Little War

Devlin

“I think it’s time to deploy the ultimate weapon.”

“I don’t think it will work.”

“Trust me, it will work.”

I turn my eyes to a skeptical Zennen. We watch as Craven pokes my daughter’s chest lightly.

“Gracie.”

He continues poking at her, cooing her name in a whiney voice as she sleeps on.

His face goes from determined to defeated real fucking quick, before he slinks his bruised-ego ass back to Zennen and me.

Throwing his arms up dramatically, Craven throws a little fit, which Zennen and I find really fucking amusing.

“It’s not going to work, she’s dead to the world!”

“You’re not going to get her awake like that,” I chuckle before walking to her crib.

Choking down my pride, I say the one thing I know will wake my beautiful daughter up from her slumber. The one thing that will forever piss me the fuck off.

Clearing my throat, I say the three words that work every time: “Oh hey, Soren.”

And just like that her little eyes start fluttering open, and my ego takes another fucking beating thanks to my baby’s love for her uncle over me.

“SoSo,” she whispers excitedly. I can’t help but scowl. Even though I try to hide it, she catches it slightly, her little brows knitting together.

Scooping my daughter up, I grudgingly walk back to Zennen and Craven, who are now busting out laughing.

“I freaking tried for like forty-five minutes and you’re telling me all I had to say is ~Oh hey, Soren~? That’s fucking gold.”

“Unfortunately,” I say while gritting my teeth and rolling my eyes.

At the second mention of Soren’s name, Gracie’s head starts searching the room before she locks her sad eyes on me, tears forming in them.

“SoSo.”

I fucking loathe that she loves her uncle more than me, but dammit if it doesn’t fucking kill me to see her so hurt that he’s not here.

He’s been on Earth more than here to watch Zayla, especially since her little swim in the river. His fight to protect her from himself has failed at every turn.

Which—don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for him—but I can’t lie and say it doesn’t suck to see my daughter wait for him at dinner, and he won’t come because something happened on Earth.

And now, since he’s been home, he hasn’t left his room at all except a few times, and not even for work.

He’s just been sulking in there all day, then randomly going to our father’s quarters to see if he’s home.

It’s a bad time for him to need our father and his advice considering our father is in Heaven doing a soul audit.

I guess a few human souls have gone to the wrong places, so now Father has to sit up there and fix that. He was anything but happy when he was summoned.

A little tear sliding down Gracie’s face brings me back into the moment, and has my brothers almost on top of me as they try to rip her from my hands.

I release her when Zennen picks her up. His calm demeanor and personality always seem to soothe her, whereas Craven’s wild side tends to rev her up.

“Shhh, little War, Uncle Zen is going to take you to SoSo.” His big hands soothe over her tiny back.

I watch her push back slightly, her glassy eyes looking up at her uncle.

“SoSo?” comes out as a question.

Zennen nods, and that causes her to smile before nuzzling her face into his shoulder. Her little arm reaches out for me, but not to take her.

No, my princess just wants to touch me. Giving her my hand, she pulls it to her face and kisses it. It’s what her mom has always done to her and me as a way to comfort us.

And now she’s using it on me. I choke up a little bit before pulling my hand back. “Alright, let’s hope this works. Let’s go see Soren.”

“It will work! No one can say no to this.” In true Craven fashion, he dramatically throws his hands around in Gracie’s direction.

His actions cause Zennen and me to crack up as we make our way to Soren’s room.

When we get a few feet away, Zennen sets Gracie down on the ground. Her little legs take off to Soren’s door, opening it and running in before we can even make it two more steps.

We chuckle at her enthusiasm, but stop quickly once we hit the threshold of Soren’s room.

His room, to put it nicely, is destroyed. Blood and fur are everywhere, and claw marks shine on the walls.

The three of us walk into the room slowly; we have no fear for Gracie’s life so we don’t worry as she runs off in search of her uncle…

That is until a pained and screamed, “SoSo!” shakes the house.

Running into the bathroom, all we see is my brother practically passed out in his own blood, his body half shifted between man and wolf, his clawed hand stuck in his chest.

I’ve never seen anything like it. Never seen anyone hold both forms at once.

I reach quickly to grab my sobbing daughter as she tries to wake her uncle. Once I have my hands around her, she bites into my arm, squirming to get out of my hold.

“Dammit, Gracie, ouch!!” I can’t help but yell. The pain and blood are now running down my arm, but she doesn’t let go until I do.

As soon as I release my hold on her, she goes back to waking Soren up.

“SoSo! SoSo!!!”

I help her by shaking him and calling his name, but he lies still for far too long.

Zennen and Craven have been stuck, stunned in place, not sure what to do or what’s going on.

“Come freaking help us!” I cry out, snapping them out of their horror.

When they rush over, I have them help me pull his hand from his chest. His claws are piercing his heart, keeping him in this deceased-like state.

All three of us continue to tug, and we finally get his hand to release. We slowly pull it out of his chest.

As we do, I notice Gracie latch both hands onto the side of his face as he begins twitching.

Her eyes slowly close, and a white light starts glowing from her fingers.

The three of us kneel there, stunned, as Soren’s wolf slowly starts fading back into his skin, his human body taking over calmly. No broken bones, no sounds at all, just silence.

Slowly Soren’s eyes open, scanning our shocked expressions before landing on a toothless, smiling Gracie.

“Hello, little War, how’s my favorite girl?” His voice comes out dry and gravelly, but it doesn’t stop the light from beaming through Gracie’s eyes as she launches herself into his arms, squealing his name over and over again.

He laughs at her enthusiasm before wincing in pain. I notice his features starting to shift again.

Reaching over to grab my daughter, she puts a stop to that quickly when, just like before, she reaches her hand to his face.

Her fingers emit another soft glow before Soren’s pain disappears and he’s stuck staring at her in wonder.

“How did you do that?” he says softly before looking up at me.