by Eryn Ryans
Falcon was true to his word. He led me back to the house where the pack was staying and showed me how to transform back into a human. I did, however, do my best to stay as far away from the woman who claimed to be my mother, until it became impossible. It seemed that the entire pack was against me and had vanished leaving the two of us alone.
“Allysonn, please can we talk?” she asked quietly.
“Why should I talk to you or let you explain anything after all these years?” I asked angrily.
I could hear her sigh but she continued on. “Leaving you behind was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.”
“Yeah right!” I said with my teenage attitude.
Still, she continued. “Your father and I loved each other at one time, however when he found out I was a wolf, he couldn’t handle it. He banned me from living in the house and then said that I had to leave permanently.
When I tried to take you with me, he got so enraged that he threatened to kill us both. To give you a chance at life, I chose to leave you behind with your father and to find my pack again and hope they would take me back, which as you can see, they have.” she said. I looked at her with my eyes wide.
“You are trying to tell me that the only parent who ever seemed to care about me wanted to kill me because you wanted to take me with you. Somehow I don’t believe that.” I said through gritted teeth. There was nothing this woman could ever say against my father that would ever make me believe the lies she was saying. My father may not have given me the best life, but he was still my father and the only one who cared enough to stick around and raise me.
Just then the one they all called Kane came out with a bunch of letters that seemed to be tied together and softly called her name “Abigail.” She looked up and smiled and took them from him and then said to me,
“If you won’t believe me, maybe you will after you read these.” She then reached her hand out to me with the envelopes in them.
“What are those?” I asked.
“I have written you a letter every week since I have left. Of course, your father has sent them back marking them return to sender. Please take them and read them. Then maybe we can talk some more.” she said with a smile. I tentatively took them, looking at the top envelope and noting the date was marked a week after she left.
A tear came to my eye. Maybe she was telling the truth. How could my father keep me from my mother? I just couldn’t understand it? I wanted to run anywhere and hide and have a good cry because I had one parent again who said she didn’t leave me because she wanted to but because she was made to and one parent who could no longer explain his reasons for making her leave and not letting me get to know her.
Just then Aaric interrupted, “Allysonn, I hate to interrupt, but you know the ‘rents.” he said with a smile.
“Yeah,” I said wiping the tear from my eye. “May I take these with me?” I asked Abigail. “Yes, of course,” she replied. I stood up and walked over to Aaric.
We walked back to the house in complete silence.
Me, lost in so many confusing thoughts. The day had certainly been a long one. One that I would certainly not forget for a very long time. Aaric interrupted the quiet, just before we left the clearing, when he said, “So, want to talk about anything?”
“How long have you known Abigail was my mother?” I asked him.
“She told me who she was when she recognized your birthmark, but asked me not to say anything to you, until you were ready. I’m sorry,” he responded.
“So, what am I supposed to do now?” I asked. “I mean I just found out that not only is my mother alive, but I am a wolf all in the same day and I’m so unsure of what to do with this information.” He laughed and I just looked at him.
“No worries, the whole pack will help you, myself included,” he said with a smile. He had no idea what his smile did to my insides, but I hope he never stopped smiling at me like that.
Later that night when I was alone in bed, I pulled out the stack of letters that Abigail had given me and pulled out the letter that she had written a week after she left. I carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the letter. This is what it said.
“My Dear Sweet Allysonn,
I have only been gone a week, and it already feels as if I have been gone an entire lifetime. I need you to know that you are and have always been loved by me. If I could have taken you with me, I would have. I know you are way too little at this point to understand why I left in the first place, but I just hope that by the time you are old enough to read this, you will have forgiven me. I trust your father to take are of you completely. Despite what your Father may believe I did and still do love him very much.
Well they are calling me for dinner, so I must end this for now my beautiful daughter.
Love Always, Your Mother”
When I had gotten done reading this first letter, I had tears in my eyes. I went on to read the second letter:
“My Dear Sweet Allysonn,
It has been just two long weeks, since I have had to say goodbye to your beautiful face. I find myself looking out the window at the sunrise wondering if you woke up to it this morning, or if you have started sleeping all through the night yet.
I long to hold you in my arms, cuddle you to my breast, sing lullaby’s to you, smell the sweet baby smell that only you can smell like, but alas that has been taken from me because your father could not handle what I am. What I do ask of you, is not to blame your Father. I should have told him well before we were married. It was such a shock to him. He reacted the only way he knew how. He thought he was protecting his daughter from a monster, and as your father, he had that right.
I love you baby girl. I love you to the moon and back and always will.
Love Always, Your Mother.”
I looked at the clock on my nightstand and saw that it was already after midnight and as much as I wanted to continue reading, I knew that Pam was going to be getting us up early in the morning, so I put the letters back in their envelopes and put them in the chest at the end of my bed so I could read them later. I crawled back into bed and said a silent prayer to whoever was up above for bringing my mother back into my life.
