Ezra’s P.O.V
Alas, all that was invalid now. She was already dead, killed unjustly in a home that she had come to trust and love. A home that I had built for her.
I could not get the image of my brother out of my head. Silas, knelt over Lily's bloodied body. Silas, with his grip fastened tightly around a dagger, the murder weapon. Silas, pulling out the weapon in order to stab her again, as if one slash had not been enough. He probably would have gotten wilder if we had not arrived at the scene in time to stop him.
It angered me to know that he was still out there, somewhere relishing in his victory after having murdered a helpless innocent. It enraged me to know he had yet to be held accountable for his sin. It disheartened me to know that he had it in him to commit such an atrocious crime on someone who he considered family, or at least, used to, because who would kill someone they held closely to their heart?
Still, there was a lingering doubt in both my mind and my heart. The Silas I knew was not capable of doing such a thing. Surely, he had not changed so drastically in the time that I had been away?
Even though I was clouded with grief and anger, there was a seed of disbelief in my chest, a spark of… something that led me to hope against all hope that my brother had not been behind the killing of my mate. I did not miss the distraught look on his face, and the desperate way he clung to Lily's motionless body. I knew the look on his face when he wanted to cry but the tears just wouldn't come — I saw it a million times before. I saw it again, tonight.
I needed to find out the truth, even though I was, admittedly, afraid of it. I did not know what, scared me more: finding out that my brother was innocent and there was someone else behind Lily's death, or that Silas truly was a monster behind that dangerously convincing mask he wore.
I decide to treat him as guilty until proven innocent, since all circumstantial evidence pointed toward him as the perpetrator of the crime. In my mind, I was extremely angry at my brother for taking my mate away from me. In my heart, I somewhat wished that someone else, anyone other than Silas, had done it.
The pack was quick to arrange a funeral pyre for Lily. She was well-loved in our community, so it did not take much convincing to stir everyone into action. In fact, everyone who did a part in the tradition of respecting the loss of a pack member had done so voluntarily.
Lily was like a martyr, inspiring everyone even in death.
The dark sky had mourned along with us; the pyre was set up beneath it. Everyone gathered around, deathly silent. Some were crying, and others were holding back tears, while the rest would have been bawling aloud if they did not stop themselves from creating too much of a commotion.
The stars held witness to our solemn ceremony, and I had basically moved throughout it in autopilot, my mind tuning out the words that our pack members had shared about Lily. I felt numb, alienated, like I knew I had to be here, but some part of me felt like I shouldn't be.
As her mate, I set fire to the pyre…letting go of her mortal remains as the heavens took away her soul. Once there was nothing left of her except for her powdered remains and her golden memory, we had her ashes scattered in the wind.
The pack elders declared me as the new Alpha, but I barely registered it. They might have said something about no longer being able to trust Silas as the Alpha, after what he had allegedly done, but I honestly could not recall much.
It wasn’t until I returned back to the house that I once shared with Lily, in the early hours of the morning that I felt myself break down on the living room floor, the same place where Lily’s lifeless form had been lying not too long ago.
The blood had been cleared away and the carpets had been changed, but still, it felt like she was still here…soaked in blood, begging me for justice. I fell to the floor in an almost stupor, my mind going blank as tears blurred my vision.
All I could remember was the anger in my mind, temporarily taking control of my heart as I vowed to myself and the Moon Goddess, “I will do what Silas did to me. I will take away his mate in the same way he took mine. Our sweet Lily.”