“Wait, little one. Don’t go in there just yet. Let the officers do their job,” Draco murmured as he held her close.
“Let me go. This is my home. I have a right to see the damage.”
When he didn’t budge, she turned pleading eyes toward him. “Please.”
“Wait. Let me give the police my report then I will personally take you into the house and let you see the damage so that you can file your insurance claim.”
Athena nodded and pulled into herself. She wrapped her arms around her waist as she watched Draco and Deidra meet up with their family, some new strangers, Leo, Case, and the police.
Her need to see her home won out while everyone was occupied. She only really cared about one thing in her home.
As she stepped in, her heart sank to her feet. Her living room was utterly destroyed.
They tore holes into her walls, shredded her sofa and love seat, broke her coffee table, and shattered her TV and lamps. There was nothing spared in the room.
Her kitchen, guest bedroom, guest bathroom, and utility room were given the same treatment as her living room. Everything was shattered, shredded, and destroyed beyond repair.
When she walked into her bedroom, she broke. Her stuffed puppy, the urn that her deceased puppy’s ashes had been placed in, and a photo memoir, which included his little footprint had been destroyed beyond repair.
His urn had been pried open and the ashes thrown around the room. The same words were sprayed inside her bedroom all over the walls.
Picking up one of the shredded stuffies that had been the favorite of her beloved pups, the last photo of them together, she sank to her knees and let out a painful, heartbroken wail. They had finally broken her completely.
She never heard the footsteps running into the house or the voices screaming her name. She had curled into a ball on her bedroom floor and cried, holding the only remaining reminder of her Shadow that never had a chance at life.
She never felt the arms that picked her up and carried her out of the house or put her in the truck. She was completely broken and numb.
She didn’t respond when spoken to or touched. When Deidra helped her undress, she was oblivious.
She numbly took a shower when Deidra told her the water was running. When she came out, she got dressed in the pj’s left out for her and crawled into bed.
The dam broke when her head hit the pillow and the lights went out. She cried her heart and her eyes out.
Chapter
Seven
Draco was furious.He knew who it was and was currently helpless about what they could do.
He could smell Maplewood and a few other wolves involved in the destruction of Athena’s home. He also smelled the human that Athena said was her brother.
They looked nothing alike and their personalities were totally opposite of each other. When he heard her wail inside the house, it took everything in him not to shift and hunt for the danger.
Seeing her in the state she was in right now, made him want to hunt every son-of-a-bitch down and end their lives for causing the heartache she was in. He’d never felt this helplessness before.
“I don’t understand,” Draco admitted out loud. “Was it the destruction of the house?”
“No. It was the destruction of Shadow’s memorial and the desecration of his urn that broke her,” Deidra softly answered as she sighed heavily before sitting on the couch next to him.
“They also destroyed the stuffed replica of him that we had commissioned for her. Not to mention the toy that she had kept that was the pup’s favorite,” Tony growled angrily.
“Shadow? My wolf is alive and fine. A little pissed at the moment, but he’s fine.” Draco looked over at Leo in confusion.
“Shadow, her dream dog was a long haired, black German shepard. She always thought they looked almost wolf like. She loved that puppy as if she’d given birth to it. Took her the entire summer to get out of the state she’s in now when they killed that pup. It wasn’t until Deidra and Tony had given her that stuffed replica that she started coming out of her funk. Them destroying her memorial and urn…they made what they had done personal. It reeks of Maplewood and his crew in that house,” their father answered, walking in the living room, the anger clear on his face.
“Can we get another one made for her? I know we can’t do anything about the ashes…” Draco slowly suggested, his voice going low.
“I’ll call Cale in the morning and see if he has any availability.” Coren Blackwood nodded at his son. “Tonight, we let her grieve in peace.”
