[GREYSON]
"Mama... Papa, please wake up... I'm scared, Mama," Mbali whispered defeatedly, her tears free-falling down her face.
She felt weak, staring at her parents like that. She felt trapped in a cycle that she had tried to get out of, and had hopelessly failed to do so more than once. It was like her world was never going to give her any peace.
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She was a fighter, a warrior, and yet as strong as she was, this right here was the one thing that haunted her more times than she would ever admit out loud. She deserved better and she knew it, but what else could he do this time?
"What?" Hudhayfah asked, clearly not understanding anything. He could have sworn he had never seen Jabali Lihle crying and that too while mentioning her parents. He wanted to pretend that this wasn't a traumatic response, but Hudhayfah just couldn't.
The woman was broken by a past she never let anyone into. She was hurt by a reality that she had tried to escape and clearly, seeing her sister here like this, was returning all the terrible memories that she had had to live through.
Maybe there would come a time when she would be free, but what was freedom when her heart was shattered all the time?
"Please don't leave me again," Mbali said as she rushed to her sister. She had always been used to pain and she knew how to get a hold of herself. Besides, she refused to let anyone take care of her.
She had always been alone, with her Lycans and if she let anyone else in, she would be ruined. But now that her sister was here, and reminding her of her abandonment, would it be any easier for her?
"Mbali—" Elodie said, as she reached out to Mbali, but Hudhayfah stopped her.
"Let her. Whatever it is, only she can wake up her sister. We can't interrupt her seeing as their heartbeats are slowing a little too fast. It would be hard having eleven protectors in a coma at the same time, especially the current white wolf's protector.
All her life she had no one and suddenly her sister was dying and she had to be the one to make sure Malika didn't drift. Weren't they being a little too cruel to her though? Whatever the fuck happened to humanity, to letting her in, to listening to her.
Or maybe they had been at war for so long that they didn't quite remember what it meant to be human anymore, no?
"Great. Just great. Even until the end, she remains a selfish little shit waiting to play Cinderella for you right? Why the fuck didn't you get Hawi then? How could I command her? We both know Hawi's command would get her protector up.
"Why leave her here with me? Why drag me into this shit show that she put herself in? I didn't ask her to protect me or be my sister. If she wants to take her power back... then, by all means, she can do it... She's so cruel...
"You all are so cruel to me. It's unfair how I never get to live and the moment she feels like fanning out, I have to dive in and be the one who cares for her. What about me then?" Mbali asked Hudhayfah angrily.
She punched the wall near the bed, making the entire room shake, not to mention the hole that she had created in it.
She was angry and she had every right to be, so Hudhayfah wasn't even about to justify what they had done or what they were doing as much as Hudhayfah wanted to answer Mbali's questions, he knew he couldn't do that without implicating themselves.
"We'll leave you to it, Jabali. Like I said, I'll prepare the reports just in case. But I hope we don't have to lose your sister. You just found her, you need answers for what she did and you deserve closure. It's unfair to you, you are right.
"But if you didn't get her out of there, then you will be forcing the entire realm into chaos, the kind that not even us immortals will be able to survive. I know it's a lot of pressure, but I wish there was another way.
"Sadly, there isn't, Mbali," Hudhayfah said as he walked out, signaling everyone else in the room to live with him.
Elodie was quite skeptical, but she knew that the ball was in Mbali's court and only she could determine what the fuck happened after this.
"You can do this, Mbali," Elodie whispered as she locked the door after her, leaving a distraught Mbali with her sister and ten other nearly dead protectors.