HUNTED

On the day before Damon was to leave for his father's pack and Aila was to meet up with Hollie, the pair stood together in front of the family members and friends who attended the funeral for the fallen thirteen. More like the treacherous thirteen. Malia snickered, but Aila kept her face composed and was respectful as she stood next to Damon.

It was tradition for the Alpha and Luna to stand before the families to express their condolences to the werewolf's families and show their respect to those who passed away. Or, in this case, they were murdered by a vampire. For once, Aila was content standing there looking pretty on Damon's arm, as it were. Damon, on the other hand, had to give a speech. 

As he said his final words, pack members began to throw some dirt onto the coffins in the ground. With the grieving relatives sobbing by the newly dug grave's side, Aila began to walk away and provide them with some space. There was a wake for them at the mansion, and they were using the ballroom for the reception. The room commonly was used for the occasional royal ball, yet, they used the ballroom when the rogues attacked the pack and many lives were lost. 

Other pack members retreated and began making their way towards the mansion. Aila turned back, waiting for Damon to join her, but he mind-linked her to tell her that he still needed to finish a few duties. This left Aila to lead the remaining pack members to the ballroom. 

Aila walked nearly unsteadily in her black heels and knee-length, long sleeve black dress with Finn suited up by her side. She found him more and more by her side following the day of the massacre. Aila wondered when he would finally replace Darren, but it needed to be done smoothly or for him to challenge him. However, she knew today was not that day. Even as she saw Darren stalk past them, Aila knew there would be no 'funny business' from Darren or Lydia; it was a day to mourn their friends.

Aila was surprised when she first arrived with Damon and saw the pair standing side by side. Darren with his bruised face and Lydia looking ghostly pale with a bandage around her neck. It seemed her healing had slowed down to the same amount of time it would take for a human to get over such wounds. Although, a human would never survive such an attack.

Aila received a mind-link from Damon at the time, after he saw her slightly confused expression, which she quickly replaced with a mask of composure. He explained that Darren was released early due to circumstances; he was, after all, friends with the thirteen who perished.

Aila walked through the mansion, mind-linking Charles to confirm the ballroom was ready. Which it was. The room wasn't too fancy and was kept subtle for such an occasion.  It was the only room that could fit such an amount of people in one room. Aila met Charles outside the glass double doors, and he opened them for her. 

Once Aila walked through them, she stood to the side and greeted anyone that entered. Finn stood next to her, silently watching their surroundings. It was quite comforting for her to have her friend by her side; she could mind-link him about random stuff without feeling bad due to the sorrowful atmosphere. 

Aila glanced around and felt her lips tug up into a small smile; she couldn't help it. The ballroom still looked as magical in her eyes from when she was a kid. She may have been young, but she remembered one of the balls her parents held. A fond memory was of her standing on her dad's feet as he swept across the marble floor, making her giggle in delight. 

She sighed and glanced at her surroundings. The light filtered through the floor-length windows at the far end, yet the gigantic crystal chandelier in the middle of the room sent sparkles of light across the floor. The last object her eyes rested on was the black piano in the corner of the room with a pianist playing a beautiful song. 

"Everything okay?" Finn mind-linked her.

"Yeah, just reminiscing from the last time I was in this room. The event was a much more cheerful one," Aila glanced at him and continued, "I thought I was doing a pretty good job at keeping my face expressionless.. Am I really that easy to read?"

Finn chuckled, "No. But I have known you longer than the others in the room. And I pay more attention to you than others."

Aila parted her lips, then shut them again before nodding back politely, "Then I suppose I am lucky to have a good friend like you."

"Friend and future Delta," Finn mind-linked back with a wink. Aila smiled, and raised her glass of wine towards Darren across the room, who downed his own and skulked off instead. She almost rolled her eyes at how pathetic he was, but she stopped herself and sipped from the floral alcohol.

As the wake was drawing to an end, Aila decided, with her duties now done and Damon mainly leading most of them, that she could officially go to the bathroom. She kept it in for a while now, and it was becoming a bit too urgent for her to stand talking to multiple pack members. She managed to convince Finn not to come with her unless he intended to assist her in going to the ladies room.

As she made her way towards one of the bathrooms, her phone began to ring. She glanced down to see it was Hollie calling, and instead of picking up while she was inside, she decided to make her way towards the gardens. Once she walked through another set of patio doors that led to the right side of the gardens, she answered the call, "One second, Hols."

Aila walked a little further towards a maze, and after her heels sunk into the grass, she decided to take them off. She knew talking on the phone with Hollie would only cause her to pace or want to take a little stroll, so she took her heels off. It was better to stretch her feet and not cause the heels to get any dirtier, or she would get an earful from Nairi. 

Yet, from doing this, her footsteps became silent as she now walked on the cold concrete ground as she entered the maze. She moved her hand towards her ear then paused after hearing some hushed voices. 

"Baby, I'm so sorry he beat you up. It saddens me to see you this way." 

"Don't cry, Lyds. I'm fine. He only beat me up because I said a few home truths about that bitch, Aila. She thinks she's all that, looking down at me.. Anyway, let's not let her ruin our evening. I am just so happy you're alive."