The Broken Wolf
Chapter 45

I awaken to a beautiful night sky. There’s just a sliver of the moon showing, but millions of bright stars lighting up the meadow. My meadow. I sit up and look around, realizing I’m on the other side of the creek now, and my wolf is sitting next to me.

“Hi,” I tell her cautiously, afraid to touch her again after what happened last time.

“Hi, Molly!” she says to me brightly, her ears perking up.

I look at her with an excited smile, barely able to believe it! “You can talk?! And you know my name?”

“I can now. And of course I do. I’m your wolf, Sage.”

“Sage,” I say, feeling butterflies at knowing my wolf’s name. “Does this mean that you’ve broken the spell?”

“Almost. Part of that is up to you though, Molly.”

“Me? Lily said that it was up to you. I’m confused.”

“That’s what she meant to do, but she was dealing with some powerful magic. I don’t know if I want to break the spell. I think you should decide.”

“Why wouldn’t you want to break the spell? Don’t you want to be free from it, and with me?”

“I’ve always been with you, always. I’ve been able to see everything you’ve done, and everything that has happened to you. You don’t remember everything though, and there are things that will hurt you if you do.”

“I’ll be OK,” I tell her, not really understanding what could be so bad that she would think I wouldn’t want her to be with me.

“Possibly, but it may change how you feel about some people, and you’re so happy now. Maybe it would be better to not know and keep things how they are.”

“I don’t understand, Sage.”

“Let’s just sit here and think about things for a while. You’re safe. Our mate is taking care of you.”

“Ok. We can just stay here a while.”

I lay back down in the grass, looking up at the stars. Sage comes to curl up and lay right next to me, touching my side and I lay my hand on her head and scratch her ears. My wolf! I’ve waited too long for this moment, a moment that I truly didn’t even think was possible.

“Was it hard to watch me?” I ask her. “I can’t believe you watched my whole life, but you couldn’t reach me.”

“It was terrible, Molly.” she says, lifting her head to look at me. “I wanted so badly to be able to help you, especially when you were hurt. I couldn’t do anything though.”

“But if we don’t break the spell, you’ll still be locked away,” I say to her, confused.

She sighs. “But you’ll be happy. I don’t know if you will ever be truly happy if you remember everything. Lily made a mistake. I can’t break just one spell, I have to break them both.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know, and I can’t tell you. You have to decide. You can choose not to break the spell and be happy with people who love you, or you can choose to break it and know all the secrets and how people hurt you.”

“Will it change how I feel about Seth?” I ask her, unsure what the right thing to do is.

“No,” she says confidently. “Seth is probably the only person who won’t be affected by it. He just loves you, with no secrets or strings attached.”

I nod and think some more. There’s so many pros and cons to either that I can’t even list them all. I’ll remember this though, this day that I finally met my wolf, Sage. I can’t live the rest of my life knowing that I chose to lock her away forever because I was scared of knowing the truth.

“We have to break it, Sage.” I tell her softly.

“If that’s your choice, it’s what I’ll do,” she tells me. “Go back to sleep and when you wake up, it will be done, Princess.” I giggle at her calling me Princess, though I guess I truly am now. “When you wake up it will be loud, do what Seth taught you. The memories will start to come back soon. I’ll be there with you, though. Just remember that it wasn’t your fault.”

“What wasn’t my fault?” I ask her, concerned.

“I can’t tell you that, Molly. It’s going to hurt, but we’ll get through it.”

I look up at the stars, replaceing my favorite constellations. I replace my favorite star. It’s just MY star now, Altair. I wonder why his wolf is named after that star, or how wolves even get their names. I have so many questions to ask, but that can wait. I feel my eyelids get heavier and I finally drift off to sleep.

I’m warm, too warm. I wiggle, but I can’t move, and it’s so disgustingly hot. I crack my eyes open and see Seth next to me, holding me tightly. He looks terrible. He’s clearly not shaved in some time and he looks exhausted, but he’s in bed holding me.

“Hi,” I begin to say. Suddenly, my head begins to fill with noises of congratulations and the word princess and I think I’m going to pass out. I put my hands over my ears but it doesn’t help and I finally remember what Sage and Seth told me.

“Put them in the boxes, Love,” I hear Seth over everyone. “Put them in boxes and close them like you did with your dad.”

I take a deep breath, and another. There are so many voices, and so many boxes, but I try. It takes what feels like an eternity but the noises finally stop.

I open my eyes again and see my mate, holding me with so much concern. He reaches up and gently touches my face with his hand.

“She’s not cold anymore,” he says, and it’s not the romantic thing I was expecting.

I look around to see who he’s talking to, and I realize that I’m lying in my childhood bed. This isn’t where I went to sleep. I see Sofia walking towards me from a chair across the room and I look back at Seth, who seems very concerned.

“Are you alright, Love?” he asks me gently.

“I’m really hot,” I tell him and he smiles at me, pulling a blanket off, and then another and another as Sofia checks my temperature.

“It’s normal,” she says. I look in her eyes and I remember her, but a younger version.

—

I remember lying in this bed, Lily sitting on the end of it as Sofia takes my temperature.

“It seems like the flu, Lily,” she tells my mom. “Lots of rest and fluids. It’s just got to run its course.”

