Strength of the wolf is the pack

Taking a deep breath Max remembered what Wyatt had told him, it was all about focus and control. If he stayed focus he could control the flame. 

Staring at the candle he’d borrowed from home he stared at it while holding his hand out, “Incendia.” 

When he spoke a small flame appeared, flickering this way and that, he wasn’t sure how to control it or how to make it bigger. He didn’t know what limits his magic had or how strong it would be. But at the sound of a twig breaking he flinched, the flame suddenly shooting skyward making him stumble back with wide eyes.

Hearing his name called he turned around just in time to see his mother making her way towards him from the trees. 

Max had no idea what she had and hadn’t seen, his heart racing desperately in his chest he swallowed hard. “What are you doing out here?” He asked softly, his voice breaking a bit. 

“We’re family, Max. No one has to go through things alone when they have family.” She felt firm on this, there might be things that didn’t understand or couldn’t even help with but she could be a shoulder. “If you want to take time to figure it out yourself, I can give you that but don’t act as if you can’t come to me. Whenever.”

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“I know, Mac. I’m trying to remember that. But sometimes I don’t wanna burden you guys with my problems or my feelings. I don’t want to mess things up.” When she told him he could have time to figure it out he nodded, “I promise, I’ll come to you if I really need it.”

“If you think you can be easily replaced its more so likely that you think they never really loved you to begin with. Could you easily replace a loved one lost?” She questions knowing full well that there was no way that she could ever replace any of the loved ones she was missing. There was ways to fill her heart but nothing would ever replace the missing pieces. 

“Death is life, its what makes life so…wonderful. Take from an immortal being, life without death makes things fairly dull.” While fairies could certainly die of old age it took some time, their lives expanded compared to the human mortals. “It makes your time with your loved one more…precious.” She thought fondly of her husband and children wondering if they made it to the other realm safely, not that it would matter, she would likely never see them again given her weakened magic. 

She could only see her own son in this boy, this sad boy, taking steps closer to him she reached out and touched his arm. “It always get dark before the light, it will get better.”

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At the question Max just stared at the ground, thinking about it. His family loved him, he knew that. But he wondered if they could still love him knowing he had hunted someone down with the intent of killing them after finding out he wasn’t biologically theirs. 

He looked up at the sound of her drawing closer, her words made sense, but at the same time, he hadn’t known Hailie long enough, why did she have to get taken from him so fast?

“But what if the darkness just keeps spreading?” 

Cyrene tilts her head at his answer, “You’re both so right and so wrong.” She answers with a soft smile playing at her lips as the wind whips up once more. “Death isn’t just your end, death is much more than that.” There was a reason that most the religions in the world had some kind of idea of a heaven and a hell, it was no false way to keep people in line but a warning. “You dying is the very definition of worrying about hurting someone, I suspect you have family, loved ones.” Most did she had to think, it would be far too sad to be otherwise. 

“You’re lying.” She answers simply looking away from the young man and back at the sky as well, “You might not fear your own death but you fear every other death that could happen around you.” She muses before pulling her blonde hair behind her ear, “Its natural, once you lose someone you care about. I assume that is what I am feeling, it like a dark shroud around you.”

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“What if they didn’t have to hurt over it? What if they could have someone else replace me?” He asked, looking at her seriously. “What if I died right now and someone that might mean more to them showed up and took my place?” 

When she called him out for lying he quickly looked away, his heart clenching in his chest. “I’m tired of losing people, I don’t want the people I love to keep dying.” 

When she mentioned a dark shroud he shuddered, closing his eyes. “If you’re feeling something dark then its coming from me. I feel it too..” He mumbled, grabbing his chest he clenched his fingers against the fabric of his shirt. 

Now on edge the hair on the back her neck prick up and Mac stands with her brother holding a hand out, “Hold up you giant doofus, of course its a big deal. You’re my brother and something is clearly bothering you, something more than just Hailie’s death. “Why are you pushing me away?”

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“Because it’s something I have to deal with myself, Mac. This isn’t something you can hold my hand and go through it with me, I have to figure out what to do next on my own.” He mumbled as he looked at his sister, even though they weren’t biologically related she was still his twin, the bond he had with her didn’t feel broken. But it felt like it could, if he kept this up, kept pushing her away. 

Maybe he was testing its binds, see how strong their relationship really was. 

“Because you’re hyper focused on the bad.” Mac frowns, “Why would magic being back make that worse?”

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“I... I can’t explain it.” He mumbled, reaching for the bottle again as he stood up. “Forget I said anything Mac, it’s not that big of a deal.” He didn’t want to tell her about Serena or the fact that he was a witch-wolf hybrid. He wasn’t even sure how to tell his parents.

