Page 3 of Wanted

This time, I know from the twitching of his hands that the blow is coming. At the last moment, I pivot my head away, softening the effect of the hit.

Still, I nearly fall a second time from the force. But I keep on my feet. I have to show him I’m still strong. In spite of the fact that I’ve lost my hearing. I can still become the wolf I was intended to be.

Again, my vision starts to go blurry but I won’t let the tears fall. This is my fault. If I had listened, remained inside with my pack during the thunderstorm, I never would’ve been underneath that tree.

Then the lightning wouldn’t have…

It’s no use thinking of the past. I can’t change my screw up.

“You haven’t even had your first shift yet,” my father acknowledges.

At nine, I, like most other shifters, have yet to have gone through the first shift.

“There’s a chance my wolf can hear,” I throw out hopefully. Even if my human ears can’t pick up sound, my wolf might still be able to.

Dear Mother Moon, please let it be so. I silently plead.

My wolf purrs inside of me, but I don’t know what that means. Since I’ve yet to go through the first shift, my wolf and I rarely communicate. I still don’t understand what its yips or growls or anything means. Maybe it’s trying to communicate that it can hear.

“And what if it can’t?” he asks, his top lip curling into a snarl.

“I can still be beta,” I insist. I quickly wipe the tears from my eyes and the trickle of blood that comes from my nose. I meet my father’s irate gaze.

“I’ll be the best beta the Nightwolf pack has ever known. I swear it on Mother Moon,” I declare.

This enrages my father even more. He bares his teeth and raises his hand as if to strike me for a third time.

But he suddenly stops. I don’t know what causes him to turn around until his body shifts, and I see my mother coming toward us. There’s a horrified expression on her face. Her blue eyes that always remind me of summer skies, shoot daggers at my father.

Because his back is to me, I have no idea what he’s saying. Yet, my mother demands to know why he’s brought me out here. She tells him, I should still be at home, recovering since I just got out of the pack’s hospital a few days ago.

“No, he’s not!” my mother shouts in response to whatever my father has just said to her.

My parents never argue. My father might be hard on us boys because he has to be. But he’s softer with her.

This is my fault.

I caused this.

If I had just listened. If only I hadn’t wanted to go out on my own that night. I swallow the lump in my throat as I realize my father is right. What I want doesn’t matter. It never did. I’m here to be the protector of the pack. Not the troublemaker.

“Stop it,” I say. “Please.” The plea comes out loud enough that my mother immediately stops yelling.

My father turns to me, his eyes still glittering in anger.

I can’t meet his gaze knowing the harm I’ve already caused my pack.

“I’m sorry,” I say as I lower my eyes on the snow at his feet. “I should’ve listened to you and never gone out while it was storming. I’ll do better. I will be the pack’s lead beta you birthed me to be.”

My mother says something, but her lips move too fast for me to understand. The way she moves past my father and comes to her knees in front of me, cupping my face, is enough to let me know she’s consoling me.

“Baby,” she says, holding my face. “This isn’t your fault.”

I want her words to be true. But when I look up at my father, behind her, I know what’s real. I did this. I’m deaf because of my stupid desire to go out into the rain. It cost me my hearing. And potentially caused the pack the protection of a worthy beta.

I shake my head and break away from my mother’s embrace. “I am the pack’s lead beta. I will work twice as hard to make up for my defects,” I promise.

The frown on my father’s lips speaks of his lack of belief.

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