"You can't truly hate someone you've loved. You can only hurt."
~Larissa Ione

Caleb

I would've enjoyed the stunning city of Genoa more had we not been there to kill my sisters and their pack. The idea made me nauseous, and I wasn't the only one. Hunter found himself sickened by the mere thought of watching Elsa and Anna die. Neither of us could even think about possibly having to murder them ourselves...

It was ten minutes before I had to leave our hotel with my pack and the Starks to crash my baby sister's wedding and end not just the ceremony but her life. The knowledge permanently lodged a knot in my throat, and I couldn't speak. I couldn't do this. I couldn't...

A knock sounded from my door. Hunter and I glanced up, but when neither of us responded, the person opened the door anyways. Mom poked her head in, her complexion uncharacteristically pale. I couldn't get the words she'd told Elsa out of my head: We don't have a daughter named Elsa Laroche. Could she really have meant that? Did Elsa's relationship with Spencer bother her that much? Or had it all been an act? If mom was pretending, couldn't she at least find a way to reach out to Elsa to let her know it's not real? That she still loves her? Because even though I couldn't see Elsa's face and her voice remained steady, I could hear her heartbreak when she responded to Mom and Dad's harsh words. In Elsa's eyes, she might as well have been dead to them already.

"You ready?" Mom asked solemnly, slipping inside.

"No," Hunter and I said simultaneously. Still unable to tell where my parents fully fell on the spectrum of loving Elsa and Anna, I carefully said, "I know we're supposed to hate them, and I hate what they did. I've wanted to find them... but now that the time is here-"

"It feels like murder," Hunter finished, his blue eyes unusually dark. "Is this really the only way?"

"I can't think of an out for them. They brought this upon themselves, and we are no match for the Controllers. You both know that. I'd rather deal with the Devil than go against them. At least when the Devil has more power than we could ever imagine."

"Let's just get this over with. I'll start getting money saved up for my therapy bills," Hunter mumbled, pushing himself off his bed. I followed suit, and we trailed behind our mom downstairs, where the rest of our pack silently awaited us. Once everyone was accounted for, we made our way outside. The Starks met us in a nearby plaza, appearing equally as stoic as the rest of us. The Kellermans and Lawmans joined us shortly after, smiling from ear to ear.

"Let's go get these traitors once and for all, shall we?" Markus said, clapping his hands together.

"Lead the way," Hayley replied, nodding at the path in front of them. The Kellermans and Lawmans confidently started walking towards a quaint church in the distance: our destination. With each step I took, my feet felt heavier and heavier, as if concrete was filling my shoes. By the time we reached the stairs, I could barely lift them. Inside, I could hear the voices of Elsa and Spencer reciting their vows, wholly unaware of our presence. I wanted to hurl at the thought of interrupting it, of ruining my sister's happiness.

I'm begging you, God, if you're out there, please let Elsa and her pack escape.

Josiah lifted his hand in a fist, wordlessly telling us to remain silent. Then, he and Markus kicked open the doors in the blink of an eye. Lyanna and Gillian shot fire from their hands, encompassing the perimeter of the church's inside so no one could escape without being burned. I peered over their shoulders to peer in and saw...

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

The realization must've also struck the Kellermans and Lawmans because they immediately halted their impressive show.

"What the..." Gillian trailed off, stalking forward. My pack and the Starks warily stepped foot inside. I scanned the room, searching for any sign of my sisters, any sign of a soul at all, but again, nothing. Not until Karina announced, "Over here!"

Everyone scrambled to her location. I, along with Hunter and Lily, reached her first. In one hand, she held a phone which played a recording of Elsa and Spencer's voices. In the other hand resided a note with the message "Call me!" and a number. With narrowed eyes, Lyanna snatched the phone from her daughter's grasp. Despite having so many people inside the church, one could've heard a pin drop with the way everyone held their breath.

Lyanna dialed the number, and two rings in, a familiar voice picked up. Relief flooded me when I heard my little sister say, "Hello?"

"Elsa Laroche, I presume?" Lyanna responded coldly.

Elsa chuckled. "If you seriously thought we were still going to invite you to our wedding after those death threats, then you're stupider than you thought we were. If you look out from the church and over the hills, you'll see a private jet on its way to a location only known to us and our pilot."

Everyone rushed outside, peering in the instructed direction. Sure enough, in the distance, a sleek jet flew above the hills, rapidly gaining altitude.

Thank God you didn't wait for us. I thought, biting back a proud smile. My sisters had outsmarted the nearly all-knowing, arrogant Controllers. If only I could run it into their faces, but I preferred to keep my head.

"Oh, look, I can even see all of you. Hate to have missed what I can only imagine would've been a happy reunion, but we have places to see, people to visit, and a honeymoon to enjoy, so we'll see you again. Of that, I have no doubt."

