The Broken Wolf
Chapter 47

“I want to go to Oliver’s house. I want to stay there.”

“Alright, we can do that. Give me a moment to talk to your brother so he can get the kitchen worked out,” Seth tells me and releases me, going back to the other room.

“What’s with the anger towards your mom?” Dad asks me, clearly unhappy with my outburst.

I shake my head at him slowly. “You need to talk to her. I don’t want to be the one to tell you.” I start to sit up when another memory comes zooming in.

—-

I’m still hiding in the fallen tree, but it’s gotten dark now. It’s scary here in the dark. I can hear an owl. He’s not scary though, he’s my friend. I used to be scared of owls, but not any more. Whoot whoot, I hear again.

“Whoot whoot,” I say back to the owl I’ve decided is my friend. Maybe the owl will help me get home. It’s too dark for me, but the owl has night eyes. “Will you help me, Mr. Owl?” I ask him, but then I remember Jason. He’s still not moving. He must be hurt bad. I can’t carry him.

I climb out from my hiding place, wanting to be near my brother. I slowly move, looking around for any more bad men and go over to him. He’s lying on the ground, and there’s a lot of b***d. He’s got a lot of scratches from the mean wolf that hurt him.

“Jason,” I say to him, but he doesn’t answer me. “Jason, wake up. It’s scary here.”

He doesn’t move, so I sit next to him and hold his hand. He’s really cold. I take off my jacket and put it over him. Maybe he’s just too cold and when he’s warm he’ll take me home.

“I’m sorry I made you play with me,” I tell him, but he doesn’t answer me.

We stay there for a long, long time. The owl doesn’t leave me. He just stays in the tree above saying, whoot whoot, so I know he’s there. I hear a branch snap and some leaves move and it scares me. I curl into a ball and lay down next to my brother. If he wakes up, he’ll keep me safe. A shadow approaches us and I hear him gasp when he sees us.

“No, no.” I hear the shaddow whisper. He kneels down on the other side of Jason and I can’t see him well, but he puts his hand on Jason’s neck. “No,” he says and I think he’s crying. He moves his hand to touch my neck, but it scares me and I scream.

“Molly! You’re alive!” he says, and now that I’ve moved and can see him, I realize that it’s my Daddy’s Beta, Uncle Alex.

“Alex! Jason got hurt.” I tell him and he looks at me through tears.

“I know sweetheart. Hold on just a moment, your dad will be here soon,” he tells me and then his eyes do that funny thing that happens when they talk to each other. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“We played hide and seek. I hided in the big tree, but some bad people came.” I tell him and point at my hiding spot. “Jason found me, but told me to stay there and be quiet. The bad people found us, and one turned into a wolf and hurt Jason.”

“No one found you?” he asks me, shocked.

“I’m a good hider!” I tell him, proud of myself. “One man did, but he did this,” I tell him and imitate how he had held his finger up to his lips, silently telling me to stay quiet. “He told the others I wasn’t there and they left.”

My dad comes running up to us and sees Jason on the ground. He drops to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably. He stands up quickly and walks over to us.

“You were to stay at home! I told you not to leave!” he yells at me and he’s scary. I try to hide behind Uncle Alex but Daddy grabs my arm. “Why didn’t you listen?! This is your fault! Why didn’t you listen?” he roars at me and Alex grabs Daddy’s arm, making him let go of me.

“You’re hurting Benjamin, now’s not the time,” and my Daddy looks at him. He’s really angry. “The others will be here soon. I’m going to take your daughter home.”

—————

My dad is looking at me cautiously. “Everything alright?” he asks and I just shake my head no.

“I wish my mind would let me remember even just one happy memory,” I tell him, my l*p quivering.

“I’m sure you will remember plenty of happy things, too, kiddo,” he tells me weakly. “We’ll get you to Oliver’s soon.”

I just nod at him, not sure what to say. Everyone has been lying to me about something, except for my dad. He didn’t know that the little girl he adopted was the same he’d found in the fallen tree that day. It probably explains the way he looked at me when I told him about the green eyed wolf, though.

There’s a knock at the door and Seth comes back into the room, Robbie with him.

“You look like s**t,” my brother tells me with a mischievous grin. Dad and Seth turn to him quickly, anger on both their faces, but it makes me giggle.

“You know, Robbie,” I tell him through giggles and sniffles, “That’s no way to talk to a princess.” My brother lets out a laugh and Seth looks at me with a grin on his face from calling myself a princess.

“I’m sorry for my informal greeting. Let me try again,” he says and bows at me dramatically. “You look like s**t, Princess.”

“Eww. Did you just bow?” I ask him, a disgusted look on my face.

“He has to, Love,” Seth tells me. “You outrank him, now,” he says with a sly smile on his face.

“Ugh, I’m not bowing to either of you,” Robbie tells us both.

“Molly, when everything happened last night I just wrapped you in a blanket and carried you back,” Seth begins to tell me, sheepishly. “I left everything there, including your shoes. Robbie has agreed to stay with you and I’m going to go get it. I thought maybe your dad could come with me, if you’re OK with that.”

I nod at him. “I guess my brother will do,” I say jokingly, but smiling at Robbie.

“I’ll get everything together and as soon as we’re back we’ll get you to Oliver’s, alright?” he asks and I nod. “You can shower there. I’ll get you there as soon as we can, but I had a feeling you wouldn’t let me leave those shoes, even if I got you new ones.”

“New ones wouldn’t be broken in,” I tell him, confirming his thoughts.

“Is that OK with you, Randall?” Seth asks and my dad smiles. “I’m going to let you all know as well that my dad will be joining us. I think we need to have a talk about everything.”

I wrap my arms around myself, uncomfortable. “Is he here, too?” I ask, scared.

“I had him come last night. He’s been up all night, in contact with people researching through the palace library to see if they could replace anything to help you.” Seth tells me and I don’t know what to make of that.

“But he knows now, right?” I say, chewing on my l*p from being nervous with this new information. He was so kind to me and I was on his side, sure he wouldn’t hurt me. But that was before I remembered watching him shift and murder a little boy.

“He knows, and he’s assured me you’re safe,” he tells me and I can tell there’s more, but it doesn’t seem like a good time to ask. “If you’re OK, we’re going to go ahead and leave. Everyone has agreed to stay out. Robbie didn’t have anything to do with the past, so I asked him to stay.”

“Thank you,” I say to him softly. I hadn’t even realized he was here, but I’m so glad my little brother is here. But he’s not my little brother- never truly was. “Robbie, you’re not my little brother.”

“What?!” he exclaims, clearly offended.

“Oh, no. I didn’t mean it like that.” I tell him, feeling guilty that I hurt his feelings. “I just meant that you’re older than me.”

“I think we both always knew that deep down,” he says, sitting down next to me, leaning back on the headboard and I nod to him in agreement.

Dad and Seth leave us, and I hear something in my head.

You need to sleep

Sage? I chance a guess

Yeah, it’s me. You’ve been through a lot the last few hours, and your body is still adjusting to having a wolf back. You need to sleep.

OK, I will.

I lay down and curl up, my brother pulling the blanket up for me, tucking me in. “You’ll feel better after some sleep,” Robbie tells me and I nod.

“I just hope I can replace some happy memories soon,” I tell him. “They couldn’t have all been bad.”