Life had certainly taken a turn that I never expected. After that day that I transformed, life at home with the ‘rents as Aaric and I began to affectionately call my foster parents became even stranger, as I now had this other side of me that I had to keep from them. Since the weather had gotten nicer, and I was in my senior year of High School and the year was almost over, I had more free time, or so I thought.
Pam and Roger kept questioning me about what college I was going to go to. I had to keep dodging their questions by saying I had homework to catch up on or applications to fill out. I knew this would only last for so long, but I didn’t know how to tell them that I had no aspirations of going to college. As often as I could, I would sneak away and spend time with my newly founded Pack family. As much as I was glad that my mother was back in my life, I was still unsure if I could trust her, but I wanted to learn everything I could and needed to about my ability to become a wolf, so that meant spending time with the wolf pack and of course time around her.
I was happy when I learned that Falcon would be the one to train me. I liked him. He reminded me of my dad at times. Falcon could be friendly and playful but stern and serious at others.
“Straighten up and keep your feet planted on the ground, Allysonn or you will never learn this stance.” He said to me during one of our training sessions. It had been a long hard day and I was getting tired, not understanding why I had to learn to fight as a human when I had heard we were so much stronger when we were in our wolf forms anyway.
“Why is this so important anyway?” I had said under my breath in my teenage attitude.
He responded in a nice even tone. “If you can’t protect yourself in your human form, you won’t be able to protect anyone in your wolf form Allysonn, now let’s practice it again.” and set himself up again s
o I had to follow his lead.
Three weeks later, Falcon was finally satisfied that I could protect myself in my human form and began my next phase of training, this I found more fun. I got to transform and train as a wolf. Though I have to say I still was unsure of having another voice in my head.
Growing up, Sam and I had heard all the stories of those who heard voices and how they were crazy and that we needed to stay away from them and here I was a wolf, who when I was in my wolf form, had not one voice, but the whole pack which consisted of Falcon, Aaric, of course, my mother, Kane, and twelve others. That is a lot of voices to get used to hearing especially when everyone is talking at once.
I was pulled from my thoughts when Falcon said, “Allysonn, you have to be aware of your surroundings, your enemy can and will use anything and everything to do harm to you. If you are not on constant awareness you could be the one that we are paying our last respects to.” He sounded exasperated as he had once again been able to get to me without me being aware of it.
“How am I supposed to be aware of what is behind me when I am looking for the enemy to come from the direction I am looking?” I asked him. I mean I was a teenager, who was new to this. I thought to myself.
“That comes from knowing your surroundings and being able to discern what direction your enemy is coming from,” he responded.
“What do you mean, discern what direction my enemy is coming from?” I asked right away.
He smiled and replied to my question with, “Okay, let's try something. Close your eyes and tell me what you hear.”
I must have rolled my eyes because he said. “Allysonn you know how I feel about that,” sternly. “Do you want to learn how to fight and protect yourself as a wolf or not?” he asked.
“Yes, I do,” I replied.
“Then just do as I asked. Close your eyes and tell me what you hear.”
I did as he asked and listened for a bit and then responded with, “Birds in the trees to the east, and a snake slithering in the grass just to the west of me.”
“That is what I mean. If you can really take the time to know what direction your enemy is coming from you can be ready for anything.” he said, “let’s try this again with that in mind shall we?”
“Yeah, I think I can do this now,” I said. He left and I closed my eyes and readied myself, giving myself a pep talk in the process, “Ally, girl you can do this. You are strong and can do anything.” I then heard him approaching and right before he was able to attack me, I was able to turn the tables on him and attack him first, just the way he had taught me.
Then suddenly, I heard a voice I never heard before, “Allysonn, I do believe that the student has surpassed her teacher.” I looked around to see who was talking to me and saw a black and gray wolf. Falcon straighten up and bowed before this new wolf and said, “Dakota, I had no word that you would be gracing us with your presence.”
I was confused and didn’t know what to do. I looked from Falcon back to the new Wolf and asked, “Who is this?”
“This Allysonn is Dakota, who is the Chief Alpha of the Group Pack as a whole. You should bow to him.” Falcon responded.
Looking at Falcon, I saw he was serious, and immediately bowed, saying “Pardon me, sir, I had no idea.”
“You are forgiven Allysonn. I have heard lots about you and wanted to see you for myself.”
If I had been in my human form I would have blushed at his comment, but as I wasn’t, I didn’t dare look at him, but said instead, “Thank you, sir.”
“You both may rise now,” Dakota said patiently, and I heard a rustle and ventured a look and he had transformed back into his human form. I looked at Falcon, who just shook his head signaling that we should do the same. I transformed back and hugged my arms to me as I was nervous.
