No Better Than The Beasts

Chapter 38-This is it

(This isn't a song I wanted to play for this chapter- I wanted something sentimental and stuff, but like pffft I couldn't think of any other song because this one is just stuck in my head)

Derrick still remembered the words he heard after rushing to Malia's side after the queen had died. When he heard about what she did to his mom, he wanted to kill her. But, for Jake's sake, he didn't want her to die...however...now it was too late.

She was hanging on a thread; no doubt her last words were her last breaths.

And Derrick remembered those words vividly.

He remembered her eyes, so calm, as always- dried of tears, as if she had no sorrows left to spill. She was holding her stomach, bloodied and ripped, as if she was caressing the face of a small babe. Her eyes, so much like Jake's- but without the boyish spark, were trained on the sky; her breath stuttering in and out of her mouth.

It was a sunny day, bright and warm.

"I've made...mistakes...to you...to many..., " she was fighting for more time to speak, "...this is to repay ...for what I did...this is for my son's- my son's happiness...and for you...you'll be a good Luna...protect him better...than I did..."

And Derrick remembered the silence afterward. The thought of that moment- it felt unreal, nonexisting.

Protect him.

He felt, with those words, he had a new purpose. Yeah, he's the future king, so what? He has known that he was going to take the throne since he was young, because he was the eldest and only child of the king. For the longest time, that was his only purpose: to find a soulmate and be a vessel in which the ability to rule would be passed down through the Rastus generation.

However, now he realized he could make a new purpose in himself besides what the society expected of him.

Like now, he wanted his main goal to be there for his soulmate.

Because he knew, after those words, that his soulmate was going to be extremely upset...

And for the first time, he told himself something he needed to hear.

The killer of your mother is dead. There is no need for hatred and revenge anymore. Face it, you are stubborn and grumpy, but that doesn't mean you can't open up to at least one person- the one person who is destined for your trust and your vulnerability. Jake needs you to open up, for his own sake.

It will take time.

It will be hard.

But it will never happen, if you don't try.

He realized he had just reasoned with himself, and for a split second, he thought he was crazy, but he quickly dismissed it.

And now he was at the castle, in his room, five days after Jake's mother's funeral. Jake was still a little numb, he could tell, but the werewolf was more proud of his mother for saving Derrick's life more than anything.

Derrick had just walked out of a shower, not caring enough to put a shirt on, looking at Jake who was sitting on the bed looking lost in his thoughts. He was probably thinking about his mom again.

Derrick sighed and sat next to him, putting a hand on his soulmate's shoulder. Jake knew Derrick was there, but he gave no sign of it.

"I feel like I should be hurting more. It's only been a few days and I feel fine. Why do I feel fine?" Jake said, without looking at his soulmate, "Is it because I'm heartless?"

"Jake," Derrick huffed, "If anything, you are not heartless."

"Did you feel this way when...when your mom died?" Jake asked his prince.