with a huge smile on my face as I stuck green leaves in it. Rafael in Gabriel's lap, he was hugging his son, his chin sitting on the crook of Rafe's shoulder. His arms wrapped lovingly around his son.
I knew Rafe would never forgive his father.
I knew I would never forgive my alpha male.
I tossed the picture.