Spencer's smug voice followed, saying, "You will remember this as the day you almost caught the Morningstar Pack."

"Did you really just quote Jack Sparrow?" Dom asked, his voice muffled by distance. He sounded exasperated by his little brother.

"There should be a captain in there somewhere!"

"Speaking of captain-" Anna piped up- "can someone get me some more Captain Morgan's?"

A snarl formed on Markus's face. "If you think you can escape our clutches by flying off in a plane, you're sorely mistaken. Gillian, Lyanna, take them out."

I could hear the eye roll in Elsa's voice. "What could you possibly- shit!"

The phone connection dropped to nothing but static, and I watched in horror as the plane my sister and pack flew in spontaneously combusted in mid-air in a thunderous, flaming explosion. Strength fled my limbs, and had I not grasped my mom's shoulder, I surely would've dropped to my knees.

Elsa and Anna... my baby sisters... gone.

Tears blurred my vision as I realized I would never see their smiles, hear their laughter or banter, or get a chance to tell them I loved them one more time. I wouldn't have a part of my heart for the rest of my life because it died alongside the twins.

"Come," Josiah ordered. "We should go see the wreckage, make sure they actually went down."

"You just sent them crashing into the ground in a ball of flames," Lily pointed out with thinly-veiled anger. "There's no way they could've survived that."

"You brothers and the Laroche girls have eluded us much longer than anyone else. They are cunning, and until we see their charred bodies for ourselves, we will not trust that they are dead. And Miss Stark, unless you want to join them, you will be careful how you speak to us," Gillian warned, pointing a threatening finger at the alpha.

Protectiveness kicked in, and I lied, "We hated them as much as we loved them. They were still our sisters and brothers."

"It's difficult to stop loving someone when you've known them your entire life," Hunter added, stepping beside me. I noticed unshed tears glistening in his eyes. "We understand why this had to happen, but please allow us to mourn the girls who used to be our sisters."

The Controllers looked between the two of us, and for a moment, I thought we'd gone too far, but then Lyanna spoke up. "Very well. You may mourn the people who were your siblings, not the people they turned out to be."

"Thank you," Hunter and I said, bowing our heads.

"Come. Let's go see their bodies. Ren, Arya, Chris, Hayley, we will need you to put forth your best acting skills when we arrive so authorities will give you the DNA results."

The alphas nodded but, seemingly like everyone else, appeared too stunned to speak. We followed the Controllers to our rented cars and drove through the bustling city of Genoa into the foothills, the smoke from the fireball acting as a beacon to the death site of my sisters. Emergency personnel was already there when we arrived, canvassing the scene and putting out the last few remaining flames. Mom, Dad, Hayley, and Chris slowly walked up to the crime scene tape as if in a daze. A girl, looking slightly too young to be a police officer, halted them. In brisk Italian, she spoke, but upon realizing my parents didn't speak the language, she switched to flawless English.

"We-our children-" Mom's voice cracked- "they were on that plane. We-we think our kids died in that crash."

"I hope that is not the case for your sake, ma'am. If you could provide some hair for DNA, we can compare it to any we may find at the scene," the officer responded gently.

"Take mine too," James O'Connor added, hurrying next to his alphas. "My-my daughter was on there too."

Dad sniffed, his cheeks flushed. "How long will the results take?"

"Depending on how much we can get from the corpses, around 24-72 hours," the officer said. She took the numbers from my parents and the Starks and then trudged up the hill to the smoldering remains.

Our packs stood watching the proceedings for hours, hoping we'd somehow get an answer on the ID of the bodies, even though we already knew what it would be. Only when the sun began to set did we leave, realizing no answer would be given to us tonight.

No one slept. Mom and Dad checked on us before bed, their faces tear-stained when they hugged us goodnight. When they trudged off, a quiet knock sounded. We told whoever it was to enter. Josie and Ember slipped inside, tears rolling down their faces. The four of us huddled into a group hug, our bodies shaking with silent cries of grief.

At noon the following day, almost 24 hours to the minute, Mom and Dad received the news: it was Elsa and Anna on that plane. If they had been on it, then so had Spencer and Dom. Through my despair and sorrow, my mind flashed to Lily, who had lost all her siblings in one fell swoop. I at least had a brother and sister to fall back on. Lily did not. I wanted to send her a message, to tell her I was thinking of her, but what good would that do? It's not like I could hold her and make the pain disappear, not when I was in pain myself. My presence would only make things worse, probably.

My pack and I, along with the Starks, left Genoa that following day, catching the first flight we could to the States. None of us wanted to stay there any longer than we had to, and the Controllers refused to let us bring the ashes of our loved ones back home. I'd never wanted to murder someone before until that very moment, but if I tried, I'd end up dead myself. I couldn't do that to my parents or pack. They'd lost enough.

All I could do now was keep my sisters alive in my memories and pray that their death had been quick.