~BOOK 5/PART TWO~ Paranormal: Too Close To Home (Multi-Bandom FanFic)

"He attacked my pack!" I screamed at the younger hellhound, causing her to shrivel back into the chair she was seated in, "I have seven pack members dead because of him, and they want me to take action."

"Him who?" She questioned as if she wasn't aware of the attack.

I shrugged. "I don't know! Rachael said his name was Darrell or Dan-"

"Danny?" Kai finished my sentence, her eyes widening and then shifting elsewhere in the room, giving me proof that she was familiar with the man and small group.

"I don't really give a shit about his name. All I want is that son of a bitch's head," I sneered while banging my fist on my desk, "He threatened my pack, my friends, and Lynn, and then he kills people in public for some show of power. Who does he think he is?"

"He's your brother-" She tried to defend him, but I cut her off.

"I don't care if he is my brother. Ge's going to pay for what he did, and you have no right to try and condone his actions. You're just as guilty as he is."

"I didn't know she sent him," The hellhound admitted, tilting her head down as an attempt to hide from my glare.

"Don't lie to me. You told me it would happen if I refused to go with you."

"They were just threats, I swear! I wasn't going to hurt you!" She pleaded. 

Something inside of me wanted to believe her. I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, but why should I feel bad for her? How could I believe her? My mate was dead, and I had a trail of dead bodies because of my supposed family. 

"Mother wanted me to use your pack and those girls as leverage against you," My younger sister explained, "She said that using them would scare you into coming home. I didn't know she'd actually send Danny to hurt anyone."

I rubbed my forehead. Everything in me screamed that she was a liar, but the small compassionate part in my heart told me that I could trust that what she said was true. Yet the numerous families pleading for blood forced me to think otherwise. "I thought she trusted you."

"Not anymore, apparently. You've been so stubborn, she must have decided to make the threats real." She slid to the edge of her chair. "You have to go with her now. If she's sent Danny, then your town and your friends are doomed. Please, just come home." There was a sense of urgency and fear in Kai's eyes she seemed afraid. No, she was terrified.

"I can't leave," I argued. Ever since Bruno passed, all I've wanted was to get the hell out of town. I wanted to run, far away from here, but I had pack members counting on me to be their alpha. "I have a pack here to run."

"Running this pack will be a waste of your time when there's no one left," She responded, "Danny killed just a few of your members, what if he comes back and does the same thing again? Maybe even wiping out everyone this time?"

"Kai, I'm doing this because my pack needs me. I'm doing what's best for these people." I knew the only way to make Kai, Danny, and my mother go away was an act of war, a deadly battle between my mother and her minions. "If I have to wage war against Cerberus, then that's what I'll do."

"No!" Kai objected, "You keep this up and New Orleans will be nothing but a graveyard." She nervously ran her hand through her jet black hair with purple ends to them.

I heaved a sigh, knowing that my younger sibling was right. If I let this go, this chaos would draw on without end. Everyone I cared about would be dead. My stubbornness encouraged me to believe that wouldn't happen, but with everything Kai was telling me, I knew it inevitable. I had faith in myself to make this family issue go away, to stay here and be the leader this pack deserved, but Cerberus and my siblings wouldn't let that happen.

I approached my sister as she held herself, worry stretched across her face. "Kai-"

"Kenya, what will it take to get you home?" Desperation laced her voice, something I wasn't expecting. "Just tell me what you want, tell me what will get you to come home. We have to stop all the killing."

"Just a few days ago, you didn't care about all the violence!" I screamed at Kai, making her shrink away out of fear, "You told me I was irrational and stupid for not automatically agreeing to be carried away to god knows where!"

"Kenya, I know that what's happened over the course of the past few days gives you no right to trust me, but you have to believe me when one say that Mother is going to come after Rachael and Lynn next. And once she sends Danny after them, there's no stopping him. He'll kill them."

I growled at the thought of someone trying to harm the woman I loved and the one person I once called my friend. "He can try, but-"

"Kenya, your pride will get your pack wiped out. Why do you think Bruno is dead and Danny is coming after you?"

I glared at my step sister before reaching out and grabbing her by the throat, choking her to near death. "Bruno killed himself," I growled.

"He shot himself in the heart. Really?" Kai strained her voice as she scratched at my hands in attempt to break free. It was then that I realized his death wasn't a suicide, but a murder, so I dragged over to the desk and slammed her down. "She killed him, she said she was doing it for you! Besides, I thought you didn't love him anymore!"

"He was my mate, you bitch," I sneered as I held her down tighter, "I couldn't help but love him. Maybe not in the way you think, but he meant something to me." 

God, I wished I could just snap Kai's neck and move on. I wish I could kill all of my family, they ruined my life. But they were invincible, they could regenerate, and they would never go away like I wanted them to. It wasn't possible.

"She killed him, Kenya, and she was wrong for it," Kai admitted. I didn't know if her confession was because she didn't want me to squeeze the life out of her, or because she really wanted to convince me that she was on my side. "I'm sorry. I should have said something, I should have talked to mother, tried to make this better."

"Nothing you could do would make this better," I stated grimly, "You killed half of my heart."

"You know that's not true," My younger sister murmured as she looked into my eyes, keeping the staring contest in play. We sat in silence for a moment before I decided to release her out of the guilt in my heart. "You know you never loved Bruno as much as you loved that human girl."

Kai was right, I didn't love Bruno. Yeah, I felt love that I couldn't explain, and I knew I was destined to be with him, but it was just because I was destined to be with him. It didn't mean I truly wanted to love Bruno. I never pictured myself living a long life with him, being a normal couple that got married in a few years, and then had kids. I knew that was what he always wanted, but me, I didn't want that, not with him at least.

"Don't you see? If you don't go, she's going to strip you of everyone you ever cared about. She's going to make it so you have nowhere else to go, no one else you can depend on. You'll have no one else but her."

"Why, though?" I screamed out of utter confusion, taking a seat in the cursed chair, "She was never in a hurry to kill me or trigger the change in me before. I just need to understand why she wants me so badly. I'm sure Jack is enough, but no. She wants us both at the same time." I ran my hands through my hair and tried to process my mother's plot. "Why?"

"I don't know exactly what she's planning," Kai spoke up, "But I know it's big and she needs all of us to help her do it."

"If it's bad, then I won't go along with it," I flat out stated.

"Considering the position we're in, you don't have much choice." Kai informed me. I shook my head. "Listen to me, Kenya, I know she already has her hold on you. She can control you. If you don't go willingly, she'll kill everyone you love and then force you to go regardless of the body count she leaves."

I clenched my jaw at her response but she was right, my mother did something the night she stopped Natalie.

Kai began ranting and raving about the amount of power Cerberus had. And I didn't need her to convince me, because I already knew what she was capable of. It was as if there was a trigger or switch inside of me that she flipped on. What if she forced me to kill Rachael, or my pack, or Lynn? I would be devastated. I would become the uncontrollable monster I saw in my dreams. I would be what I wanted to run from. 

"I'll go," I muttered, stopping Kai in her tracks and ending her one way conversation. She stared at me as if I'd lost my mind. 

"You're serious this time." My sibling sat bewildered in the chair she was previously placed in. She could probably see and feel the amount of pain I was in. Just the thought of leaving my home again - not out of my own will - was going to kill me. Yet it had to be done.

"I give you my word." I leaned over my desk and nodded my head. "I'll go."