“You don’t force happiness, Maxi. It just comes naturally from those around you and from within yourself.” She shakes her head at her brother, he was so wrapped up in the terrible he ignored the good things. “You need to get out of your own head and open your eyes, our dad is alive, Hunter is alive, you have a healthy happy baby and the family is together for the first since all this bad washed over us. Our pack has its true alphas back and is starting to thrive, so stop looking back and start looking ahead, Maxi.” 

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“I know! It’s just not that easy or simple, okay? I’m struggling, I have been for a while. With magic back it’s just... it’s getting worse.” 

Cyrene smiles softly at his words closing her eyes for a moment to soak in the sun on her face just as much as the bitter icy wind before opening them again to look at the young man. “There are much worse things than death.” She answers back watching him carefully, her magic wasn’t what it once was so protecting herself would be a challenge. “Many don’t seem to know that. Do you? Is that why you no longer fear it?” 

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Listening to the stranger Max felt oddly at ease with the question, it didn’t give him anxiety or cause panic like he thought it might. “I guess you can say that, there are worse things than death. But I’ve also come to realize, death doesn’t happen to you. It happens to everyone around you.” 

Looking over at the woman he studied her closely, “I don’t have to worry about death or fear it, because in the end.. If I die, that’s it. I’m gone, I don’t feel pain, I don’t feel loss or lonely. I don’t have to worry about hurting anyone. ” 

Taking a deep breath he lifted his face to the sky, staring up at it. “But everyone around me suffers, they feel the loss, pain. It effects them. But it doesn’t touch me. Death cannot harm me.” He said firmly, looking at her again. “So I do not fear it.” 

She listen to him talk about Hailie and the kind of person she was, giving him a soft nod but keeping her eye contact with him. “Well then I suppose you’re answering your own questions now then, Maxi. And you know Hunter and I are gonna support you no matter what, all we want is our brother to be happy.”

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“I want to be happy, Mac. I just don’t know how that works anymore. So many things in my life went wrong all at once, I’m still not sure how to get back to who I used to be. Smiling feels like a chore, I only feel at relative ease when I’m with my daughter.” 

After a moment he took another drink, “I don’t know who I am anymore.”

There was a sense of pain being back in the world, it was something she didn’t know and the last few months trying to learn her way around it was difficult to say the least. Walking out of the woods into the clearing that opened up to the frozen lake the Fairy toed at the ice before walking carefully out, it was solid enough not yet thawed out enough in most areas to break under her. It felt peaceful to stand out in the still winter whiteness, “You’re going to catch your death out here.” She calls out to the footsteps behind her, she could only feel the slight prickle of magic under her skin, they didn’t believe as they once did. The little magic that she could feel likely the result of children’s bedtime stories still not yet doubted.

@mysticofthefallenstarter​

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Spotting the woman Max had decided to follow after her, not sure what the other was doing. He watched as she walked her way out onto the frozen lake, finally stepping out of the tree line to observe her more fully. 

“Death doesn’t frighten me anymore.” He called back, stepping out onto the ice. “Aren’t you worried of catching your own death?” He asked her as he approached her. 

"I wish I had never suggested going out the day my girlfriend died, if I'd kept my mouth shut or suggested something different. Maybe she would still be alive. If I hadn't said a shortcut home would be easier, if we'd gone the long way around, she might still be here. So that's the one thing I wish I'd never said."

She gave him a soft smile knowing her brother she didn’t doubt that about him, “So you know you can’t just pause your life, you know that you have a daughter who won’t want to grow up watching her father living half a life.” She points out knowing that it was impossible to just shut himself off from the rest of the world. 

“Only you can decide what to do about this Maxi, but you know Hallie better than anyone else, would she want you to live half a life waiting on a ghost?” She quizzes him with a soft hum.

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Swallowing hard Max thought about Hailie and what she would have wanted, “She was all about living life to its fullest potential, she didn’t believe in slowing down for anyone.” He admitted, looking down and grabbing the bottle again. “I don’t wanna live my life waiting for a ghost...”

Mac could see how that could be a tricky situation and she bites her lip trying to think of what to tell him, “Well I guess that just means you have spend the rest of your days pining over a ghost who may or may not come back.” She answers giving him a look from the corner of her eye before taking the bottle back and giving it another sip. 

She gives a soft shrug of her shoulders leaning on Max, “I think there are far worse things in the world than loving someone. Than again I guess if I ended up dying after giving birth and came back a year later to find Hunter and Chris together I wouldn’t be thrilled. But I think that would be the same if it were anyone with Chris. It hurts to find someone you love has moved on but what else can the dead expect? Unless we’re expected to crawl into their grave along side of them.”

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Max wasn’t sure how he felt about that, the idea of pining over a ghost for the rest of his life, waiting for Hailie. What if she never came back? What if it took her decades and he was already in his fifties and she came back, the same age she’d died. How was that fair to anyone? 

