Chapter 2: ²: I am a failure

Not fear but dread filled my heart, sharp and suffocating, as if some cruel part of me already knew what had happened before Harry even spoke.

It had been so long since I started talking to Harry, yet Dad still had not appeared beside us, still had not pulled me away from Harry with that playful glare of his while telling him to stay away from his little girl.

No.

No, these thoughts are ridiculous.

I was overthinking. That was all.

My mind was simply creating terrible conclusions out of panic and exhaustion. Dad is the Alpha. He is strong. Unbeatable. He has survived countless battles before this one, he must be fine.

But then Harry spoke again, and my entire world shattered.

"Alpha Steven was severely injured during the battle, Athena. We tried to save him... but we couldn’t." His voice cracked violently. "I’m sorry. I tried...I"

The rest of his words faded into nothing.

It was as if my ears stopped functioning after hearing the word couldn’t.

Dead.

Dad was dead.

"Athena!"

Someone called my name in panic as the ground beneath me tilted dangerously. My knees gave out, my body collapsing before I could even understand what was happening.

Maybe it was Harry holding me. Maybe Romana.

I didn’t know.

My entire body had shut down on its own, refusing to process the horror of what I had just heard.

No.

This wasn’t real.

It couldn’t be.

...

"Dad, who do you love the most in this whoooole world?"

The little girl sitting on her father’s lap asked while pushing the curls of her wet hair out of her face which were in disarray as her father was blowdrying them.

"Umm, let me think" Alpha Steven pretended to think deeply, trying to sound as serious as he could while continuing to groom his little girl’s beautiful hair.

His large hands gently combed through them.

Athena stared at him with wide, expectant eyes.

"That is a very difficult question...." I love your mom the most!" he said after a while making the little brown-eyed girl gasp feeling the ultimate betrayal.

Without wasting any time she tried to get off his lap which forced her father to turn off the device in his hand as he burst into laughter and promptly hugged her, not willing the little devil to leave anytime soon.

"Dad, leave me! you don’t love me then I also don’t love you" little Athena said while wiggling nonstop making her father laugh more in delight at her cute antics.

"Athena, no! I was joking!"

"No! Leave me alone!"

"You are definitely my favourite little wolf in the whole world," he said while tickling her sides lightly.

Athena’s anger disappeared immediately.

"Really?" she whispered hopefully.

"Really," he replied.

She grinned brightly at her father, her face brightening like she was given the biggest treasure in the world and then threw herself against his chest, hugging him as tightly as her tiny arms allowed.

"So you lied when you said you loved me the most?"

A soft amused voice suddenly came from behind them.

Both father and daughter turned toward the doorway where Athena’s mother stood with her arms crossed, pretending to look offended.

Little Athena gasped.

"Uh oh." feeling like she had made a big mistake.

...

My eyes snapped open, reality crashing into me all over again.

That memory...

It was only a memory now.

Not my present.

My present was empty.

My present...my present was that I had lost both of them..both of my parents..

First my mother.

And now my father too.

A broken sound escaped my throat as I sat up slowly in bed, staring blankly at the dark room around me.

It had been two days since the funeral, yet none of this felt real.

Part of me still expected Dad to push open my bedroom door at any second, carrying tea in his hands while complaining about how I slept too much.

But he never would again.

He would never hug me again. Never laugh with me again. Never call me his little girl again.

"Ah—!"

A hoarse scream tore out of my throat as another wave of grief crushed me whole. My chest burned painfully from crying for days without stopping, yet somehow it still wasn’t enough.

I had failed, I had failed my father,

If only I had been there.

If only Dad had allowed me to fight beside him.

Maybe he would still be alive.

Why didn’t he allow me to fight alongside him?! why?!