“You’re sure?” Lily asks worried. “Her fever has been getting so high.”

Sofia nods at her. “It’s just part of it. If it gets too high, try to cool her off with cool water.”

—

“You were my doctor when I was little?” I ask her, not able to believe that I knew her but never remembered her.

Sofia smiles at me. “I was. It killed me to keep that secret, but I was happy to help keep an eye on you as you grew. I’m so happy you know, now.”

“I’m going to go grab your parents,” Seth tells me and moves to leave the bed but I quickly grab him.

“No, don’t get them. Not yet.” I tell him, pulling him back close to me.

“I’ll step out and give you two some time. Just let me know if anything happens and you need me,” Sofia says, leaving the room.

The door clicks closed and Seth pulls me tightly to him, kissing me deeply. “You scared me so badly,” he says to me.

“What happened?” I ask him, unsure how I got here. “I remember you marked me, but I don’t remember anything after that.”

“You had a seizure and passed out, Molly,” he says into my hair. “I’ve never been so scared in my life. I ran back here and your body temperature started to drop. I thought I was going to lose you,” he whispers the last part, and I can feel through the bond how scared he really was.

“I’m sorry,” I tell him, snuggling into him. “I met my wolf. She broke the spells. But she was worried about something I would replace out.”

“I know, Love,” Seth says with a smile. “Your eyes changed.”

Seth goes to say something else but I’m unable to listen as I’m hit with a memory of my brothers.

-

“Come on, Jason! I want to play hide and seek!” I explain, pulling on my oldest brothers arm.

“No, Molly. We have to stay right here.” Jason tells me, very seriously. He’s the oldest and isn’t very fun. He wants to be like Daddy when he grows up.

I give up and go to my other brother, Calvin. “Will you play with me?”

“It’s not safe, Molly. Dad said we couldn’t go past that row of trees.” he tells me, indicating a row of trees not far from us.

“I miss Andrew,” I say, sitting on an old log and pouting. “He would always play with me.”

Suddenly I’m remembering a memory within a memory, that my brother is dead. I feel the pain and grief of losing my best friend and it overwhelms me now as an adult.

Everyone was so sad and I didn’t really understand what was happening. I just knew that my brother wasn’t there. I want them to be happy, they just need to run and play and that will fix them!

“Hey, guys! Come replace me!” I exclaim, taking off quickly into the woods.

“No, Molly!” I hear my brothers yelling after me but I just giggle and keep running. Everyone will be happy if we play! I’m running through the words, curly brown hair a mess and blowing behind me as I look for the perfect place to hide.

I see a fallen tree in the distance and run up to it, climbing inside the hollowed end. “I have to be quiet,” I think to myself, peeking out of a crack to see if I can see them.

“Molly! Molly!” I hear them yelling for me and finally see Calvin come into view. Jason runs up to him, grabbing his arm.

“Calvin, run! There’s people out here,” Jason tells him and he takes off back towards the house.

Jason sniffs the air and comes over to me.

“You replaceed me!” I say to him brightly, but he isn’t happy.

“Molly, stay quiet. Don’t come out of there, ok?” he says and I nod at him. “There’s some bad men here, the men who killed Andrew. Stay there and no matter what, don’t make a sound. Please.”

Jason runs a little ways away but he stops. I can see the scary men get close him. “That’s his oldest, sir,” I hear someone say and as they turn, I can see the face of the scary man.

Adult me, reliving this memory, realizes that it’s a younger version of my father-in-law. Peter shifts quickly and attacks Jason, violently. Little me is terrified, and I throw my hand over my mouth, remembering that he told me to be quiet. There’s so much b***d, he’s probably hurt really badly. I need to stay quiet.

Peter shifts back to his human form. “Their stench is still strong. Check the area for the other boy.” he says, and the men with him start to walk around the area. I see a large man walking to the log where I’m hiding and he sniffs the air.

A large boot steps in front of the opening of my hiding place and the large, scary man kneels down, bending over to look inside. He looks surprised, but doesn’t say anything. He holds his finger up to his mouth, making sure that I know to stay quiet. “It’s clear over here,” he calls out, standing up. “It’s just the smell from where the boys were running. I thought I saw the other boy go that way” he says, indicating the opposite direction from where Calvin ran.

The men all follow him and leave me hiding in the log, my brother laying on the ground, covered in b***d and not moving.

————

“Seth, your dad…” I start to say, but I can’t form the words. “My dad…” I try, still unable to say it as I sob uncontrollably.

“Hey, what happened?” Seth says, clearly very concerned for me. “Did you remember something?”

“Your dad killed Jason,” I say with a sob.

Seth rubs my arm gently. “We knew that. He was responsible for all of their deaths.”

“No, he did it himself,” I say, and my chest feels so heavy from the grief I feel. “He shifted. I was hiding in the woods. I saw it.”

“s**t, Molly.” he says and he tries to pull me close, but I push him away.

I’m crying so hard now that my body is shaking with each sob. “I want my Dad.” I manage to say and Seth nods, getting out of bed and leaving the room.

My dad comes in and looks at me with concern etched on his face. “Hey, kiddo. You remembered, didn’t you?”

I nod at him, still crying hysterically. “Why did you lie to him? You saved me.”