Chapter 6: At Home Once Again
With my mother‘ s urn in my arms, I left the city behind, the pull of the wilderness. calling me back to where it all began. My mother had always dreamed of a life far from the city’s chaos, teaching children in the countryside, and helping those who had lost their way. She had raised me with that same sense of purpose, always giving, always nurturing. And now, I will fulfill her wish.
The old pack in the village I returned to nestled deep in the mountains, far from the world I had known. It was the place where my mother had first found Scott, abandoned and on the brink of death. Scott was the boy who had become my obsession. and taken over my life. He was just a lost strange pup, barely alive when my mother discovered him. She had taken him in, nursed him back to health, and given him a second chance at life. It was a chance he had squandered, but that was a different
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story.
As I walked through the village, the scent of pine and earth filled my senses, the memories flooding back from the day when my mother had worked so hard to care for Scott even though the pack was against it. He was obviously from someplace outside the forest, and the pack leader was afraid that he would bring chaos to our pack.
I had even resented him back then for taking my mother’s attention away from me; he seemed to need her more than I did. But as he grew stronger, something changed. He would make faces at me, trying to make me laugh, and slowly, my anger faded.
I remember what my mom asked me one day, ‘What do you think about him?‘ Not knowing why she asked that I answered that he seemed okay and didn’t think deeply. Little did I know, she was already hoping that he would end up together with
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Chapter 6: At Home Once Again.
me because Mother knew she wouldn’t stay for too long to be with me.
By the time Scott could walk again, he had become a part of our family. He would help my mother with the chores, fetch water from the stream, and even play with me. But my mother had always known that he didn’t belong there, that his future lay beyond the mountains.
So, when the time came, she sent him away, despite the tears in his eyes and the promises he made to repay her kindness. It
was weird that our usual routine felt like
someone was missing. Even the way the pack treated us changed when Scott left. It returned to normal, yet it was not normal for me and my mother anymore.
Years later, Scott had kept his promise, finding us in the forest and offering his help. But by then, things had already begun to change. The boy who had once needed us had grown into a man who no longer did.
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Chapter 6 At Home Once Again
It was when I realized that he had his pack waiting for him when he was lost. He was the Alpha’s son until he reached the age where it was his turn to move forward with the pack. The pack where he insisted on included me and my mother.
I sighed as I stood in the old village now, with my mother‘ s urn in my arms, I felt a strange sense of peace. The air was clean, the sky wide and open, and for the first time in a long while, I felt free.
“Do you want to run with me?” I asked my wolf if she wanted to run with me, but she turned silent.
I kept walking and found a spot by the river, surrounded by the mountains, where the birds sang and the flowers bloomed. It was here that I buried my mother’s ashes, laying her to rest in the place where her kindness had once saved a life.
As I finished, a sense of loss washed over me, but it was different this time. It wasn’t the sharp, bitter pain of losing
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Chapter 6 At Home Once Again
something dear. It was a gentle sadness, like a fading memory. The wolf within me stirred, restless, but I held it back. This was a moment for my mother, not for the hunt.
I took a deep breath, feeling the mountain air fill my lungs. “Mom,” I whispered, “I‘ 11 stay here with you. I’ll help the children like you want to. I’ll make a life here, far from the lies and the pain.”
And so, I did. I settled into the old village, taking up the role of a teacher within my old pack, just as my mother had dreamed. The days were simple and filled with laughter from the pups under the warmth of the sun and the trees around us.
The nights were peaceful, the moon watching over me as I slept. I had thought that happiness meant being with Scott, that it was something I had to fight for, to earn. But here, in this quiet village, I found that happiness was simpler than that. It was in the smiles of the small werewolves, in the respect of their parents, in the knowledge
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Chapter 6: At Home Once Again
that I was making a difference.
But happiness is fragile, and the peace I found in the mountains was not to last. One night, as I walked home from the schoolhouse, I felt a presence behind me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, the wolf within me growling in warning. I turned, and there she was–Winona. Her smile was cold, her eyes gleaming with something dark.
Before I could react, everything went black.
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