We sat in awkward silence for what seemed like forever before Dakota said, “So Allysonn have you thought about what you are going to say when you are made Alpha alongside Aaric?”
I was blown away and looked at Falcon who just looked away. “What do you mean I am going to be made Alpha?” I asked.
Dakota just smiled, then said, “So your mother has not told you.”
“Told me what?” I asked in return.
“Falcon, I believe you should take your student home and tell her mother that she needs to tell Allysonn everything about why I am truly here, before I do,” he said, then stood up and walked away.
I looked at his retreating back, then looked at Falcon, my teacher, and mentor. “What is he talking about?” I asked when we stood up to leave.
“Best leave that to your mother, Allysonn, we better be getting back now anyway.” was all he said before he started walking in the opposite direction himself. I just stood there in disbelief. The one man I thought would never keep anything from me, had done just that. Is there any adult that I could trust to not keep anything from me?
The weeks seemed to fly by since Allysonn had found out that not only was I alive but a wolf. Then came her own transformation into a wolf, and her training. Falcon had kept me apprised on how Allysonn was doing and he seemed impressed at how quickly she picked everything up.
“What were his words?” I had asked out loud to no one that day while I was alone doing dishes. “She is just like Dakota was said to have been when he was young.” he had replied just a week before. I had to smile at that. We had all heard the stories of how Dakota was when he was still growing up after he had transformed. To have my daughter compared to him was amazing.
Though, I had not had the chance to tell her the reason Falcon had started her training so soon and why it was so imperative she pick it up so quickly. Word had come to us, that the vampires had started an army and were getting close.
War was imminent and Allysonn had to be ready to help Aaric lead the pack. It would be best if they were husband and wife, but we would take it one step at a time.
I heard some rustling outside and looked out the window just in time to see Falcon walking back but didn’t see Allysonn with him. Usually when they went out to train, when he came back, she was right beside him, with him quizzing her on the ways of our Pack. I walked out onto the Porch and asked, “Falcon where is Allysonn?” He looked up and I could see something wasn’t right. “What happened?” I immediately asked walking up to him.
“He is here, and he wants you to tell her everything or he will,” he replied then walked on into the cabin without another word. When he had spoken the words, “He is here,” my hand immediately flew to my mouth. We had had no word that he was on his way. Dakota had probably planned it that way, to catch us off guard. Whenever he had come around, he never kept quiet about how he had wished that I had agreed to marry him, instead of Allysonn’s father.
Allysonn finally broke through the woods, and she looked none too happy. I tried to get her attention, but she in her teenage wisdom walked right past me without another word. I followed her inside and went to my room to decide how to tell my daughter that her life had been planned out the moment she had been born, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
I made camp, just south of their training grounds with my guards and the few pack members who chose to travel with me. I looked around and marveled at that land around us. This was supposed to be my land. Abigail was supposed to be my wife. How she had agreed to marry that human I will never know but knowing that she and her daughter were finally back together, the pack was finally whole again and would be stronger than ever before I couldn’t be happier. Maybe now Abigail will agree to marry me.
“Sir, there is word again.” one of my guards had said interrupting my thoughts.
“Fine, tell me what the word is now?” I said.
“The vampires are getting closer to this area. They seem to be picking up speed and in followers.” the guard had said.
“Okay send word to the Phoenix Warriors Pack, that the ceremony must take place soon, and that I would like to meet with Abigail, Allysonn, Aaric, and Kane as soon as possible
afterward,” I said quickly.
“Yes sir,” he said, nodded and was quickly off.
I wanted this war to be over and the Vampires to be done with so that we werewolves could once again rule this area! I started shouting out orders to tear down the camp that had already been set up. We were going to move closer to the Phoenix Warriors pack, and once the War was won, I was going to make sure that Abigail became my wife and she and I would rule over the Packs together as it should have been from the beginning.
When word came from Dakota’s Guard, plans for the ceremony quickly started taking place.
Kane went to Abigail and said, “You must tell her now. We have no more time to wait dear.”
“What if she says no?” she asked concerned.
“You will just have to convince her not to sweetheart,” he said and then kissed her forehead, leaving the room quickly.
There was so much going on, and I didn’t understand the meaning of it all, so I went to the one person I had been trying to stay as far away from as possible. I knocked tentatively on the door jam, not sure if my mother had heard me or not. When I knocked the second time, Abigail turned around and motioned for me to come in.
“I need you to tell me what the heck is going on. I was training earlier today with Falcon and this strange wolf appears like out of nowhere declaring that I would become Alpha alongside Aaric and that you were supposed to tell me. So, tell me.” I said quickly before I lost my nerve. My mother took a deep breath and sighed.
“Yes, when I conceived you, it was said that when the time came you were to be wed to the Alpha of the pack and help him run the pack as his mate and co-leader,” she said without looking up at me. I sat down quickly as if my feet could no longer hold me up. I had no idea what to think.
