The Big Sky Alpha novel Chapter 157

157 A new hope

157. A new hope

FREYA POV

The feast has been perfect, so far. Everyone is laughing, telling old stories, and getting along. Damon’s pack and my dad’s pack have blended into Big Sky quite well. No one has argued or disagreed about anything, and it’s been nice watching everyone enjoying themselves. Exactly what

we were hoping would happen with this feast.

I know that this is just for the feast, and that once everyone is back to doing work and getting prepared for the potential, and honestly inevitable, attack of the vamps the illusion of peace we have here will eventually crack right open.

We have people that are suffering great losses that are just pushing through this step of their lives. They crack under presser. They crack when they hear certain sounds, smell certain smells, even just if they have certain thoughts. That’s the thing about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that no one ever really talks about.

These people are regular, everyday people. They work like us, they talk like us, they are exactly like us. They just have memories deep inside them that they try to push and push and push as far

down as they possibly can.

But memories cannot stay buried deep down forever.

As we’ve been seeing more and more with the arrival of my dad’s pack and then the arrival of

Damon’s pack, both after brutal attacks by the vamps and then horrendous journeys to make it to

our pack, the life of living with PTSD and living with people with PTSD can be dangerous and rather

heartbreaking.

We’ve been trying to figure out how to help them. I know Sasha has been struggling greatly with this. Sometimes she gets people coming in with self-inflicted injuries that just kind of snapped. Sometimes she gets people coming in with injuries caused by someone else because they said something that triggered someone, or they smelt something wrong, or any other number of things

that have been caused by these people with PTSD.

Now, the thing that we’re all in agreement with, we can’t blame any of these people. They’re not in their right minds when they are triggered. That’s the horrible part of living with people with PTSD. They’re dangerous, but only if triggered. We just need to figure out how to help them so these harms inside our walls goes away.

I’ve heard of people who have learned to help people with this condition, and the stories I’ve heard have been happy endings. They’ve banned together and helped others, and even gotten them back to their normal lives. The downfall we’re facing is that none of us are these trained people to help

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x157 A new hope

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with it. It’s something we’re going to have to learn. Especially if we have any hope of getting all of

this pack through an attack with those vamps. We can’t have anyone freezing up, we can’t have anyone that just can’t fight them. We can, however, benefit from each and everyone of these

people seeking blood for the revenge of their loved ones.

Tonight though, I’m going to enjoy the time we’re all having. The alcohol has been greatly watered

down, just to help ensure a good night and less of a risky night.

Jessi and I have our nanny lady watching the kids tonight so we could relax and enjoy the feast with everyone. Colt said that tonight has been a bit of a big deal for Damon, at least he thinks so because he’s been talking about it the past few days constantly.

So, we’ve decided we’re going to enjoy it with everyone. Colt and Damon have been joking with a few people and making rounds through the party. Shockingly, I even found that my brother is walking around with my dad and having himself a good laugh, I almost cried when I saw him. I haven’t seen my brother look even remotely close to my brother since they got back.

“Keegan.” I said as I walked up to him. He looked at me and kept his smile.

“Freya. It’s good to see you again” He said, it was almost like he was one of the pack that just arrived at the pack.

“I’m glad to see you here. You look good.” I didn’t want to push it, I haven’t had a real conversation

with with him for a long time now. I just wanted to hear his voice and see him as Keegan and not the

man he came back here as.

He laughed and nodded, “Yeah, I owe it all to Grace. She’s really been helping me get better.”

I was surprised by this, “Grace? As in Grace from Big Sky?” I asked.

“Yeah. She’s been helping me after my last outburst. She was helping Sasha in the healing hut when I ended up in there.” He responded. “She’s really good at using her past struggles to help get

through to me when I need her to.”

He motioned his head towards behind me, “Speaking of.”

I turned and saw Grace walking up with a couple of cups and she walked past me to Keegan. She handed him one of the cups in her hand and then looked around. Then she noticed me.

She smiled at me, “Luna!” she said as she came towards me and hugged me.

“Grace, it’s good to see you.” I said, hugging her back.

It’s funny how the mind just forgets how much time has passed. It’s been a long time since she and her friends were attacked by the vamps, and we lost River. She’s grown quite a bit, went from that

young girl to beautiful young woman here in front of me.

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<157 A new hope

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“Whatever you’ve been doing to help my brother, I thank you and beg you to keep it up.” I said giving her the most genuine smile I could. Nothing could quite help her understand how happy I am right now just to get to have a real conversation with him.

She looked over to Keegan, “Well, thankfully for me he didn’t have much of a choice. It would seem

I’m his second chance mate.” She kept smiling.

I looked over to Keegan, his smile faded ever so slightly for just a brief moment, I almost missed it,

but then went back to his smile.

“It would seem the goddess decided I needed to have someone drag me out of my hell.” He

laughed.

“I just wish you would have told us sooner!” My dad chimed in.

All of this made me so happy. My brother was smiling, my dad getting to enjoy him smiling again. Colt and Damon came to join us. Colt was just as surprised by everything as I was.

I am so happy the goddess, wherever the hell she is, is still out there watching us and giving mates still. Keegan needed his second chance mate to help him through what he went through. She’s a bit younger than him, but honestly as a second chance mate it’s not all that surprising that he’d get one so young. Then again, I guess I forget sometimes that we’re not as old as I feel like we are

either.

I found myself having a new hope of how life can be from here. Hope that maybe we can all pull through this together. As one, incredibly large, sometimes dysfunctional family.

Domina Sacarius

#vote#

Remember PTSD is something many men and women live with these days from all sorts of different messed up things they have endured in their lives! PTSD awareness is something I often bring up in my other line of work and I just wanted to remind everyone that it is a real, scary, and truly heartbreaking condition that a large chunk of our world has to battle with every day!

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