“I would have...” He admitted softly, “If I had had the choice, I think I really might have chosen to go with her.” He admitted, “But I had a daughter waiting for me at home..” 

Mac stares unable to process the information her brother was giving her and she could do nothing but shake her head, “He- he flashed his eyes at you?” Mac asks in a mix of horror and grief, their aunt Hayley was a hybrid, she understood he was still the same person and yet…not. The fact he reacted to Max in such a way broke her a little inside, had she really expected that her loved ones would come back and there would be no consequences, no changes? She felt stupid and childish for thinking it and she felt like rolling up on the floor with her brother. Instead she grabbed the bottle and took a long swig of her own, coughing softly at the burn and wiping her mouth. 

“Oh.” It wasn’t so much about her brother being interesting in another guy, she was pretty used to her brother’s being open about loving who they loved and she was all for it. Even their aunt Kiera loved who she wanted to love, men, women none of it mattered, “And you think that with the dead coming back even randomly still that maybe she will?” She questions trying to piece it all together with him.

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Letting his sister take the bottle Max just lifted his head to stare at the ceiling before he took the bottle back again, taking a hearty swig to rival his sisters. Clearing his throat he closed his eyes for a moment as he let his sister process it all. At her question he nodded, “I can’t stop thinking about it, what if I move on with Benji and she comes back, how am I supposed to look the mother of my child in the eyes and tell her that I fell for her brother of all people?” 

Letting his head fall back against the wall he sighed, “I don’t know if I should like him, it feels wrong. Isn’t it wrong to fall for your dead girlfriends brother?” 

Mac could see the distress on her brother’s face, it wasn’t hard to read but she grew up next to him their entire lives, she would be able to read it even in a pitch black room and her heart broke seeing him that way. She liked to think it was the twin link between them but it was no different for them and hunter as well. She frowned slightly at his words, tilting her head, “What do you mean? What happened?” She asks softly leaning on his knee waiting for him to explain.

She blinks and shakes her head, “Wait what?” She questions him with a chuckle of her own, “Dad isn’t a hybrid.” She assures him with a shake of her head once more, there was no way. not after the talk that they just had tonight that he wouldn’t have told her that. The relationship issues that he was having Mac couldn’t understand or knew who he meant but she rubs his arm comfortingly. “I’m sorry, Maxi. I wish I could do something to make you feel better, the only thing I can say is that…you can’t help the way you feel about someone. People might say Chris and I got married too soon, that we moved to fast and still are but no one can know better that he and I. Just like no one can know what is right for you and whoever it is that you might feel something for.”

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Shaking his head Max grabbed the crystal bottle of bourbon from his sister and took a swig from it before setting it back down. “He and I got into an argument and his changed, they looked like a vampire..” He mumbled, taking another swig out of the bottle before looking at his sister as she talked about her and Chris. 

“That’s different, Chris was a stranger to you. Benji isn’t a stranger to me, he’s Hailie’s brother, Luna’s uncle. I shouldn’t feel that way about him.” 

There was so much more going on, things that were twisting up his insides. But it felt easier to just shove all of that down and just pretend that it was relationship issues that he was having. Issues with his dad, issues with Benji. 

Max could sit here and pretend all night that those were the only things bothering him, but he knew he’d have to come clean eventually. But for right now, he just wanted to keep pretending Mac was his twin. 

Mac had been enjoying her evening, between dancing the night away with her husband publicly, no longer needing to hide him from her family and having a much needed heart to heart with her father she felt like Christmas was good this year after the difficult one they had last year. Going off to get a breath of her own she felt a shift in the mood of the house as she entered an empty hallway. Walking further away from the sounds of the crowd and the music she pushed open a door that was opened just a crack finding her brother sitting alone. “Maxi?” She calls out softly entering the room and closing the door behind her. Walking over to where he sat she picked up one of the crystal bottles of bourbon and sat at his feet with the long skirts of her dress fanned out, “Why are you locked up in here by yourself?”

@howltothemxxn​

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When Max heard the door open he didn’t look up, he held a crystal bourbon glass, one that directly matched the bottle of bourbon that his sister picked up as she walked closer to him. He knew it was her the moment she called his name. Lifting the glass to his lips he swallowed the liquor down, leaning back against the wall he rested against. 

“My life feels like it’s falling apart, even though it should be coming back together.” He mumbled softly as he stared at the floor. 

“I have a beautiful and healthy daughter, Hunter is alive, my father is alive, he’s a fucking vampire hybrid but he’s alive...” He laughed, taking another long drink, “I have someone who wants me, they want to love me but I’m too proud and stubborn to admit that I maybe want them too. Because it’s wrong, it’s.. too soon, too much.” 

Shaking his head he closed his eyes after he finished off his bourbon, tossing the glass away as he buried his face in his hands.