“Where are you going?” I scream.
“To check on my Luna!” Zane snaps at me. “Maybe you don’t see Sage as one. Fuck it, you made it clear she isn’t the Luna. For you, Alpha, she isn’t, but for me and the pack, she is! She did the fucking right thing, and we all stand by her, like it or not!” Zane screams.
I growl at him, but let him leave. I turn, heading into the forest.
I find the spot after some time wandering, but the baskets are gone, and I am pretty sure they never got a chance to drop them here.
Squatting by a tree out of view of the river. I can feel the pack mindlinking me, and I shove Zane and Malik out.
After a couple of hours of silence, I mindlink Zane. “How is Sage?” I ask him.
“How do you think she is? Just come home to your mate and let it go, Andrei,” Zane reasons, but I ignore him, blocking him back out.
The light turns to darkness, and I remain in my spot, waiting to spot the rogues that they have been hiding from me.
The night turns colder as the hours pass by. Glancing down at my watch, I press the button, and it lights up, telling me it is past seven. I am about to give up and turn back when I hear movement on the other side of the river.
I squint my eyes and focus in the direction of the sound. A teenage boy steps out with four others. A girl who looks around Sage’s age, and two others around six and ten years old. I watch as they walk along the river.
“They’re children, Andrei,” Donnie whispers in my head as if I’m fucking blind and can’t see it.
I watch them look around and search for a bit before they turn around in disappointment, and my stomach sinks.
“We were like them once,” Donnie points out, and I growl at his words.
While my reaction is just proof of how much I don’t want another reminder of the past, the children overhear me and freeze. All of them look around frantically, searching for the threat.
The older girl shifts, and so does the teenage boy, taking protective stances in front of the two children, who aren’t old enough to shift. I step out of the shadows, and the girl and boy step forward, growling, backing toward the mountain base beside the waterfall.
The two children dart off toward the cave behind it when the younger one, a boy, is shoved under the water by force. The she-wolf howls, and the teenage wolf rushes over but freezes.
My eyes dart to the trapped boy, to see the waterfall spit him out. He starts coughing, washing downstream, and before I know it, I have stepped into the water and grabbed his arm, pulling him above the water. I am not sure if I grabbed him or if Donnie forced control.
I feel like a bystander in my own body as I pull him to my side of the river. The she-wolf with matted brown fur growls as she jumps into the water, and the boy shifts back, reaching his arms into the waterfall.
I know the pressure must be killing his arms. I watch as he helps the girl out of the cave, his eyes not leaving mine. The she-wolf shakes herself out of the water with her teeth bared, her eyes are on the boy I have a hold of. I look down at the petrified child.
“Come with me,” I tell no one in particular and turn around.
I pull the child with me into the trees. The she-wolf lunges at me, her teeth tearing into my leg, and I growl as I kick my leg out on instinct. Her body goes hurdling into a nearby tree.
“Don’t test me, girl. Tell them to follow, so you can come back to my Luna, the one who has been leaving the baskets,” I order.
She gets to her feet and stares at the boy in my grip. I let him go, and he instantly runs to the she-wolf, who steps in front of him protectively.
“Come or don’t, I don’t care, but food and shelter are that way,” I tell them as I point my finger in the direction of my house.
I don’t look at the feral children as I walk back in the direction of home.
“What are you doing?” Donnie asks me.
“I have no idea,” I answer as I trudge back home.
After a few moments I can hear the shifting of the rocks and gravel behind me as they follow. As I head home, I walk a slightly different route and come across the baskets stuffed behind a tree. I stop, bend down, and pick one up.
The footsteps behind me stop, and I rummage through them to see what’s inside. I find a quilt on the bottom, folded neatly, and recognized it as something Sage was working on last week with Malik.
I swallow and look over my shoulder to find the boy that fell in the river staring at me, his clothes are drenched. The she-wolf stands behind him, and the other two stand further back.
I hold up an apple to the boy. He hesitantly reaches his hand out, snatches the fruit, and darts back to the she-wolf. I look past her to the girl before I toss one to her, and she catches it with both hands.
“Grab the other basket,” I tell her as I get back to my feet and walk again.
We continue for a few minutes until the loud growl of the she-wolf stops me. I stare back at her when a hand grabs mine. I look down, and I see the little boy.
I blink down at the boy in shock, and once I somewhat regain my senses, my gaze focuses on the hand he is holding. I stare at it for a moment as the surrounding silence becomes heavy and suffocating.
His brown eyes peer back up at me, and then, he looks ahead as he focuses on biting into the apple I gave him. Although it feels a little weird, I close my hand around his small one and continue walking.